By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

(Jan. 28, 2021) The following took place during the Worcester County Board of Education meeting on Jan. 19:

PHOTO COURTESY WORCESTER COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Worcester County Clerk of Circuit Court Susan Braniecki administers the oath of office to the elected Worcester County Board of Education members on Jan. 19. Pictured, from left, are Elena McComas, Dr. Jon Andes and Donald Smack.

New board president, VP

Eric Cropper Sr. was approved as the board president for 2021. This is Cropper’s second term as president.

Elena McComas was elected as the vice president to replace Sara Thompson, who retired from the board in December.

School Counseling Week

The county school system is celebrating its school counselors from Feb. 1-5. Coordinator of Student Health Services Lauren Williams and Coordinator of Accountability, Assessment and School Counselors Amy Gallagher accepted a commendation from the board on behalf of the Worcester County school counselors in recognition of National School Counseling Week.

Teachers of the Year

Senior representatives announced the Teachers of the Year from their schools. Kurt Marx, the business department chair, will represent Stephen Decatur High School, Nicholas Traud, who teaches physical science, accelerated chemistry and chemistry, will represent Snow Hill High School and English Teacher Jennifer Taylor will represent Pocomoke High School.

Board Appreciation Month

Superintendent of Schools Lou Taylor presented a proclamation to the board in honor of January being Board Appreciation Month.

“We are very honored and privileged in Worcester County to have an outstanding board of education,” Taylor said. “Our school board focuses on our students and what’s best for our kids.”

Safety hotline

Dr. Dwayne Abt, chief safety and human relations officer of the school system, said he will be attending an annual training for the “B SAFE” hotline.

“This hotline was established by the Maryland Center for School Safety a little over a year ago for anyone to report safety threats to the school system,” Abt said.

Superintendent of Schools Lou Taylor said the county schools have received few reports.

“The neat thing about this is if we get a report at midnight of a safety issue with a kid from the proper law enforcement it goes to Dr. Abt,” Taylor said. “They will call him 24/7, and the law enforcement will be in the home within a few hours, so that kid doesn’t bring that to school the next morning.”

The Safe Schools hotline is a 24-hour service. Call in a tip at 1-833-632-7233.

Showell update

Joe Price, the school system’s facilities planner, said the current payments to date on the new Showell Elementary School project total approximately $37.7 million. The remaining balance is $2.1 million.

With the unanimous approval of the requisition, Price said nine of the 15 contractors will be fully paid.

PMS roof replacement

The Worcester County Board of Education approved Flynn Mid-Atlantic’s bid as presented with a total construction contract amount of $2,600,442 for Pocomoke Middle School Roof Replacement project.

On Jan. 7, the county school system received and opened bids for the project. Bid documents were released to prospective bidders on Nov. 2, 2020. A pre-bid meeting was held at Pocomoke Middle School on Nov. 13, 2020.

Flynn Mid-Atlantic will provide construction materials and labor for the demolition of the existing roof and installation of a new roof at Pocomoke Middle School.

Parent Engagement

Karen Marx, principal, and Kristina Belcher, curriculum resource teacher of Snow Hill Elementary School, shared how the Parent and Family Advisory Committee and School Improvement Team have created opportunities for parent and family engagement in education during the pandemic.

Parent and family engagement events usually include academic-themed workshops and family activities, classroom visits, resources and take-aways and opportunities for reflection.

Examples of resources and take-aways are books to add to a home library, literacy, math and/or STEM-based resources, manipulative materials for a hands-on approach and online resources.

With the current coronavirus regulations, Snow Hill Elementary School suggests the following virtual parent and family engagement activities: a literacy event, a career day, an African American read-in, a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) event with community vendors, a summer care exposition with over 19 community vendors and One School, One Book Club Trilogy with a week-long virtual writing workshop by the author.

Summit Learning

Dr. Mary Anne Cooper, principal; Dr. Jon Kehl, assistant principal; and Angela Landreth, curriculum resource teacher, of Snow Hill Middle School informed the school board about Summit Learning.

The middle school has been implementing Summit Learning, which is self-directed learning, in sixth and eighth grades since the 2016-17 school year.

Three components of the learning management program are student engagement, student-teacher relationships and meaningful learning.

Inside the classroom, Summit Learning involves mentoring during personalized learning time (PLT), independent or collaborative projects in core content areas like math, science and social studies as well as self-direction during personalized learning time.

In addition, Summit Learning provides ongoing professional development for teachers as well as bi-weekly professional development for school leadership.

Final exam waiver

The board agreed to waive the final exam policy for Semester One courses for the 2020-21 academic year because of the impacts of distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic.