Board approves summer meeting dates, bid for new roof

COLUMBUS — The Polk County School Board meeting was fairly simple and straight forward this week.

In line with recent efforts to connect with the schools, the board met Monday night at Sunny View Elementary School to talk about capital improvements, testing dates and other topics.

Technology and Accountability Director David Scherping informed the board about end of year testing dates.

NCEXTEND1 students with serious cognitive deficiency will be assessed individually between May 25 and June 8. Early College students will test May 14 and May 18, and elementary schools will test May 25, May 30 and 31.

Middle school students will test on May 25, 29, 30 and 31, as well as June 5 and 6. Polk County High School will test June 4 and June 8.

Students not passing the tests will be eligible for remediation and retesting before the end of the school year. Each school will set their remediation schedule, and retesting will be June 11 and June 15.

Polk County School Superintendent Aaron Greene said the district has found that remediation and retesting works best when the information is still fresh in the students’ minds.

“Summer school will be very brief,” Greene said.

The board considered a proposal for accreditation from the North Carolina Department of Instruction for continuous improvement and accreditation. Polk County Schools Curriculum Director Ronette Dill said the review would include three years of data collected by the schools that covers report cards, suspension, expulsion and drop-out rates, attendance data, teacher working conditions, student enrollment, staffing trends and much more.

“We should be able to give better feedback about our schools with this process,” Greene said. “We think this process is more manageable, effective and cost effective.”

In other business, the board approved the FFA trip proposal, the career and technical education plan, the 2018-2019 local budget, a budget amendment to receive federal funds, the 2018 Head Start Funding Increase for cost of living adjustment and food service bids.

The board also determined the dates for the summer board meeting will be June 25. The regularly scheduled June 11 meeting will be June 4 in the Stearns Building.

“Historically, we have not had a meeting in July, so we tend to need a meeting near the end of June for fiscal issues,” Greene said.

Scherping gave an overview of the student wellness plan, which included nutrition standards and creating opportunities for physical activities in the classrooms whenever possible.

Scherping also announced that on May 8 they released the requests for proposals for the guaranteed energy savings performance contract.

The board also approved the bid from Grier Roofing for Polk Central Elementary’s main building. Total cost for the roof will be $283,480, split into three payments. Work will start mid-June and be completed by mid-August.

There was no public input and the board withdrew into executive session to discuss a personnel matter and a potential property discussion.