Daniel Prince
Rhonda Hollingsworth is coordinating the program for the district
The agenda was fairly light at Monday’s meeting of the Union County Board of School Trustees. Board chair Manning Jeter presented some highlights of the Legislative Advocacy Conference he recently attended. He said they went through new laws and policies, as well as some changes that may be coming down the road. He said one particular area of focus was on ESSER money that districts received for COVID relief and the fact that it will be running out within the next couple of years, and the need for districts to plan ahead to deal with that loss of funding for programs and positions.
The board approved a small change to Board Policy BD, dealing with the organization of the board. The board approved a wording change to get rid of the reference to a particular meeting date in November, instead saying the board officers would be elected at its organizational meeting in November. The prior wording was in effect when the board was holding meetings twice a month.
Rhonda Hollingsworth, Coordinator of Teacher Support and Retention, talked to the board about the district’s New Teacher Support program. She noted from CERRA’s annual SC Educator Supply and Demand report that nearly 3-4 times more teachers are leaving the profession than are graduating from traditional college education programs. Beyond those retiring and those transferring to other districts within the state, a growing number of departures are by those teachers with less than five years of experience. Those early career departures eclipse the number graduating from education programs. The state has faced a growing number of vacant positions after the start of each school year, this year estimated at nearly 1474 open positions, up from nearly 556 prior to the pandemic.
Hollingsworth said that studies have shown that effective classroom teachers are the critical factor in contributing to student learning, giving them a meaningful opportunity to succeed in school, and in transforming education. Hollingsworth teaches an induction class for new teachers across the district. She also works closely with those teachers at the schools, coaching them, encouraging them, and helping them in their planning and implementing strategies in their classrooms. She said twice as many new teachers in the district come from non-traditional pathways to certification, such as Teachers of Tomorrow, International Visiting Teachers Program, Career and Technology Education, PACE for those with college degrees who are changing careers and have not taken the education courses and exams to certify them, and the Converse Alternative Certification for Art Education. In all, 21 of the district’s 31 new teachers are coming from those non-traditional pathways, led by 10 through the PACE program and 5 from the International Visiting Teachers Program.
In addition to help from Hollingsworth, each of the new teachers is assigned a mentor at their school, with whom they meet regularly to discuss their needs and individual lessons. In addition, the new teachers have the opportunity to meet with Superintendent Joey Haney and to meet with one another several times a year.
Hollingsworth said she hopes that more of our own students will return to teach in Union County Schools, and so they place emphasis on the Teacher Cadet program. She said the district recently hosted a breakfast for the teacher cadet class and their teacher, Jana Moore.
We’ll have more from Monday’s meeting in tomorrow’s newscast.