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Minutes - October 19, 2016

Classified Staff Meeting

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

 

Members present included: Darthelia Ingram, MGES; Tina Woody, TES; Barbara Smith, GRES; Pat Cole, EMS; Penny Brown, CES; Linda Hogan, PSES; Cindy Williams, WMS; Beth Hall, SES; Crystal Douglas, Central Office. Absent: Robin Heath, WMHS; Iris Canul, EMHS; and Carol Miller, MLA.

 

Dr. Ellis welcomed all in attendance. He reviewed the purpose of the meetings, a means for him to provide information and to keep the lines of communication open between him and the schools as well as provide an opportunity to ask questions.

 

UNC Lab School

The legislature passed during the session an achievement school district which takes the 5 lowest performing schools and allows a charter school to take over and run the school. The fear is that the number of schools taken over could continue to increase. This hurt public schools. Also passed was opportunity scholarships, which is money taken away from public schools and made available for parents to be able to send their child to a private school. A plan was established to increase these scholarships significantly over the next 10 years.

Another bill that passed is the UNC Lab School. It forces 8 colleges in the UNC system to operate a lab school in a school district. Basically, a charter school operated by the college system. Unfortunately, Montgomery County is included on the list to be a district that will offer a UNC Lab school through UNC-Charlotte. MCS was chosen as a potential district because 25% or more of the schools in our district are low performing. This would require MCS to cooperate with UNC-Charlotte to open a K-8 (open enrollment) Charter School in Montgomery County. Dr. Ellis is completely against this concept. If MCS is not chosen this year there is potential that in the next waive Montgomery County could be included. Therefore within the next 2 years we will be contacting our representatives to help fight this from happening.

 

Facilities Update

MCS has an approved USDA loan, which we were made aware of at the end of September, to build an Early College/CTE Center and consolidated Central High School. Our goal is to do what is best for our students. Currently, we are holding Town Hall Meetings to gain feedback from the community on the academics and structural design for these new schools. From these meetings a document will be developed and a committee comprised of teachers from both high schools to provide feedback. There is a design committee comprised of 40 people from MCS and MCC that will also provide feedback to the process.

An RFQ has been released to architects to develop designs, which will also be approved by the committee. Our goal is to have a functional building that meets the educational needs of our students. There will be a 6 to 9 month time frame that the architect firm will be designing plans. By next summer ground breaking will occur. Fall of 2019 is the goal for opening the new schools. The latest will be fall of 2020. The urgency of the time frame of this funding is the reason why a vote was not done.

A wing at East Middle will also be completed.

 

Merit Pay

Dr. Ellis presented a plan for merit pay. The plan must be approved by the Board of Education. Within the next two months it will be presented to the board, and must be sent to the state board by December 21st for approval. The plan is focused entirely on non-certified and non-administrative staffs. Certified staff (teachers, principals, directors, superintendent) will NOT receive any merit pay.

Feedback included - Revisit growth factor. Can a doctor’s note for catastrophic things be an excuse? Can personal proficiency be weighted more, based upon performance from last year? Could years of service be a factor?

If anyone has any questions or additional comments please email them to Dr. Ellis or Katie.

 

Questions

Does the county have any input on a charter school if one came?

No. If MCS would be forced to have a lab school one benefit is that there is potential for more collaboration between MCS and UNC-Charlotte.

 

Is the East Middle wing going to be built?

Yes, it is still in the works.

 

What will happen to the high schools once the central high school is built?

The schools would be deeded back to the county, and they would determine what could or will be done with them.

 

There is a concern, since we are promoting healthy eating, that students are not eating their lunches and buying and eating several snacks instead. Could there be a regulation on snacks?

Dr. Ellis will talk with Terry Jordan.

 

Time has to be made up by the end of the pay period, which creates some variation, and is based on principal or supervisor discretion. Preferably time should be made up when students are present.