Dear Benton Heights Community, 

Public school accountability is standard practice in North Carolina.  Transparency with school performance began in the early 1990’s.  The North Carolina School Report Card of each school provides parents with information about student performance, teacher experience, and school safety. Data are provided at the school, district, and state levels to enable parents to compare the performance of their student’s school with other schools across the district and state.

Legislation (G.S. §115C-83.15) passed during the 2013 long session of the North Carolina General Assembly provides 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 2022-2023 school year is based on how well our students performed in Grades 3–5 Mathematics, Grades 3–5 English Language Arts/Reading, and Grade 5 Science. 

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts received an overall School Performance Grade of  “D” for the 2022-23 school year.  However, we are proud to share that we exceeded our math growth expectations and met our reading growth expectations.  We are committed to improvement and it is our goal to be a “C” or better as we have done in the past. 

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. At Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts, we also offer clubs after school and during the day to increase talent and interest.  We are also recognized as an A+ Arts School and a Leader in Me School (we are 1/34 LIGHTHOUSE Leader in Me schools in NC!). 

Some of the initiatives for the upcoming year in our continuous journey to improve our School Performance Grade are:

• Small class sizes in k-5
• 5th grade departmentalized instruction
• Student Leadership Notebooks (students set goals and develop action steps)
• Professional staff development for all (multiple opportunities)
• 2-5 students will have personal devices that can be used for homework
• k-1 students will have personal devices at school for differentiated intervention instruction
• Art, Dance, Drama, PE, and Music for K-5 (choral and instrumental music classes weekly for all)
• Extended learning opportunities 
• Second and Fourth-grade math tutors every day for every student
• Emotional/Mental Health support
• Personalized reading, phonics, and word study instruction 
• Intervention teacher, reading specialist and tutors

We hope you will closely follow your student’s academic progress and work with his or her teacher(s) to help ensure academic success. 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 Elementary School of the Arts than ensuring that students are ready for the next step in their academic careers. I look forward to partnering with you.  Thank you for sharing your child with us.  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.

Sincerely,

Dr. Candice Boatright

Principal, Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts

2023-2024