The Kings Mountain Herald
Parents say they were last
to know about early testing
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
The third and final “wave” of
statewide school reporting sys-
tem conversions is nearing its
close.
But catching the “wave” of
conversion has not been an easy
task for Cleveland County
School administrators, educa-
tors, students and parents.
North Carolina Department
of Public Instruction decided
several years ago to switch all of
the schools under its realm from
their old Student Information
Management System (SIMS) to
a more technologically-
advanced identification system
called NC WISE.
Both systems help educators
record and report information
such as a student's grades,
attendance, course information
and other data. But NC WISE is
on the Internet. According to
DP], it is “a Web-based tool that
provides educators with direct
and immediate access to a full
spectrum of data on a student's
entire career in the NC schools.”
“The software (SIMS) that
we've been using is over 20
years old. It's a DOS-based soft-
ware program,” said CCS's
Director of Administrative
Technology Mitchel Self. “So it
needed to be updated. The new
software is Windows-based.”
He said that one of the big
issues with NC WISE is that it is
accessible on the internet. Kings
Mountain Intermediate
Principal Henry Gilmore said
that in the end, NC WISE will
be a helpful tool. “Right now
we always have to call another
school, request the information
we need and it doesn’t always
arrive as quick as we would like
it,” he said. “But with this it will
be more immediate.”
After the statewide conver-
sion is complete, schools will be
able to go on-line and have
instant access to a student's
records. But Self said schools
won't be the only ones who
may have access. Within the
next year, a parent assistant
module coined “Parent Portal”
will be up and running. It will
allow parents to keep up with
their child’s records, including
attendance and grades, on the
internet, he said.
Although NC WISE promises
to be a handy resource, convert-
ing to the new state-mandated
program has been a chore.
“Any time you have a transi-
tion, it’s going to be a transition,
but I think in the end it will be a
positive thing for our school,”
said KMMS Principal Stephen
Fisher.
Self said that the most lengthy
part of this whole process has
been converting all of the cours-
es offered at CCS to the new
state code equivalents. They
began tackling this step in
August of 2006. “One thing that
made it a little bit longer for us
is that we used to be three dif-
ferent school systems before
merger, so we had three differ-
ent systems with three different
ways to set up those courses,”
Self said. CCS decoded 8,000
courses for the conversion.
In another step, CCS also had
to update a student’s record for
the new system, going back
four years, especially for those
in high school that may soon
need their transcripts for post-
graduation. “We have been
planning for this over a year
and a half now,” said Director
of Secondary Schools John
Goforth.
According to Goforth and
Self, CCS was informed last
summer of its conversion week
and “freeze date,” the deadline
for having all information into
DPI for conversion - January 14.
“We don’t have any input on
when we switch,” he said.
“They picked the week of the
end of our semester.”
But Goforth said although
they knew of the deadline, they
weren't sure it would stay that
way. He said that so many other
districts were given freeze dates
and as they struggled to meet
those deadlines, DPI changed
the dates.
So they decided to wait it out
and keep the academic calendar
the same. But as September and
October began to roll around
and DPI still had not changed
their dates, they realized that
there might be a problem
ahead. Goforth said that they
recognized if they didn’t cut the
first semester short then they
would be taking the risk of not
being able to print out report
cards for students. “If we had
problems, we didn’t want to
delay report cards,” he said.
“And we don’t want to write it
on a piece of scratch paper and
send it home.”
Therefore, CCS decided that
all students grades K-8 would
end their first semester before
the Christmas break. Many tests
and projects that were sched-
uled for January were bumped
up to December. The counts for
AR (Accelerated Reading)
points also faced an early dead-
line, causing some student
library helpers who earn their
jobs based on AR points to be
“fired.” But they have since
been rehired.
This early end to the semester
caused some stir among the
parents. Kathy Falls didn’t
know her child in the eighth
grade would be having a test
before Christmas until he told
her his grade. She said that she
didn’t receive any letter inform-
ing her of the shortened semes-
ter or early test.
“Parents should have been
notified when they (the schools)
were notified,” she said. “They
say they want parents to be
involved but we can’t help our
children if we don’t know
what's going on.”
Sandra Stirewalt felt the same
way. She has served on the
school calendar planning com-
mittee for the past five years
and was concerned about how
quickly the school district could
enforce an early semester. She
said that she was told by a prin-
cipal, the schools were
informed about the early
semester on December 1, but
were instructed not to tell any-
one. “I think this is a great
school system but there is zero
communication,” she said. “I
want to be told everything,
especially, major changes like
this.”
“We felt like it was in the best
interest of our students to give
exams before Christmas,”
Fisher said. He added that stu-
dents were not tested on areas
that had not been covered. The
first semester ended on January
4, instead of January 18. Fisher
said that they didn’t feel like it
was very fair to let a student go
on Christmas break and then
make them take a test right after
they returned.
“We had to change our grad-
ing terms slightly. But the
change has in no way affected
what the students have done,”
Fisher said.
Goforth suggested that
schools could use a different
weight scale to measure grades
this year. He said they could let
the first semester count as 45
percent of a child's final grade
and the last semester count as
55 percent. The final grade is
the one that makes it into a stu-
dent’s official record, he said.
Letters explaining the early
semester situation were sent out
to parents on Monday.
As of Monday, Self said that
they are on schedule for conver-
sion. CCS will be sending all of
its data to DPI on Friday for the
transition. It will take DPI about
a week to complete the conver-
sion. CCS hopes to have all
report cards for students grades
K-8 printed and distributed on
the normal date. But report
cards from high schools, which
were not able take early EOC
tests, will be distributed at least
one week later than normal.
Semesters will resume regular
lengths next year.
January 10, 2008
Participants
needed for
observance
of King Day
Participants are needed for
the City of Kings Mountain's
annual Martin Luther King, Jr.
Observance, “Keeping the
Dream Alive,” on Monday,
January 21, at 6:30 p.m.
The event will feature partici-
pants who will recite the “I
Have a Dream” speech deliv-
ered by Reverend King on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial
on August 28, 1963. Entries are
limited to six individuals who
will be competing for prizes.
The speech does not need to
be memorized, simply follow-
ing a copy of the speech is
acceptable. If necessary, there
will be auditions for the final
six.
Additionally, local church
choirs and lyrical dance groups
will provide entertainment for
this tribute. Rev. Pruella
Sanders of Adams Chapel AME
Zion Church will be the
keynote speaker. The event will
be held at the Joy Performance
Center on Railroad Avenue in
downtown Kings Mountain.
The event is free and open to
the public. For more informa-
tion, call city Special Events
Director Ellis Noell at 704-730-
21083.
VARIETY WHOLESALERS, INC. ANNOUNCES
THE OPENING OF ANEW ROSES’ STORE
IN KINGS MOUNTAIN, NC
January, 7, 2008 (Henderson, NC) — Variety
Wholesalers Inc., today announced that the Com-
pany will open a new Roses’ store in Kings Moun-
tain, North Carolina. The store is scheduled to open
the week of February 18th, 2008.
Roses’ store will offer an extensive assortment in
Electronics, Furniture, Housewares, Domestics, HBA,
Food, Family Apparel, Shoes, Jewelry etc.
EVERYDAY LOW PRICES!
The new Kings Mountain store will employ ap-
proximately 40 employees, of which most will be
local residents of the Kings Mountain area. “We are
excited about bringing Roses’ into the Kings Moun-
tain,” a company spokesman commented.
All at
rn ee
!
HAA aOR
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