A number of St. Clair County education professionals were commended for a job well done during the regular Board of Education meeting Monday evening.

Commendations kicked off with some of the school’s unsung heroes with two Alabama Association of School Business Officers recognitions awarded.  

Federal Programs Secretary Rita Fuller was honored as the Outstanding School Business Official in the central office, and was nominated by Chief Financial Officer Laura Nance.

“She has been outstanding. She has gone over and beyond what is required of her in the past few years. We lost an employee and Rita, without any complaint and always with a great attitude has taken on all this extra duty. If you could ask for a perfect employee, she would come closest to that,” Nance said.

Ashville Elementary School bookkeeper Melanie Stone was honored as the local school bookkeeper from the same organization.

“Melanie is one who we always call upon when we need help to train other bookkeepers and she has always done everything we’ve asked her. She’s a great bookkeeper and I wish we had a lot more like her,” Nance said.

St. Clair County Teachers of the year included Margaret Elementary second-grade teacher Sue Wood, who was honored as St. Clair County Elementary Teacher of the Year, and Staci Butts, a social sciences teacher at Ashville High School, was named St. Clair County Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Jacksonville State University named Lori Beth Green, a third-grade teacher at Moody Elementary, to the Elementary JSU Hall of Fame, and art teacher Mary Morrow from St. Clair County High School was named the Secondary JSU Hall of Fame.

The board also took the time to recognize four teachers who have recently completed national board certification in teaching: Becky Moss from Springville Middle School, Sarah Wendt from Moody Middle School, Marsha Boswell from Ragland High School and Amanda Donoho from Springville Elementary School. Over the past few years, there have been 13 teachers who have received national certification, and another 10 are in the process of getting this recognition.

No LimIT innovation awards were given to Amanda Donaho of Springville Elementary School, Jim Wilder of Margaret Elementary School, Lisa Glasgow of Ashville Elementary School and Anetra Montgomery of Springville Elementary School for their use of technology in the classroom.

 

AYP concerns addressed by principal, parents, board

More parents came forward with both criticism and praise for Dr. Jason Baker, principal of Ashville High School, after parental concerns about the school’s standardized test scores came out at the previous board meeting.  

Baker said that the school’s graduation rate has increased from 72 percent to 86 percent during his tenure, and that gauging the high-stakes 12th-grade scores would be more accurate than some of the numbers presented during the previous meeting.

“You have valid concerns, and I’m concerned too. That’s why we’ve put a lot of things in place to make sure that this doesn’t happen again at my school. Test scores and go up and down, as they do in all schools, but this is something I’m working on. I take my job very seriously.” Baker said. “I invite anyone who has any concerns about my school to come to the school, that includes the board members. You don’t even have to schedule a time that I know you’re coming. You can just show up and say, ‘I’d like to go to class and see what’s going on here.’”

Board President Scott Suttle told the audience that the board policy is to not address personnel issues in public meetings, but that the board is noting the issues raised by parents in order to take whatever action they deem appropriate on the matter.

“We take parents’ comments very seriously, and we appreciate the parents for being here and for their involvement,” boardmember Terry Green said.