Local News - June 2003

Principal training program to pilot in Lincoln County

Published June 6, 2003

By JEREMY ASHTON, LTN Staff Writer

In many cases, Lincoln County Schools’ administrators have to travel to places like Chapel Hill to attend quality professional development workshops.

Next year, one such program is coming to them — at virtually no cost to the school district.

The Principals’ Executive Program, formed in 1984 to provide “relevant and rigorous professional development to public school administrators,” will run a new pilot program for Lincoln County principals next school year.

“It will translate into improvements at the school level in teaching and learning but also in changes, perhaps, in principals’ practice,” said PEP Assistant Director Anita Ware, who talked about the program Thursday at an administrative retreat at West Lincoln High School.

PEP has traditionally run its workshops by drawing principals from around the state to a central location. The Lincoln program will instead bring PEP to the principals.

Ware estimated the program could cost a school system between $15,000 and $25,000. Since it will serve as a model, Lincoln County Schools will get it for nothing more than the instructors’ travel costs, making it a bargain, according to Superintendent Jim Watson.

“We would be doing professional development anyway,” Watson said. “This is just what we’ve chosen to do for this coming year … .

“As the numbers of students are increasing that are on grade level, those that are remaining are tougher and tougher to reach. So we’re going to have view our leadership and the way we address our problems in an even more sophisticated and professional manner.”

Lincoln County has many of the characteristics PEP’s staff wanted for the pilot program, including steady academic improvement, size and funding.

The PEP faculty are also familiar with the district’s leadership and principals, who have attended several PEP workshops in the past.

“There’s a huge advantage in starting something new by going somewhere where we already have a good relationship,” Ware said.

The program will consist of eight 3-hour sessions held during the principals’ monthly meetings.

The topics have already been set, but lesson plans for the sessions, taught mainly by PEP faculty members, have yet to be created. They will be tailored to the specific priorities of the district, Ware said.

Administrators spent 10 minutes at Thursday’s meeting coming up with issues they want incorporated into the program’s curriculum. Some of the priorities discussed were improving reading skills in content areas, nurturing teachers and focusing on subgroups outlined by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The localized PEP course will emphasize “coaching” from the superintendent’s staff, something that has not been a focus of PEP before.

Between sessions, the coaches will meet individually with principals to discuss information covered in the program. The intended result is to get the central office staff spending more time in schools.

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Staff Writer Jeremy Ashton can be reached at 704-735-3031 or jashton@ltnews.com.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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