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School district gets good evaluation
11/18/2009 8:06 PM   6 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend

A "quality assurance review team" of outside educators will recommend that the Aiken County School District and its schools receive a five-year accreditation.

The recommendation will go to the AdvancED Accreditation Commission early in 2010 for review and approval, retired educator Joe Delaney told the Aiken County Board of Education at a special meeting Wednesday.

School Board Chair Dr. Christine Harkins and Vice Chair Rosemary English said they were gratified by the results of a 2¬½-day evaluation by the review team.

"This is one of the most grueling processes a district can participate in," Harkins said. "It's voluntary and you have to be willing to be looked at critically. Our district was willing to do that."

The team, led by former Marlboro County superintendent Delaney, interviewed district administrators, board members, principals, teachers and parents. The 14 members divided up to spend a half-day at 14 schools.

AdvancED is a unified organization of several accrediting institutions, including the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The review team's intent was to confirm whether the Aiken School District is moving forward with its academic mission and quality standards identified by AdvancED, Delaney said.

He cited the district's focus on literacy, its commitment to instructional improvement and increased student achievement. The review team praised the "unwavering commitment of the school-level faculties and administration to the success and well-being of each child."

"It's important to me that accolades go down to the school level," Harkins said.

The school district also collaborates with business, industry and higher education, providing important supplemental resources and learning opportunities. Delaney described those relationships as "unique" in a positive way for the school system.

Schools invariably must work with all students, and the district always will have those who perform poorly, Harkins said. Good teachers recognize the challenges and do what they need to do, English said.

"It is so pleasing to hear the good reports. I always thought this was a great school district, and we've always attempted to get better. It's good to have someone here from outside to give us recommendations," she said

Some districts never apply to AdvancED because they know they can't meet the standards, Delaney said.

"Accreditation has value," he said. "If you don't meet the standards, you don't get in."

At Oakwood-Windsor Elementary School Tuesday, team members Carla Daniels of Columbia and Kay Gossett of Lexington met with many people, including parents Annette Bond and Altresa Bush. Both have had children at the school for several years and readily acknowledged their loyalty and support.

"We got to speak our minds and how we feel about the district's mission," Bond said. "It's nice for them to want parents' input."


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  6 comment(s) on this story

Training in COlumbia-Stanley :  11/20/2009

Why should she be trsined? Shouldn't she be leaving the district or is it that no one else in the Aiken County School District is qualifed to do her job? Oh and by the way what else does she do besides looking out for her daughter and son-n-law jobs? OOps, I forgot she's the Human Resource manager, that has reired, completed her 5 years of Terri and is still employed. Wow/////

:  11/19/2009

It is time for the school district to advertise for the new personnel director. I believe that Mrs. Stanley is the only one being sent to training in Columbia to learn the new evaluation system for new teachers. All the principals, other evaluators and new teachers will have to be trained by her and this will work into her returning next year as a high paid employee again if the cabinet and board do not wake up and send some more people from the district for this training. There are plenty of administrators at the district office who should be sent to Columbia to learn this so that Mrs. Stanley does not return again next year. Send Dr. Gorman and Dr.Davidson to this training and let it be their responsibility to train the others.

School System :  11/19/2009

Why do these people type in these comments and they can't even type a sentence without errors. They do not REVIEW their own typing. Get a life. The schools do the best they can with what they have.

Maybe yea, maybe nay :  11/19/2009

A voluntary evaluation? The article did not include recommendations for improvement. Did we get our money's worth? What did this evaluation cost--to include our teacher and administrator time--and what was gained. I'd like to see a follow-on investigative article on this process. It may have been quite worthwhile. And then, again, it may have been something akin to the play being performed at the Black Box tonight.

sven

Evaluation?? :  11/19/2009

Here's the REAL problem: NO ONE IS making an effort to either investigate, or evaluate the Aiken County School System's grotesquely wasteful expenditures, past and present. The truly important QUESTIONS have NEVER been answered: where did our money go, why are SOME at-will employees being re-hired and not others? How many more furloughs and cuts must the district suffer while some top-level employees and the school board retain excessive salaries? When schools suffer, teachers suffer, and when teachers suffer, students suffer. WHAT IS WRONG IN AIKEN COUNTY??? Something is STILL rotten in this state of affairs.

Eva;uation :  11/18/2009

Obviously this committe didn't look very closely.
They were probably paid not too.
This scholl system is atrocious. There are classes without textbooks. Teachers without proper materials. Worst of all teachers without a clue.
Why doesn't anyone care enough to do a thorough investigation of the system.

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