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Dooly County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Craig Lockhart released the November school system report, which dealt with hybrid teaching and learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“While it has been a major adjustment,” he said. “Dooly County faculty and staff, like the vast majority of our colleagues nearby and beyond, are bravely tackling the challenge of teaching both in person and virtually at the same time.”

As schools have moved to a hybrid reopening, many teachers are offering a variety of options to students including concurrent teaching, in which some students attend class in person while others attend virtually.

A teacher in a concurrent classroom provides instruction to both the students in class and online simultaneously. Dooly County teachers are meeting this challenge, by mastering technology and designing strategies to accommodate instruction in a concurrent classroom, providing support and continuous learning for all students.

      I Ready Math Diagnostic is an adaptive math assessment designed to provide insight to tailor instruction to meet scholars’ needs. Specifically, it meets students where they are and sets them on a personalized path to improve their performance. Of the scholars who have completed the assessment, the table shows the percentage of scholars who are on or above grade level, one grade level below, and two or more grade levels below In the month of October, the School Nutrition Program delivered 15,494 breakfasts and 15,383 lunches making a total of 30,877 total meals served. Serving an average of 908 students per day will generate approximately $90,395 in revenue. Comparing to September, this is a slight decrease with having just 17 days of service due to Fall Break. The USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program delivered over 2,300 meat and dairy boxes to the DoolyCountyK-8 Academy for the month of October. The food boxes were available to any Dooly County resident on a first come, first serve basis.

      Dooly County High School has earned a graduation rate of 90.24 percent, the highest rate received since calculations began in 2012.

The IT Department has worked with the Teaching & Learning Department to implement the rollover of the HMH Reading Inventory program data for single sign-on with the Clever platform. IT has sent out to teachers their information for logging into Clever along with information for the student accounts. We are now in the process of cleaning up this data.

•The IT Department has continued to work with the Teaching & Learning Department to implement the Google Classroom for hybrid classroom instruction. The Department has also assisted faculty/staff with the transition back into the classrooms by setting up classroom printing, providing guidance in utilizing the Clear Touch Panels and assisting with technology setups to fit their instructional needs. The Department has requested that teachers/staff again start utilizing the WebDesk ticketing system to better serve the schools.

•The IT Department has continued providing parents and students with assistance utilizing the Verizon Jet Pack hotspots and WIFI Rangers in their homes. IT has handled troubleshooting of the Chromebooks, the Verizon Jet Pack hotspots and school bus WIFI Rangers on the phone, through email and through home visits.

•The IT Department has assisted federal programs with the upcoming monitoring by translating and posting needed documentation to the websites and by submitting requested inventory reports.

•The IT Department also assisted with the beginning stages for testing the Centegix Crisis Alert by updating the needed software and testing the intercom gateways.

Dr. Sherrod Willaford established a DoolyK-8 Academy Teacher Clarity Task Force, a subcommittee of the DCK- 8 Leadership Team to study, develop, and implement a common school language and approach for helping students understand what they are supposed to learn, why that is important, and how they will know if they have learned it. Current research indicates that teacher clarity has an effect size on student achievement of .75. In other words, when implemented successfully school-wide, it has the potential to accelerate overall student performance.

On October 19, 2020 the Office of Federal Programs and Family Engagement held the district’s first Dooly County Academic Advisory Council meeting. The objective of the DCAAC is to provide strategies and ideas to build the staff’s capacity to work together with parents as equal partners. The council’s mission is to also highlight Family Engagement Partners’ best practices to spark ideas and generate strategies to create and implement a plan of action. The DCAAC will meet on a quarterly basis and consists of teachers, support staff, school administrators and district administrators within the school system.