July 30 - New Teacher Orientation

These were our remarks at New Teacher Orientation on July 30, 2018.

I'm Ryan Walker from The WCEA - the Wythe County Education Association. First let me congratulate each of you on being hired in Wythe County. We feel like we've got a great thing going here in our schools and we' excited for you to join us. You should have received this ---- folder that has all the information you'll need to learn more and join if wish. Raise your hand if not and we'll bring you one. We are your professional educator organization. A membership with WCEA also makes you a member of the VEA and the NEA. There are other organizations and groups out there that claim to provide the same service, but I'd like to highlight some things that set our organization apart from those others. 

1. Our membership is open to any employee of the school system - teachers, administrators, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians, therapists, you name it if they are employed by the school system they are eligible for membership. This diversity in membership creates a strong group of professionals working for one goal - helping to create the best possible public education system in Wythe County. 

2. Our cost is $45 per month to join. It is more expensive, but as with most things - you get what you pay for. Our organization provides top rate coverage, tremendous savings opportunities, and a family of educators to support you and advocate for you and your students. I know it's kinda odd to lead with the price, but we want you to know the cost AND I'd like to explain the benefits that come with the cost. 

3. Liability Insurance It provides coverage that helps protects you should any claims be brought against you by students, students families or even administrators. This is not an area that is pleasant to think about, but does happen. Other groups claim to have you covered, but our coverage is better. It starts with our UniServ Director who is the regional contact for all members in our county. She is available for simple advice over the phone, sit down meetings, assistance in filing a grievance, meeting with you and administrators, or whatever your situation might call for. Should the issue progress further we have an legal team experienced in educational law to represent you that is second none. The best advertisement comes from a member who wasn't a member when they needed it most. This person had been a member for several years, but dropped our membership saying they could save money with other coverage. An incident arose which resulted in investigation, suspension, court case, thousands of dollars of out of pocket expenses and eventually reinstatement to their job. You wanna know the first thing this person did on their first day back at work??? Rejoined the WCEA! They said the coverage had they received paled in comparison to ours. Remember....You get what you pay for. 

4. Financial Benefits Being a member of our organization makes you a part of the largest professional association in the US - just under 3 million nation wide. With this large of a membership brings a lot of buying power. You have a seemingly unlimited number of ways to save money by being a member. You can save money on buying and insuring your car. You have complimentary legal consultations for issues that arise outside of school. You can save money traveling with discounts on hotels, car rentals, and cruises. You can save money on home loans, student loans, and banking. You can save money on cell phone bills, satellite TV, and even on buying flowers online. But of all of these the money saving benefit My wife, who is also a teacher and a member, and I both love is the Savings App ----  You can use it anywhere you go. You can type in a location and it brings up all kinds of discounts in that area. We love to visit Williamsburg and we have used the app there to find local restaurants including our favorite pizza restaurant of all - The Crust. If you use these savings opportunities you can more than make up that monthly dues payment you cringed at earlier. 

5. Politics Its a topic that makes most of us squirm, but in education it's a topic we cannot afford to ignore. Everything we do in our classrooms from SOL tests, to how many students are in our classes, to what's the best way to educate students with disabilities is affected by political decisions made here in Wythe County, in Richmond, or even in Washington DC. Our organization doesn't shy away from having discussions with politicians to help pave the way for these decisions to be made with the best interests of our students, teachers, and schools in mind. Here locally our organization has built a strong relationship with administrators and school board members. We speak monthly at SB meetings on issues that are facing our county. These folks often seek our association's opinions and advice before making decisions. At the state level our organization the Virginia Education Association or VEA has never been in a stronger position. Our VEA president, Vice President, and other VEA members have been named to virtually every education related committee in Richmond and for the first time ever a teacher and VEA member has been named as the Secretary of education in the state! With these types of positions comes tremendous influence to direct the public education system in our state in a direction that is good for our students, our members, and our schools. 

6. My last word is about the family this organization brings to its members. It's my "why" when people ask why I belong. There will be some people that try to pigeon hole our organization and our members with labels, or say we believe in certain things. What I will say to those people is that we do have members who are pro life and we have those that are pro choice, we have members who are for gun rights and members who are not, we have members who are republican and those who are democrat and even some who don't affiliate with either party, we have liberals and we have conservatives. The WCEA is not defined by these issues. What binds us is our love for public schools and our passion for educating students. We hope you will join our family as we fight for the best schools and best educational opportunities. The students of Wythe County deserve nothing less.

American Education Week Celebration

All Wythe County Public School Employees are invited to celebrate American Education Week with us! Our reception will be Tuesday, November 14 from 4-6pm at West Wind Winery. We hope you will come celebrate with us!

Nov 2017 School Board Meeting Comments

Good evening Chairman Sage, School Board Members, Dr. Perry, School Board Office administrators and staff. Thank you for this time to speak with you tonight. I appreciate your willingness to have this night meeting to give WCPS staff, parents, and community members the opportunity to be with you at your meeting. 

Academically we are between Benchmark testing Windows so as the tides of stress go we would be in a low tide period. We have evaluated first quarter results, designed and implemented remediation plans to fill any gaps that were evident in the first benchmarks. (On a side note, We appreciate the time built in the calendar for grading and conferencing.) We had successful conferences with our students' families showing them their students results and discussing their progress so far. All of this while moving forward with the second quarter curriculum. Plans are building towards Decembers Benchmark and SOL testing. 

We have had several non-curricular moments to celebrate with our students from success with sports and organizations to Character Days to Veterans Day programs. These can at times be interruptions to our instructional program but they can provide meaningful learning opportunities for things not laid out in the SOL curriculum. We had our Veterans Day program today at Sheffey and it was amazing to see the time and effort students and staff put into rehearsing parts, creating posters, and learning about Veterans. To see the interactions of the students with the veterans and the smiles on the faces of the kids when they realize that this day was bigger than them was priceless. 

Committee work has been a valuable part of the past month. Behavior Support Team established this year at each school have been meeting at schools and county wide with Mary Henslee. This has been a great time to brainstorm ideas and make plans for students who need help to be able to focus on learning. Ms. Henslee is a valuable resource for our county and I am glad we are taking advantage of her knowledge and experience. The Salary Committee has also been meeting. We have developed a plan for what we hope will happen with the Salary Schedule with back up ideas in place in case funding is short. Two main goals of the committee are to simplify the salary schedule and communicate more in person about salary, insurance and other budget matters. 

Community involvement has also been a part of the goings-on lately. Fall Festivals, PTOs, PTAs, and boosters have been doing a tremendous job at our schools incorporating families and community members. One business - Utility Trailer Manufacturing in Atkins - has continued to shine with the generosity of their employees. They recognized their employees hard work with a weekly meal, but the employees have decided to donate the money of one of the weekly meals to charitable causes in the community. A substantial amount of that money has been donated to our schools. A big thank you to Utility. 

Finally I would like to personally invite all WCPS School Board members and  Employees in attendance to the WCEA's American Education Week Celebration. It will be held at West Wind Fame and Winery in Fort Chiswell. We have live banjo music from Wythe County's own Thom Moore. We will have prizes and finger foods. The WCEA would like to publicly thank the many local businesses that have contributed money and prizes to make this went special. I hope you will be able to join us!

Thank you for this time to speak on behalf of employees and for including the WCEA on the agenda. 

PD Science

Please pass this PD opportunity to your Science teachers. They can participate in all or portions of the VAST "Celebrating Science" conference. November 16-18. Click on the links below to access additional information. 

VDOE Supts memo #260-17

VAST 2017-18 Professional Development Institute

PD with Alpha Sigma

The following information describes programs for the Alpha Sigma Chapter of Virginia Alpha Delta Kappa.
 *November 13, 2017 6:00 PM Wytheville Presbyterian Church
Rapping the SOLs                Finding innovative ways to engage students to improve learning is so important. GWHS graduate and current teacher at Roanoke’s James Madison Middle School, Cole Wilder has developed multiple raps to motivate his students to understand SOL content through active participation. Movement and learning the words to the rap combine to spark students’ interest and enhance retention of material. Mr. Wilder has been recognized by his school for his innovative methods. He will explain and demonstrate techniques he uses while showing how teachers may use these techniques in their own classrooms. He will discuss the results he has observed in classes where these methods are used.
            Mr. Wilder has presented in-service workshops for his school system, led his students to perform the raps on local television station WDBJ, and has been interviewed by local radio. *January 8, 2018 6:00 PM Wytheville Presbyterian Church
Saluting Canada            Our neighbor to the north, Canada, is celebrating the sesquicentennial anniversary in 2017. This program, presented by Carolyn Armentrout following her September trip, will highlight some of the important history of our neighbor on the North American continent. Much of Canadian history impacted American history. The pictures and other mementos acquired on her trip will help to demonstrate elements of world geography and United States history. The shared friendship, culture, and economic interdependence of the two countries will be explored with facts and anecdotes helpful to teachers in the classroom. *March 12, 2018 6:00 PM Wytheville Presbyterian Church
How Cursive Writing Can Be Used In All Classrooms            This program will be presented by Joyce Covey, retired educator from Pulaski County Public Schools. Ms. Covey presented this program as a workshop at the 2017 Chautauqua Festival in Wytheville. Cursive writing is not taught as it once was, however, it is essential in order to meet certain standards, including reading and interpreting historical documents. Most historical documents are written in cursive script. Students with no instruction in the fundamentals of cursive may experience difficulty reading America’s documents of democracy. Ms. Covey will instruct teachers how to quickly and effectively teach students the various strokes and movements involved in cursive script. All teachers will find this a great classroom instructional tool. The skills teachers learn may be used as a project for student formative assessment.  *April 9, 2018 6:00 PM Wytheville Presbyterian Church
NOTE: This program was approved last year but was not presented due to inclement weather
WCC Library Materials and Services Available to Wythe County Public School Teachers and Students
                WCC Library Staff will discuss various resources and services available to aid WCPS teachers with research to enhance classroom instruction. Teachers will learn how students themselves may utilize resources and share that knowledge with students. Dual enrollment students especially will benefit by teacher knowledge of the services offered by our local college. The staff will explain how students in the middle grades are able to use materials and resources for special projects. Teachers taking courses for recertification will find valuable assets at the WCC Library. Attendees will learn how WCC strives to be a positive and proactive presence in our communities beginning with sharing library resources.

PD Chances through WCPS This Year

Here's a list of PD Opportunities from WCPS this year....

• Math teachers will participate in many hours of PD with the implementation of the new Math SOLs and curriculum adoption materials. (We feel really bad for math teachers and all the extra time needed to prepare for the new SOLs this year.)   
• The high schools and middle schools will be doing a lot to get ready for their new career focus curriculums and new Profile of a Graduate required for next year. This will kick into high gear 2nd semester. 
• PE teachers are getting on board with using their fitness data to drive instruction and participating in discussion boards especially designed for WCPS. 
• CTE has required training they have to do to keep up with the latest trends in industry. 
• Elementary and Middle are continuing their 6+1 writing meetings.
• Elementary is initiating new Behavior Support Teams within each building.
• Gifted/Talented teachers are revising the WCPS Gifted plan. 
• ITRTs are working with teachers on the new grade book procedures. 
• ITRTs are holding Discovery Education workshops within each of their buildings.
• ITRTs offered Tech Luau
• Principals are continuing work with data teams in their buildings
• Principals are hosting their own PDs to meet unique needs of their school (book talks, guest speakers, reading initiatives, remediation initiatives, drop-out prevention teams, etc.)
• Mr. Younger hosts Microsoft IT Academy each year for teachers to learn and become proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. 
• Social Studies teachers in the areas of VA History, Civics, and World History will be participating in PD to develop Performance Based Assessments required in 2018-19.
• Each high school has certified CPR instructors in their PE dept. All principals in WCPS can call on these folks to lead a CPR training after school for recertification/PD. 
• Mary Henslee is available by appointment to work with teachers and admin. on classroom management and behavior modification techniques. 
• Foreign Lang has opportunity to go to FLAVA conference. 
• Elementary "make-and-take" PD previously scheduled for Election Day will be rescheduled. 
• The 4th grade "Sheep Book" PD previously scheduled for Election DAy will need to be rescheduled. 

Sept 2017 School Board Meeting

Attendance

All SB members, 3 teachers, 8 SB admin, 3 school admin, 1 teacher, lots of community members, 1 media member

Recognitions

1. Schools that won VDOE Excellence Awards principals were given a banner

2. Jackson Memorial students presented projects and learning songs

WCEA Comments - Ryan Walker presented teacher perspective 

Administrator Comments - Mrs. Watson presented school events

Public Comment

Removal of prayer plaque at Spiller (7 people)

FYI - Open Meeting regarding plaque removal on Thursday, 9/21 @ SBO

Salary Schedule Review Committee

1. Committe has been established with wide variety of experience levels

2. October 11, Nov 8, Dec 6, Jan 11

Student Enrollment

1. 4011 total enrollment now ( our budget was planned on 4020 )

2. This is an okay position for this point in the school year. 

Governor's School

Lost dual enrollment teacher at GW for Anatomy class so students were enrolled in online Linwood Holton Governors School (23 students)

Audit of School Activity Funds

Division and school audits were done; no major issues; were minor control issues that are fairly typical, but difficult to overcome 

Evaluation Projects

1. TalentEd costs $8000 per year, the adaptability of the forms and usability of forms is not optimal

2. exploring option of creating own possibly using Google Docs (reduces cost and increases control of forms)

3. Would keep online application for new hires through TalentEd

4. Nothing about the 7 evaluation standards would change. The goal would be creating a more user friendly document at a cheaper cost. 

Capital Improvement Project

1. OWPR selected as A/E firm for GWHS project

2. They are investigating needs of school to produce cost estimate. 

Foundation of Excellence

Would like to add Rusty Jones (Adam Martin resigned), to be voted upon in Oct

School Crisis Plans

Plans were approved (evaluated beforehand)

Hybrid Plan Benefits

Approved - Provides staff members on hybrid plan more options thru Horace Mann

GWHS Band Trip

1. Out of State trips must be approved by SB (haven't done in past, will do going forward per policy)

2. Requirements: Minimum number of days missed, financial support for students, adequate chaperones, organized plan

3. Approved 

Transportation

1. Recognized Mr. Skeens and Ms. Umbarger for their work on transportation

2. We are now a 3rd party qualifier to ease getting new drivers qualified 

Traffic Patterns at Spiller

1. Concern had been brought up about quantity of traffic. 

2. Observations made and discussions had and they think they are doing the best they can in the space they have. 

Listening Tours

1. Happening at each individual school this year to increase participation

2. Ones that have happened so far have been positive and productive 

Positive Recognitions

1. Duty Free Lunches - Funny story about a K kid standing on a table with bananas blazing, teachers have been very appreciative

2. Staff Getting into Athletic Events - staff have been very appreciative

Closed Session at 7pm