Adding 20 days to school year is a trade off as some schools lose programs

By JONATHAN CRIBBS
jcribbs@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5517

The Beaufort County School District's decision to add 20 school days to the calendar for poor-performing students doesn't come without a price.

Several schools had to surrender money or part-time positions to pay for the extra days.

The district is using about $1.4 million of about $4.9 million in federal Title 1 money this year for the extra days, said Roy Stehle, director of special revenue projects. Title 1 money is given to school districts to help low-income students meet state standards. The extra days are the keystone of a restructuring plan beginning this year to meet state and federal improvement standards.

After the district singled out schools last spring in least need of Title 1 money, it asked principals to list their priority programs paid for with the federal money. The district agreed to pay for some while cutting others not focused on boosting the performance of students testing behind grade level, said Mary Seamon, the district's chief instructional services officer.

"There's been a redirection of effort," she said. "It's worth the trade-off. We think all children deserve an opportunity to perform at grade level before they leave the school system. And we think that's important."

The schools that lost Title 1 money were Shell Point, Port Royal, Mossy Oaks, Lady's Island, Bluffton, Okatie and M.C. Riley elementary schools and the Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts.

Mossy Oaks Elementary lost a part-time creative arts instructor who helped students in grades three through five with subjects ranging from public speaking to reading. She also organized school performances, principal Donald Gruel said.

"She did a lot in the building," he said. "There were children who were kind of brought out of their shells by some of the things that took place."

The district retained a program and two positions at the school: Alphabet Junction, an intervention program for poor-performing kindergartners, and two certified, part-time teachers who work with students in grades three through five on primary reading skills.

The school received about $94,150 in Title 1 money last year, Gruel said.

At least one school that lost its Title 1 money didn't end up losing much. M.C. Riley Elementary School used the roughly $165,000 it received last year in Title 1 money to pay for five full-time teaching assistants, principal Jay Parks said. The district agreed to pay for the assistants, but the positions could be phased out through attrition.

Parks' five assistants -- one for each grade -- pull struggling students out of class and give them one-on-one instruction. He said he lost some funding for staff development and after-school programs.

"The way this was done, we probably made out a little better than the others," Parks said.

The district is also centralizing its staff development with programs such as Summer Institute -- a weeklong program in Beaufort County in June that offered classes and credits to teachers working toward re-certification, Seamon said.

As last year's scores on the now-defunct Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test soon roll into the district, it should have an idea of how many students qualify for the 20 extra days, Stehle said. Students performing below basic in at least one of the exam's four subject areas -- English, math, science and social studies -- or those who aren't progressing on state improvement plans would be forced to attend the extra days. How those students will be judged after the state develops a new standardized exam is unclear.

Superintendent Valerie Truesdale said as of February about 2,600 students would be eligible for the program, which she said is crucial to accelerating lagging students' performance. The total cost of the extra days is about $2 million: $1.4 million in Title 1 money and about $500,000 from the state.

"That was (estimated using) some numbers from a year ago, so we may need less money than that," Stehle said.

Mary Ellen Parks, principal at Shell Point Elementary School, said although her school lost federal money, the district's decision to keep full-time employees and add extra days may make it worth it.

"This year, I feel like we've gained something and we've lost something," she said. "We were able to maintain the most critical components that support student achievement this year. And the district has gained because the kids that need those extra days will get those extra days."

Shell Point Elementary received about $200,000 in Title 1 money last year. When the district took that money this year, they kept the school's full-time literacy curriculum coach and Alphabet Junction, which cost about $66,000 together, Parks said. It also agreed to pay for the school's after-school instructional program.

But the district kept money the school used for programs that lure parents to the school. The school's School Improvement Council met this week -- without the child-care or food it was used to, she said.

"The parents realized it's very hard to conduct a meeting without child-care," Parks said.

The parents took turns watching the children.

But now, the focus must be on remediation, Seamon said.

"We're pretty much hitting what needs to be targeted, and we're ensuring that every student is getting a viable exposure to remediation throughout the district," she said.

The 20 days are the same on the traditional and year-round calendars. Four of them are from Oct. 28-31. The rest are from June 19 to July 10.

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