COURTLAND
During the instructional report to the Southampton County School Board on Monday, Kelly Gillette outlined the upcoming alternate assessments. Grade 3 will focus on Science and Social Studies from February through April; Grade 5 on Writing from January through March; Grade 6 on U.S. History I in January and June; and Grade 7 on U.S. History II in February and June. The four Assessment components will be multiple choice, written response, product and oral report.

At least one performance assessment must be done in the 2016-2017 year, said Gillette, adding that school divisions will share performance assessments across divisions, and also will partner with other divisions to score assessments in 2018-2019.

Teachers’ responsibilities include: creating a timeline for alternate assessments; creating all assessments with at least one Performance Assessment covering all identified reporting categories or strands. Scoring rubrics should also be created where appropriate; providing copies of the assessment and rubrics to the instructional team one week prior to administering the assessment; and providing individual student assessment data to the instructional team in a table or similar format one week after the assigned assessment.

The administrative responsibilities are to facilitate testing, collect required documentation and provide staff development opportunities when necessary.

In other business:

• A special meeting next month to review the superintendent’s evaluation and goals. This will be on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 5:30 p.m., in the usual meeting place at the Wigwam of the CTE Center.

• On the subject of goals, vice chairman James Pope and fellow board member Denise Bunn agreed to lead the budget committee for the next year.

• The board was updated on the budget to date by Joy Carr of the Finance Department. The budget is $29.88M; the balance is $20.29M and 32.09 percent has been spent so far.

• A field trip by National Junior Beta Club was also approved.

• Shannon reported that enrollment was at 2,632; with preschoolers, 2,772. Nottoway Elementary won the award for having the best student attendance in November, 96.6 percent; Meherrin had the best teacher attendance at 95.49 percent.