The Joint education Vision Committee met on Tuesday to hear the school board and central office plan to move forward with technology as a component of education.
Jim Campbell, chair of the board, Verna Ruffin, superintendent, and board member Jeff Head, chair of technology gave the presentation.
The focus of the 1 year plan is to prepare for a middle school academic academy and address elementary school reading deficiencies with a reading mastery program
Northeast Middle School has been chosen as the location for the Academic Academy. The current population of 500 students could grow by as much as 250 in the new school.
The leadership will be be made up of a principal, then then two or three in other support roles such as a dean of academy, and an assistant principal.
Teresa Tritt, principal of Thelma Barker has been named the new principal of Northeast and the academic Academy. Other leadership positions have not yet been announced.
The technology for the academy and the reading mastery program funding request is for an added 1 million dollars. That money is expected to come from the county commission who last budget did not give final approval to a request for $911.573 that was originally funded for technology
After Tuesday night's meeting the commissioners were excited to see a plan they understood and they believe reap educational benefits
After the meeting I spoke with Commissioner Deaton who in the meeting told board member "I see no reason this won't be approved"
| Comm Gary Deaton |
Gerry Neese, Committee co-chair, also had comments after the meeting
| Comm Gerry Neese |
The six commissioners in attendance all agreed to approve the dollars that were originally budgeted and to most want to work to find the additional $100 thousand plus to fully pay for the new programs.
The next step is for the finance committee to approve and make recommendation to the full body
Deaton explains
| Comm Gerry Neese |
The school board committee plans to make it's presentation to the County Financial Management committe at the March meeting
