Local

NHCS task force discusses future of new district programs

WHQR | By Rachel Keith

Published September 25, 2024 at 4:21 PM EDT

Assistant Superintendent Julie Varnam presented to the task force. Scott Whisnant is seated left.

In September, the New Hanover County Schools Turnaround Task Force discussed new programs starting this year — and highlighted some of the needs for student behavior management.

The task force was founded last year to explore ways to help some of the New Hanover County Schools district's lowest-performing schools improve. During their meeting earlier this month, they tackled the difficult but important issue of considering performance versus growth when it comes to evaluating students.

They also discussed some current and potential future programs that could help boost students' performance — and benefit them in other ways, too.

Freeman starts a full-community service model

Rachel Freeman Elementary is starting its pilot of the Full-Community School Model. Marrio Jeter, a task force member who works at Community In Schools (CIS), said they still need to apply for federal funds in 2025 to continue the program.

This year, CIS had the human resources to knock on the doors of the Freeman students who didn’t attend school on the first day. Attendance has become an issue nationwide since the onset of the pandemic.

Another success for CIS was on September 10, when Freeman held a family night: 150 families showed up—about 75% of the total school population—which was a big step forward regarding parental engagement for the school, Jeter told the group.

CIS also wants to expand the Freedom School summer model to three additional sites. Right now, the model typically operates at the International School at Gregory. Last year, it was held at New Hanover High School.

Expand the Read to Achieve summer program?

Task force members hope to offer more NHC students the Read to Achieve program. This summer program is typically available to 2nd and 3rd graders, but members want it at the kindergarten or first-grade levels.

The idea is for students from UNCW's Watson College of Education to do some of this work over the summer, including math remediation.

However, UNCW’s Candace Thompson told the task force that Read to Achieve “has not shown to have any significant impact on reading, so as we're thinking about things, let's also include research as we're moving forward,” she said. “I get a little scared of the pedagogy that we will tend to jump on something without looking deeper into the impacts beyond what the vendor might say. So I implore us to continue to have these wonderful ideas, hear what we know anecdotally works, and not lose sight that that critical deep dive is also important in continued success.”

WHQR asked Thompson to send these studies and has yet to hear back. In 2018, NC State University produced an extensive report that said that after five years of implementation, “reading scores have not been promising, with test scores remaining flat.”

The task force would have to find funding to expand the Read to Achieve summer program.

‘Leader in Me’ program suggested for Snipes

The ‘Leader in Me’ program is based on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. These habits are then incorporated into the curriculum and students' conduct. Representatives from the program will present to the members at their October meeting.

Whisnant said the ‘Leader in Me’ regional program would match about a third of the cost per student — prioritizing a roll out at Snipes Elementary first. For year one, it would cost about $43,000, and over four years, it would cost a total of $105,000. Whisnant said the task force also hopes to have the program at the Freeman, Wrightsboro, and Forest Hills elementary schools. Those students would then carry that ethos into middle and high schools.

Porter’s Neck Elementary and Holly Tree Elementary already have this program, but their parent-teacher associations (PTAs) provide the funding — and not all PTAs across the district can raise this type of money.

Interim superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said the program “really talks about ownership, which is so great for kids nowadays to learn. ‘I own my own behavior. I own my own learning,’ and it's very healthy in the long run, but the only downside is its cost, and that's where a lot of schools come up against, so it's hard to get as many as you want into that. So you would start small and then increase it.”

Jared Worthington of NHCS said that his son also participated in this program: “As a second grader, he had to create his own job resume posted on the job board. Teachers in the school picked it up, and he became a pencil sharpener in one class and a reader to kindergarten students in another class. His demands for his parents was that they had to get to school 20 minutes early so that he could read his kindergarten mentees. To him, it was a big deal that he was reading to five-year-olds.”

Future of preschool

Whisnant also mentioned another priority — adding preschool classes at Dorothy B. Johnson.

As for the district’s preschool programs' future, the task force hopes to select a ‘czar’ over it. According to MyFutureNC, 68% of New Hanover County kids go to preschool — the goal would be to increase that percentage. Whisnant said he needed data from the district to see which kids are going to preschool and which are not.

WHQR reached out to the district to confirm if they had this data and has yet to hear back.

The task force also discussed how Dorothy B. Johnson lost financial support for 16 classrooms this year because the district didn't receive the federal grant that had previously supported them. Now, there are only seven regular classrooms and three exceptional children classrooms. As the task force discussed, there is space to provide more, but no funding.

Task force discussion about student behavior, staffing

Assistant Superintendent Julie Varnam said a "powerful culture enhancer in a building is going to start with the staff first.”

She said that the CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute) model will help staff with verbal de-escalation, which helps to prevent further challenging behaviors.

“How am I going to set my classroom up to decrease the likelihood that these behaviors occur? If I am going to have disruptive behaviors in the classroom, let me at least engage in a classroom management plan. This instructional approach decreases the likelihood that a number of kids will engage in that, and then I will know who to make more referrals to,” she said.

Varnam added that if staff “don't set the stage to prevent the problematic behavior, there will never be enough mental health therapists, social workers, or counselors to address that unmet need.” However, she added that she would like more behavior specialists in schools.

Task force member Chris Furr, a UNCW instructor and former NHCS administrator, recalled that CPI training taught him to “carefully choose not only my verbal communication but my nonverbal communication. When working with someone, those send messages that most of us are unaware of. We don't realize we're doing that. But how to diffuse some situations, or how to keep from setting a fuse to a situation where there isn't one.”

CHAMPS is another resource to address challenging behaviors, a product of Safe and Civil Schools.

Varnam said these programs and strategies mitigate the risk factors “of our students that may not have had the opportunity to come as ready as other learners in other places.”

Besides behavior specialists and other support staff, she also said the district needed more bilingual family liaisons.

“We have a growing population of students and families who don't speak English, and [those] liaisons are not enough to support and stand alongside these families as they are accessing the services they desperately need for themselves and their students,” she said.