April 7, 2015
Hopefully everybody is having a great spring break! I want to personally congratulate some students for their awesome accomplishments over the past couple of months here at Califon Public School. First, congratulations to the girls’ basketball team for their second place finish and a great season coached by Mr. Zimmerman!
We had a tight race to the finish in our annual Spelling Bee competition. Lauren Beers finished third, while Benji Beard came in second right behind first place finisher Taj Piontkowski. Benji Beard also represented Califon Public School at the state level in Geography Bee competition where he was a few questions away from a trip to the national competition in Washington D.C. Way to go Benji!
Finally, all of the students who participated in our school’s TREP$ event should be proud of their accomplishment. All participating students had fun while at the same time learning about all of the necessary steps to make their own business a success. The end goal for any business is to ultimately make money, and judging from all of the customers present, I’m pretty confident that goal was met!
Our first PARCC assessment, the Performance Based Assessment (PBA), has been completed. A number of individuals spent a great deal of time beginning as early as two years ago in making sure that we were ready to administer this state assessment. With the exception of some minor glitches, I’m pleased to report that all things went well! Please keep in mind that state assessments are not new. The difference here is twofold; it is a computerized assessment, and it is directly aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Many students liked the computerized format better than the paper and pencil test. Most students were done well within the timeframe given by the state. Students appeared to have little trouble with the English Language Arts portion of the test. The mathematics portion was quite challenging at all grade levels. This seemed to be the sentiment across the state.
We are gearing up for the second component of PARCC or the End of Year (EOY) assessment at the end of April. This particular test is shorter than the PBA as we are only testing three or four days out of the week. There are no long responses with this assessment either, as it is confined to choice or short responses only.
Our Mathematics Sub-Committee along with all of our math teachers has made a selection of math materials from a process that began back in September. We decided on the Go Math program by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It was the one program that was actually built from the ground up around the Common Core. We feel this program will best meet our students’ needs, and it has a plethora of online resources tailored for instructional differentiation. A neighboring district has already offered to provide time for our staff to see the program in action, which I will schedule next year.
The transition process has already begun with Mr. Kornegay as our next superintendent. Mr. Kornegay has already met the staff, attended Board meetings, attended a Council of Instruction meeting, and we have had one administrative meeting with more to follow. I know Dr. Gamble is pleased with the arrangement that we have set up and Mr. Kornegay is excited to start! In the short time I have been able to communicate, etc. with him, I am confident that it will be a seamless and successful transition!
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