By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal

The Lowndes County Board of Education is taking steps including the use of a new diagnostic tool to help improve the performance of principals, teachers and students.
Lowndes County School Superintendent Dr. Daniel Boyd reported on new data software called “Data Dashboard” at last Thursday’s regular board of education meeting held at the central office in Hayneville.
Boyd said the school system is going to a school-wide district format for lesson plans in which teachers will place their lesson plans on the Internet where parents or anyone interested can access them.
He also said there will also be numerous walkthroughs by a special instructional support team including himself, Dr. Deann K. Stone in charge of K-5 literacy, Jason D Burroughs in charge of K-5 math, Bernard Mitchell in charge of 6-12 math and Kimberly M. Washington in charge of professional development and oversight of the principal monitoring tools.
Boyd said instructional assistants will report to Mitchell at the central office and principals will be involved in data meetings.
He said all of this would be used to help come up with solutions.
Boyd said Data Dashboard software, a diagnostic tool, was designed for and by the Lowndes County School District. He explained it will allows the board to look at student data, teacher data, school data and school district data in a manner that “will truly revolutionize the way we look at data.”
He said the tool will allow the board “to pinpoint where any deficits exists and provide for professional development for the teachers or the principals and also target the students who are not doing as well as they should.”
He said the tool has been in use since the beginning of the school year, “But this year we are going to really unveil it and use it in ways we’ve never used it before.”
Actions:
Among actions taken by the board last Thursday, contracts were approved between the board and:
Daneen Hale (Summer Homebound Program Services, select students), Montgomery Area Health Authority Satellite Office (mental health services for Head Start Program), Health Services Inc. (screenings and assessment for select Head Start Program students),
Debra M. Williams (technical support and professional development, Human Resources Department), Kimberly J. Rainey -Rainey-Day Strategies (education and family and community services consulting, Head Start Program), Beth Corum (professional development (Aug. 5 and 12, select Head Start Program personnel), American Red Cross of Central Alabama (professional development, select Head Start Program personnel), Dr. David Bicard – Behavior Analysts of Central Alabama LLC (behavior therapy services, select students),
Matissa Moorer (transportation services, Hayneville Middle School student) and Laresa Managan (transportation services, Hayneville Middle School student).
The board also approved:
•A partnership for 2012-13 with the Lowndes County Head Start Program (services for children with disabilities).
•A dental services agreement with Dr. Jacob Griffin (select Head Start Program students).
•Bid extensions for Cook’s Pest Control and Borden Dairy Company of Alabama.
•Bread Bid for Sara Lee Bakery.
•Amendment #2 of FY2013 annual budget.
•May 2013 financial statement for Lowndes County Head Start Program.
•Revenue and expenditures report, financial statement and payroll register for May 2013 based on reconciled statements.
•Personnel report.
The next meeting will be held Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. at the central office.