Emery School District students present a kindergarten program for friends and family at Castle Dale Elementary.
By Julie Johansen
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) team meetings are scheduled for the last day of school, May 25. These meetings will be at Emery High followed by a district-wide teacher luncheon. The district’s teacher of the year, Stephanie Roper, will be honored at the luncheon. Following the luncheon, elementary grade level meetings and secondary discipline meetings will consider testing data, common assessment data, progress made and planning for the coming year. PLC days are part of next year’s calendar, but the early out mid-term days are still being considered. The principals seem very happy and are finding success in the program, according to district superintendent Larry Davis. Elementary grade levels really have embraced the concept and are finding tremendous progress, he explained. There has been some challenges with the distance Green River has to travel or use the WebX facilities in order to participate, but the district is working to make the process as easy as possible.
During a recent briefing, Superintendent Davis also explained that STEM education grants have been applied for to continue the district-wide robotics program while two new Talent Ready programs are being considered at the high schools. A teacher prep class and medical pathway curriculum could be added as well. The teacher prep class would give students an overview of a teaching career and the instructor would be Mr. Neal Peacock. The medical pathway class is being discussed with Roberta Hardy, principal at Pinnacle Canyon Academy, Castleview Hospital, USU Eastern and the ECSD. This could lead to a CNA certification for participating students.
Planning for 2018-19 includes a full day kindergarten district wide, Superintendent Davis said during the briefing. This comes after much research. Mr. Worthen, ECSD Elementary Specialist, has also found an 80% parent support for the full-day program. This will not add additional cost to the district as it has the personnel already hired to do this. The district would run regular bus schedules.
Several employees are retiring from the school district this year. The list includes Reed Fehlberg, Teri McElprang, Christine Bolotas, Gail Kay, Mavoreen Anderson, Kerry Goldman, DeeAnn Meadows, Don Meadows and June Shurtleff.
In response to the many retiring, new individuals have been hired and include Dave Justice as an additional special education teacher at Emery High. A new band teacher at Canyon View Middle School will be Kellie Worwood; CTE teacher at CVMS and Emery High School, Dane Worwood; counselor at CVMS and GRHS, Lance Whitesel; and social science teacher at GRHS, Ryan Hepworth.
The district is offering scholarships for two teachers and administrators from each of its 10 schools to attend the Rural School Conference in Cedar City. The dates for the conference are July 11-13. The conference will discuss blended learning, which ties technology with classroom instruction. In upcoming years, the conference will rotate venues and will be hosted at USUE in 2019.
No negotiations have been scheduled yet. Mr. Jeff Winget is the new EEA President and will be meeting with the district soon. ECSD is also working with Emery County to try to staff school resource officers at both high schools. Some enforcement is also being considered for the middle schools.