Staff report
Rowan-Salisbury School System’s class of 2010 will still have to complete graduation projects, despite the state’s decision to delay that requirement.
The Board of Education voted unanimously earlier this week to go ahead with obligating this year’s high school juniors to complete the projects, which many have already started.
The state unveiled the concept in 2007, with next year’s seniors the first to need them completed for graduation.
For a graduation project, a student, working with a mentor, chooses the topic, writes a research paper, creates a product and portfolio, then presents the work to a panel of judges.
Amid criticism of the hardship such time-consuming projects place on some students and the cost to school systems, some legislators have proposed eliminating the project and the state school board voted in April to delay implementing it for a year.
With the state pressure off, some school systems have eliminated the project requirement for 2010, some have made it optional and others have decided to keep it.
In other business, the board:
– Approved a policy identifying types of printed materials that can be distributed to students and to staff;
– Reviewed dropout prevention measures in grades K-8;
– Approved on first reading changes in the 2009-2010 Code of Conduct;
– Reviewed changes in EOG testing dates;
– Approved C2 Contractors’ bid for installing security cameras at Henderson Independent, North Rowan High and West Rowan High schools and Horizons Unlimited. Due to low bids, two middle schools, North Rowan and China Grove, will also receive cameras. Salisbury High and Knox Middle already have them. South and East high schools will receive cameras in the future.
– Approved bleacher renovation for South, West and East high schools and Erwin and West middle schools. Charron Sports Services of Anderson, S.C., will do the work.