Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
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Progress News Writer
- RUSK — As a follow-up to helping the district find a new superintendent, Arrow Education Inc. partner Dr. Sandra Lowry met with RISD in a workshop to discuss the board’s goals for the upcoming school year.
“Instruction is first and foremost the most important reason we are here,” Lowry said. “But most boards have other short and long term goals to reach during the school year and beyond.”
All the board members said they wanted to improve for the children they serve.
“I’ve got kids and I wanted to be involved in the decision making,” said board member David Fulton, when asked why he joined the school board.
The board also was asked to name three long and short term goals it wanted to try to focus on for the 2001-2002 school year.
All the trustees agreed bringing TAAS scores up was the main short-term concern.
“I’d like to see test scores for the economically disadvantaged kids come up,” trustee Stephanie Caveness said.
Board President Mike Ross said he’d like to implement a check plan for graduating seniors to see how well equipped, mentally, they are for their college freshman year.
Some long-term goals the board brought up included improving communication between parents and teachers, lowering the dropout rate and building a new facility to ease the overcrowded conditions in the existing facilities.
“I’d also like to see some sort of plan for the noncollege-bound kids,” said board member Richard Massengill. “Those kids need to be job-ready when they walk off the stage, more so because they are not going to college.”
Dr. Lowry explained a good technical preparation program was hampered by the speed that technology changes.
“By the time schools get the technology, have it running and understand it enough to teach it, it has changed,” she said.
Another issue the board addressed was the dwindling pool of teachers-for-hire.
“We need to find a way to retain our teachers and staff,” said trustee Bryan Seldon, as one of his long-term goals. “It’s probably cheaper in the long run to keep the ones we have by offering raises or benefits than hiring and training someone every other year.”
Rusk school district is currently experiencing a teacher shortage, as is the rest of the state, said officials at the superintendent’s office.
RISD is currently looking for a junior high principal and women coaches and is scrambling to fill those and several other spots before the new year begins.
“It’s odd — the state’s remedy to this situation is to make it harder and harder to become a teacher,” said Assistant Superintendent Bob Wallace.
Cristin Ross may be reached via e-mail at cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com