HAMBLETON – Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School Principal Belinda Moss, along with many of her instructors, updated those attending Monday’s Tucker County Board of Education with highlights of the school’s many new programs and initiatives to help students attending TVEMS. Moss first explained new programs implemented for student incentives.
“The WOW student of the month is a program that was already in place,” Moss said. “This program is for very successful students based on different character traits. We take their picture here and submit it to the paper. They receive a certificate and they are proud of that.”
Moss said a new incentive program spearheaded this year is the leadership team.
“We wanted some kind of positive behavior program in place,” Moss said. “We started simple. We give each teacher three tickets and they can reward students based on whatever positive behaviors they find and at the end of the week, we have a K-4 grade drawing and a 5-8 grade drawing and both student have their names announced and choose from a small prize.”
The Box Tops for Education program previously benefitted only those in the gifted program at the school.
“This year, we decided to make it benefit the entire school,” Moss said. “This year, we are splitting the money between the positive behavior program and the track program. Our track program currently has no funding.”
Moss said she met with some of the middle school students to develop a program for helping students make up missing assignments. She said the students thought it would be best following lunch.
“Students can come in and make up missing assignments or complete homework assignments on days they will have little time after school because of sports activities,” Moss said. “We would give them free tutoring time. It is called the safe, respectful and responsible program. Students who have a D, F or missing assignments will receive a slip from that teacher to attend the program. Middle school teachers will help the students get caught up on their missing work. This will help get students’ grades up and help them achieve higher test scores.”
Moss said TVEMS has some leadership skill opportunities through clubs which meet at the school.
“We have RAZE, 4-H, Girls on the Run and this year we started student council,” Moss said. “Our new art teacher came to me and said she was willing to start student council, which is a great leadership opportunity. We did the elections and started building these opportunities for students.”
Moss said the school put on a very successful Veterans Day Program.
“It was well attended and each Veteran was able to stand up and tell their story of where they served,” Moss said. “It was meaningful for all of the kids and they could hear all of the places the Veterans served and what years.”
One TVEMS teacher said the children loved seeing the Veterans come in and were thrilled to know someone who was a Veteran. She said it made the kids so proud and the pride was visible on the children’s faces.
“All three of the kindergarten classes stood right in front of the Veterans and sang a song to them,” Moss said. “That was the Veterans favorite thing ever. It was so cute – they had motions to go along with the song.”
The TVEMS Book Fair brought in more than $6,000 in sales. The librarian for the school said the sale was a huge success and expressed her thanks to everyone who came out to make that event prosperous.
Moss said the third and fourth grade teachers in the school wrote a grant for maps for their classes.
“These teachers were successful in their grant, and Michelle Mullenax, our track coach, wrote a successful grant for track uniforms,” Moss said. “Two teachers wrote a grant for exercise balls, and TVEMS Band Instructor, Rob Masten wrote a grant for music.”
Moss said one goal at TVEMS was to start a PTO.
“Years ago, we had a very strong PTO,” Moss said. “We thought a great way to do that was to recruit during the Halloween party. As parents signed in, they were handed slips to join the PTO. We received 18 slips back and our first night, it snowed very badly, but we had 11 participants. This is a start. I am very hopeful.”
TVEMS has initiated a Read Aloud program, and each student will receive gently used books to start their own libraries at home, hoping to create a love of reading.
Also during Monday’s meeting, Dr. Eddie Campbell, superintendent of schools, explained a new agenda format for Tucker County BOE meetings. He said in the past, meeting offered two opportunities for public comment, one for comments on agenda items and one at the end of the meeting for general comments.
“Our board has expressed the idea they want to make the public feel, from the get-go of the meeting, that they were welcome to come and talk to the board about anything they really had on their minds,” Campbell said. “This is our attempt to do that for the public, and put public comments at the beginning of our meetings.”
Although no one chose to speak, Board President Janet Preston asked those present to let folks know the board’s intent is to make everyone aware they can come and talk to the BOE on issues that are important to them.
BOE members met in executive session near the end of Monday’s meeting to discuss a student discipline issue. Following the executive session, BOE members voted to suspend the student for 365 days.
The next Tucker County BOE meeting is slated for 4:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Tucker County Board of Education Annex.
