Wise Primary School, located at 323 Railroad Ave. S.E., Wise is a Pre-K through Grade Four facility housing approximately six hundred and sixty-two students with a professional and highly qualified paraprofessional staff of eighty people. Mr. Mark Giles is the Principal and Mr. Bill Craft is the Assistant Principal.

The school has been fully accredited by the Virginia Department of Education for the past three years (2003 – 2004, 2004-2005, 2005 – 2006). Wise Primary School has made AYP for the last two years (2004–2005, 2005-2006). Our school has been a member of SACS and SACS/CASI for thirty years.

Wise Primary School is an institution that strives to meet the needs of students across the educational spectrum. Students come from various ethnic groups and economic conditions. The school presently has four Asians, six Hispanics, eight African Americans and five hundred and eighty-one Caucasian students. Approximately forty-nine percent of our students come from low-income families and receive free or reduced price lunch.

Our school strives to meet the needs of all students by offering programs such as Special Education Classes, Gifted and Limited English Proficient. Presently, there are forty-eight students from grades two through grade four participating in the Gifted Program. Screening for grade one students will take place second semester.  There are nine more students on the monitoring list for 2006 – 2007. The school has six LEP Students. Eighty-three students receive Special Education and/or Speech Language Services. Title I and Reading Resource classes are also offered.  Wise Primary School uses SOL (Standards of Learning) and PALS testing to help plan for student learning.

Students in Kindergarten through Grade two are screened using the PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening) Test. This test helps identify students who may need extra help in Reading. The Reading Resource Teacher may work with students identified through the PALS testing.

Attendance is also a factor in student achievement and in meeting AYP. Wise Primary has consistently achieved 95% attendance for the last three years.

Students are praised for their success through Honor Roll (Grades two through four), Bug Roll (Bringing Up Grades) which praises students for improvements in all areas: academics, behavior, and attendance, and 95% attendance and Perfect Attendance Awards.

Wise Primary School has been aiming high to broaden school effectiveness in various ways. We want to continue our expectations for student learning while staying in compliance with state benchmarks. We recognize the state benchmarks for reach standard and strive to meet yearly passing scores on the SOL’s. Over the past three years our scores have generally improved in all areas. We continue to improve as apparent by making AYP.

Our school ensures desired results by monitoring student performance using several resources. Through the use of three computer labs, three title teachers, four special education teachers, one Reading Resource Teacher, SOL Remediation, Teaching Assistants, the After-School Program, utilizing Thinking Maps, Curriculum Framework, blueprints, Pacing Guides for every subject and grade level, and the PACE Program, we try to address the varying degrees of student ability. Faculty members are consistently working diligently to improve teaching and learning. Most of our faculty have completed Marzano Training and incorporate its aspects into their classrooms. All of our teachers have completed various technology classes to help expand their use of available technology found in the classrooms. All teachers have access to Smart Boards, classroom computers, and the Internet to broaden their teaching while enhancing student learning. Our teachers also take part in professional development during the school year. They attend workshops, Math and Reading Conferences, and take college classes. Faculty makes use of textbook websites and a very resourceful Technology Resource Teacher. In order for our special education students to succeed, we have collaborative classrooms in kindergarten through fourth grade.

We are very fortunate to have one hundred percent of our faculty who are highly qualified. The school board, using a process requiring that the teacher hold a valid Virginia Certificate, recruited our teachers. Promising teachers are recruited through job fairs, newspaper classifieds, school postings, and websites. The hiring process involves an application and interviews. After teachers are hired the School Board Office and the principal provide them with new-teacher orientation, monthly meetings, a mentor and observation for their first three years of teaching.

Some of the Wise Primary School’s Policies and procedures continually improve by adopting new textbooks every 5 – 6 years and updating pacing guides. Teacher observations, which occur every 2 years, give teachers the opportunity to state three goals to achieve during a given year. This allows teachers to improve their teaching practices based upon their learning experiences.  With the cooperation of teachers, staff and the students, Wise Primary School will continue to accomplish its full expectations and remain an effective school.

Wise Primary School is located in southwest Virginia in the town of Wise. Wise is a residential and college town located on U.S. Route 23, which serves as a county seat of Wise County. With an elevation of two thousand four hundred and fifty-four feet, it is the highest town in the county. The average temperature of the area is thirty-six degrees in January and seventy-three degrees in July. With an average precipitation of fifty inches a year, it is one of the wettest areas in the State of Virginia

Wise Primary School, part of the Wise County public school system, serves a student population of six hundred and sixty-nine Pre-k through fourth grade students in the southwestern portion of Virginia. Median household income in this rural community is twenty-eight thousand five hundred and thirty one collars with employment opportunities concentrated in the coal mining industry along with many locally owned businesses. The Wise County Industrial Park is the host to several area industries. Wise County School System, Wise County Health Department, The Clinch Valley Ranger Station, The District Office of Virginia Department of Highways, Sykes, and the Wise County Court House provide employment for area residents.

University of Virginia’s College at Wise, originally called Clinch Valley College, is located in Wise. It is a four-year liberal arts college. Many of the college’s students are involved in the Wise Schools. Wise County offers many local regional events for students, their families, and neighboring residence at the Performing Arts Center located at J.W. Adams Combined School, located within fifteen miles of the town of Wise. There are two public libraries, which offer many seasonal events and activities for students in our region. In addition Wise Primary is located less than an hour’s drive from many museums and places of cultural significance.

Wise Primary, a Wise County School, is located at 323 Railroad Avenue S.E. The building was first occupied in the 1968 – 1969 school year housing grades one through four. Wise Primary is now a Pre-K through Grade Four facility housing six hundred and sixty-nine students and a professional staff of ninety-nine. Dr. Sandra Birchfield is the principal and Mr. Bill Craft is the assistant principal.

According to the most recent estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau, Wise County’s Population is around forty-one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, with approximately thirty-five hundred living in the town of Wise. The median household income for the town of Wise is twenty-eight thousand five hundred and thirty-one dollars compared to Wise County at twenty-six thousand one hundred and forty-nine dollars. The percentage of families in Wise with children under the age of eighteen, who live below the poverty level, is about thirteen percent. The median family income for the town of Wise is approximately thirty-six thousand eight hundred and seventy-five dollars. The median family income for the county is thirty two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight dollars. Our student population lives in poverty stricken households to a degree higher than the national average. Roughly fifty percent of the student body at Wise Primary qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Surveys will be conducted of students and parents to determine how many parents graduated from high school or obtained an equivalency. It will also determine how many parents are attending college or have a college degree or higher. The current graduation rate in Wise County is sixty-two and a half percent. The state’s average graduation rate is eighty one and one-half percent. Surveys will also be conducted on the faculty and staff to help improve parental involvement within the school.

The funding to continue the current level of educational opportunities at Wise Primary comes from local tax revenues, the state of Virginia and sales from the state’s lottery. Supplemental funding also comes from the federal government. Additional funding for technology, supplies, student activities and services, and other academic incentives comes from many community based organizations such as; the P.T.A., V.F.W., Lions Club, Pro-Art, Appalachian Children’s Theatre, Kiwanis Club, Lonesome Pine on Youth, etc.. Many local businesses stay regularly involved in the school community.

Wise Primary School currently serves 662 students from Pre-K to Fourth grade. At the present time we have four Pre-K programs, and six Kindergartens, First, Second, Third, and Fourth grade classrooms. We also have one multi-handicapped classroom. A breakdown of the enrollment is as follows: Pre-K – sixty-four students, Kindergarten – one hundred and thirty-three students, First grade – one hundred and twenty-two students, Second grade – one hundred and nineteen students, third grade one hundred and ten students and one hundred and fourteen Fourth grade students.

The instructional staff consists of fifty-one teachers and two administrators. Dr. Birchfield our Principal and Mr. Craft our Assistant Principal, thirty-four classroom teachers in grades Pre-K thru Fourth, three Title I Teachers, four Special Education Teachers, one Guidance Counselor, one Reading Resource Teacher, one fourth grade Resource Teacher, one Interpreter, four Resource Teachers (P.E., Computer, Library, and Music), Speech Language Pathologist, and one technology Instructor. We also have twenty-seven teaching assistants ranging from Homeless Teaching Assistant to Special Education Assistants.

We are guided by Virginia’s Standards of Learning. In developing pacing guides, the SOL’s are used as the framework. For our students to continue to succeed information is continually being

Analyzed and reevaluated. We continue to make great strides as evident by successfully making AYP and the percent passing the SOL Test.

Along with teacher input and information from AYP and SOL Scores Wise Primary School also incorporates other testing measures to assist in identifying areas for improvement. The are: Early Literacy, Star Reading, Flanagan, Fox in a Box, On the Mark, Developmental Reading Assessment and Pals.

For Wise Primary School to continue on the path of success all stakeholders must maintain and use all obtainable resources. The administration, faculty, staff, and parents will work together for the continued success of the student.