Andress discusses gifted program at EBOE meeting

Tricia Andress, gifted instructor at Hillcrest Elementary School, gave a presentation on the Adventures Beyond the Classroom (ABC) program during a Feb. 25 meeting of the Enterprise Board of Education.

Currently 275 students in grades three through six participate in the ABC program in Enterprise City Schools, which works to engage, challenge and develop gifted students.

“These students learn differently from general-education students,” Andress said. “They move faster and are able to think more deeply. Many of them start school already knowing what the teacher is going to cover.”

Enterprise has a gifted teacher staffed at each of its six elementary schools, and Andress said that has been very beneficial to the program.

She said gifted teachers are trained to address the social and emotional needs of gifted learners, who often feel out of place or bored in a traditional classroom setting.

“We want to provide opportunities for these students general-education teachers may not have time to,” Andress said. “We try to offer the gifted students challenging learning experiences. We encourage our students when they leave the program to be leaders among their peers. We want them to seek leadership roles in clubs, organizations and in the community.”

In addition to the current gifted students, the ABC program tracks the progress of more than 200 former students who have already completed the program.

In other business, maintenance supervisor Tracy Sanders gave an update on a completed storm drain repair project at Enterprise High School.

According to Sanders, heavy rains caused issues with a storm drain on the EHS campus.

The maintenance department and the Enterprise Public Works Department have been working to fix the issue for three months.

“The city allowed us to use their equipment and manpower if we covered the cost of supplies,” Sanders said. “Teaming up with the city saved us approximately $35,000.”

Sanders also discussed the Holly Hill Elementary School construction project, which, aside from a few details, is mostly completed.

A new cafeteria, which doubles as a storm shelter, has been completed and is in use by the school.

A covered walkway to the cafeteria was also installed in addition to window and air conditioning replacements throughout the school.

In other news, board members agreed to create an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) through American Behavioral.

Human Resources Director Dr. Irma Townsend said the Alabama Department of Transportation requires school districts to have such a program in place for their bus drivers.

The board chose to expand access to the EAP to include all system employees.

Townsend said an EAP offers employees and their dependents support with personal issues and includes free access to counciling, will creation assistance and financial planning.

“Life happens and when our people come to work, those things still have an impact on them and can impact our students,” she said. “I’d like to thank the board for being willing to look at this for our employees.”

In other business, the board approved a calendar for the 2014-2015 school year.

A calendar committee comprised of a cross-section of Enterprise parents, teachers and students created several options, which were placed on the system’s website earlier this month.

Townsend said more than 412 comments about the calendar were made.

The vast majority supported option four, which included a full week of fall break and a full week of Thanksgiving vacation.

The calendar option also included some collaborative days, which will be only half days for students.

The remainder of these days is used as professional development for teachers in a group setting.

Superintendent Dr. Camille Wright also spoke about the NotifyMe option, which the board and some of the system’s schools are using to get information out to parents.

“This is a great way for us to be able to communicate with you about board meeting information and other things,” Wright said.

Anyone wanting to receive notifications can visit enterpriseschools.net and click the NotifyMe icon to sign up.

Updates can be sent out via email or text message.

“It can also be used at the school level to notify parents about late busses, school announcements and other things,” Wright said.

To sign up for school notifications, visit the website of any school in the Enterprise system and click on the NotifyMe icon.

Other actions take by the board:

• Officially approved the move of ninth-grade students from Dauphin Junior High School and Enterprise Junior High School to Enterprise High School.
• Approved a request to allow the foundation of health sciences course to count as a health credit for graduation requirements.
• Approved the Summer S.M.A.R.T.S. program for June 2-27. The four-week reading and math program targets the subjects of reading and math for pre-k and elementary students.
• Approved an updated procedures and use manual for the Enterprise High School Performing Arts Center with an updated section pertaining to the Coffee County Arts Alliance.