THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240364
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 74 lines
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank school teachers - and possibly the support staff - will be getting bonuses of up to $1,000 this summer as a reward for students' exceptional test scores last spring.
And J.C. Sawyer and Pasquotank Elementary students and staff next month probably will return to cramped quarters because of school construction delays.
Academically, nine of 10 participating schools in the system are being rewarded for their students' strong performances on end-of-year tests, which served as a cornerstone of the New ABCs Accountability Model Pilot.
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank was one of the 10 systems selected for what will become a statewide program for grades K through 8 this upcoming school year.
High school grades will become part of the ABCs education program by the 1997-98 school session.
The program essentially gives local school districts more control over state funding. In turn, districts must demonstrate a certain level of growth through improved test scores.
The only school that will not receive the bonuses is Elizabeth City Middle School, which performed well in reading skills but failed to meet the ``exemplary growth'' requirements in mathematics.
The other schools involved in the pilot program will each receive $1,000 per certified teacher and then must decide how that lump sum will be disbursed.
It could mean each teacher receives the full $1,000, or the money could be split among teachers' aides and other support staff. ``It's a school-level decision,'' said Charles White, a spokesman for the school system.
The schools were selected for the incentive program because of their outstanding performances on tests given to third- through eighth-graders last May.
Schools had to demonstrate a full year of ``growth'' - determined by a state mathematical formula for each school - plus an additional 10 percent of that number to qualify for the bonuses.
Of the 96 schools statewide that are in the pilot program and elected to take part in the incentives portion, 41 percent earned the bonuses, schools officials said.
``So we did better than any other district in the state,'' Superintendent Joe Peel told the Board of Education at its regular meeting Monday night.
The number of students who performed at an ``exemplary'' level on the selected tests surpassed even state officials' predictions.
Based on data from the previous school year, state educators had expected 30 percent of tested students to show such an improvement during the 1995-96 school year. Instead, a whopping 9 out of 10 students met or exceeded that level of growth.
``All schools showed strong growth this year,'' Rita Collie, the director of testing and accountability, said recently..
``This resulted in the district's schools reporting their highest scores ever since end-of-grade testing began,'' she said. ``We are also showing one of the largest increases ever in the number of our students that are working at or above grade level.''
While test scores were better than expected, construction at various schools is running two to six weeks behind schedule.
Most likely to feel the effects of these delays are J.C. Sawyer Elementary School, which is expanding to include H.L. Trigg students in a year, and Pasquotank Elementary School, which is undergoing major renovations.
Both will be on tight timelines if they expect to be ready to accept children by Aug. 21, Peel said.
When Sawyer staff and students do return, they likely will find themselves again working around construction crews and eating lunch in classrooms.
``Sawyer will be a tight squeeze, just like it was at the end of the year,'' Peel told School Board members.
The same situation could apply at Pasquotank, which is having its auditorium converted into a media center, a new multipurpose room built and its cafeteria refurbished.
Construction delays at all schools, except the new River Road Middle School, is being caused by a shortage of manpower and/or supplies. by CNB