Phenix City's STEM retreat 'excites' participants

Joe Blevins said someone at his table had a big smile at the end of Phenix City School System’s three-hour STEM retreat.

“‘I thought this was going to be really boring,’ ” the participant told the system’s director of student services, personnel and operations, “but this was some exciting stuff!’”

That sums up the comments from a sampling of the participants at the retreat, hosted by the school system in partnership with Discovery Education, the Silver Spring, Md.-based provider of digital content for grades K-12.

Educators, administrators and community and business leaders from Russell County, Columbus and Fort Benning joined the Phenix City contingent as about 75 folks gathered in the Professional Development Center to form a collective vision and strategy for creating a culture of innovative instruction in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math.

They all are critical to workforce development and quality of life in the area, Phenix City Public Schools Superintendent Randy Wilkes said.

“It’s jobs that our kids don’t know about,” he told the Phenix City Board of Education during Thursday night’s meeting, where he reported on the retreat. “If we continue to do the same thing we’ve always done, we’re always going to get what we’ve always got, and that’s going to be a mighty fine butcher and a mighty fine cashier. We’ve got to have greater aspirations for our children.”

Cindy Moss, director of global STEM initiatives for Discovery Education, led the participants through interactive exercises that modeled STEM teaching and learning methods. They also examined data about career opportunities in the region.

Tamara Sanders, the instructional technology specialist for Phenix City Public Schools, said it was among the top three professional development sessions she has attended during her 24 years as an educator.

Moss returned the praise by complimenting the school system's STEM efforts, incorporated in its i3 Initiative, standing for inquiry, innovation and impact:

$750,000 was spent this year to equip approximately 1,500 students and 100 teachers at Phenix City Intermediate School (grades 6-7) and South Girard School (grade 8) with an iPad Air. The plan is to add grades 9-12 to the 1:1 electronic device program next school year.

$2.1 million is expected to be spent on the Dyer Family STEM Center, scheduled to open adjacent to PCIS in August 2016.

"You guys are doing a lot of things really well," Moss told the Phenix City officials, according to a news release. "You have a visionary leader. You have a community that cares. You have dedicated teachers."

Bonnie Burns, the school system's special services director, said one of the goals is "STEMming our students out of poverty."

In the presentation, Burns said, Moss talked about "very high paying jobs that require minimum education beyond high school. If we could put that type of information, not just for our students, but into the hands of our parents who are struggling, who are working two and three part-time jobs to provide for their families, and find a way within the community to bring that type of education to our parents, it would begin to really transform our community."

One statistic in particular stuck with Darrell Seldon, the curriculum director for grades 8-12 in the system: 84 percent of dropouts say they left school because they couldn't pass Algebra I.

"That says a lot to me, that I need to have a conversation with CFA (Central Freshman Academy) and CHS (Central High School), because we really need to be propping up the support for Algebra I," Seldon said.

Donna Ash, the system's curriculum director for pre-kindergarten through seventh grade, countered, "Children don't just get to high school and drop out. They've been dropping out all along. They just get old enough to officially withdraw. By sixth grade, they decide whether they're going to be good at something."

Research shows, Ash said, that a fifth-grader with the proper background information who reads at a fourth-grade level comprehends reading material better than the fifth-grader who reads at a sixth-grade level.

"It has nothing to do with their ability to read," she said. "It has everything to do with their experiences. So anything we can do to bridge that gap so they can make those connections, that's what STEM is about.

"It's about making all of those connections come together in real life and problem solving. So we've just got to get students on that inquiry path. Exciting times in Phenix City Schools, exciting for every child."

The retreat is part of the start to the school system's five-year partnership with Discovery Education as they develop a STEM Leader Corps.

"The bottom line is that kids benefit from our efforts, and I appreciate the board giving us free reins to go out there and get on the cutting edge," Wilkes said. "It's a pleasure, and I think we all have a conviction about it now. We know it's what's best for our community and it's what's best for our children. It may take a few years to show it's paid dividends, but it eventually will be there. It will change lives, and that's what we're all about."

Board chairman Brad Baker told Wilkes, "We've had a lot of conversation around this table about what to do and how to get kids more involved and willing to learn, and your coming up with this has been tremendous. We appreciate what you've done."

Wilkes replied, "Thank you very much, but I will say this: This whole thing, from day one, it's been a team effort. We've built this vision and we've built this model together. As long as we all keep our minds open and our ears open and our hearts open, we'll be receptive to whatever's best for kids."

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Phenix City's STEM retreat 'excites' participants."