Maryland's governor appoints the members of the seven-person Wicomico County Board of Education after receiving a recommendation from either the Wicomico County Democratic Central Committee, the Republican Central Committee, or both. The central committees solicit applications when a Board seat is open for appointment, conduct interviews, and recommend candidates to the governor. The Democratic Central Committee advertised for resumes from those interested in the Board seat eligible for appointment in summer 2008, and scheduled interviews beginning in late April.

Board members are appointed to five-year terms and may seek reappointment to a second five-year term. Board of Education members, with the year in which their term expires, are: Brian K. Kilgore (2008), Susan A. Hitch (2009), Mark S. Thompson (2010), Robin H. Holloway and L. Michelle Wright (2011), and Dr. Tyrone A. Chase and Ronald O. Willey (2012). All Board members except Holloway are serving their first term.

The Board of Education sets policies and approves the budget for the school system. Robin H. Holloway serves as president and Mark S. Thompson serves as vice president until July; the Board's annual reorganization occurs at the July Board meeting. The Board meets monthly in open, public meetings to make policy decisions for the school system and hear reports from Student Government Association presidents from the four high schools. Public work sessions are held almost weekly, usually on Tuesday mornings to provide the opportunity for Board members to explore an issue or program at length.

The last day of school for students in Wicomico County Public Schools will be Tuesday, June 10. School was originally scheduled to end Friday, June 6, but two makeup days were added to the calendar because of two days that the schools were closed because of bad weather. The last three days of school (June 6, 9 and 10) will be half-days.

The Board of Education approved a calendar for 2008-09 in April after receiving input from staff members, parents and the community. The next school year will begin Monday, Aug. 25, for most students, and end June 10, 2009. The calendar may be downloaded as a pdf from the Wicomico County Board of Education's Web site at www.wcboe.org. Click on 08-09 School Calendar under Quick Links on the left side of the home page. Printed copies of the calendar are also available in the Board of Education lobby.

Students will be off Nov. 4 for the General Election, Nov. 26-28 for the Thanksgiving break, Dec. 22 through Jan. 2 for the winter holidays, and April 8-13 for the spring holidays. Schools will also be closed Oct. 17 (Maryland State Teachers Association Convention), and closed for students (but open for teachers) for professional days on Oct. 20, Jan. 26 and 27, March 2 and May 4.

Wicomico County elementary schools that have primary grades are now enrolling children for kindergarten next year; visit the school's main office on any school day. (Schools are also registering children not in public kindergarten now who will be enrolled in the first grade for the 2008-09 school year, and prekindergarten students.) Kindergarten is mandatory for all 5-year-old Maryland children unless the parents or guardians have sent a letter to the school requesting a later start. Children must be 5 years old by Sept. 1, 2008.

Registration information, including a table of vaccination requirements, may be viewed at the Wicomico County Public Schools Web site at www.wcboe.org. Parents or guardians will need to bring immunization records (please see a doctor or the health department to ensure that the child's vaccination record is complete), birth certificate, social security card and proof of residency for each child. Call 410-677-4580 for any additional information.

The Board of Education completed a national search for the best four-year superintendent candidate with the appointment on March 13 of Dr. John Fredericksen, who will begin serving a four-year contract as Wicomico's superintendent July 1, 2008.

Dr. Fredericksen is currently an assistant superintendent for Osseo Area Schools (ISD 279) in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minn. He is skilled in finance and operations administration, and experienced every facet of guiding an education system while serving as superintendent of several Minnesota school districts ranging up to 1,800 students.

The Board hired the search firm Ray and Associates Inc. to conduct the search, and the firm began the process in September by collecting community input during 22 sessions over two days. That input shaped a list of 11 criteria for the new four-year superintendent. After advertising the position, Ray and Associates received 97 inquiries from 35 states, with 34 candidates completing an application for the post, including six from Delmarva. There were no applicants among current employees of the Wicomico County Board of Education. Ray and Associates screened the 34 applicants for administrative experience, academic background, and suitability based on the 11 criteria adopted by the Board, and identified the best eight candidates. The Board of Education then selected five semifinalists to interview in person, conducted second interviews with the leading three candidates, and chose Dr. Fredericksen as the best match for the position of superintendent of Wicomico schools.

Thomas B. Field has served the Wicomico schools as interim superintendent since July 1, 2006, and will continue to serve in that position through June 30, 2008.

Why are children being sent out to sell items and raise money for PTA fundraisers so that the teachers involved and parents in the PTA can buy polo shirts for themselves?

Funds raised from fundraisers organized by the school, the PTA or other groups are generally used to purchase items or support programs and events for students that are otherwise not included in the budget of school funds. These items, programs and/or events focus on meeting the needs of the students and on supporting engaging activities. In some cases, t-shirts or other specific items may be included as part of the fundraiser program in order to further highlight the efforts of the organization. These t-shirts or other specific items may be given to participating students, staff members or group members.

Other counties (especially Delaware) have online tools so parents can access homework assignments and grades for their children at anytime. Why doesn't Wicomico County have this initiative?

We are currently working on developing this capability within our student data base program. We hope to be able to pilot this kind of access in the upcoming school year.

When will MSA (Maryland School Assessment) testing take place in the
2008-09 school year?

The tentative schedule for 2009 MSA testing is as follows:

March 17-18, MSA Reading for grades 3-8
March 19-20, MSA Math for grades 6-8
March 24-25, MSA Math for grades 3-5
April 22-May 12, testing window for MSA Science for grade 5

Q: Can you explain the difference between the Magnet Program and the TAD (Thinking and Doing) Program? Is admission to one program required to get into the other?

A: No. Students may qualify for both. However, the decision to participate in one or the other ( or both) is up to the parents.

The purpose of the Magnet Program is to provide a challenging program of study through extension, enrichment and acceleration of curriculum for those students identified as high achievers. The program goals also include the development of appropriate work habits, responsibilities and independence. The learning environment has been designed to meet the needs of our high achievers in grades 3 through 5 in regional centers at both Pemberton and North Salisbury elementary schools. Magnet criteria includes: a score of 85th percentile and above on their standardized tests, a GPA of 3.7 and above in reading and math, and teacher recommendation. Parents and students are advised in the spring of eligibility for Magnet.

TAD (Thinking and Doing) is a different instructional program for academically gifted students in the third through fifth grades. Identified students meet one class per six-day cycle with an itinerant TAD teacher. The units of study provide opportunities for the students to develop proficiency in concepts and skills of the regular curriculum while providing content, instructional strategies and settings for learning that may be unique for gifted students. TAD criteria includes: a performance of 90th percentile or above on their standardized tests, a cognitive score of 125 and above, and teacher recommendation.

Call the Central Office at 410-677-4572 and make an appointment to have the student assessed individually for Magnet enrollment. TAD testing is usually done at the beginning of each school year when the TAD teachers are available. The Magnet battery of tests would be an appropriate initial step to identify eligibility. The cognitive test would be done separately by the TAD staff.

In response to your inquiry about teachers who do not meet expectations, please be advised of the law, policies, negotiated agreement, and procedures observed by Wicomico County Public Schools.

Per COMAR (Annotated Code of Maryland), all employees holding a Standard Professional Certificate I, or Standard Professional Certificate II, must be evaluated each year. A teacher holding an Advanced Professional Certificate must be evaluated twice during an APC cycle (5 years).
Observations are also conducted twice per year and must be done by two different administrators. These are the minimum requirements set by COMAR. The school system is permitted to observe and evaluate as often as it deems necessary.

When a teacher is not meeting expectations, the following may occur:

-Frequent observations by administrators, supervisor, and/or director -Assistance provided by teacher mentor, professional development coach, school administrators (principal and assistant principal), content supervisor; assistance may include writing and implementation of lesson plans, lesson modeling, techniques and stategies for various issues such as content, classroom management, differentiated instruction -Second class a teaching certificate (a measure provided by the Annotated Code of Maryland); formal plan of assistance and formal monthly observations and evaluations -Termination - Annotated Code of Maryland 6-202 provides five reasons for which a tenured teacher can be terminated; note that the entire disciplinary process for a tenured teacher is governed by law and mandates a very specific process in which a school system is permitted to discipline a teacher.

Q: How can you assure that the student has retained the information they learned if they are not required to take exams, based on their current grades and how many days they have missed? I understand students at Parkside are not required to take exams if they have a certain grade average and only a certain amount of days have been missed. Is this done to keep the schools' grade averages up?

A: We currently have the exam exemption pilot in place in each of our high schools. The pilot was originally introduced to encourage ongoing academic success and student attendance. Through this pilot, students may be exempt from final exams based on a combination of grades and attendance. Included in the pilot is the opportunity for students to choose to take the exams, and/or for parents to choose to have their students take the exams, even if exempt. Students may wish to take the exams in an effort to raise the semester average in a class.

Teachers continuously assess the students' understanding and retention of information and ideas through ongoing formal and informal assessments. This is one way in which teachers can measure the students' academic growth. In the situations where students are exempt from taking the final exams, the teachers have continued to monitor and evaluate the students' evidence of learning throughout the class sessions.

There has been tremendous interest in our proposal to offer mentoring support for our new administrators next fall. Because of this, some questions and concerns have been raised. The following list is provided to answer some of the questions that have been raised and to clarify some of the misunderstandings that have recently arisen.

The funds being utilized do not represent any new money or new positions within our budget but, instead, are existing funds that have been reallocated to this effort.

The individuals who will be our mentors will not be paid a salary but instead will be paid a small consulting fee that is not at all comparable in amount to a salary. Though their duties will be structured with respect to expectations much like our current new teacher mentoring program, there is not the need to have a full or part time position as there are far fewer new administrators.

The candidates for all of our administrative positions have been and continue to be very strong. We are trying to provide a little extra support in the first year so that they can benefit from the years of experience and vast knowledge possessed by our long-time principals.

By using our long-time principals, it allows our county the opportunity to continue to benefit from their skills and expertise in a new way even after they retire.

Like many of the roles in public education, the principalship has grown in terms of accountability, workload, pressure, and complexity. In fact, it has joined a number of teaching areas on the “critical shortage list.” This is also the reason that we strongly believe it would be ineffective to simply pair a new administrator with someone in another school. We hope we can provide support that assists new principals in coping and succeeding in this challenging environment. This is especially true when considering the number of veteran staff that we have in many key positions and the transition that we will undertake in the next few years.

This type of support for administrators is endorsed by the Maryland State Department of Education as part of the Maryland Leadership Framework. It is not a new concept and is one that is used in many areas throughout the country.