Harnett principals report achievements and concerns

With full transparency, principals reported achievements and concerns at the Sept. 15 Harnett County School Board work session.

Jen Black – Harnett Central Middle, Principal of the Year

Proficiency rates increased in reading and math.

Concerns are that the white subgroup had negative 3.98% growth, and AIG students had negative 1.43% growth, and there was 2.46% negative growth in math.

“Need to clean up some of our core growth a little bit,” Black said.

The school received a Golden Leaf Grant for over a five-year period. They are providing a survey for parents in Oct. to steer the focus. The grant opened up a math program, and representatives are modeling lessons on Thursday for teachers and international teachers.

They are focusing on high order thinking and rigor to support math growth.

Jamie West – Coats Elementary

Students in the fourth grade met growth.

The EC department met growth.

West had attendance concerns with the 26% absentee rates for students and teachers.

West said it was just a matter of informing them of the importance of attendance. They are tracking data to meet problems and celebrating steady attendance.

They check in with classrooms two to three times a week and provide feedback.

“Walked in first few couple of weeks of school, I thought, man, there’s definitely things we can improve on,” West said about needing to improve structure, so it is “not crazy.”

They now use maps to meet West’s safety focus.

Dr. Calvetta Beard – Dunn Elementary

She is proud of raising the composite score six points, and they are only nine points away from a C score.

They received a grant for a comprehensive program.

Math proficiencies are on the rise. The third graders met growth.

Economically disadvantaged students and the disabled did not meet growth, but did improve.

“Historically, those two groups have never met growth,” Beard said.

Concerns are third-grade reading, students with disabilities not meeting growth, and maintaining math proficiencies.

“Do not want to slip back,” Beard said about adding daily reading programs and students having data notebooks to track progress.

Nick Weeks – Coats-Erwin Middle

“We are seven points away from being a C school,” Weeks said about rising from an F to a D.

All subgroups met growth or exceeded.

“We focus on every student in the building,” Weeks said.

The school is down from 1,000 incidents to 591 incidents last year.

Math was down to 0.09% from 1.16% proficiency.

The eighth-grade science students scored 46% proficiency.

The goal is to get back to the basics and improve teacher retention.

Erwin Middle School has eight teacher vacancies.

Marshall Jones – Triton High School

Triton exceeded growth by one point. All students met growth. Multilanguage increased an entire grade from F to D.

ACT increased by 10.4 points.

Jones’ focus is on biology, and his goal is 40% proficiency.

EC decreased 52.2 points.

Achievement gaps prevented scoring above a C.

Tom Backus – South Harnett Elementary

The school lost its low-performing label. They progressed from 49 to 54, just below a C score, earning the top growth in Harnett.

The school is nearly fully staffed.

The concern is third-grade overall proficiency.

Brian Graham – Buies Creek Elementary

The school had 68.5% proficiency in fifth-grade math.

They gained two teachers, and everyone barely fits in the building.

School performance is at a C working and they are working toward a B.

The critical concern is to improve math achievement. The Black subgroup was the only one that did not meet growth.

“Goal one,” Graham said is to improve math proficiency.

He said they wanted to prioritize supporting Black students and addressing their absenteeism rates.

Emily McNeill – Benhaven Elementary

The school has a C grade with 62 performance score. They have a B grade in math with a 70 performance score.

“The educational experiences are the same for all subgroups of students, so all are scoring at the same level,” McNeill said.

The PowerPoint shared that the growth for students with disabilities scored 65, moving from a negative 5.2% to a negative 2.95%, showing improvement.

McNeill’s critical concern is not meeting growth in literacy. They have a C. The score is still low, and math has a negative six.

They activated a specific plan by showing teachers what a year of growth looks like for each grade, and they are going to hold students accountable for meeting target growth.

She wants to bring the negative eight growth score up to a zero.

Britton Sullivan – Western Harnett High

The graduation rate increased from 82.7% to 89.1%.

They improved growth in all groups and had the highest number of students showing proficiency.

Her concerns are increasing the rigor in growth in EOC classes, which will mean looking at individual students and how to help them.

They did not meet disadvantage student growth.

“We all factor into the success of our school,” Sullivan said.

They provide timely feedback to teachers and have had 250 walkthroughs already.

Megan West – Dunn Middle School

The school ranks 27 overall in the state for middle schools, placing it in the top 5%.

They are in the state’s top 5% in math.

Last year, English was a concern, but all groups have improved.

The school has an A grade rating.

All groups show growth.

Students with disabilities and recruiting athletes are her concerns.

Elizabeth Hodge – LaFayette Year-Round

The school had a 57% achievement score, up from last year’s 49%.

Their report card grade rose from a D to a C performance score.

Hodge’s critical concern is the 58.2% proficiency rate, but few are college and career ready.

“Our male subgroups are significantly behind our female subgroups,” Hodge said. “I know my little boy doesn’t like to read,” she added about finding other ways to engage them.

Dr. Jasmine Nixon – Harnett County Early College

The junior and senior enrollment at Central Carolina Community College’s early college program in Harnett increased from 186 students to 213 students.

Nixon’s concerns are improving college and career readiness performances, that ACT scores dropped from 81% down to 71%, that they are behind in English and reading scores and educating the public on its existence.

Dr. Benikia Thompson – Overhills Middle

Thompson began her report, sharing that the school met reading and math growth and increased leadership opportunities with the Trailblazers’ grant.

Thompson said making school fun was her jam because it makes students do what they need to do.

Her critical concerns are that they have not met long-term goals for students with disabilities.

“For the fourth consecutive year, no OMS subgroup met its specific yearly measure of interim progress target in math,” the PowerPoint stated and repeated the same news about reading.

“I’m doing my best, honey.’” Thompson said about teacher feedback when discussing achievement goals and using resources.

Thompson said she wanted to make sure teachers knew how to master teaching, how and when to use resources and that teachers used documented approaches to address bad behavior.

“This is not working for us. Can you please address this?” Thompson said about students having precedence over changing protocol.

Dawn Young – STAR Academy

“We are on fire at STAR, regardless of what the outcome may be. We are putting in the work,” Young said.

They had an 85% teacher turnover and hired international teachers. They were in survival mode at the time.

The school met all participation targets.

Disability and economically disadvantaged subgroups saw some growth.

Growth in biology and 3-8 reading and math.

Young is proud of the 45% increase in graduation rates.

She told the staff the 2024-25 school year was their benchmark year and found a decline in proficiency scores in all subjects and a decrease in eighth grade college and career readiness.

Sept. 15, 2025

Stephanie M. Sellers

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