School board hears update on teacher’s training days

“You are not an island anymore in this district,” Rachel Yarbrough

by MATT HUGHES

J-E News Editor

On Monday night Dr. Rachel Yarbrough, who will assume the superintendent of Webster County Schools position on July 1, updated the school board on how the district’s teachers spent their Professional Learning Days last week.

“We planned some really purposeful meetings for Webster County’s certified staff,” she said. “They laid the foundation for teaching moving forward.”

The focus of the training sessions seemed to focus on one particular goal, bringing all the teachers from Webster County’s various schools together as one. This new approach is intended to streamline the sharing of ideas and information between the schools, especially for teachers working in the same grade and subject areas.

“You are not an island anymore in this district,” Yarbrough said. “We are a team.”

To further the goal of bringing the schools together, Dr. Yarbrough introduced the members of her newly created instructional coaches team. Those coaches will work as a team both with each other, and with teachers at the district’s schools. They will provide support to both school level administrators and teachers in the classroom.

“The actual assignment of these individuals will be based on learning need and the experience of the group,” Yarbrough said in April. “The model teams are in the schools four days a week and then come together to work as a group on the fifth day. If we need two coaches in one location, we would have some flexibility to do so.”

The new instructional coaches are:

•Cindy Stubblefield (WCMS and Clay)

•Anita Johnson (Dixon)

•Susan Duncan Owens (Providence)

•Marley Stiener (Sebree) (EDITOR"S NOTE this name was incorrectly reported in the print edition as Dyner)

Dr. Yarbrough also introduced the board to the newly hired director of pupil personnel. Todd Marshall will leave the principal’s position at Todd County Central High School to return to Webster County, where he previously served as Assistant Principal and Athletic Director of WCHS and principal at Slaughters Elementary.

The board of education also honored 11 employees who had filed their retirement paperwork to be effective June 30, 2014.