Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
Recognition was given to outstanding teachers who demonstrated going above and beyond normal classroom duties as the 2022-2023 school year opened in Clay County Schools during Monday’s school board meeting. Hayesville Primary School Principal Heather Plemmons shared the story of a first-grade boy with a seizure disorder.
After introducing the student and his mother, Plemmons said that when he came back to school there was greater frequency in the seizures than over the summer. Plemmons said she had concerns they were stressing him out, but his teachers quickly began doing research on their own.
Ashley Cook and Michele Calascione learned that florescent lighting and screens might be the trigger. After the student was fitted with special “blue” glasses and filters were put on lights, the incidents dropped from 15 to 2.
Plemmons said, “Something so simple, this is what we really do, going above and beyond.”
“Impressive,” said Superintendent of Schools Dale Cole.
Plemmons, her first-grade student, Cook and Calascione all received applause.
The second recognition was given to long-term substitute Judy Chastain, who was applauded for going above and beyond in an emergency which occurred on the playground.
Hayesville Elementary School Principal Melissa Godfrey said that Chastain would say she was just doing her job the daya child landed the wrong way after a normal fall.
Godfrey said the injury was traumatic for the child and others who saw it. As the injury was gushing blood, Chastain never hesitated. She applied pressure and stopped the bleeding. “Ms. Judy did not let go of him until the ambulance was here, followed by a helicopter ride,” Godfrey said.
“There’s no such thing as a substitute teacher,” she added.
Recognition was given to Hayesville Middle School teacher Ginger Scerri who was awarded $8,750 in a grant to help implement her Global Studies program. Jennifer Nachtrieb was also recognized for receiving an AIM Grant of $7,268 in support of her Entrepreneurship program.
Brenda Leek, director of Discovery/Pathways Summer Program gave a report and video on the summer program which partnered with Master Gardeners, the National Forest Service and Just Stitch’n. Leek said that named just a few in the community.
Students traveled to Andrews, Asheville and the Young Harris College Planetarium where kids were having fun learning and exploring the world around them for eight weeks. The film showed students hiking, biking, at the zoo in Asheville, making music and art projects.
Leek thanked her staff and volunteers for the 40 days and 40 nights of the program and for the 80 meals that were fed to 44 kids.
Godfrey gave an overview of the Hayesville Elementary School Report. Godfrey said although HES performance did not meet growth status overall, it showed a positive trend in closing the gap from pre-COVID. There was a 15 percent overall math growth to 64.20 percent from 49.70 percent in 2021.
“We had the second highest math scores for third graders in the state,” Godfrey said.
Principal Missy Rich reported that Hayesville Middle School students met growth in all areas with an overall math growth of 7.37 percent over last year’s reporting.
Hayesville High School Principal Stacey Overlin reported growth in achievement before the board on Monday night. “This is a quick update,” Overlin said. “The halls are full, lunch lines are longer.
“Today, we had 397 students and there were 337 on the last day of school.” Overlin said that in the big picture there was growth and achievement in 2021-2022. The high school performance grade was “B.”
“Math 3 is a tough class and 87.8 percent of our students passed that class.”
Overlin said the graduation rate is 77.5 percent. “We want to do better than that.”
Cole said, “I want to point out a couple of things. Goals were set pre-pandemic. I shared last year that I fully expected it would take two to three years to recover from the pandemic.”
In an update on the new Hayesville Intermediate School, Cole said that CCS is in the process of negotiating a contract with the architectural firm. “I just received it today at 5:15.”
Shelley Hollingsworth, director of Finance, proposed solutions to the board for the nineteen remaining classified salary employees to be paid hourly in order to meet compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. They were approved.
Hollingsworth presented the budget resolution for the 2022-2023 fiscal year; it was approved.
The approved Budget Resolution of Clay County Schools will be posted on the CCS website on the Finance Department web page.
The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, Oct. 24.