NEVC’s Enhanced Focus on Learning

by Johannes Brann

Last Thursday evening’s meeting of the Northeast Vernon County (NEVC) R-1 School Board saw all seven board members present (David Bruce, Heather Brown. Heath Brown, Deland Prough, Connie Gerster, Scott Pritchett and Mike Newman) as well as Board Secretary Janice Graves, the new high school principal, Dr. John Lawrence and Superintendent Chris Holcomb.

The brief agenda included opening bids for dairy, diesel and propane, declaring some old doors as surplus property, a quarterly review of the district’s Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP), and heard a report from Superintendent Chris Holcomb.

“While every district has many needs, I think our greatest focus needs to be on improving student learning,” began Holcomb.

To that end, he announced NEVC is partnering with a group known as District Continuous Improvement (DCI)—which is affiliated with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary School (DESE)—to come in and work with district personnel in order to raise student learning.

Paid for by a grant, the superintendent said, “I think this will be a five to six year process and DCI will be working with us from lower elementary through high school, first to see where we are and then develop a plan and work with administrators and teachers to help us address our weaknesses.”

The superintendent added he was excited about having Dr. John Lawrence on board as the new high school principal because of his experience with DCI at other schools and making this effort work at NEVC.

Lawrence stood and said the DCI model is based on three pillars: instructional strategies, student learning and increased student engagement.

“This is about getting the right content—curriculum aligned to state standards—using the best teaching strategies, as we work to engage and create student interest in order to close the learning gaps our students have,” said the high school principal.

Being a bit reflective, Lawrence said, “You know, really, the two most important things we teach here—from elementary through high school—are numeracy and literacy, being able to use numbers and being able to read; everything is built on those. So we’ve got to focus really hard on making sure we do what it takes to bring every student as far as we can in those two areas. And as Mr. Holcomb said, that’ll likely take five to six years but based on the experience I’ve had at other schools, I know we can get there.”

“That would be great!” responded Heather Brown.

Newman looked at Lawrence and added, “That’s why we’re here and what this is who all about.”

As to the bids, there was only a single bidder for each service.

Hiland Dairy was awarded the contract to provide milk, orange and apple juice to the district. Holcomb looked at the numbers and said they were a slight increase over last year.

MFA Oil and Propane received the contract for providing the district with diesel fuel (school buses) and propane for heating. The diesel is 15 cents or the daily market rate while the propane will be $1.55 per gallon for the school year.

Moving on to surplus property, Holcomb remarked the district received a total of $2,600 from the sale the surplus old solar panels and he learned there are a few more atop the elementary school.

The day of the board meeting saw the start of replacing many interior doors in the elementary school in Schell City; once complete the workers will do the same at the high school.

“Remember, this is all being paid for by that $50,000 school safety and security grant we received from the state,” explained Holcomb.

The board adopted a motion to declare the old doors surplus property and directed Holcomb to list them on the district’s website.

As the first review of the district’s CSIP, Holcomb focused on three areas identified for improvement.

“Dr. Lawrence will soon be meeting with the head of the Nevada Technical Center to see how we can better publicize that great resource so we can really increase the number of students taking advantage of this,” commented Holcomb. “Currently, we are quite underrepresented.”

In terms of increasing parent engagement, the superintendent mentioned the upcoming student/parent open house event at both schools on Monday, August 21. The elementary event is from 4-5:30 p.m. and 6-7:30 p.m. at the high school. In partnership with Healthy Nevada, the open house will include vision exams, representatives from Compass Health Dental Clinic and free haircuts.

The third CSIP goal mentioned was the promotion of new partnerships. Holcomb mentioned the partnering being done to provide the new doors at each school. 

In response to a question by Board President David Bruce, Holcomb said the district had taken delivery of a charcoal grey 10-pasenger van with 106,000 miles.

“Even though the original owners had kids crawling around in it, it’s like new inside and mechanically sound,” responded Holcomb.

With a laugh he added “We got such a great deal that several other superintendents have been asking me if I can hook them up to get one.”

That news was tempered with Holcomb informing the board that one of the district’s two mini-vans (a 2018 model with 76,000 miles) continues to have fuel injector problems, even after spending $700 for three new ones.

“So I’m starting to look for a new one,” said Holcomb with a sigh.

Open House is Aug. 21 and the first day of school is Thursday, Aug. 24.