Dear Benton Heights Community, 

Legislation (G.S. §115C-83.15) passed during the 2013 long session of the North Carolina General Assembly provides parents with an additional measure of school performance in the form of School Performance Grades. Beginning with the 2013–14 school year, the annual North Carolina School Report Cards display a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F for each school in the state.

The School Performance Grades are based 80 percent on our school’s achievement score (student proficiency) and 20 percent on students’ academic growth. At Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts, our achievement score for the 2023-2024 school year is based on how well our students performed on Grades 3–5 Mathematics, Grades 3–5 English Language Arts/Reading, Grade 5 Science, and English Learner Progress.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts has been designated as a low performing school by the North Carolina State Board of Education.  As defined in G.S. 115C-105.37: “The State Board of Education shall identify low-performing schools on an annual basis. Low-performing schools are those that earn an overall school performance grade of D or F and a school growth score of "met expected growth" or "not met expected growth" as defined by G.S. 115C-83.15.

Benton Heights received a School Performance Grade of “D” and a growth designation of  “Did Not Meet” for the 2023–2024 school year. Although we are committed to improving this score, it is important to remember that just as no one single score or grade tells the whole story of a student, neither does it tell you everything about the performance of a school or the opportunities that our school provides. We are proud of the commitment of our staff to continuous improvement, of our work as Leader in Me Lighthouse School that has helped to teach leadership skills to students, and of the experiences that each of our students has with the arts each year.

As a low performing school, we are required to develop an improvement plan that specifically addresses how the school will improve both the school performance grade and school growth score.  The plan will also include how the superintendent and other central office administrators in the district will work with us and monitor the progress of our school.  We are already engaged in the work of refining our plan and will present the plan to our school board at their next meeting, Tuesday, November 12 at 7:00 pm, where the plan will be presented for approval.  The final plan will be available for review on the Benton Heights website.

One of our top priorities for 2024–2025 is to improve our School Performance Grade. There are a number of key programs we have in place to help improve student performance. These include:

• Improving overall academic proficiency through strengthening our professional learning communities
• Use of Title I Funds to hire Master Teachers and reduce class sizes
• Daily Math Tutoring for students in 2^nd and 4^th grades
• Continuing to invest in our overall climate and student and staff leadership with Leader in Me

We hope you will closely follow your student’s academic progress and work with his or her teacher(s) to help ensure they stay on track academically. Working together as a team, we can improve not only how well our students are performing individually, but how our school is performing as a whole. There is nothing more important to administrators and teachers at Benton Heights than ensuring students are ready for the next step in their academic careers. I look forward to working with you to make sure your student is on track for success.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our School Performance Grade and how we plan to improve, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (704) 296-3100 or by email at amanda.stinchcomb@ucps.k12.nc.us.

Sincerely,

Amanda Stinchcomb

Principal

Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts