Global Education
Carla Gwaltney Owens Sentinel Writer

Global education was the hot topic at Monday night's Clay County Board of Education meeting. Hayesville High School Principal Dr. Gail Criss, who has racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles this year, shared with board members her hope to provide Clay County students with more opportunities for global education.

Criss traveled to Denmark earlier this school year and just this month traveled to Shanghai China with several students and faculty member Jim Saltz. Both trips were designed to learn more about these countries, including their people, economy and education systems.

Criss told board members Monday night that members of the Avadore Gymnasium High School in Denmark, which HHS is partnering with, recently visited HHS.

Criss and a delegation from HHS had spent a week in Copenhagen earlier in the school year learning about the European education model. Then, educators from Denmark spent a week in North Carolina learning about education in the United States. The group from Denmark spent several days in Clay ....................................................County touring the schools, visiting classes and talking with teachers and students; similar to what Criss and her colleagues from HHS had done when they visited Avadore.

Criss said she is very excited about the continued relationship with Avadore Gymnasium and hopes that it will flourish and grow.

Criss said that one of her goals is to have students travel to Denmark for a week long study trip and also host students from Denmark at HHS. The Honors English class is currently working with their counterparts from Avadore doing a shared study via the internet. Criss said she envisions opportunities for her students to travel to other countries in shortterm exchange type programs.

"I hope that we can eventually offer a global education program that is more intense for our students, especially those that we see as future leaders," Criss told the school board.

And after sharing the experience of traveling to China with three of her students during Spring break, Criss is all the more convinced that offering Clay County students the opportunity to visit other countries is a goal she plans to pursue.

In other business at Monday's meeting, Clay County Superintendent D. Scott Penland informed school board members of a likely change to North Carolina law. The State of North Carolina will likely change the age a child must be when they enter school. The bill has passed in the State House and will likely be approved by the NC Senate.

The law, Penland told members of the Clay County Board of Education, would require that students entering kindergarten in the Fall of 2008 turn five prior to Aug. 15 to be eligible to attend kindergarten in North Carolina. Penland said that under current state law, a child must turn five by Oct. 15th, which means a teacher could have a four-year old and a six-year old student in the same class - a big gap in age and maturity. Penland explained that this age difference among students often presents challenges for kindergarten teachers.

Tonia Walsh, Assistant Principal at Hayesville Elementary School, said that this change would be welcome, because in some cases kindergarten teachers must deal with students who are on very different developmental levels.

Walsh explained that if a student has a late birthday and

parents choose to keep them

out of kindergarten the first ........................................

year they are eligible they will be almost six when they begin. In comparison, other children will start kindergarten when they are four, not turning five until September or October of their kindergarten year. Walsh explained that this presents many challenges for a teacher who has such wide gaps in the ages of her students.

"This would level the playing field for the students," Walsh added, explaining that under the new law most kindergarten students would be closer to the same age and developmental stage. "It would be a benefit to students all the way through high school," she continued to explain, as some high school seniors graduate and start college at much younger ages than others.

"It gives them an extra year to mature," Walsh said of the younger students.This change means that all kindergarten students would be five when they start school, giving some a few extra months to mature before starting school.

In business conducted Monday evening, a new policy governing hospital/homebound services for non-exceptional students, which is required by state law, was presented to the Clay County School Board by Asst. Superintendent Carol Arnold. The new policy, Arnold explained, is to be established to ensure free and appropriate public education will be provided to a Clay County student in the event of an accident, extended illness or surgery which requires long-term hospitalization or home seclusion.

This governs students who are not in the exceptional children's program.Arnold and Penland explained that it is required by law that a school system provide an education to a child during a period in excess of two weeks when they are unable to attend school and that funds are not provided by the federal or state government for such services."We just have to look for the funds where ever…We just find a way to make this work for our students. We want to keep them from getting behind so they can return to school when they recover," Penland told school board members.

Arnold added that the school works to meet a students' needs when such a need arises. The policy, which outlines the procedure to be followed in the case of extended illness of a non-disabled student, includes detailed instructions for the school and forms which must be completed by a parent or guardian who are required to make a request for services. Arnold informed the school board that Clay County currently has only one student receiving homebound services and that student is an Exceptional Child (EC).Arnold presented several more policies for board approval. Arnold first updated board members on a new federal requirement concerning hiring practices that the school system must follow.

As of March 1, Arnold said that the school system must electronically file an employment eligibility verification form with the Department of Homeland Security within three days of hiring a new employee. Arnold explained that she went through extensive training and was required to pass a test on the software. The school system must now file an I-9 with the Department of

Immigration which requires detailed documentation about each new employee including social security number, photo ID and other information to verify an individual is not an illegal immigrant.

In her next item of business, Arnold provided board members with an updated version of the Beginning Teacher Induction Program which outlines the formal orientation each new teacher must go through when employed by Clay County Schools.

According to the plan, each new ILT or initially licensed teacher must receive a mentor upon entering the faculty and meets with their mentor monthly during their first year of teaching. Second year ILT's met quarterly with their mentors, under the plan, and third year ILT's do not have required meetings with mentors.

Arnold said this plan helps beginning teachers by providing professional guidance with a mentor who is able to guide and offer advice. Once the three year ILT period is completed successfully, the teacher is recommended for continued licensure by the school.

Next on Arnold policy updates was the Academically and Intellectually Gifted policy which she explained is a threeyear plan that can be revised at anytime. Funding for the AIG program for the school system is provided by the state and although guidelines are provided by the state, she explained that each system is allowed to decide how they want to administer the program in order to meet the needs of their students they way they feel is best.

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