ROWLAND — With a new principal and new superintendent in place, Southside-Ashpole Elementary School is weeks away from the start of school and putting the together the pieces for its second year under North Carolina’s Innovative School District.
James Ellerbe was named district superintendent in July and Kenneth Bowen will assume leadership of the school on Thursday. They are hiring teachers this week with Tony Helton, CEO of the private charter school operator Achievement for All Children, which provides day-to-day management of the school.
Ellerbe, Bowen and Helton were at Southside-Ashpole on Wednesday and were upbeat about the school and the district. Although scores on End-of-Grade tests are not available yet, one number stands out, Helton said.
“Student attendance was 92.4%,” Helton said. “That’s a great number. We’re shooting for 95%.”
This past year was challenging he said. It was a start-up year and Hurricane Florence cut out 24 schools days.
“We need all 180 days and an extra hour every day,” Helton said, referring to the extra hour Southside students spend at school every day. “The hurricane cut a month out of our school year, and we need every minute.
“It’s one thing to cut the calendar for high-performing schools, and another thing for under-performing schools.”
Southside-Ashpole will retain its operating model with the same curriculum. Students wear uniforms, attend school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and they have physical education, arts and character education every day.
Southside likely would have been closed this year by the Public Schools of Robeson County. With just 250 students and an aging building, it is costly to operate.
“Smaller schools have to stretch dollars farther and make smart decisions,” Helton said. “We have adequate funds.”
There is transformative legislation pending regarding the mission of the Innovative School, Ellerbe said. Ellerbe is the district’s third superintendent, and Southside is its only successful takeover.
“It’s not easy to start a school district from scratch, but we have the infrastructure to go forward now,” Ellerbe said. “This is my third visit to Rowland this month to meet with teacher and principal candidates and town leaders.
“Town leaders see ISD as a beacon of hope. This school would have been closed without us.”
The selection process for the district to take over schools may allow public school districts the opportunity to focus on their low-performing schools in advance. This contrasts with the takeover of Southside-Ashpole, which caught the Public Schools of Robeson County by surprise.
Ellerbe said the ISD and the takeover of Southside-Ashpole “has demonstrated that the state is intent on addressing the needs of low-performing schools.”
“We may provide strategies for districts to turnaround low-performing schools,” he said.
Ellerbe, a Marion, South Carolina, native and veteran, worked his way from bus driver to classroom teacher, to administrator to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. He worked to turnaround schools like Spring Lake Middle School and Halifax County Schools.
“I worked in affluent and impoverished schools,” Ellerbe said. “I am pleased with the State Board of Education’s emphasis on equity, and I hope more schools will ask us to help.”
Bowen is a Scotland County native and an alumnus of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He has worked in classrooms and in administration in both North Carolina and South Carolina.
Bowen also worked for a national education consulting company, and he comes to Southside-Ashpole from UNCP, where he was coordinator for grants and leadership in the School of Education.
