• Category 1

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: pre k - 4
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 18
    Student Enrollment: 367
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 20.7%
    White/Caucasian: 79.3%
    Hispanic: 0%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:17
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1921
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Scott Morris
  • CONTACT:
    1109 Morgantown Ave
    Fairmont, WV 26554
    304-777-7635
    mkewilli@k12.wv.us
Jayenne Elementary School
Fairmont, WV
The atmosphere is welcoming for both staff and students.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Programs in place at Jayenne Elementary to ensure family involvement include our PTO, PAWS Store, and our JAGS backpack program. As with every public school, our PTO is run by parent volunteers who donate countless hours each year to ensure the success of school fund raisers, student events, special presentations, and general school improvement. The PTO also operates the monthly School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention & Supports rewards program. Parent volunteers staff the PAWS (Prepare, Attend, Work, Succeed) Store providing small, token rewards for meeting behavioral goals while interacting with students as they make their selections. Our backpack program is staffed by volunteers who come to the school every Friday to fill bags with food items for students. These food items are donated by community organizations and individuals, and the individuals packing and distributing the student bags are members of a local church who faithfully serve the needs of the students in our school.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
The most successful activity that we initiate at Jayenne Elementary has been our School Carnival. Typically held in May before the end of the school year, this event is organized by our PTO and staffed by parents and school staff. Hours of volunteer hours are logged, and the community turn-out is impressive. The family atmosphere of our school is showcased, and our community ties are strengthened as our veteran families welcome our newer families to the Jayenne community and involve them in this important facet of our school.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our first goal for the 2020-2021 school year is to successfully implement a “walk-to” intervention model that will meaningfully address the individual needs of our students. Armed with current academic, demographic, and behavioral data, this will be accomplished by revising our instructional schedules to best utilize the expertise of our classroom, Special Education, and Title I personnel using focused, small-group interventions. The membership in these flexible groups will change as the data indicate a change in need. It is our hope that the assessment data we receive in May 2021 will reflect the desired outcome of improved student performance. Our second goal is to extend and improve the intensive writing intervention instruction in the 3rd and 4th grades. The intent is not merely to raise scores on the summative assessment in May 2021; our intent is to prepare students with a deeply ingrained knowledge of the writing process and having the ability to write well in the years ahead.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The single most important factor about our school that could and should be replicated in other schools is the family-oriented culture that is found at Jayenne. School culture is a difficult thing to isolate and even more difficult to construct, but facilitating an atmosphere of respect, inclusion, buy-in, and genuine interest in the needs of every stakeholder is the key to our success. It starts with leadership and vision, and it requires working together in both large and small teams to create the family atmosphere we enjoy at Jayenne.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Our school-wide writing emphasis has had the greatest positive effect. The intensive 40-minute writing intervention program began in January 2019. Grade levels were asked to identify groups of twelve students to rotate in and out of small-group sessions conducted by one of our Title I Reading Specialists. Classroom teachers planned intensive writing instruction for the remaining students while the specialist worked with those struggling students selected for remediation in one of the school’s computer labs. That specialist modeled writing techniques and focused on writing skills beginning at the sentence level and moving through developing strong paragraphs and multiple-paragraph essays. As students would reach a predetermined level of mastery (5 out of 8 points on a rubric), other students would enter the small group for this intensive intervention. By year’s end, those students in the small, intensive intervention groups gained an average of 3.6 points on the 8-point scale.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Professional development activities are integrated into the fabric of our school routine. Our program includes four after school Title I Toolbox sessions and three grade-level data team meetings. Our toolbox sessions are comprised of discussions about time management, designing instruction, school culture, writing techniques, current topics in the news, and articles of interest that impact student learning and instructional delivery. The data team sessions are scheduled during the instructional day with subs provided so classroom teachers can participate in these half-day sessions. Grade level teams closely examine and analyze various data available from various sources, and decisions regarding interventions, referrals, and behavioral concerns are made within the groups. These sessions include in-depth discussion about individual student achievement, instructional practice, and professional development topics culled from the needs assessment, teacher surveys, and school strategic plan
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Perhaps the most notable use of data to improve student achievement has been in the area of writing. Our county has instituted a series of three formal benchmarks throughout the year. The first, given in late August, provides us with a snapshot of our strengths and weaknesses. This benchmark is not just for our 3rd and 4th grade students; every grade level participates, and the data is then analyzed to determine our course of action for the year. Last year, our data showed significant weakness in the area of writing informational and opinion pieces. Our challenge for the year became implementing intensive writing instruction that focused on using the 5-step writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writing projects that met stringent criteria set out in our adopted rubrics. The results were gratifying. Jayenne Elementary students placed among the highest ELA scores in the state of West Virginia.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Everyone involved in a public-school system understands the vital importance of school culture. At Jayenne Elementary, the culture can best be described as a family. Ours is one of those schools where teachers remain for several years. The atmosphere is welcoming for both staff and students, and this family feeling is maintained through personalized interaction in the areas of student achievement, parent involvement, professional development, and school leadership. Like many elementary schools in our region, we have a high percentage of transience. Even though our student population is in continuous flux, when a new student arrives to enroll, they are welcomed into our Jayenne family. Effort is made to help they assimilate into our classes and routines and to build personal connections with their new classmates and school staff.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: pre k - 4
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 18
    Student Enrollment: 367
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 20.7%
    White/Caucasian: 79.3%
    Hispanic: 0%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:17
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1921
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Scott Morris
  • CONTACT:
    1109 Morgantown Ave
    Fairmont, WV 26554
    304-777-7635
    mkewilli@k12.wv.us