Roanoke Rapids Graded School District officially kicked off the beginning of the 2024-25 school year on August 15, 2024, during our annual convocation ceremony, so I am delighted to return to writing the weekly Yellow Jacket Report to share about the wonderful opportunities and events happening in our school district. 

I hope that all of our readers have had a delightful summer and enjoyed time with their loved ones.

Every year convocation marks the beginning of a new chapter, filled with opportunities to inspire, educate, and make a difference in the lives of our students, and we recognize the incredible dedication and commitment each of our staff (regardless of job title) brings to our schools because it is his or her hard work and passion that are the foundation of our students’ success. 

In addition to our staff, we were honored to be joined by some special guests including the entire student body of Roanoke Rapids Early College who began school on August 6, 2024; our JROTC cadets who presented the colors; members of our Roanoke Rapids High School and Chaloner Middle School football teams and cheerleaders who cheered for us; our Roanoke Rapids Marching Yellow Jackets who played special music; senior Lydia Carroll who sang the national anthem; Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Michael Williams, Carol Dean, and Michael Salanik; City Councilman Rex Stainback; Smurfit West Rock representative Karen Connell; Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce leadership Ginny Lewis and Melissa Armstrong; Mayor Emery Doughtie; and House of Representative Elect Rodney Pierce. 

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Mayor Doughtie and Representative Elect Pierce spoke to our staff. 

Mayor Doughtie shared his thankfulness for our staff for the love and dedication that they share with our students even after they graduate and Representative Elect Pierce reminded us of the power of our work – as every other profession begins in a classroom.

In addition to reuniting with all of our staff for the new school year, we welcomed all new staff by location and celebrated the best of our best with five special recognitions. Support People of the Year are Michelle Ricks (Clara Hearne Teacher Assistant), Tammy Rodwell (Belmont Elementary Nurse), Julie Liverman (Manning Elementary Community Outreach Liaison), Cindy Boone (Chaloner Middle Administrative Assistant), Trina Boyd (RRHS Custodian), Keisha Moseley (RREC Administrative Assistant), Yolanda Devenshire (ACES Teacher Assistant), and Kim White (Central Office Administrative Assistant). CTE Teacher of the Year is LaShonda Wood. EC Teacher of Excellence is Lisa Garris. 

Beginning Teachers of the Year are Kelley Pfeil (Clara Hearne), Iesha Boone (Belmont Elementary), Cassidy Goff (Manning Elementary), Sydney Connell (Chaloner Middle), and Brianna Allen (RRHS). 

Teachers of the Year are Amy Parker (Clara Hearne), Alyson Brown (Belmont Elementary), Kristie Short (Manning Elementary), Terri Jones (Chaloner Middle), Sandy Eisenmenger (RRHS), Misty Faloretti (RREC), and Heather Dickens (ACES). Our District Beginning Teacher of the Year is Cassidy Goff (Manning Elementary), and our District Teacher of the Year is Amy Parker (Clara Hearne). 

We were honored to invite Cassidy’s mom and Amy’s husband and children to help us surprise them on stage. We are thankful for our sponsors who provided gifts for our Beginning Teacher of the Year and Teacher of the Year: Smurfit West Rock, Creative Designs, Tracy Story and Discount Tire, DrugCo Express, and Trafera.

Our 2024 Convocation’s theme was “Chase Excellence,” and I was honored to speak to everyone at the same time to share our vision for the upcoming school year, to recalibrate on expectations, and to inspire us for the year ahead. 

As I prepared for the keynote, I realized that this year was the seventeenth year I’ve attended a RRGSD Convocation and it was my fourth as superintendent. 

(While sometimes the days seem long, the years certainly fly!) 

I thought about the many fantastic accomplishments as well as the challenges that we have faced head-on and overcome together in those years. 

In preparing, I realized that the sentiments I’ve expressed over the last three Convocations were worth repeating in this year’s keynote address. 

In short, 2021 was about each of us being resilient as individuals and growing together (#TogetherWeSucceed); 2022 was about us living out our shared values, motto, mission, and vision (Vision 2035: “Together, we succeed by building opportunities and fostering community for each student to reach their full potential” and values of family, respect, honesty, and integrity); and 2023 was about us going back to the basics of our game plan and doing the important foundational things well (demonstrating encouragement and enthusiasm; improving attendance; teaching and growing social-emotional skills; setting, communicating, and enforcing expectations; and aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment).

We reflected on major accomplishments from 2023-24 including the following: (1) beginning The Yellow Jacket Report reaching our families and community for 40 weeks; (2) successfully advocating for $61,000 more in capital outlay funding by researching and explaining a more equitable funding method; (3) finishing major CTE updates so our students have more robust opportunities in welding, heavy equipment machinery operation, and health sciences as well as completing HVAC upgrades at three schools; (4) collaborating with the RRPD on active shooter drills, creating a Student Code of Conduct, implementing stricter child abuse reporting requirements and continuing to model being a heart-safe district with Project ADAM; (5) successfully creating the 2024-25 budget despite funding cuts, lower tax rates, declining enrollment, and the end of COVID-19 ESSER funds and managing our resources effectively to avoid a Reduction in Force (RIF) and having almost no employment vacancies; and (6) outpacing the entire state of North Carolina in growth in K-3 literacy according to our DIBELS 8 data, in every grade (K-3) and every subgroup! 

This amazing progress is due to the incredibly hard work our elementary teachers have done in completing their LETRS coursework and implementing practices aligned to the Science of Reading. 

A core element of Vision 2035 is for EVERY student to leave the early grades with strong foundational reading skills, so that they can truly read to learn for the rest of their lives. These data demonstrate that we are on the path to achieving that vision.

In welcoming staff, we explained that earlier this summer, we asked our principals to choose one word to exemplify the vision they have for their school in 2024-25 and to think about how they want to see that word in action on a daily basis. 

As the principals presented, they each shared their school word, Clara Hearne’s “TOGETHER”: Manning’s “SERVE”; Belmont’s “STRIVE”; Chaloner’s “URGENCY”; ACES’s “SYNERGY”; RRHS’s “FOCUS”; and RREC’s “UNITY.” 

During the keynote, I shared that our district word is EXCELLENCE. 

That word sets the highest expectation for each of us in our individual and collective work, is required to make Vision 2035 a reality, and, most importantly, every one of our students deserves it every day.

In order to chase excellence this year, we will continuously improve the things that we have in place. We know what to do. We know “how” to teach and “what” to teach. We know how to love our students and embrace our families and community. We know how to be honest and show respect and live with integrity.

Now, we just need to do these things every day in every interaction. 

To start chasing excellence, we will stop celebrating mediocrity and focus on having high expectations for everyone. 

Chasing excellence is difficult, but when we work together, we can do it. Just like we worked together to get through the pandemic, to rise out of low-performing district status, to pull ourselves up from truly difficult situations, we will work together to achieve excellence.

If we put all of our school words together, then together our words are more powerful. 

So here goes: “To achieve EXCELLENCE, we must work TOGETHER, STRIVE with URGENCY, and SERVE with unwavering FOCUS and UNITY, creating a SYNERGY that drives our success.” 

We will see our pre-kindergarten, alternative, elementary, middle, and high schools at the top of the state with all of the children we have as students because “Together We Succeed.” 

I have been truly honored to lead this incredible district and to work alongside such a talented and passionate team of educators in Roanoke Rapids Graded School District. Let’s chase excellence and make 2024-25 our best year yet!