STARKVILLE — When Starkville School District students begin class Monday, they”ll return to many changes.
Restrooms at Starkville High School, Armstrong Middle School and Rosa Stewart Elementary were renovated and the west parking lot at SHS has been repaved.
The school district now has a nurse at each school, whereas four years ago there was one nurse for the entire district. The addition of nurses will allow for early eye and ear screening and reinforcement of healthy practices, Starkville School District Assistant Superintendent Dr. Walter Gonsoulin said.
SSD also hired two additional social workers to bring the total to three. One social worker is at Armstrong, while SSD has another assigned to K-5 districtwide at Emerson Family Center.
“We hope to add another social worker at the high school,” Gonsoulin said. “It allows us, both with nursing and our social workers, to take care of more through prevention, mediation or intervention with the parents.”
SSD students might start bringing home more As and Bs this year as the district has switched to a 10-point grading scale. Previously, SSD used a scale that had 94-100 as an A, and the threshold for a B was an 85.
Following the lead of other districts around the state, SSD made the move to help students to better compete for scholarships with students from other states.
“Our kids are now on a level playing field,” SSD Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Beth Sewell said.
Students at Starkville High and Armstrong have switched to different block schedule formats that should make for fluid transitions between both schools.
Starkville High, which has been on a version of the block schedule since the 1990s, has changed to a 4-by-4 block schedule that will see students take four different classes each semester.
Starkville High had been on an AB schedule where students took eight different classes in two different blocks throughout the week.
In an effort to curb dropout rates and help students who are in danger from failing, the new block schedule will allow students to retake a class in the same school year if he or she fails it the first semester.
The new schedule also will help advanced students take more classes that don”t overlap. For instance, if a student wanted to take an upper-level math class they could do so without taking one of the required classes, like Algebra 2, at the same time.
“It doesn”t compromise instruction,” Gonsoulin said. “When you spread it out over the course of the year, it”s really the same amount of time.”
Armstrong Middle, because of the MCT2 standardized tests, must have classes taught all year long. However, the school has abandoned its traditional seven-period format for an AB block schedule similar to what the high school had last year. On Fridays students will have eight class periods to review each of the eight classes in the two blocks.
Sewell said Armstrong teachers have spent the greater portion of the planning week meeting with consultants and workshop leaders on how to handle 90-minute class periods.
“They”re talking about things like the ”center concept” where you have kids rotating from center to center,” Sewell said. “So if I have 20 kids in a class, five may be working on computers, another I might have working independently, and they”ll just rotate. We”ve got to keep students in that kind of environment where they”re always moving.”
All schools begin at 7:40 a.m. except for the high school, which begins at 7:50 a.m. Sudduth Elementary is the first school to release students at 2:45 p.m. while Starkville High releases at 3:10 p.m.
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