Superintendent Mike Moore encouraged community involvement, spoke on the difficulty of finding teachers, stressed the importance of the career center, and answered a variety of questions during a presentation at the Bruce Chamber of Commerce meeting Monday.
Moore opened talking about the quality of teachers here in Calhoun County. He noted that this school district is better than most in terms of teachers with advanced degrees.
“We had several more earn national boards this year,” Moore said.
But finding new teachers to fill positions each school year is becoming increasingly difficult, he said.
“With teacher pay the way it is, not just us but everybody is looking for teachers,” Moore said. “The testing and stress that we’re putting them under, the pay isn’t where it needs to be and they burn out.”
Mike Moore speaking to the Bruce Chamber of Commerce.
Moore explained that students that graduate from college with science and math degrees teach for a year or two, but then get distressed with the demands of the system and leave the profession for other careers where they can make more money.
He said administrators with the teaching program at Mississippi State University recently told him they have half the number of students entering the teaching profession than they did just a few years ago.
“It’s like that at every college and (every school district) is grasping for those few graduates,” Moore said.
He said the district now sends representatives to every college in the state trying to recruit potential teachers for the future.
“We’ll probably have to expand out even farther,” Moore said.
He explained their preference is to hire teachers with Calhoun roots and they recruit those students early in their college careers.
“When we can get people that are from here going into teaching, that’s better. They’ll have more of an interest if they live in this community, go to church in this community and shop in this community.”
Moore talked at length about the success of the school district’s Career and Technical Center.
“We started out with four programs and we now have almost 10 – building instruction, automotive, computer design, nursing, tool and dye, teacher academy, engineering/robotics, law enforcement and digital exploration in industry.”
He told a story of a woman at his church telling him her son went through the two-year program at the Career Center while earning a “special needs certificate” from his high school upon graduation.
“She said he now works at Ashley and brings home more money than she does and she’s been teaching for 25 years,” Moore said. “He has a 401K, insurance. We have a tremendous amount of success stories like that in this county. College isn’t for everybody.”
Moore said his concern is they are beginning to “outgrow” the Career Center. He explained there are approximately 300 students at Bruce High School, 225 at Calhoun City, and less than 200 at Vardaman.
“We run 380 a day through the Career Center. That’s incredible,” Moore said. “Anytime you can get hands on experience it makes a big difference. It’s important for the kids, but the program is growing incredibly fast.”
Moore said among the biggest accomplishments for the district during his tenure has been the improved Internet connectivity that was just achieved last year.
“We were basically dead in the water with all the technology we had with no reliable internet to run it,” Moore said.
He said the new system that is now in place will introduce remarkable technology for teachers and students.
“Our teachers are excited about what we’re going to be able to do now. All of our data on every child is driven by technology. You have to know where that child scores on all these screener tests to know how to move that child to the next level. It’s difficult to explain just how important this new technology is for us.”
He noted a new program that involved a set of 30 Chrome Books (laptop computers) that will be in Bruce (4th-7th grades) and Calhoun City (5th-7th) this year. Classes will have access to these so every student gets one and they can access unlimited technology, he said.
“We’re working toward a goal to put one in every child’s hands in the district,” he said.
Moore thanked all who volunteer their time to assist at the schools and encouraged more to come participate.
“It’s important that our towns work with our schools and we build relationships with the towns. Y’all are so important to what we do. We have community help from everywhere,” he said. “Just last week we had churches and area civic clubs feed all the teachers. What that does is blend us and the community. It makes a difference in what we’re trying to do.”
Moore said many look at Calhoun schools as a small district, but relative to this area, it really isn’t.
“We have a tremendous school system here and are blessed in a lot of ways. We have more students than Chickasaw altogether and they have three superintendents and three separate school districts. Our teachers do a lot with what we have here. We try to be as resourceful as we can.”
He closed the presentation taking questions from the audience. The first was about athletics and the outlook for the new school year.
“We added soccer at Vardaman and think that’s going to be real successful for us,” Moore said.
He noted Ken Chandler taking over as football coach at Bruce and said he’s optimistic of what he will bring to the program.
“The transition has gone really, really well,” Moore said. “I try not to get into that too much. I encourage you to get involved and help them and be a part of the program. He’s been successful every where he’s been, so I think he’ll do well here.”
Moore was also asked if cursive writing is still being taught in school.
He said that it is, but not as much as it once was because of time constraints.
“We get blueprints from the state we have to stay on top of to keep up with state standards. It doesn’t allow for a lot of extra time,” Moore said.
He said teachers still try to teach cursive when they can, but time demands are challenging. He said grammar is much the same.
“We are doing a great job with reading, but not as well with grammar as I’d like. We still need to teach grammar and cursive writing, but the time is an issue for teachers.”