Innovative LCPS initiatives to be on display at state conference

Bruce Hill, vice chair of the Lenoir County Board of Education, helps Moss Hill Elementary teacher Hollie Ayers and three of her fifth-grade students demonstrate a lesson on sequencing – a key skill in computer coding – during the school board’s Nov. 4 meeting. At next week’s North Carolina School Board Association fall conference, Hill will help present a session on just this kind of activity, designed to make board meetings more interactive and engaging. Submitted photo.

School board members and public school administrators from across the state will have multiple opportunities to learn more about innovative Lenoir County Public School programs during breakout presentations at the fall meeting of the North Carolina School Board Association next week.

LCPS will present five of some 50 breakout sessions scheduled as part of the three-day conference, which begins in Greensboro on Monday. It’s the second year the district has been asked by the NCSBA to do that many presentations.

“One of the things I think they liked is how we try to bring everything back to our strategic focus. That’s what we’ll convey,” Superintendent Brent Williams told members of the Lenoir County Board of Education in reviewing the presentations at the Nov. 4 board meeting.

Williams will lead a group of presenters that includes board chair Keith King, vice chair Bruce Hill, Associate Superintendent Frances Herring, Assistant Superintendent Nicholas Harvey II, Kinston High principal Kellan Bryant and assistant principal Cecilia Milford, South Lenoir High principal Steve Saint-Amand, Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School principal Rhonda Greene and CSS curriculum coach Nicolette Morgan, LCPS public information officer Patrick Holmes and district curriculum team members Dr. Amelia McLeod, Amy Jones and Melissa Lynch.

Here are thumbnails of LCPS’s presentations as described in the conference program:

Transforming School Board Meetings From Information Sharing-Discussing-Voting to Leading and Learning by Truly Engaging With All Stakeholders: Learn how Lenoir County Public Schools has transformed its school board meetings from focusing solely on information and action items to strategic engagement sessions that provide board members and other stakeholders with many opportunities not only to “hear” what is happening, but also to engage in and to “experience” the across-the-board system-wide transformation. At each monthly meeting and work session, board members engage directly with staff members, students, and parents about every aspect of our school system including digital learning, curriculum and instruction, and many student support initiatives.

Building Stronger Family Support Structures at the High School Level: Family Engagement Structures in a High Needs High School: Increasing family engagement at the high school level can be difficult. Learn how a Title 1 high school has structured its parent engagement programming to increase family engagement and build community supports for students. Over the past five years, this increased parent engagement has combined with instructional transformation efforts to increase student achievement in both proficiency and growth.

Road to Recovery the Fourth Time Around; How Floyd, Irene, and Matthew influenced Florence and Dorian Response: Lessons learned from prior hurricane events informed the planning and preparation for Hurricane Florence. Meeting student, staff and family needs was the primary focus of school system efforts. LCPS will share strategies for proactive planning with Emergency Management, media, health and human services and relief agencies. 

Market! Market! Market! Using a Combination of Cutting Edge and Traditional Approaches to Marketing to Build a Collective Community Opinion That Public Schools are the Best Available Choice to Educate Children: Public schools must market themselves as the best choice for parents among many available options. Learn how Lenoir County Public Schools strategically and comprehensively markets our district as a school system of choice using a balanced combination of traditional marketing strategies and cutting edge, outside-the-box approaches to winning the hearts and minds of stakeholders.

From the Boardroom to the Classroom: “Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind”: “Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind” served as an evolving theme for our School Board Retreat and Administrative Retreat. Aligned conversations about engagement promoted a deeper understanding of the supports necessary to allocate resources to meet the needs of children of poverty. As a result, schools embedded professional development to provide focus and encourage intentional integration of strategies to grow cognitive capacity. Join us in sharing district, school, and classroom practices to deepen learning and teaching for students of poverty.

Additionally, Amy Jones, director of high school curriculum and the district’s Career and Technical Education program, has been selected to present a session on LCPS’s Career Pathways initiative at the National School Board Association Conference in April. LCPS works hand-in-glove with Lenoir Community College to chart a pathway through high school to an associate degree or workplace certification in more than a dozen different careers, from computer engineering to welding technology.

“Typically, North Carolina has one or two presentations at the national conference,” Superintendent Williams said. “This is a first for us and we’re very proud of Mrs. Jones.”