Strategic Plan Implementation Progress
Report on progress toward the goals outlined in the Strategic Plan given to the Board of Trustees for the April 24 Board Meeting.
Strategic Plan
Implementation Progress Report April 22, 2008
Click link for the Document in .pdf format
Strategic Plan Implementation Progress Report to the Ross Valley
School District Community
April 22, 2008
This report is to provide the community an update on progress we have made this year on the goals of the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan was adopted in the Spring of 2007. It outlines the core values, mission, and vision for our District. The plan encompasses four major goal areas:create curriculum that is engaging, challenging and differentiated to meet the needs of all students; implement a balanced curriculum and assessment program based on District identified essential standards; create a caring community of adults who support student learning and wellbeing;attract and retain high quality staff. From this plan, the administrative team created an implementation plan to work on targeted actions in each of the goal areas.
The results in this update represent the work of a dedicated staff and community who have focused their efforts and pooled their talents to move toward a common vision and achieve common goals. I deeply appreciate the work of the teachers, classified staff and administrators on each of these reform efforts. I am also deeply thankful for the commitment on the part of parents who generously serve on committees so that we may realize our vision. The Strategic Plan would not have been possible without the vision and leadership of the Board of Trustees, both past and current. This collaborative effort in the Ross Valley brings our goals within reach.
Bryce Sumnick
Superintendent
SP Progress Report
Page One
Curriculum, Standards and Engaged Learning
In last week’s school newsletters, we published an overview of the
work we have accomplished in curriculum, identifying our essential
standards. Essential standards are those standards that we consider
to be critical for our students to know and be able to do. The
newsletters are available on each school’s website.
Social / Emotional Development; Character Education Curriculum The Ross Valley School District contracted with communications expert Ellen Dodge in order to implement a cohesive communication and character education program for all K-8 students, teachers, staff, and administrators. Ellen works in our district schools one day a week and rotates through each site every five weeks. The work provided has included direct instruction with students, staff development training, and one-on-one teacher meetings regarding specific situations in classrooms. The goals of our work for this year have been: utilizing common language at school sites regarding effective communication, implementing four similar pillars of character (responsibility, respect, honesty, kindness), clarifying yard supervision responsibilities, improving yard supervision effectiveness, and improving the overall communication amongst all stakeholders who work in or come in contact with our schools. Counseling was another focus area to strengthen our Character Education curriculum. Four clinicians have served the elementary sites. They work the equivalent of two days per week at each campus. They provide individual counseling, group counseling, crisis support, outside referrals, conflict resolution support, and support to our character education programs. In addition, they share their expertise working with administrative, certificated, and classified support. They consult and collaborate with our school staff. New to White Hill Middle School this year is an Academic Counselor who joins the full time counselor already on staff. Both counselors provide individual short term and long term counseling, conflict mediation, resource and support for parent/s or guardians, liaison contact with outside agencies, Lunch Bunch programs, Cross Age student support program, Student Diversity Council, and classroom presentations. In addition, specialized academic counseling support is provided to seventh and eighth grade students in anticipation of transition to high school. Academic counseling sessions focus on students identifying their own goals and learning additional strategies and skills to support class work, homework completion and overall success in school. Parent and staff communication is a vital part of our programs.
White Hill Implementation Plan
White Hill identified four priority areas of reform. The four areas
are: teaming, personalization and culture, student led conferences,
and rigor and intervention. All of the White Hill teachers chose
one of the four priority areas, based on their personal interest.
The work groups have been working to improve White Hill.
Teaming
The Teaming Work Group at White Hill has accomplished all of our
first year implementation goals. We have six functioning teams; two
6th grade teams, a 7th grade team, an 8th grade team, a 7/8
combination team, and a rotating team, (made up of all
enrichment/PE teachers). The teams meet every Wednesday from
2:30-3:30 and talk about students. Every team has a team leader
that is part of our new leadership structure.
SP Progress Report
Page Two
Our first year implementation goals that were all accomplished include; coordination of homework and projects, parent communication (newsletters, phone calls, and e-mails), intervention meetings with appropriate documentation, student support, and adult support and collegiality. Next year our Teams will continue all that was accomplished this year and move on to creating team identities and interdisciplinary thematic instruction.
Personalization/Culture
• Workgroup has been meeting since Summer 2007
• Student surveys, parent input, and California League of Middle
Schools best practices
used to set goals and objectives for work
• Consistent behavior expectations were set for entire school,
common in all
classrooms and areas of campus
• Communication and personalization work was done with counselor
Ann Lauriks and
consultants George Pigalow, and Ellen Dodge who provided staff
development with
teachers, administrators, classroom/assembly lessons, and Student
Diversity Council
• Next steps include student recognition and community building
activities based on
four pillars of character; respect, responsibility, kindness,
honesty.
Student-Led Conferences
• Conferences added a parent communication piece regarding student
academic
progress in addition to the three progress reports and three report
cards already in
place.
• 6th, 7th, 8th grade students set academic and social/emotional
goals in the fall.
• Students compiled a portfolio of two work samples from each
class.
• Students wrote a reflection for each work sample.
• Conferences were scheduled for every student at White Hill during
the week of
October 29.
• Students led parents through their goal setting, work samples and
reflections during
the conference.
• Parents reflected on their child’s progress and completed
homework that was returned
to school (made available in Spanish).
• Parents completed a survey reflecting on the conference
process.
• Students were surveyed about the conference process in the school
survey.
• Students will reflect upon their goal setting in the third
trimester.
• Students will keep part of their portfolios for next year (6th
and 7th grades).
Rigor and Intervention
The Rigor and Intervention Work Group is basing its work on the
questions that drive Professional Learning Communities. What do we
want our students to learn? (essential standards), how will we know
when they have learned it? (formative assessments), what do we do
when they do learn it? (rigor), and what will we do when they do
not learn it? (intervention). This work group’s first charge is
focusing on our math program at White Hill. Julia Marrero has done
an incredible job as the Department Chair of White Hill’s Math
Department. They have started the textbook adoption process this
year, have been working on the essential standards process, have
started the study of the White Hill math program, and have
successfully implemented 6th grade math labs (interventions)
during
SP Progress Report
Page Three
Our sustained silent reading period twice a week. We also have
established our reading intervention program and currently have 25
seats available for students who are below proficient in
Reading/Language Arts. White Hill has a new Academic Counseling
Program that is focused on7th and 8th grade students who are
identified as having difficulty passing the high school exit exam.
Leslie Dempsey, our Academic Counselor, sees 60 students a week,
communicates with parents, monitors grades, teaches organization
skills, collaborates with teams and individual teachers and holds
groups of students with similar challenges in school.
Decision Making / Governance Structure The District formed a new
governance team this year, the District Leadership Council. (DLC)
The DLC is a committee of parents, teachers, classified staff,
trustees and administrators of the Ross Valley School District that
acts in an advisory capacity to the board of trustees. The
committee met 3 times this year to consider issues of importance to
the district. They were charged by the board of trustees to
discuss, deliberate, and consider relevant information and design
solutions to the complex problems of enrollment, communication and
governance. The rationale for the Council is that a broad based,
knowledgeable constituent representing all district stakeholders is
the best assembly for discussing complex issues and developing
solutions that are consistent with the community wishes. At
meetings in December and January, the DLC developed and recommended
a facilities plan for incoming kindergarten students. In March they
prioritized goal areas to improve district communications and
appointed a sub committee to further develop the communication
guidelines. (Please see section on Communications in this progress
report.) In May, they will address the issue of governance in the
District. Professional Development I – Essential Standards, Social
emotional development, Professional Learning Communities
We have identified the highest priorities for teacher and
administrator professional development, for the next 1-2 years
consistent with the implementation of identifying essential
standards, engaged, learning and differentiated instruction.
Briefly, the areas we have provided professional development
are:
• Essential Standards – (Please refer to newsletter article the
week of April 14, 2008.)
• Professional Learning Communities – method of collaboratively
working together in
which teacher teams analyze student progress and determine best
instructional strategies
and interventions.
• Social Emotional Development (communications) – please see the
section in this
Progress Report.
• Data Director – Administrators and teacher leaders have attended
training for this on-line
management tool of all standardized and local assessments and/or
data.
• Math Textbook adoption – We are in the first year of a 2-year
adoption process.
• Special Education – opportunities for teachers and staff to
discuss and receive training
(e.g. Autism, changes in IEP forms, best practices, etc).
SP Progress Report
Page Four
Professional Development II - Leadership
We have provided choices for staff development for board members,
including participation in California School Boards Association’s
Masters in Governance Training (3 members have completed) and Board
Orientation workshops. Individual trustees represent the board by
holding positions on advisory and legislative bodies.
We have provided opportunities for teacher leadership:
• Two math lead teachers, one at the elementary and another at the
middle school level,
have been selected to lead in the adoption of new math program(s),
train teachers in the
implementation of newly adopted math program(s), oversee the
development and
implementation of local assessments as well as the analysis and use
of the data to assist in
differentiation and support programs for students
• Teachers are selected to be Support Providers in the Beginning
Teacher Support and
Assessment Program (BTSA), a State supported program to support
beginning teachers
and to clear their credentials. The partnerships meet weekly for
two years and cover such
areas as content, pedagogy, classroom management, serving special
education students,
EL learners, and technology. The program also provides a chance for
beginning teachers
to network with other new teachers.
• Teachers are selected to be Buddy Teachers to provide support to
teachers who are in
their first year to the District but who don’t qualify for BTSA.
Areas of assistance
include curriculum and instruction, site culture, administrative
tasks, etc.
• Tech mentors are selected staff who assists teachers at each
school site to implement
technology into classroom instruction.
• Each principal determines an administrative designee(s) who
presides over the daily
activities and student and staff supervision in the absence of the
site administrator.
• One of our teachers is the Environmental Education Initiative
leader who coordinates the
field testing for units of instruction for environmental
education.
• A Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) Panel chairperson has been
selected to oversee the
BTSA and teacher support programs in coordination with the
assistant superintendent.
• We have identified a Math Adoption Team, consisting of teachers,
parents, and
administrators who work under the guidance of the math lead
teachers and the assistant
superintendent to work for 2 years to review state approved
programs and to recommend
programs to pilot and to adopt. Because there are over 42 programs
on the State adopted
list, the Assistant Superintendent and the two math lead teachers
participate in the Marin
County Ad Hoc Math Committee whose primary goal is to assist and
provide a forum for
districts to collaborate on program evaluation.
Attract and Retain Quality Team
We have utilized effective advertizing and recruiting methods, such
as EdJoin, an on-line system for teachers and specialized
positions, Craig’s List, university employment boards, professional
journals, etc.
We trained and supported our new employees by providing:
• Employment orientation
• District as well as site orientations
• Special Education staff training and support in the execution of
their responsibilities
• See Professional Development Opportunities I and II
SP Progress Report
Page Five
We provided training and support to administrators and other management of district on evaluation procedures as well as provided individualized support to employees. We have designed and implemented staff exit and annual surveys to find out what we do right/could improve to make Ross Valley continue to be a desirable place to work. We are in the process of developing a plan to provide a compensation package for all staff that is competitive in Marin County, considering the constraints of a “revenue limit district.” In 2007- 2008, RVSD has been able to reach the county wide salary average for 2006-2007. We have also developed leadership opportunities for teacher leaders (See Professional Development II)
Assessment
STAR tests and Writing Assessments developed by the Marin Teachers
Network are used district wide to assess student learning. Our goal
is to develop local assessments that will be given regularly that
tell us what children know, identify where further instruction is
needed or where children need additional challenge. Teachers will
develop assessments based on our Essential Standards beginning in
2008-2009 school year. We have purchased Data Director, a software
program, to report assessment information. This will make local
assessments easy to analyze and allow teachers to make adjustments
to meet the needs of each student.
Communications
The District Leadership Council (DLC) appointed a Communications
Subcommittee to develop our initial Communications Plan. The three
areas they have targeted for spring 2008 are the District Web site,
Communications 101 and Email/Voicemail protocols. The website
system (SOCS) has been activated and a webmaster for each site has
been trained to upload site information. The goal of the new system
is to be user friendly and provide timely and current information.
The SOCS system includes features which allow community interaction
such as survey capabilities. We anticipate going “live” with our
new web page by mid-May.
The Sub Committee has also developed meeting guidelines that
outline norms for meetings
district wide. They will continue to meet and develop common
protocols for email/voicemail
and how we interact. Additionally, the committee will identify the
information parents, staff and community need to be well
informed.
Facilities & Finance
The DLC designed a facilities plan anticipating a kindergarten
enrollment of 220 students.
However, our kindergarten enrollment has grown to the point that we
need three additional
classrooms for the 2008-2009 school year. The Facilities Executive
Committee recommends
opening an additional class at each elementary campus to
accommodate enrollment. In order to create enough space, they
further recommend placing two second grades at Brookside Upper
Campus and utilizing music rooms at Manor and Wade Thomas (if
needed). The board will consider conducting a facilities study to
determine long term solutions to the classroom shortage, which may
include lease or purchase of portables or opening a school
site.
SP Progress Report
Page Six
The District has responded to the Governor’s proposed budget by making $1.2 million in cuts over the next two years. The Budget Advisory Committee will prioritize return of services should money be restored to the budget. Community and school members have discussed revenue generating ideas including possible sale of property, further cost cutting measures in the budget or an additional parcel tax. The District wants to keep reductions away from the classrooms while moving forward on our goals developed in the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan has provided focus and direction for the District throughout the budget crisis as well as during the school year. It has been a pleasure to work in a District with such clear vision and purpose. I look forward to continuing our work together in 2008-2009.
