By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
The Clay County Board of Education opened the Dec. 18 meeting with congratulations to its new superintendent, Melissa Godfrey, from Chairman Jason Shook and the board. Godfrey took the podium prepared to congratulate several teachers at Hayesville’s schools who recently have earned awards.
Godfrey recognized 11 teachers at Hayesville High School, Hayesville Middle School and Hayesville Elementary School. An exceeded growth award was presented to Silas Brown, Gabrielle Smith, Bobbie Jones, Zachary Moss, Brenda Puett, Michelle Rhinehardt, Amy Trout, Yvette McQuade, Alana Postell, Gail Thayer and Abigail Pullum.
An explanation of what it means to exceed growth was given by Godfrey who defined how the Education Value-added Assessment System works and that it is a program developed to measure the growth of students across the state.
“Academic growth is a measurement of how much a student has learned. It is determined by measuring expected progress against actual progress. The measurement is complex,” Godfrey said.
Giving an example, Godfrey said that a fourth grader compared against all other students taking the same test in the same subject may be in the 35th percentile for the entire state.
“This means 65 percent of students performed better and 34 percent of students performed worse. If in the next year the student scores in the 40th percentile, then the student has increased their relative achievement by 5 percentage points,” Godfrey said.
“In a nutshell, when we’re looking at expected growth or we’re looking at exceeding growth, we’re looking at how much did students grow compared to where they scored last year and how did they score against their peers across the state that were similarly ranked in terms of percentile. Eleven teachers district wide had exceeded growth.”
Recognition continued as Hayesville High School Principal Stacey Overlin applauded Christy Caruso and Amanda Thompson for achieving National Board Certification.
Overlin said when teachers receive National Board Certification they have completed a process which has four components and that all four of them are very rigorous.
“Three are considered portfolio requirements which require reflection, writing and video taping lessons in your classroom, and then there is also a content knowledge test with multiple choice questions and essay questions,” Overlin said.
“So this credential goes well beyond what we require for initial teacher certification. This is like an advanced degree in teaching, very rigorous, takes hundred of hours to complete. It is a milestone accomplishment in a teacher’s career.”
Overlin presented the official certificates to Caruso, a health occupation teacher at the high school, and to Thompson who teaches science.
Career and Technology Education Director Revonda Palmer presented a semester report with 10 interns each giving a brief description of their internship learning and the local company or entity where they worked:
Lance Dudley - Western Carolina Regional Airport
Abigail Taylor - Moss Memorial Library
Karli Cheeks - Hometown Health Care
Lilliani Denton - Clay County Chamber of Commerce
Thad Farnsworth - Jacky Jones Chrysler
Cline Moody - Jacky Jones Ford
Damon Shook - The Tech Guys
Colby McCulloch - Parker’s Heavy Equipment
Tanner Cheek - City Electric
Maverick Imlay - Hayesville Elementary School
Palmer thanked all the businesses which are making the Career and Technology Education program vital to students at the high school.
A budget amendment of an additional $34,442.31 with a guaranteed allotment from the state was approved.
Five policy updates with legal reference changes were approved with eight policies approved for a First Reading.
The next regular board meeting will be held on Jan. 22.