Principals tell board of K-PREP success, plans to continue academic growth

From left: Jeremy Hill, principal of Foster Heights Elementary School, Shelley Badgett, principal at New Haven School, and Shelley Hendricks, principal at Nelson County High School.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, 9:30 p.m. — The principals of Foster Heights Elementary, New Haven School and Nelson County High School attended the board meeting to report what they learned from their school’s K-PREP scores and their plans for the coming school year to continue their school’s progress.

Jeremy Hill, principal of Foster Heights Elementary School, told the board that improved use of assessments allowed the teachers to target the students specific educational needs while still meeting the goal of challenging students of all skill levels to grow. In the latest K-PREP scores, Foster Heights scored a large gain and moved from the 21st percentile to the 58th percentile.

Hill said areas where he plans improvement include writing scores, teacher self-assessments. “We’re not complacent about where we are,” he said.

New Haven principal Shelley Badgett told the board her staff have worked hard in the PLC groups to better understand the standards and align their teaching to the standards. She told the board she broke down the K-PREP data using color codes to help show the staff opportunities for improvement. Badgett told the board that she and her staff conduct their planning with the end result in mind.

NCHS principal Shelley Hendricks told the board when she first started as principal the schools K-PREP scores had been a disappointment. “We rolled up our sleeves and went to work,” she said. “We had no other direction to go but up.”

Hendricks credited the use of interventions by her staff to help target students who need help in an academic area. She told the board she believes NCHS will reap the rewards of the gains in the district schools as those students progress. She thanked the board for its decision earlier this year to adopt a 4 percent tax revenue increase, noting that it helps insure that the district schools get adequate funding for equipment and salaries.

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