Whitfield County Schools will likely pay Dalton Public Schools this year to help the county system develop a literacy program designed to improve students’ reading skills.
Officials from both school systems said they’re still working out the details of the arrangement.
The city school system is entering its eighth year using the Literacy Collaborative, a framework that trains teachers to use intensive techniques to help students develop strong reading and writing skills. Whitfield County Schools is investing $800,000 to begin the program in its six elementary schools with the highest poverty levels: Antioch, Cedar Ridge, Dawnville, Dug Gap, Eastside and Valley Point. There are plans to eventually expand the initiative to all the elementary and middle schools.
Whitfield Superintendent Danny Hayes said the county school system will pay the city school system for the cost of using their trainers, one of whom could be his wife, Dalton school system Assistant Superintendent Rhonda Hayes.
Literacy Collaborative is an internationally recognized framework with origins in Australia. Teachers in the program are required to go through training by certified staff — of which the county school system has none. Dalton is the only other local school system that uses Literacy Collaborative, and it’s one of only about 300 nationwide, officials said.
Rhonda Hayes oversees the initiative for the city school system, but officials from both school systems said the Hayeses will not receive personal financial benefits from the arrangement. The county’s reimbursement funds will go into the city school system’s general budget rather than to the individuals who provide training to the county schools’ educators, officials said.
Danny Hayes said the county school system already has a similar situation with the Reading Recovery program, which provides time for teachers to work one-on-one with struggling first-graders. Dalton educator Cindy Fujimoto spent a year on the city school system’s payroll while being trained at Georgia State University in the program. She now trains teachers in Reading Recovery and works with students in schools throughout both school systems. Hayes said the county school system reimburses the city school system for time spent training their teachers in Reading Recovery, another program Rhonda Hayes indirectly oversees in her role as assistant superintendent.
“Whatever time they spend with us (in Literacy Collaborative), we will supplement them back that money,” Danny Hayes said.
Whitfield Board of Education Chairman Louis Fordham said officials prefer to keep the spending local anyhow. If Dalton’s literacy trainers aren’t used, the county school system would have to send teachers to training out of town or pay other out-of-town trainers to come here. Danny Hayes said staying local is more cost-effective.
Rhonda Hayes said at least some of the training will come at no cost to the county school system. For example, organizers invited Whitfield educators to attend one of the training sessions already planned later in the school year for city teachers since no additional cost would be involved for county teachers to attend also.
Rhonda Hayes said she spent 10 years as a Literacy Collaborative teacher and trainer before she came to Dalton Public Schools. She also wrote her doctoral dissertation on a topic related to literacy.
Local News
June 22, 2012
Dalton, Whitfield school officials working out details of literacy model
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