School Improvement » Parent Notification Letter (10/31/25)

Parent Notification Letter (10/31/25)

Dear Parent/Guardian,

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 Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, our achievement score for the 2024-2025 school year is based on how well our students performed on Grades 3-5 Mathematics, Grades 3-5 English Language Arts/Reading, and Grades 5 Science.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Mt. Pleasant Elementary School 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."

Mt. Pleasant Elementary School received a School Performance Grade of D and a growth designation of Did Not Meet for the 2024-2025 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. Our PTO has worked hard to provide family nights/dances, our inclusive playground/community park is near completion, and our newly hired parent liaison, along with PTO committee members, is assisting with increased communication. Our 4th and 5th graders will have opportunities to learn from Appalachian State University and WXII this school year as well. We are getting more resources for families and having more conferences of how we can work together to help your child be successful at school. Our school staff is learning more from each other and working hard together as a team.

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, Monday, November 3rd, at 5:30 pm in the boardroom at the Board of Education, where the plan will be presented for approval. The final plan will be available for review at https://mpes.wilkescountyschools.org/.

One of our top priorities for 2025-2026 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:

  • Heggerty, Letterland, Bridges, Wit and Wisdom core reading, HMH/Illustrative math programs, Character Strong, Walk to Read, and WIN (what I need intervention and enrichment groups), and fidelity checks.

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 also how our school is performing as a whole. There is nothing more important to administrators and teachers at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School 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 Andrea Byers, Principal, at (336) 651-7600.

Sincerely,

Andrea Byers, Principal