Published: June 27, 2008 04:33 pm         

School principals team up to form support group

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Area elementary school principals are ganging up.

Snow Rogers principal Karen White, along with North Highland principal Laura Moon, is helping spearhead a movement where principals are working together to solve issues that are unique to small schools.

The first meeting was Thursday at Snow Rogers Elementary. The group of 11 people shared doughnuts, ideas and enthusiasm for an hour. They left the meeting with a determination to gather again in a week to further discuss their plans.

“Because we have different issues than larger schools, we thought it would be good to get together and discuss them,” said White. “This is how we can be more effective in our schools to increase student achievement.”

Representatives from north Jefferson County, in addition to White, were Mt. Olive Elementary principal Judy Sullivan and Warrior Elementary principal Mike Frugoli.

Other principals at the meeting were from Irondale, Gresham, Hillview, Brookville, West Jefferson and North Highland elementary schools.

Also present were Kim Tyra, supervisor of accreditation for the Jefferson County school system, and Greg Cobb with the Alabama Reading Initiative.

During their discussion, the principals highlighted several issues that they all face. One big issue brought to light was the need for each school to have its own counselor.

Many of the smaller schools share a counselor with other schools. Sue Ann West serves as the counselor at both Mt. Olive and Snow Rogers schools.

Sullivan, at Mt. Olive, said that without a full-time counselor, much of her time is spent “putting out fires” that a school counselor could be handling.

The principals at the meeting said that having a counselor only part of the time is problematic particularly in the areas of testing and in the handling of sensitive issues.

Counselors typically handle and organize testing. And sensitive issues can include anything from dealing with the Department of Human Resources (DHR) to appearances in family court.

Another issue that small-schools principals face is intervention and walk-throughs.

Principals try to set up a schedule to make appearances in classrooms every day.

While some of the principals said they have found a successful way to implement intervention, many of them said it is difficult to do so because they often get pulled away for other things during that time.

Other problems they face are attendance, tardiness and scheduling.

One problem with attendance and tardiness is inconsistencies within feeder pattern schools.

“If we work within our feeder patterns, we can deal with this,” said White.

Problems with attendance affects everything from test scores to Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). AYP scores are determined by state requirements that all public schools must meet.

The principals have scheduled a second meeting next week at Gresham Elementary.

They plan to continue meeting regularly to help each other solve their common issues.