School recognizes Teachers of the Year

Board approves 2022/23 curriculum

  • Marcia Barnes • Clay County Progress Teachers of the Year were recognized by the Clay County Board of Education at the May 23, 2022 board meeting. They are, front, from left, Courtenay Sumpter, Teresa Ashe, Bonnie Kelly, Sharon Perry, Ginger Scerri and Silas Brown. Back, from left, school board members’ Danny Jones, Kelly Crawford, Jason Shook, Superintendent Dale Cole, Robert Caldwell and Reba Beck congratulate the teachers.
    Marcia Barnes • Clay County Progress Teachers of the Year were recognized by the Clay County Board of Education at the May 23, 2022 board meeting. They are, front, from left, Courtenay Sumpter, Teresa Ashe, Bonnie Kelly, Sharon Perry, Ginger Scerri and Silas Brown. Back, from left, school board members’ Danny Jones, Kelly Crawford, Jason Shook, Superintendent Dale Cole, Robert Caldwell and Reba Beck congratulate the teachers.

    By Marcia Barnes

    Staff Writer

     

    Teachers of the Year were recognized by the Clay County Board of Education and with the unrestrained, respectful applause of those present at the Monday, May 23 meeting. Five teachers and one teacher assistant were individually honored and received an award.

    The recipients are:

    Named as CCS Teacher Assistant of the Year was Teresa Ashe. She has been working with Clay County Schools for 21 years as a teacher assistant and previously, as a bus driver.

    Courtenay Sumpter was honored as the Exceptional Teacher of the Year.

    Bonnie Kelly, who will be retiring this year, is Hayesville Primary School Teacher of the Year. Kelly has been in the education field for 39 years.

    Sharon Perry began teaching at Hayesville Elementary School in the second quarter. The HES Teacher of the Year was honored with words from her colleagues who said that Perry made “learning fun” and she brought the “joy of music” to every student regardless of their skill level.

    Social Studies teacher Ginger Scerri was recognized as Hayesville Middle School Teacher of the Year.

    Last to be announced was Hayesville High School Teacher of the Year Silas Brown. Principal Stacey Overlin said, “Silas is a great teacher and a fine man. We put out feelers for a new class, animal science, and 30-some have signed up.”

    Superintendent Dale Cole said that the CCS Teacher of the Year will be announced at the retiree and Teacher of the Year celebration dinner at the Historic Hayesville Courthouse/Beal Center on Tuesday, June 28.

    “I think its great to have our retirees there with the Teachers of the Year,” he said.

    The curriculum for Clay County Schools for the 2022/23  year was approved by the board. The approval for the curriculum and textbook resources came at Monday’s meeting and followed an earlier public review.

    “We posted all the resources in the board room for more than a month,” Cole said. “We had feed back from six or seven different people. More people came, they just didn’t leave comments.”

    Cole also said that with high school students, textbooks are only a part of the curriculum and emphasized that CCS only hires teachers who have a North Carolina license.

    “I will reiterate over and over again, we have fantastic high school teachers, we have a fantastic high school principal. There’s been a lot of talk about a lot of things. Anyone can come and sit in the class and watch us teach. We have nothing to hide,” Cole said.

    The superintendent recognized Heather Plemmons, Hayesville Primary School principal; Melissa Godfrey, Hayesville Elementary School principal and Jennifer Wallace, HPS/HES assistant principal as NCPAPA Distinguished Leadership in practice graduates.

    “I completed this program myself in 2012,” Cole said. “There is a meeting once a month in Raleigh and a whole lot of work in between. Basically, its like a college course.”

    Principals also shared reports specific to students’ End of Year iReady data for reading and math. In student academic growth:

    Clay County Schools met or exceeded state growth goals in every data category over the past two years as measured by EVAAS except one grade level subject.

    • Second in the western region, 18 school districts, in reading growth.

    • Eighth in the western region in five to eighth math growth.

    • Sixth in the region in math three growth.

    • Sixth in the region in biology and exceeded the state growth goal.

    • Fifth in the region in ACT composite score.

    “These diagnostics normally have a high correlation with the EOG results and if that holds true we will have a lot more to celebrate from state exam results this year,” said Cole.

    CCS Career Technical Education was second in the region, 18 districts, and eighth in the state in overall program quality as measured by NCDI. Ranked eighth in the state out of 116 districts in post-secondary job credentialing of students.

    In the class of 2022, 86 percent earned more than one nationally-recognized job credential while in high school. CCS CTE more than doubled the number of seniors that completed a job internship between last year and this year. They are projected to double again next year.

    Whitney Sumpter, interned at REACH of Clay County; Dagen Robinson, interned with Benchmark Physical Therapy; and Braden Bethel, interning with Ledford & Parker Construction, gave individual reports on their experiences.

    Shelley Hollingsworth, director of finance, reported that CCS will be converting to web-based software. Hollingsworth said, “All school systems will be required to change. We were selected to pilot the new program to web-based software and we received $15,000. Instead of window-based, we will be web-based.”

    The next regular CCS Board of Education meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, June 27.