SALISBURY — North Rowan Elementary School and Erwin Middle School got the go-ahead to implement their “renewal” plans from the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education on Monday night.

The two schools join the list of 22 schools that are now in the implementation phase of renewal, a state-approved initiative that gives them flexibility in curriculum, calendar, staffing and other areas.

Renewal plans for 12 more schools still need to be approved. Chief Strategy Officer Andrew Smith said the goal is to have the plans approved by the end of the year.

Katherine Bryant, the North Rowan Elementary principal, presented the vision her school devised, which includes providing a learning environment in which students display creativity, a sense of understanding and compassion for others while pursuing their passions.

Teachers looking at multiple data points will be able to identity areas of greatest need or with the largest learning deficits. The school’s renewal team looked at proficiency and began seeing results for students in mathematics and reading.

“We believe that is important as an indicator to where our students are as a reader, mathematician, writer, scientist and historian,” Bryant said. “We believe when students are able to understand and be able to explain where they are, then that will help us know when they are learning.”

The school will create a schedule that incorporates 30 minutes of literacy intervention and 30 minutes of math intervention daily and 90 minutes of planning time for teachers to create lessons and identify students’ learning gaps.

School board member Travis Allen commended Bryant on the realistic goals she created for the elementary school. They include by 2021 decreasing the number of absences and tardiness by 10%, decreasing office referral by 10%, increasing literacy proficiency by 10% and increasing math proficiency by 10%.

Allen, however, didn’t want the disciplinary goal to prevent teachers from writing up office referrals when a student may be disruptive to learning.

Bryant said she understood the concern and the teachers currently work with students to understand their emotions or the students go to an alternative classroom.

Allen also questioned whether the 90-minute planning period will be used as intended. Bryant said the goal of the time is to reduce teachers taking their work home. On Mondays and Fridays, the teachers have time to themselves, and other days they will meet with other teachers or the principal.

Bryant said the teachers lead by example by demonstrating compassion and empathy so that when a teacher needs time to decompress, another teacher will fill in.

Erwin Middle School Principal Daniel Herring said his renewal plan focuses on integrated learning. The vision is creating a school culture in which students and staff are actively invested in themselves, in the school and in the community. The needs identified include culture, scheduling and curriculum.

“What we need now are students that are ready and prepared to take on the technology world, … a world with innovation and communication, a world where everything is intertwined and everything is changing,” Herring said.

The goals for the 2019-20 school year are to improve the positive culture at Erwin Middle and decrease behavioral infractions, along with integrating learning teams to focus on a holistic learning curriculum that encompasses academic standards, interpersonal skills and life passions.

Herring said he wants to ensure mastery — that the student got an A not because he did the work but he understood the content.

Board member Susan Cox said this concept of learning should have been in schools 30 to 40 years.

Both North Rowan Elementary and Erwin Middle have budget flexibility under the renewal plan.