January Personnel Report

As reported in today’s Statesville Record and Landmark, it was announced at Monday’s I-SS Board meeting that Todd Holden has been promoted to Executive Director of Secondary Education and Career Technical Education. Mr. Holden has been principal of West Iredell High for the last four years. There was no mention of what his new salary will be. I wish Mr. Holden the best in his new position. You may click on the link below to access the Record and Landmark article.

Todd Holden Named Director

It was also announced at Monday’s Board meeting that the interim positions created when Mr. Johnson was named Interim Superintendent are now officially permanent positions. Specifically, the personnel report approved by the Board states the following.

Ron Hargrave goes from Interim Deputy Superintendent/Race Street to Deputy Superintendent/Race Street.

Melanie Taylor goes from Interim Assoc. Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction/ADR to Assoc. Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction/ADR.

Dale Ellis goes from Interim Assoc. Superintendent for Secondary Curriculum/ADR to Assoc. Superintendent for Human Resources/Race Street.

Bill Long goes from Interim Assoc. Superintendent for Human Resources/Race Street to Director of Teacher Support Services/Race Street.

As I mentioned in a comment to a previous post, Dawn Creason sent me an e-mail on January 4^th stating that Dale Ellis and Bill Long had gone back to their previous positions and salaries. Obviously this was not a true statement with regard to Mr. Long. As far as I can tell the Director of Teacher Support Services is a new Central Office position created for Mr. Long. Again we see that there is no shortage of money when it comes to Central Office positions. How sad it is for the students at Statesville High School and Third Creek Elementary who have to share media specialists because there is no money to hire a replacement for the media specialist at Third Creek who has recently retired.

SHS Media Specialist

On Friday, I received a phone call from Dewoyne Daye, SHS Student Body Vice-President. Dewoyne was concerned because one of the two media specialists at SHS was being transferred to Third Creek Elementary because the individual at Third Creek was retiring. He said that there were no plans to replace the specialist at SHS and that would mean a reduction in services at the High School. Dewoyne was particularly concerned in that this would mean that the library would no longer be open before and after school. He pointed out that many SHS students do not have access to computers at home and that they use the computers in the library before and after school to complete various class projects. Dewoyne also mentioned that the media specialists assist students and SHS staff in many other ways and that one media specialist at the high school would not be able to complete all of these tasks.

Dewoyne also informed me that at Statesville High currently enrolls 30% of the I-SS High School’s Hispanic population, 44% of the system’s African American population, and 19% of the system’s Asian population. SHS also has 14 different subgroups, which is more than any other high school in the system. In addition, SHS has the largest exceptional children’s population of all the high schools and Statesville High School has been declared a Title One/at risk high school.

Dewoyne asked me about the raises that were given to those taking the interim positions when Mr. Johnson was named Interim Superintendent. We talked about how that money could have been used for student programs and for funding positions such as the media specialist at SHS. Dewoyne said that everyone who works for I-SS should be looking out for the students' wellbeing but that is obviously not happening in this situation.

I think that the administration should be able to find money in the budget to keep these two media specialists at SHS and to hire a specialist to replace the individual at Third Creek. The students at SHS deserve the full support of the administration. I have already sent an e-mail to Mr. Johnson and to Mr. John Rogers in this regard and I am asking the readers of this blog to do so as well.

I received the following reply from Mr. John Rogers.

Paul,

All of the high schools except Lake Norman has lost a media specialist due to budget cuts. It was time for West Iredell and SHS to give up a media specialist. Keith Williams and I have worked closely with Mr. (Larry) Rogers concerning this issue. The plan at present is for both ladies to work at SHS and Third Creek.

This will keep both women at the high school a certain number of days per week. A major issue was the time in the morning and afternoon for students to work in the library on the computers. This will stay the same at the present. One major concern is for an experienced person at Third Creek. We are working on it.

Thanks for your interest and Merry Christmas!!!