Principal James T. Garvin: Teaching, learning, reaching out to the community

James T. Garvin grades his performance at B- for his first full year as principal of Cornelius Elementary School. He took over at a time when some parents were as unruly as kids in detention hall because of community relations under the prior principal, Barry Burford.

Parents and teachers give Garvin higher marks than he gave himself. Indeed, he has won back students from a number of private schools.

Garvin came to the historic center of all things Cornelius four years ago when the school had ballooned to 1,400 students. Once J.V. Washam Elementary opened, the population of Cornelius Elementary fell to a more manageable 700, but morale was low.

Garvin is a relationship builder who has worked to repair community relations in the past year. Each year the principal establishes a theme to help steer performance and guide improvements. The theme during his first year was “Continuing the journey through positive relationships and academic success.”

Cornelius Today editor Dave Yochum interviewed Garvin as summer was getting under way.

Q. What is next year’s theme?

Garvin: “We are going to take off from Dr. Gorman’s strategic plan for 2014, which focuses on teaching our way to the top. Our theme for 2010-2011 is “Teaching and learning to the top with parent and community connections.” Teaching and learning is our focus. We want to continue to increase student achievement. It takes our parents and it takes the community to actually make all of our students grow one year.”

Q. Grade yourself on your first full year. How did it go?

Garvin: “I would give myself a B-. I think I’ve worked very hard to pull our community back together, to make Cornelius Elementary the beam of our community as it once was. We’ve done a lot to reach out to the community at large through monthly principal coffees. I’ve met with businesses throughout the community to build partnerships, I’ve met with religious leaders, I’ve met with different parents and support groups and I’ve reached out to each community where our kids are coming from. I have also focused on making sure that all of our students are growing according to state expectations. We have increased our partnerships with a lot of the business organizations outside of the school, including a partnership with Huntersville Presbyterian, and Ingersoll Rand in Davidson.”

Q: What do these partnerships do?

Garvin: “They sponsor our CyberKids robotics teams, which is a part of the STEM research — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

Q: How many students are you planning for in 2010-2011? What is the change from last year?

Garvin: “We are planning for 700 students. We ended the school year with 698 students. The coming year our parents and students will see more flexible groupings of students. We are looking for common assessments and those who have mastered or partially mastered objectives. We will group students based upon their needs.”

Q: How is volunteerism going? Cornelius Elementary was always known for parent involvement.

Garvin: “We still have a lot of parent involvement. I’ve seen an increase of volunteers from the different partnerships. They have gone back to their organizations and have charged their people to actually give back to the community through volunteering here at Cornelius Elementary. Our parents and PTO have also taken up that challenge. We have installed six smart boards — electronic interactive boards that use technology, the internet — so lessons are more engaging and interactive between students and the teacher. [We are] making sure we have the latest technology to make learning engaging and fun.”

Q: Is it too early to ask about EOG results?

Garvin: “Unofficially, the information we have from the school district — the state has not validated the data — is that this year’s overall composite score was 87.4. During 2008-09 our composite score was 89.4. The decline occurred in reading composition. We are working very aggressively to pinpoint what needs to take place in grades k-2 to make sure students are equipped and ready to deal with the vast number of goals and objectives for reading.”

Q: What percentage of students are economically disadvantaged?

Garvin: “27 percent of our students…and the number is increasing. It’s a reflection of our economy with parents losing their jobs and not having the means. We don’t know whom the kids are, we are not able to know where they come from. It reflects our community, the economy, the unknown about job opportunities.”

Q: What percentage are coming from non-English households?

Garvin: “We have about 7-8 percent coming from non-English speaking households and we are seeing that the number is increasing daily.”

Q: How many people are on staff at Cornelius Elementary and how many teachers?

Garvin: “We have approximately 75 staff members and 30 are classroom teachers.”

Q: Are you attracting affluent families? My sense was that attendance at Cannon, etc. soared during the Burford years.

Garvin: “We’ve had numerous families come back to Cornelius Elementary from all of the various private schools. We’ve seen children enroll from Cannon, Pine Lake, Lake Norman Charter as well as other private schools. The parents have been very pleased with the curriculum and the extra-curricular activities, as well as the involvement with our staff and students and PTO. We are actively making sure we are developing the whole child in a holistic manner.”

Q: How have CMS budget cuts affected you?

Garvin: “We were only affected in three areas: We lost two classroom teachers and one part-time secretary.”

To inquire about volunteer opportunities or business partnerships, contact Principal Garvin at 980-343-3905 or email j.garvin@cms.k12.nc.us

First day of school: Aug. 25