by Kate Evans
Morgan County Schools will use more than $400,000 in federal ARP funds to pay an educational services firm to evaluate and improve the instructional strategies in two schools.
At their July 16 meeting, the Morgan County School Board unanimously approved Instructional Empowerment’s bid to provide intensive support to transform core instruction and instructional leadership practice at Warm Springs Middle School and Berkeley Springs High School.
The Pennsylvania company’s program promises rapid gains in student learning.
The total cost of their program for the 2024-2025 school year is $441,251 with $209,195 going towards services at Berkeley Springs High School, $203,156 for Warm Springs Middle School services and $28,900 for district-level services.
Funding for the Instructional Empowerment group’s services is coming from ARP (American Rescue Plan) COVID funding, said School Treasurer Ann Bell. ARP funding ends September 30.
Project support and services include Rigor Classroom Walks, quarterly executive action team meetings, books, empowerment digital subscriptions, diagnostic surveys, school leadership coaching, faculty coaching and partner coaching, teacher teams, professional leadership days and instructional resources toolkits.
Instructional Empowerment made an initial onsite assessments at the high school and the middle school along with a district-level workshop earlier this year at a total cost of $95,449 which was also covered by American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding.
Morgan County School Board members voted 4-1 at their January 23 meeting to approve Instructional Empowerment’s assessment cost.
Board member John Rowland voted against the measure then and expressed his concerns then about the project, saying that the school system had implemented Capturing Kids Hearts and other programs. He felt these programs needed more time for full implementation.
Rowland was also concerned then about the first and second-year costs of the Instructional Empowerment program, which may not be covered by ARP funding, along with local costs from the state’s Third Grade Success Act and having the necessary funds to pay for all normally expected expenses.
Rowland had concerns again at their July 16 meeting about whether the school system would be using $441,000 of taxpayer money from the general fund, but Bell said the money is coming from federal COVID money instead, which also paid for the Instructional Empowerment assessments. The ARP/COVID funding is for recovering student learning loss.
Rowland said he had a laundry list of concerns about approving the program for the second year but was surprised to hear that the funding is coming from COVID money and not the general fund.
Rowland said he was going to change his mind and give the Instructional Empowerment program a chance for a year because it was worth the gamble since it was federal funding and not local monies paying for it. The ARP-COVID relief funding can’t be used for anything else as it’s very tightly regulated and it can help kids get caught up, he noted.
Getting kids engaged
School Superintendent David Banks noted that it’s hard to engage secondary level students who are constantly on their phones and that have become isolated due to the pandemic. We need kids to be talking to each other, doing complex problem-solving and moving to self-engaged learning.
Morgan County Schools Secondary Education Director Beth Golden and Instructional Empowerment facilitator Tracey Waters, who led the efforts in Morgan County, both spoke about the intensive program and its variety of services.
Waters said that the project encourages a shift from traditional learning to student-centered learning. Middle School Principal Jamie Harris said they need something to get them to the next level of instruction.
Board vice-president Laura Smith asked about out of classroom time for teachers for coaching. Waters said coaching time would be based on planning times and teacher’s schedules.
Coaching needed
The consensus of the board, school administrators and directors was that the coaching and professional development is needed for secondary level teachers.
This professional development is very rigorous, Superintendent Banks said.
Wyoming County, who went with Instructional Empowerment for all their schools last year is very happy with the results, said former Superintendent Kristen Tuttle in January.
Board president Aaron Close said it was one of the biggest professional development investments he recalled the board ever making.
“We need to raise the bar of what our kids can do,” Close said previously.
