Thursday's Internet Edition, September 02, 2010.

Putnam, 37, spent the first seven years of his career in education teaching science at Geary Elementary/Middle School, where he was recently hired for the new position of “transformation specialist.”

During those years, Geary was recognized as a state school of excellence – the second time the school received the distinction.

Since then, the school has slipped academically, so much that it was in the bottom 5 percent under federal No Child Left Behind standards.

Now, under a grant that will provide more than $750,000 over the next three years, Putnam will return to work with the principal, faculty, students and community to get the school turned around.

Dr. Bill Chapman, the county’s director of federal programs who applied for the grant, said the money would offer the school a lot in terms of materials and programs.

“By the time this is over, Geary should be the most capable school we have for improving academics, addressing student needs and problems,” Chapman said.

West Virginia was the first state in the nation to receive funds to target low achieving schools. The state received nearly $22 million of the $3.5 billion in School Improvement Grants (SIG) included in the federal stimulus package.

Roane is one of eight counties to receive part of the funding. Berkeley, Doddridge, Fayette and Wood also received funds for single schools. McDowell received funds for two schools, Lincoln for three and Kanawha for five. Each school will have a position like Putnam’s, which is often called a “turnaround specialist.”

Only schools that are part of the federal Title I remedial education program are eligible, which meant that Spencer Middle School, which also has struggled with test scores, could not participate. In recent years, Title I services have been shifted away from middle schools to elementary schools.

One of the requirements was that the school’s principal had to be replaced. Chapman said this caused problems in some counties.

“Our state’s personnel laws do not allow principals to be replaced because of low test scores,” he said.

But in Geary’s case, that ended up as a non-issue because Chadwell had not been in the principal’s position for a full two years.

Putnam will work closely with Chadwell and understands the challenges of operating a rural school with no assistant principal.

After leaving Geary, he spent about two years each in positions that included chemistry and physics teacher at Roane County High, assessment coordinator with the State Dept. of Education and senior researcher for a not-for-profit education consulting firm. He rejoined the county system as principal at Walton Elementary/Middle.

He leaves that job after a year to return to his teaching roots at Geary.

“I’ll be in the classroom assessing teachers on a daily basis, reviewing lesson plans and helping Mrs. Chadwell with the evaluation process,” he said.

Chadwell will continue to run the school, but Putnam said his work would allow for things that a busy principal couldn’t fit into the day.

“That’s the silver lining,” Chapman, a former principal himself, said. “The principal is still responsible for running the school, while the transformation specialist focuses on the academic achievement of the school.”

The school has contracted with a private firm, The Solution Tree of Bloomington, Ind., which specializes in analyzing schools and their needs. The company will develop a plan for the school and provide training to implement the plan.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Chapman said. “It’s a customized approach.”

Money is available for materials and stipends for staff for additional training time. Chapman said all the training would be on-site.

The first training session for teachers will be Monday and Tuesday at Roane County High School. The location was moved because of construction at Geary.

Chapman said lessons learned from the process could be shared with other schools that are not part of the program.

“If we find something that works, we’re going to bring it out to the rest of the county,” he said.

In addition to the $260,000 per year for the next three years that will be spent at Geary, Chapman said the school is part of the Save the Children grant that will provide over $100,000 to Geary, Walton and Spencer Elementary for reading and math programs, as well as the Read 180 program.

“We have a lot of tools in our toolbox to help these schools, things we didn’t have before,” Putnam said. “That’s a whole lot of opportunity Roane County students didn’t have last year.”

Chapman said Geary teachers were excited about the new programs and the chance to improve the school during staff interviews.

“They really want to bring the school back to its high achievement status,” he said. “They want it to be the best school it can be, and we’re going to help them reach that goal with the support and enhancements we can offer.”

Putnam said his goal over the next three years is simple.

“”I should work myself out of a job,” he said.