Vickie Morris, Thomasville City School Superintendent, gave a report May 23 on many positive things happening in the school district.
She spoke at the monthly meeting of the Thomasville City Board of Education in the Thomasville High School library.
It was recently reported that the state Department of Education grade for Thomasville Elementary School had risen from a score of 74 in 2019 to 85 in 2022.
TES was recognized in May as on the of the Top 25 most improved schools in Alabama and received an $8,000 award. It is a testament to the work of the teachers, Morris said. “That’s a huge increase (in score).”
Officials at TES stressed that the improvement came from a dedication to “the science of reading,” an emphasis on “problem solving,” and promoting good attendance.
The school administration was committed to providing professional development for its teachers, said Chelsea Doggett, TES Principal. Development programs such as LETRS and “Language Essentials” helped teachers (kindergarten to third grade) with the strategy to diagnose reading difficulties for individual students, said Bethany Elam, TES Reading Coach.
TES officials implemented a multisensory reading program called “Phonics First.” There was also a “Walk to Intervention” campaign. “In our data meetings, we are being more purposeful and intentional about who needs intervention and what specific type of intervention they need,” Elam said. “…We identify who is struggling, who needs help, then we group them based off that.”
Students at TES have improved in word recognition and language comprehension. It is important for students by third grade to all be at the appropriate reading level. A state law, the Alabama Literacy Act, mandates that third graders be at the appropriate level by the end of the 2023-2024 school year or they will not be promoted to fourth grade.
The overall success in recent years at TES has been the collaboration of all teachers across all the grades. “We’re all working together,” Elam said, “across the grade levels to provide these students with intervention on their particular level.” There are also specific students who are involved in enrichment or gifted programs.
It is also helpful that Principal Doggett was previously the Reading Coach before becoming Principal. “She (Doggett) is very involved in the data,” Elam said, and what each student needs. “We work as a team,” Doggett said. “…We use our data to drive everything.”
For the upcoming school year, special intervention time periods have been created to concentrate on reading and math. “We’re going to take the framework that we have used for reading and bring it to math,” Doggett said.
Former TES assistant principal Terry Norton also promoted a campaign of improved attendance, Doggett said, and she has continued to stress the importance of students being in the classroom. It is essential that students be on time. Faculty need all the school time allotted to provide crucial instruction, and when needed, intervention.
It is also important to mention that Morris became principal of TES in July 2020 and served in that position until being chosen as superintendent in April 2022. Under Morris, “expectations were higher,” Elam said. “As a teacher, you had to rise to those expectations.”
In other good news from the board meeting, Morris reported that Thomasville Middle School had been awarded a $25,000 “Alabama Arts Education Initiative” grant and a separate $25,000 grant from the Alabama Middle School Computer Program Initiative.
THS was also recognized on al.com that with the Class of 2022 97.5 percent were College and Career Ready (CCR). “We are proud of the high school,” she said, “and we look for that to increase every year.” CCR is one factor in the state mandated Report Card.
• Anjelica Gibson, Chief School Financial Officer, gave the financial report for April 2023. Payroll totaled $943,968.49, and accounts payables totaled $410,391.26.
• Dwight Figgers, a former assistant principal at TMS, was recently chosen as the new school board member. “We are glad that he has agreed to serve the schools again in a different capacity,” Morris said. “We are going to use your wisdom and your knowledge as an educator to help us as we direct and guide our schools.”
He will serve at the next school board meeting, which will be held at 5 p.m. on June 13 in the THS library. The public is invited.