March 9th, 2015
Call to order
Mr. Fletcher called to order the regular meeting of the District 9 Board Advisory Council at 5:45 pm on
Monday, March 9th, 2015 at Davis Drive Elementary School. Mr. Fletcher thanked Principal Mack and the Davis Drive PTA for hosting our meeting. Mr. Mack expressed his gratitude to the DDES PTA president and her committee for providing our meal, which was catered by Ruckus Pizza. Mr. Mack noted that DDES is a PBIS school model with a very tech-friendly staff. Over 20 teachers use Twitter to publish information for students and families. The school also makes use of early release days to host community involvement meetings in an effort to both keep families informed and active in the school.
The minutes from our last meeting were provided on each table. The group took time to review them.
A motion was made by Mr. Stangler to approve the minutes as presented. The motion was seconded by
Ms. Bader and approved unanimously by the group. Our next meeting will be on April 27 th at West
Cary Middle School.
I.
Attendance
The following individuals attended the meeting:

WCPSS Principals: Douglas Hooper (Adams Elementary), Stephanie Raiford (Briarcliff Elementary),
Rodney Stanton (Cary Elementary), Nolan Bryant (Cary High), Chip Mack (Davis Drive Elementary),
Edye Morris-Bryant (Davis Drive Middle), Kerry Chisnall (East Cary Middle), Winston Pierce
(Farmington Woods Elementary), T. Aaron Marcin (AP Green Hope Elementary, sub for Interim),
Sherry Schliesser (Kingswood Elementary), Burton Batten (Laurel Park Elementary), Robin Wahl
(Northwoods Elementary), Catherine Yanello (Reedy Creek Elementary), Trent Evans (Reedy Creek
Middle), Debbie Edwards (Salem Elementary), and Tim Chadwick (Weatherstone Elementary).

BAC 9 Representatives: Cyndi Tomblin (Adams Elementary), Marian Ingham (Briarcliff Elementary),
Joanie Peterson (Cary Elementary), Julie Swanson (Davis Drive Elementary), Jennifer Kaczynski (Davis
Drive Middle), Mano Meenaksh (sub Farmington Woods Elementary), Anita Minicucci (Green Hope
Elementary), Dee Deanhardt (Green Hope High), Stacey Darbee (Laurel Park Elementary), Julie
Roseland (Northwoods Elementary), Suzanne Davis (Reedy Creek Middle), Jennifer Wadsack (Salem
Elementary), Bracha Blanc (Salem Middle), Stephanie Sosa (Weatherstone Elementary), Michelle Allen
(West Cary Middle), Curt Stangler (At-Large), and Diana Bader (At-Large).

Staff and Public Guests: Tim Locklair (Western Area Superintendent), Clinton Robinson, Jr. (South
Western Area Superintendent), and Billy Moore (Reedy Creek Middle).

Members Absent: Karen Summers (Green Hope High), Elaine Hofmann (Salem Middle), Wanza Cole
(West Cary Middle), Teresa MacDonald (Cary High), Liz McCabe (East Cary Middle), Tricia Lynch
(Kingswood Elementary), Tania Boardman (Reedy Creek Elementary).

Special Guests – Technology Panel: Marlo Gaddis (WCPSS Director of Technology Services and
Media Services), Tiffany Barber (Briarcliff Elementary Technology Teacher), Sherry Schliesser
(Principal Kingswood Elementary), Deanna Harris (East Cary Middle Media Coordinator), Pete Caggia
(Salem Middle Media Coordinator), Bill Ferriter (Salem Middle Teacher and national speaker), Melanie
Ferrell (Davis Drive Middle / Mills Park Middle (Instructional Technology Facilitator), Kerri Traynor
(Davis Drive Middle Teacher), Kate Keller (Cary High Technology Teacher), Nolan Bryant (Cary High
Principal), and Kyle Hamstra (Davis Drive Elementary Teacher)
II.
Business – Technology Panel
Marlo Gaddis – Senior Director of Technology Services and Media Services for WCPSS introduced the extremely well-qualified panel of technology professionals that she gathered for our meeting (see above). The panel was asked to speak to a few topics of interest to the BAC 9 members. First, the panel

spoke to the vision they had for technology in our schools and biggest challenges to accomplishing the vision.
Principal Schliesser strives for the personalization (differentiation) of instruction for each student. One of the biggest challenges she tries to meet is the ability to get enough professional development to her staff so that they can reach this lofty goal. A recurring comment by several panel members was that many of the educators also need differentiated professional development since tech-expertise levels vary greatly among teachers. The panel members all agreed that each school needs a dedicated technology facilitator.
Ms. Traynor agreed with Ms. Schliesser and went on to clarify that the goal was to get right the kind of technology in the hands of each student. While students can text and use social media, the educator’s job is to teach the student how to use their devices to enhance their learning. Students need to be able to go beyond using Google to look up a topic and read a quick caption. We need active, not passive, learners.
Mr. Ferriter mentioned that students may be more tech savvy than previous generations, but teachers still need to help them learn how to do sound research that includes validating resources. Kids need to become critical thinkers. It should be noted that state assessments do not gauge these critical thinking skills and the compensation package for educators is not based on teaching these skills. Mr. Ferriter urged all community members present to advocate for better alignment in real goals, assessments and compensation in the educational field.
One goal for technology use in the classroom is a 3-to-1 device-student ratio. A few schools are fortunate to be able to have access to enough devices to reach this goal. This allows teachers to develop lessons that utilize the devices in lessons. Often the devices are used in station activities that students rotate through during the course of their day. One difficulty at the middle and high school levels is that the student-device ratio can only be met in a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment. It is very difficult to plan a lesson for a group when a couple of students may have a laptop, a couple have a tablet, the vast majority of students have a smartphone and a few have no device at all. Finding educational applications that work across all platforms and that teachers can monitor is challenging.
Cary High School has established a Media Technology Advisory Committee to help reach out to teachers and provide professional development tools. Teachers that are technology role models have volunteered to serve as model classrooms. The committee gathered teachers from each core area. A
Google calendar was established so that each volunteer could post dates/times of observable lessons.
This allows the volunteer to control the flow of observers in their classroom. Mr. Bryant also provided an opportunity for teachers to come in during their summer break for a few days of technology instruction.
The flipped classroom model was discussed. A flipped classroom is one where the students use the teacher’s lecture videos (short 5-7 minute mini-lessons) to begin learning the vocabulary, concepts and practices at home. The at-home viewing of one or more videos is often paired with a note-taking or worksheet activity that the student completes on their own and allows the student to move at their own pace. When the class meets at school, the instructor quickly reviews the material with in-class discussions, questions and lab activities that reinforce the learning that began at home. The flipped lessons allow for ease in pre-teaching and re-teaching material and allows for parents to become more involved when students are struggling. (FYI…the flipped learning model will be used in Principals’ meetings soon and DPI is starting to use it with their training sessions.)
We are expected to move towards the legislature’s mandate of no textbooks / all digital content by 2018.
How do we get there as soon as possible? Split technology support / instructional support / media

specialist positions cannot do it all. To reiterate, we need a dedicated, full-time technology facilitator at each school. Also, schools need to build tech-teams with many volunteers to help out around the building. We can use students that are application experts since many students are being certified in these applications in their high school courses. Some students are being identified as highly skilled in some of these applications at the elementary and middle school levels. Tech-teams can use and share
“What you can use” lists that are vetted applications that help solve problems in the classroom and can be used as study aids (Kahoot!, Quizlet, StudyBlue, etc). Schools can make use of MOOC-Ed or
Massive Open Online Courses to help with professional development in technology and assist teachers with gaining CEU credits.
Mr. Fletcher raised the question - how local funding can help bridge state funding gaps? The largest concerns are paying for the professional development needed to use the technology and to acquire the technology.
III.
Business – Update from Area Superintendents and Mr. Fletcher
Clinton Robinson, Jr., Southwestern Area Superintendent – Principals are being sought for both Apex
High and Apex Elementary. Tim Locklear, Western Area Superintendent – Kristin Walker has been named as the next principal of Green Hope Elementary and Elaine Hofmann has been named as the principal for Salem Middle.
“WCPSS has identified 12 elementary schools for a new approach…to include flexible student-teacher ratios, intense professional development, holistic child and family educational support and other strategies.” (from March edition of ‘Thoughts from Bill Fletcher’ document)
The Student Achievement Committee will be looking at the reallocation of Title 1 funds. The focus is to meet the needs of the highest need schools. Look for more information on this as part of the
Superintendent’s budget coming in April.
The fall of 2016 will see all 9 school board seats go up for election unless the General Assembly alters election law. Staggered terms allow for more stable leadership changes. Please help us advocate for staggered terms.
IV.
Adjournment
Mrs. Julie Roseland thanked all of our speakers. Our next meeting will be on Monday, April 27 th
at
West Cary Middle School. The meeting adjourned at 7:04 pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Dee
Deanhardt, District 9 BAC Secretary.