Here's what's new in Muscogee, Harris and ChattCo schools

When the Muscogee County School District starts its 2016-17 school year on Monday, students in grades 1-5 will have expanded time for art, music and physical education, and kindergarten teachers will have one hour of discretionary time for more planning.

In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer last week, Superintendent David Lewis said the time dedicated to art, music and PE had varied from school to school and, “in many cases, was not adequate to provide a high-quality experience. There will be a minimum of 50 minutes dedicated to specials in all schools.”

In kindergarten, Lewis said, teachers will decide whether their students will go to recess, computer lab, media center or other activities. They will integrate more of the arts in their regular instruction, Lewis said.

“Some schools did not have any art, music, PE at all,” he said. “Others had some smattering of it. We’re getting more consistent, so we all have this hour they can use. They can use it for more planning. They can integrate the arts into that. They can do PE. They can have recess. Some teachers want 15 minutes of recess every day. Some want to do 30 minutes a day. Some want to do the computer lab.”

Lewis explained the general purpose of the changes at the elementary level.

“Teachers will have more flexibility, and students will have more time engaged in their respective activities,” he said. “They’ll have longer time in specials in grades 1-5 and more flexibility for the teachers in kindergarten to decide based on the needs of the students, whether it’s the computer lab, media center, recess or whatever. One of the biggest complaints we got last year from teachers and parents was all about the recess. There were some schools that didn’t have enough time. Now the teachers can decide based on the needs of their students.”

That period was expanded, Lewis said, “to allow for more planning time for teachers and more contact time in the specials. … We’re trying to give the teachers as much flexibility as possible, but we want to make sure they do the common planning with their colleagues.”

When he was hired three years ago from Polk County, Fla., where he was an associate superintendent, MCSD had art and music for 20 minutes per day in elementary school, Lewis said.

“You weren’t getting anything really meaningful,” he said, “and the teachers weren’t getting any planning time. It was wasted time. So we consolidated it and focused it so there’s more discretion and more time on task.”

The state doesn’t fund salaries for art, music and PE in grades K-2, Lewis noted. Those teachers must be paid with only local revenue.

Georgia Department of Education rules require the state’s public elementary school students to receive 90 hours of health or physical education instruction per academic year. Recess doesn’t qualify as instructional time, and no state law or Georgia Department of Education rule requires recess at all, department spokesman Matt Cardoza told the L-E in an email.

Middle schools don’t have any time requirement for health and physical education, but that instruction must be available to all students in each grade, Cardoza said. In high school, students must complete a half unit of personal fitness and a half unit of general health to graduate, he said.

No state law or Georgia Department of Education rule addresses time spent on art or music instruction, Cardoza said. “That’s a local decision,” he said.

South Columbus Elementary School started implementing the new schedule last year, including two 30-minute blocks of Increased Learning Time.

“We knew we needed to build in more time for some of this enrichment,” said principal Dawn Jenkins, in her second year leading South Columbus. “We want to be able to not only teach the concepts, but give time, even in kindergarten, more extension of the activities.”

Kindergarten teacher Angela Gardner has seen Increased Learning Time make a positive impact.

“It made a big difference,” said Gardner, in her 28^th year as an educator, including 11 at South Columbus. “It gave me more time to work with my kids, especially ones that are a little bit slow, giving me time to work with them one-on-one.”

Jenkins appreciates veteran teachers such as Gardner being “so open to trying creative approaches to meeting the needs of students.”

Gardner said the conference she attended along with more than 200 other Muscogee County kindergarten teachers and paraprofessionals Tuesday at Northside High School will help her integrate more arts instruction into her lessons. She plans to use more music and movement in her lessons. The acronym VIBES — voice, imagination, body, ensemble and story — will be her guide, she said.

“Learning can be facilitated through dance and drama,” Gardner said when the L-E visited her classroom on Friday. “They can remember that, because they’re doers.”

Gardner still plans to take her students outside every school day for 20-30 minutes. But don’t you dare call it recess.

“I don’t do recess,” Gardner said. “I do structured PE.”

That means she interacts with the students in a game focused on a physical education standard instead of sitting in the shade while watching them play.

The itinerant art, music and PE teachers will visit South Columbus three days per week, one more than last year, Jenkins said. Classes will rotate through the computer lab during the other two school days each week, she said.

Gardner said she will continue to meet every school day for about 45 minutes with the other two kindergarten teachers at South Columbus while the paraprofessional in each class monitors the students learning at math, reading and writing centers in small groups. The teachers share their expertise during the common planning time. Gardner is responsible for developing the math lessons, another teacher covers English language arts, and the other covers science and social studies. The students don’t switch teachers, but they benefit from all of their knowledge.

Regardless of the schedule, Gardner keeps the main thing the main thing: “I love children.”

Here’s a summary of other major changes in MCSD as the new school year starts:

Lunch prices

MCSD’s prices for student lunches have increased 15 cents to $2.25 in elementary schools and to $2.50 in middle schools and high schools. But more students will be eligible for free meals.

The district has expanded its number of schools in the Community Eligibility Provision from 26 to 38. CEP is part of the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which allows students at designated schools to eat breakfast and lunch at no charge.

To qualify, a school must have at least 40 percent of its students meet one of the following criteria as of April 1: be a recipient of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; or be a homeless or foster child. Another way to qualify is to meet that threshold of 40 percent as a group of schools or an entire district.

These 12 MCSD schools will start offering free meals to every student: Allen, Gentian, Reese Road, River Road, Waddell and Wynnton elementary schools; Arnold, Double Churches, Fort and Richards middle schools; Early College and Hardaway high schools.

These 26 MCSD schools will continue offering free meals to every student: Brewer, Davis, Dawson, Dimon, Dorothy Height, Downtown, Forrest Road, Fox, Georgetown, Hannan, Johnson, Key, Lonnie Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Rigdon Road, South Columbus, St. Marys Road and Wesley Heights elementary schools; Baker, East Columbus, Eddy and Rothschild middle schools; Carver, Jordan, Kendrick and Spencer high schools.

Students at the 15 Muscogee County schools that didn’t meet the criteria may qualify individually for free or reduced-priced meals if their parents or guardians apply.

Expanded reading/writing program

The Achieve3000 reading and writing program MCSD implemented last school year at its lowest-performing schools has been expanded to include more struggling schools.

In October, MCSD implemented at 13 schools the Web-based system that delivers differentiated instruction in nonfiction reading and writing. MCSD will spend $630,000 over three years for the program in those schools. The addition of 24 more MCSD schools will cost the district an extra $940,000 over three years.

The 13 MCSD schools that implemented Achieve3000 in 2015-16 were: Carver High School, Baker and Eddy middle schools and Davis, Dawson, Downtown, Forrest Road, Fox, Georgetown, Lonnie Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Rigdon Road and South Columbus elementary schools.

The 24 schools that will implement Achieve3000 this year are: Allen, Blanchard, Brewer, Dimon, Dorothy Height, Gentian, Hannan, Johnson, Key, Midland, North Columbus, Reese Road, River Road, St. Marys Road, Waddell, Wesley Heights and Wynnton elementary schools and Arnold, East Columbus, Fort, Midland, Richards, Rothschild and Veterans Memorial middle schools.

New principals

Since the end of last school year, new principals have been appointed at Arnold Magnet Academy (Stacy Day) and Lonnie Jackson Academy (Amia Burnette).

Harris County

Each principal who ended last school year in the Harris County School District has returned. The newest is Todd Stanfill, the former Muscogee County athletics director who replaced the retired Roger Couch as Harris County’s principal in January.

As far as infrastructure, the biggest summer project was the $1.1 million HVAC upgrade that’s being finished at New Mountain Hill Elementary.

“We have also completed many small-scale projects throughout the district along with some technology upgrades,” Harris County Superintendent Jimmy Martin told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.

Martin also noted the district is “very grateful for the outstanding community support. This community support is a key component of our success. We look forward to another successful year in Harris County.”

Chattahoochee County

ChattCo’s schools have new start times. The elementary school now starts at 7:45 a.m., 10 minutes later than last school year. The middle school now starts at 8 a.m., 25 minutes later than last school year. The high school now starts at 8 a.m., 30 minutes earlier than last school year.

“The new bell schedule will make it more convenient for parents who have children on both campuses,” ChattCo Superintendent David McCurry told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.

ChattCo has hired former Muscogee County teacher Gail Sinkule as director and instructor for its new Gifted and STEM Education Program.

A grant of $19,425 from Project Lead the Way is funding the program’s teacher training and equipment. Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit organization in Indianapolis, promotes education in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math.

“Our long-range goal is to lay the groundwork for a future college and career academy charter school at the high school level,” McCurry said.

New principals are leading the Chattahoochee County Education Center (Kenyada Heard) and Chattahoochee County Middle/High School (Sandi Veliz). Tim Buchanan is ChattCo’s new director of federal programs and career, technical and adult education.

The Chattahoochee County Board of Education voted to eliminate nonresident tuition for students who live outside the county but still in Georgia. “This will help military families that move off Fort Benning to a neighboring in-state county but want their children to remain enrolled in our school system,” McCurry said. “Out-of-state tuition is still charged.”

This story was originally published August 6, 2016 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Here's what's new in Muscogee, Harris and ChattCo schools."