Meridian to combine West End, Harris schools
By Staff
September 26, 2004
By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
West End Elementary and Harris Upper Elementary schools will be combined into one public school on Friday in an attempt to help improve the performance levels of both.
The combined school will be called T.J. Harris Elementary School. West End's buildings will house prekindergarten through second grades; Harris Upper's buildings will house third through fifth grades.
That's not all. Meridian School Superintendent Sylvia Autry said the school district plans to expand the prekindergarten program at the combined school; West End now has three prekindergarten classes.
The decision to combine the Harris Upper Elementary and West End came about two weeks after West End was named a priority school by the Mississippi Department of Education.
Performance level
West End was the only city school rated Level 1, or low performing, based on scores from standardized tests students took last spring. West End dropped from a Level 3, or successful rating, the year before.
The state department designates a school as a priority school if it is the lowest of the low-performing schools. West End is one of eight schools in the state that were designated a priority school.
In comparison, Harris Upper Elementary was rated a Level 3 school up from a Level 2, or under-performing, rating the year before.
Beginning last week, seven evaluators overseen by the state Department of Education arrived in Meridian to assess West End's teachers, administrators, the school district and school board members.
Autry said the evaluators are educators from across the state. They are observing classrooms at West End; they also are interviewing West End teachers, administrators, Autry and school board members.
The group is expected to make recommendations to Autry by the end of this week on how to improve West End.
New curriculum
West End Principal Owida Roberts said she believes students didn't perform well on the Mississippi Curriculum Test because of the the reading program Success For All. MCT scores are used to rate schools.
Roberts said the school is not using Success For All this year.
In addition to a new reading curriculum, Roberts said students this year have a 90-minute reading block each day.
She said students also will spend 45 minutes in a reading lab each week, where they will work on the skills tested on the MCT as well as take practice MCT tests before they take the actual test.
School leaders
After West End and Harris Upper officially combine this week, Autry said that Roberts and Harris Upper Principal Amy Carter will serve together as T.J. Harris Elementary School's co-principals.
Autry said she will name a new principal after the first of the year and "it may be Roberts or Carter or it may be someone else."
Autry said the school district also has developed a district conservatorship team to determine how to improve student achievement at West End. Autry, school district administrators and principals are on the team.
Crestwood Elementary School Principal John Lisenbe is working with Roberts as a mentor to help her assess the school's test results.
