New initiative looks to help education shortfalls
Local businesses commit
$22 million to help WS/FCS
BYTEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE
In an attempt to address the growing
student achievement gap in the area,
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
(WS/FCS) has announced a new partner
ship called Project Impact that will feed
$45 million into early childhood education
and other programs over the next six years.
With funding from local businesses,
the initiative will look to improve third
grade reading and math proficiency and
close literacy gaps with WS/FCS as com
pared to other urban school districts in the
state.
According to sources, $22 million ha?
already been committed to the initiative by
local employers and foundations including
Flow Companies, BB&T, Wake Forest
Baptist, Novant Health," Reynolds
American Foundation and The Winston
Salem Foundation. The remaining $23
million will be provided by other business
es and individuals in the area to help with
pre-kindergarten expansion in the area and
other projects to benefit local schools.
Project Impact was announced last
-week during the Winston-Salem
Foundation's annual community luncheon.
President of the foundation Scott Wierman
said, "We can't just look at the school sys
tem to fix issues in our schools without
any help.
"It's going to take intervention of the
"Initiatives like Project Impact will show
students just how important education is. I'm
excited to see what it brings to schools in the
area."
-Amanda Gordon, coordinator for the AIG
entire community to step forward and say
we're going to support these kids," he said.
Both parents and teachers say they are
excited to see what kind of impact the ini
tiative will have on students. Mercedes
Bridges, a parent of two students at Ashley
Elementary school said seeing local
employers lending a hand to help students
reach their potential shows just how
important education is.
"Initiatives like Project Impact will
show students just how important educa
tion is," she said. "I'm excited to see what
? it brings to schools in the area."
Amanda Gordon, coordinator for the
AIG (Academically or Intellectually
Gifted) . program at ? Diggs-Latham
Elementary School, said impacting a stu
dent's growth starts as early as birth. She
said that although she doesn't know all the
details of the program, she has seen the
impact the pre-K program has had on her
students.
."Children learn just by interacting. It
doesn't always have to be a formal school
setting," said Gordon. "It's great that we
now have a program to help strengthen
thepre-K program in the area. As far as
impacting students' growth, it starts when
the child is born. I think the initiative can
make a real difference for students across
the district."
Local school board officials are confi
dent that by implementing more pre
kindergarten programs, they will see
growth in third-grade reading scores and
high school graduation rates. There are
currently 1,200 financially disadvantaged
children in Forsyth County who are cur
rently pre-K eligible but not served.
A number of studies have proven pre
K programs help low-income students
transition into kindergarten, which results
in higher reading and math scores once
they reach the third grade.
Superintendent Dr. Beverly Emory
said the school system and various com
munity groups share the sense of urgency
to respond to the needs of students with a -
proficiency gap. She said Project Impact
will spark meaningful change.
"I deeply appreciate the vision of local
business leaders and individuals for creat
ing Project Impact as a catalyst for mean
ingful change, enabling our schools to
implement programs and measure their
effectiveness in reaching critical educa
tional goals."
Project Impact will launch this summer
with KinderCamp. Emory said the three
week camp will serve more than 200 stu
dents who will be entering kindergarten in
August. Sinjilar camps were held at school
in the area lhst year.
"This is a huge investment," said
Emory. "I don't feel like we can wait
another year."
While early education is a major focus
of the initiative. Project Impact will also
extend learning options and expand staff
development and instructional support at a
number of schools in the district. Emory
noted schools that have been deemed "low
performing" will be the schools first tar
geted.
Last year 29 schools were marked as
"low-performing" by the State Board of
Education. As a result, the local board of
education was required to create an
improvement plan for those schools.
Emory mentioned they will also be look
ing to send more reading specialists into
struggling elementary schools.
Recommendations for Use of funds in
the future will be presented to school offi
cials by an advisory board. The board is
made up of business leaders, community
members, local education leaders, and a
parent representative.
For more information on Project
Impact and a list of advisory board mem
bers, visit wwwprojectimpact.ws.
Sorority Chapter presents 'Stop the Bullying' workshop
SPECIAL TO THE
CHRONICLE
Over 60 children
recently gathered at the
Carl H. Russell, Sr.
Community Center to par
ticipate in a Stop the
Bullying workshop held at
the learning center.
The ladies of the Sigma
Gamma Sorority, Inc. of
the "Theta Mu Sigma
Chapter brought two
inmates from the North
Carolina Correctional
Center and a security guard
to the workshop. Pizzas
and soda were served to the
youth and teenagers who
attended.
Senior Center
Supervisor Ben Piggott
was very impressed with
the program because of the
message which included
that you have to watch the
company that you keep
because you do not know
how people can influence
you to do wrong things
instead of doing the right
things.
The inmates demon
strated to the youth how
some of them had made
themselves to become prey
to bullying in how they
walked, talked and the way
they stood around their
peers. The inmates also
showed youth preventive
methods to stop bullying in
school, home and in the
city. They also said if these
methods do not work, you
need to go to authorities,
including other adults or
police.
The sorority gave a
Stop the Bullying book by
author Michael Fry called
"The Odd Squad Bully
Bait" to each child that
won the raffle.
Submitted photo
Ben Piggot, back
row, stands with
women of Sigma
Gamma Rho
Sorority Inc.'s
Theta Mu Sigma
Chapter and two
youth from the
Carl H. Russell
Sr. Community
Center. The chap
ter sponsored the
"Stop the
Bullying" work
shop and the
youth won two
books about the
topic.
_ Bi B aw I ftd .^''mLM- vBB , a, Bpi I S ?fUj
SrP 8' J IB' ? ?MMMHUHM . yV lVi K vl TJ%|0^V
EM IS & Ml< ? ? ? I H K| *m m ? Bill IB 3k B m |Ui| B^B
?I Ul ? ' BI IB - . -. B| B ?
'