The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

August 1, 2012

Enthusiasm contagious at NECPS open house

Staff Writer MIRANDA BAINES

TARBORO — The enthusiasm at the former Tarboro Edgecombe Academy was contagious at Monday’s “back-to-school” night for Edgecombe County’s new public charter school, North East Carolina Prep School (NECPS). Parents and teachers alike expressed their excitement about today’s first day of school.

“The energy in this place is fabulous,” said Bernice Pitt, a member of NECPS’ board of directors. “The teachers are happy, the parents are happy, the students are happy.”

Several parents cited smaller class size as their reason for enrolling their children at NECPS.

“We wanted a smaller environment for middle school,” said Erika Trevathan, mother of rising fifth grader Hailey Trevathan.

“We like the small classes, and the educational focus, in terms of individual learning,” said Ann Marie Van Den Hurk, She and her husband, Jeroen, attended the back-to-school night with their son, Martin, who began kindergarten today.

NECPS’ first year enrollment is a state-limited 387 and the school will offer instruction to students in kindergarten through the eighth grade. In accordance with its charter, the school will add a grade level each year until it reaches grade 12.

“Parents have been so responsive and supportive from the moment we finalized our enrollment,” said Taro Knight, director of communications/community outreach for NECPS. “I think that’s one of the keys to education – parental involvement.”

Tiffany Bridgers said attending NECPS would provide a welcome change and a “new experience” for her 5-year-old daughter, Angel, while Melissa Anderson said she thinks NECPS is a “better opportunity” for her daughters Mackenna, a rising fourth grader, and Haley, a rising seventh grader.

Providing another educational choice for Edgecombe County parents and children is exactly what John Westberg, executive director of NECPS, had in mind when he began working on the school.

“They [students] are going to have a solid foundation so they can find their path in life,” said Westberg. He said the school curriculum will stress “the basics – reading, writing and basic math,” while incorporating different learning strategies, based on Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

“It’s about learning the style of each student. It’s a much more interactive way of learning, which is more fun for the students,” said Misti Robinson, who teaches math to students in grades 6-8. For instance, students can work together to create a song about a particular math-related topic and they can use that as a tool to help each other learn, said Robinson. Musical/rhythmic is one of the eight multiple intelligences in Gardner’s theory. Shirley Morton, fifth grade language arts and social studies teacher, plans to do an activity with her students called “The Real Me,” which will help the students discover their learning style and how they can translate that learning style into a career. She also said she plans to do a number of team activities with her students, putting them into different groups often so they can learn from their classmates.

“We’re going to be doing a whole lot of moving around,” said Morton. “It’s going to be exciting.”

Morton looks forward to working with her long-term teaching partner, Linda Baggett, at NECPS this year. Morton and Baggett, fifth grade math and science teacher, have been working as a team for 30 years. A long-term educator, Baggett said she has the privilege of teaching the children of some of her former students. At Monday’s back-to-school night, Grace Connor, daughter of Baggett’s former student, Laura Brown Lancaster, examined the beakers and other equipment she will use during the first week of school to review “process skills,” such as measurement and classification. Baggett said she is a proponent of “hands-on learning.”

Kindergarten teacher Beverly Fellows said her plan for the school year is to challenge her students with fun, yet meaningful activities, with the ultimate goal of making them “lifelong learners.”

“We try very hard to make learning fun. We want them to learn through play,” said Fellows.

Harper Doughtie, Van Den Hurk and Bridgers engaged in play in the “kitchen” station in Fellows’ classroom during the back-to-school night. Doughtie’s mother Vicky said she is happy that Fellows is her daughter’s teacher this year and that NECPS has smaller class sizes.

Pitt said parental involvement is the “number one goal” of NECPS and she believes the new school is a project that will benefit the community as a whole. She said the parents had gone “above and beyond” the call of duty to prepare for the first day of school, spending the previous Saturday painting the building and working on the grounds.

NECPS will operate at its temporary location at least until the end of the first semester, with the goal of moving to a permanent location at the Mary Frances Center on Howard Avenue Extension in January, according to Knight.





 

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