Meghann Evans

Staff Reporter

DOBSON — At last night’s meeting of the Surry County Board of Education, board members gave positive comments on a proposal regarding technology training requirements for educators.

One of the primary goals of the board is to “attract, train and retain quality personnel with skills to deliver 21st Century content.” At their June retreat, the board members discussed making technology professional development a requirement for local educators.

To comply with the board’s desire for technology credit requirements, the central office staff met to formulate a new draft of the professional development requirements. A draft of the proposal was sent to the curriculum committee for input, and Pat Widdowson, assistant superintendent, said she hasn’t received any negative feedback at this point.

The new proposal requires that teachers complete one technology credit, or 10 hours of technology professional development, for licensure renewal. This renewal comes around every five years. New teachers and administrators also must meet the requirement within their first three years of employment with the school system. Educators still will be required to attain professional development credits in traditional areas such as thinking maps, balanced literacy, CRISS and cooperative learning.

After looking at the proposal, Board Vice Chairman Brian Gates said, “That’s what I envisioned.”

Board Chairman Earlie Coe said, “That’s what we said we want. We want technology used correctly.”

Teachers can obtain six of their 10 technology hours just by attending workshops at this week’s iLove Technology Conference sponsored by the school system.

Coe said he hopes teachers realize, “We’re not just making you do that. We’re helping you, taking a team approach.”

The board voiced only positive comments for the proposal, which the curriculum committee is reviewing.

During the meeting, board members also were given T-shirts with the iLove Technology logo.

Sonia Dickerson, Surry County Schools teacher quality coordinator, said, “We want to thank you on behalf of the faculty and staff for your support of technology. You have truly helped us come a long way, and we are thankful for that.”

During the meeting, the board members also voted to table the request to ban the use of corporal punishment in Surry County Schools for 30 days to allow for public input. The school system’s policy committee met and recommended adopting a policy that would ban corporal punishment. Now members of the public can contact the school system’s central office if they have comments. The board may vote on the issue at next month’s meeting.

Also during the meeting:

n Robert Draughn, director of maintenance for Surry County Schools, gave the board an update on school construction projects. He said Rockford Elementary School should have a certificate of occupancy today, and Pilot Mountain Middle School has a temporary certificate of occupancy in hopes of getting the permanent certificate on Friday. Work is still being done on Pilot Mountain Elementary School.

n The board approved Surry Central High School to pursue a project to construct dugouts for the baseball field at the school.

n Nutrition bid results were approved for the school year. Sherri Parks presented the information and said that some of the prices of food actually went down this year. Parks pointed out that the school system is a member of the N.C. Procurement Alliance and Foothills Purchasing Cooperative and teams up with Elkin City Schools and Mount Airy City Schools when purchasing items to have more buying power.

n The board unanimously approved fundraising requests for schools and four overnight field trips.

Contact Meghann Evans at mevans@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.