Mooresville schools unveil their improvement plans

School improvement plans were a hot topic at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Mooresville Graded School District Board of Education, as principals laid out their schools’ goals and strategies.

Each principal highlighted things like goals for improving test scores, strategies in the classroom and approaches to improving student and employee morale.

For example, Principal Mark Cottone at Park View Elementary said the school was eight-tenths of a percentage point away from being a School of Excellence this year and is still working on achieving a 90 percent overall proficiency to receive that title.

Other goals for the school include increasing student performance in reading and math, engage students daily in high quality digital tools to support core instruction, and build leadership and develop partnerships which support the vision for continuous improvement.

Cottone said his school will do this by implementing early intervention with certified tutors to help support Title 1 teachers, provide vocabulary classes for all second and third graders, promote and support “Read on the Ride” initiative, and increase community participation in school programs such as All Pro-Dad, Change a Life Mentoring and Cap the Gap.

Here is a look at plans for the other MGSD schools:

Rocky River Elementary

Principal Crystal Hill said goals for this school year are to get third grade students to increase from 91 to 91 percent proficiency in reading, improve from 87.5 to 95 percent the reading proficiency of third grade African-American students, increase from 50 to 75 percent proficiency the reading of third grade exceptional children, and achieving a 99 percent proficiency score in math for all third graders.

Hill said this would be done by maintaining all instructional programs, strategic scheduling by setting up enrichment interventions for students who need it, employing certified reading specialists and increase common planning time for teachers.

South Elementary

Principal Debbie Marsh, said that 33 percent of students this past year were new to the school and even with a high percentage of at-risk students the school was still able to be a School of Distinction.

“Our only gap that still exists is in reading for Hispanic students,” said Marsh. “I’m really proud of what we were able to accomplish and I want to build on that success to get School of Excellence status maintained. We just need to target Hispanic students in reading.”

Other goals Marsh noted were to increase the reading proficiency to 90 percent for all students, improve parent involvement, particularly bridging the communication gap with Hispanic families, continue the integration of added technologies into the instructional program, decrease absences and tardies to maximize instructional time and preparedness to implement the Common Core next school year.

Marsh said they will do this by employing two certified tutors in Title 1 to focus on reading strategies for students, offer inclusion instruction to 3 rd grade students with Ms. Danko, implement Pirate Math in 2 nd and 3 rd grades to explicitly teach strategies for solving word problems, utilize the interpreter to provide more community in Spanish including parent information sessions, AlertNow messages and written notices in Spanish, and combine incentives for good attendance with increased court actions in chronic problems.

East Mooresville Intermediate

Principal Robin Melton said her school saw improvement in every composite area. “Math was a strength for us but reading was not as strong,” she said.

Math composite levels increased three percent from 87 to 90 percent while reading levels only went up one percent from 78 to 79 percent.

Goals Melton said the school has planned for this school year are to meet criteria to be recognized as a School of Excellence, close the achievement gap between subgroups to 10 percent or less, increase the number of underrepresented students participating in AIG classes and use digital resources more effectively to promote 21 st century learning skills.

“We really want to identify those students and track their growth,” said Melton.

Melton said they’ll achieve this by identifying at-risk students by name and knowing who they are, secure funding for one tutor per grade level, increase administrators presence in the classroom and group students by ability for reading and math classes.

Mooresville Intermediate and Mooresville Middle both have goals of obtaining AYP status for next year:

Mooresville Intermediate

Principal Felicia Bustle said literacy will be a key focus for growth.

“We’ve implemented Reading Plus to Exceptional Children on the bubble and this is the first time each grade level has daily vocabulary planning,” she said.

Goals for reading, math, and science at MIS are to increase the numbers of students on or above grade level to 95 percent, increase the number of EC students who are scoring at levels 3 or 4 by 15 percent in all areas of reading and math.

Bustle said strategies for this will be utilize remedial and enrichment computer programs such as Istation, Study Island, Reading Plus and IXL, conduct daily collaborative planning sessions for all staff related to data analysis and sharing of successful strategies, and implement daily 45-minute block schedule for enrichment and remediation.

Mooresville Middle

Principal Carrie Tulbert said her goals are to obtain a School of Excellence status by obtaining a 90 percent proficiency in composite scores, close the achievement gaps in all subgroups to 10 percent or less, ensure 10 percent grow in all levels of students, and continue to increase the literacy skills of all students.

“Reading can be challenging for students in all schools, but I want excellence to spread to every person and to every classroom,” she said.

Tulbert said they’ll also conduct school-wide extra practice data session across the department base on individual data of students and continue both Positive Behavior Intervention Support and Capturing Kid’s Hearts programs.

Mooresville High

Principal Todd Wirt, said he wants a contagious attitude of “I can” for this school year. He noted that the school now has a new vision, mission and motto not only for staff but for students as well to embrace the ‘I Can’ attitude.

Wirt said his school hopes to have a 10 percent increase in the number of students scoring at a level four or high at EOC exams as well as close the achievement gap in all area to 10 percent or less. Wirt also would like to continue to increase the number of minority students enrolled in AP courses.

“We’ve already increased minority enrollment in AP from 2 to 13 percent,” he said. Wirt noted that there is very little parent involvement in academics at the school and hopes to push more parents to be on campus.

N.F. Woods

Principal Devry Gibbs hopes to increases the numbers of students scoring at proficiency on all post-assessments to 94 percent, increase the number of EC and minority students post assessment proficiency by at least 10 percent to aid in bridging the gap and increase collaborative efforts with the community by strengthening’s the Career Bridge Advisory Council and Chamber of Commerce Workfoce Development Committee in numbers and events.

Gibbs also hopes to increase apprenticeship opportunities and implements a job shadowing program to the work based learning component of the school and increase the number of Mi-Waye students scoring at level 3 or 4 on EOC’s to 70 percent.