PARSONS – Roseann Barlow was named as the Tucker County Teacher of the Year during Monday’s BOE meeting. Barlow serves as the county’s brand new gifted teacher and works with students in all three Tucker County Schools.
Roseann Barlow is selected as Teacher of the Year Monday during the Tucker County Board of Education meeting.
“We revamped the gifted program this year,” Dr. Eddie Campbell, Superintendent of Tucker County Schools said. “There is a spectrum related to special education and we have a group of students in this county in special education that are at the opposite end. Their challenge is that they need challenged more. Prior to this year, the teacher serving all three schools was spread thin.”
Campbell said students in the gifted program in Tucker County travel to the teacher now, rather than the teacher traveling to them.
“We set up a satellite program for the gifted students,” Campbell said. “We bring the kids to the teacher.”
Campbell said the real key to making the model work was to get the right instructor in that position. “It wasn’t just the model, it was the person that came into the position making it work so well. What we have discovered was that Roseann Barlow is a fantastic mathematics teacher and the proof is in the pudding. She is a tremendous math teacher and she jumped right into the gifted program.”
Barlow came out of retirement to accept the position as the gifted teacher. Prior to that, she was a mathematics instructor at Tucker County High School. She was selected as Tucker County Teacher of the Year by the other instructors in the county.
“Roseann has made a connection with all grade levels,” Campbell said. “For her peers to recognize her, not only her talent as a math teacher, but her ability to take this brand new program that she has never been involved with and make it click like it has this year, is an outstanding tribute to the respect she has in this county among her peers.”
Campbell said the state has a Teacher of the Year competition, and Barlow will be the representative from Tucker County. “Our hope is that because of the work she has done and the recognition she has been given that we can move forward again, and see some recognition for her, the program and the county. This is very exciting. Lots of folks, as well as her family, turned out to honor her with the award.”
Also during Monday’s meeting:
-Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School Principal Belinda Moss did an update on things happening at her school.
“Belinda’s update was a nice presentation on the school’s academic improvements,” Campbell said.
-A public hearing was included in the meeting to receive public comments for the 2015 to 2016 school calendar.
“I think there was some communication out there in the public that was misleading,” Campbell said. “The issue came up that the BOE was considering a balanced, or year-round, calendar. Once we started hearing the rumblings, I tried to let folks know that the BOE has never taken serious consideration, nor have they produced a copy or a draft of a year-round calendar.”
Campbell said the sole purpose of the public hearings is to collect input from the public to use in the creation of a school calendar that will be approved by the board in April. “We will then submit this calendar to the state by the May 1 deadline.”
Folks who cannot make the BOE meeting in person are welcome to take an online survey to voice their preferences for the calendar. The survey is available at www.tuckercountyschools.com. The survey is the first item in the NEWS category. “We are making copies of the survey to distribute to those who do not have internet access,” Campbell said.
The survey includes nine questions, and there is the ability to make comments on the calendar as well.
The next Tucker County Board of Education is slated for 4:30 p.m. March 16. The meeting will include a public hearing where residents may speak
