February 11, 2015
I wanted to thank everybody who attended the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) parent information session on February 3rd. Dr. Gamble and I went through a few items with parents and answered some questions that focused on the assessments. This session served as one of our District Parent Advisory meetings as did the recent shared vision meetings in October.
The first part of the PARCC assessment known as the Performance Based Assessment (PBA) will be given next month in March and the second part of the assessment known as the End of the Year Assessment (EOY) will be given in April and May. Students in each grade level from third grade through eighth grade will test for one week during each time period and the session each morning will run from 60 minutes to 90 minutes at a time. Make-ups will be offered throughout each time period. We provided the complete schedules and some links on our website under PARCC Information/Links along the left-hand column.
Students recently finished their second benchmarks in math, English language arts, science, and social studies, depending on grade level. Again, teachers will look at the various reports from the benchmarks to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of each student so that instruction can be tailored to meet their needs.
We are currently in the budgeting process and again are focusing on technology. We are looking to enhance our wireless capabilities, which is essential in today’s learning environment as well as in all aspects of our daily lives. We are hoping to replace older devices as well. We are going to be working closely with the grant writing committee to secure additional funding in the future. We are also budgeting for new math resources and hope to have a decision made on this within the next couple of months.
I am looking forward to a seamless transition with our new superintendent, Jason Kornegay, from Lebanon Township. I feel that this is a positive move, and it will put us in a position where we continue to improve as a school. We will continue to work together as a team to make it a great school for your children to attend!
Lastly, I wanted to congratulate the PTA for their incredible efforts to pull off a very daunting task in fundraising money for our school via a tricky tray. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication for it to work and I had no questions in my mind that it would be a successful endeavor! Way to go everybody involved!
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