Articles:

District News
Richland 2: School Choice
Latops Program: Students for Success
Building for the Future

DISTRICT NEWS
People, Programs, Policies in the Coming School Year
By Devon Copeland and Marjorie Riddle @ The State Newspaper mriddle@thestate.com- 8/9/07

RICHLAND 2

BUILDING UP Many projects from the 2004 $175.5 million bond are completed or nearing completion. Unless otherwise noted, expected completion is in time for the first day of school.

Longleaf Middle: The district's newest school, opening this fall at 1160 Longgreen Parkway, will house an estimated 425-450 students. It is modeled after Kelly Mill Middle.
Dent Middle: The new school, rebuilt on the site of the previous school, will include, among other features, permanent facilities for TWO Academies, the district's single-gender magnet program. While the main facility is expected to be open on the first day of the new year, the athletic field is still under construction, with expected completion in late fall.
Conder, Keels and Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary Schools: Renovations include cafeteria expansion, toilet renovations and replacement of much of the heating-air conditioning system.
Forest Lake Elementary: Toilet renovations and replacement of much of the heating-air conditioning system. Center for Knowledge: Magnet program getting permanent facility on E.L. Wright Middle campus.
Spring Valley High: New school is being rebuilt on site of former school. The scheduled opening of the main academic building is December, with scheduled completion of the entire project in March 2009.
Windsor Elementary: Media center expansion, new cafeteria and kitchen, HV AC renovation. Scheduled completion is January.
Center for Inquiry: Magnet program is receiving permanent facilities on Sum­mit Parkway Middle's campus. Sched­uled completion is December.

NEW PROGRAMS

• Elementary schools will use the Smart Start program to identify gifted and talented students.
• The former Anna Boyd Child Development Program is now the Spear Creek Road Child Development program, located on the campus of Pontiac Elementary School. The Anna Boyd school at 7900 Brookmont Road, Columbia, is now an alternative school for elementary and middle school students.
• Twelve of Richland 2's 15 elementary schools will have two assistant principals instead of one to help manage responsibilities. Schools include Bethel-Hanberry, Bookman Road, Conder, Forest Lake, Keels, Lake Carolina, North Springs, Pontiac, Rice Creek, Round Top, Sandlapper and Windsor.
• Full-time teachers will work as instructional and content coaches• for three years, with new teachers to Richland 2 to help them develop professionally in the classroom.
• Parents can surf the Parent Portal - a one-stop-shop for items of interest to parents, such as grades and attendance.

NEW POLICIES

• In addition to policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation, bullying and sexual discrimination and harassment, all schools are smoke-free environments.

KERSHAW COUNTY
BUILDING UP Construction is under way on many projects for the $102 million facilities upgrade.

Blaney Elementary: Renovations include an overhaul of all three classroom wings with new paint, heating and air conditioning system and floor tiles. Scheduled completion is December 2008. Camden High: Renovations include a new auditorium, cafeteria addition, field house, auxiliary gym, wellness center and track. Scheduled completion is November 2008. Camden Middle: New facility, with construction likely starting this school year. Scheduled opening is March 2009.
Lugoff-Elgin High: Renovations include a new auxiliary gym, locker rooms, wellness and training room, paved track, new public restrooms, concession stands between the football stadium and the baseball field, new bleachers for the softball and baseball fields, and upgrades to the existing locker rooms, tennis courts and practice fields, Scheduled completion is October 2008.
Jackson Elementary: Renovations include fixing moisture damage , but the district will build a new facility once funds are secured.  No opening date for a new facility is known.

 RICHLAND 2
School choice: program nets record requests
By Joy 1. Woodson @ The State Newspaper – 3/20/08

Parents and students have less than two weeks before they receive approvals or denials regarding their applications for Richland 2's magnet and choice programs.

This year, the school district received a total of 3,986 applications, which includes up to three applications per student. About 10 percent of the district's students sent in applications for the 200809 school year.

There were 22 magnet options for students, including six that will be new for the coming year.

Top choices this year were the Center for Inquiry, which received 385 applications; Center for Knowledge, which received 382 applications; and the Leadership Academy at Wright, which received 250 applications. Magnet programs received more than 2,700 applications; expanded choice options received 1,254 applications.  Overall, that's 80 percent jump for the past three years.

Last year, the district had nearly 3,600 total applications, with 2,200 magnet applications and 1,100 choice applications. For the 2006-07 school year, Richland 2 received 1,307 applications for magnet programs, and 900 for choice programs.

As in the past, the overwhelming response could spell disappointment for parents and students. Generally, there are not enough spaces for every student that applies to the most popular programs.

For example, at Center for Knowledge enrollment capacity is about 200 students. At the leadership program at E.L. Wright Middle School, there's space for 100 students. And at the Center for Inquiry, enrollment is capped at about 130.

Latops Program Students for Success

By MARJORIE RIDDLE @ The State Newspaper mriddle@thestate.com - 5/12/07

The move by Kershaw County schools to outfit all highschoolers, teachers and administrators with laptops is gaining even more national and international attention.

More than 20 states have contacted the district. Five states and Australia - have sent representatives to the district, and Kershaw County officials have traveled to six states for presentations.

The initiative is in its fourth year - meaning, the last batch of incoming freshmen will be getting their laptops this fall.

"We tell those districts our end result is that we want students to graduate high school complete with 21st cen-tury skills," said Agnes Slayman, Kershaw's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

District officials must determine this year whether they want to renew their lease with Hewlett Packard and continue outfitting incoming freshmen with computers. The current four-year contract cost the district $8 million.

Officials have anecdotal evidence the laptop program is a success, including better communication among teachers, students and parents, and improved technology skills for students. But there are not firm statistics on the impact the laptops have had on grades, grade-point averages and graduation rates.

"The laptops seem to be having an impact on student learning and retention," said school board chairwoman Dana Morris. "But this is an expensive investment, and we have to ask, 'Is this the best way to use our resources?'"

Other school districts see Kershaw County's program as innovative. Michelle Benham, technical services supervisor for the Dysart Unified School District in Surprise, Ariz., traveled here with a group of colleagues in April.  Her 20,584-student district is considering a similar program, launching in 2009-10. With the laptops, "we were really impressed they had the guts to do that and that they pulled it off as well as they did," she said.

The Dysart district has double the number of students of the 1O,337-student Kershaw County district and its $130.4 million yearly budget is more than double the area district's. Kershaw County is spending about 3 percent of its $66.3 million-a-year budget on the laptop program in 2007-08.

Any district consider-ing a laptop program needs the commitment of the school board, district and community, Slayman said. "The difference bet-ween places that succeed and fail is the intensity of the people to contin-uously monitor the initiative and their tenacity to fix problems," she said.

Kershaw County board members will discuss the laptop initiative at school board meetings in the fall and spring. They will decide by March whether to continue giving laptops to students.

Finding a firm way to evaluate the program's success - particularly this year, when all high-schoolers will have computers is important, Morris said. ''We need to see some kind of . . . evaluation tool that will evaluate teachers, students and the community," Morris said. ''We'll see as it goes through the year."