NC board of education gets update on TNHS, ELC construction projects

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, 10 p.m. — The Nelson County School District’s current construction projects — the auditorium at Thomas Nelson High School and the expansion of the district’s Early Learning Center — are both moving forward on schedule and on budget.

The Nelson County Board of Education listens to a presentation by Tim Hockensmith, the district’s chief operating officer. From left, Hockensmith, chairman Diane Berry, superintendent Anthony Orr and board members Larry Pate and Damon Jackey.

That was the report the Nelson County Board of Education received Tuesday night from Tim Hockensmith, the district’s Chief Operating Officer, and representatives of the project’s architects and construction manager firm.

The ELC expansion is about 85 percent complete, Hockensmith said. Minor change orders are still possible, Stephen Ward, an architect with Studio Kremer, said. One possible change is the addition of a mop sink and a change in how the playground and sidewalk connect.

The new auditorium project at TNHS — a $2.8 million project — is about a 40 percent complete, and the board was told of two possible change orders that are likely to presented for the board’s approval at its regular meeting on Dec. 13.

One change order deals with how the roof of the addition ties into an existing wall. The work will result in a connection that will be less prone to leaks. The second change order deals with a hand rail that will be needed at an exit door facing the parking lot.

K-3 REPORT CARD PILOT PROGRAM. In an effort to improve instruction and to give parents useful information about their child’s education, the board heard details of a pilot program that will revise student report cards in grades K-3.

If adopted, the new report cards will provide detailed information on the topics that teachers are expected to teach during each nine-week grading period. The report cards will list the standards-based subjects and skills covered during the grading period, and offer a detailed breakdown of how the student has performed in meeting educational objectives.

Ann Marie Williams, the district’s director of elementary schools, said the elementary school principals told her the existing report cards do not give parents much useful information about how well their children are performing in grades K-3. By moving to a standards-based report card, parents and educators get more information on a student’s actual classroom performance in all content areas, she said.

“Grades should have meaning, it should be more than a letter or number,” Williams said.

The new report cards will also be used to allow parents to know how to help their child at home with their studies at parent-teacher conferences.

With the board’s approval, the new grading system will eventually be presented to the elementary schools’ site-based councils for their review and possible participation in a pilot program next year.

In other business, the board:

— reviewed the district’s comprehensive district improvement plan and its five goals. The plan will be forwarded to the Kentucky Department of Education by the end of the year.

— reviewed the details of financing for the energy efficiency upgrade project for Bloomfield Middle School. The project’s scope will also upgrade lighting and climate controls where needed across the district.

— heard details of two grant applications; one application for the Read To Achieve grant, and the second is an agriculture grant to allow the district’s two new ag teachers to attend the Case Summer Institute

— reviewed a minor change to the 2017-2018 district calendar to correct the day school is out for the May 2018 primary election.

NEXT UP. The board of education’s regular monthly meeting is Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, at the district’s Central Office on Wildcat Lane.

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