Master plan is a work in progress
Molly Shore
More computers in classrooms, after-school intervention programs to
help students raise their grades, fund-raising by parent groups, and
partnerships with the business community are some of the goals
achieved in the school district’s Strategic Master Plan for the
2002-03 school year.
At Thursday evening’s Board of Education meeting, board members
were presented with a list of accomplishments throughout the district
last year.
Alexis Sheehy, assistant superintendent for instructional
services, reported on many of the achievements of the master plan, a
document implemented in the 1997-98 school year and updated every
year.
“These are not necessarily the outstanding achievements of the
schools, but rather the totality of the schools’ achievements,”
Sheehy said shortly before the start of the meeting.
Addressing the board, Sheehy listed key activities in eight goal
areas, including curriculum and instruction, qualified staff,
facilities and safe schools, family partnerships, technology,
communication, business and community, and funding and resources.
At Miller Elementary School, the school’s booster club sponsored
the first trip of 140 fifth-graders to last year’s Outdoor Science
School.
Seven permanent classrooms were added to the Walt Disney
Elementary School campus, and at Thomas Edison Elementary School,
employees of the Walt Disney Co. volunteered as tutors in the
school’s second-grade reading program.
At Emerson Elementary School, funding from API award money
supplied a new copier and reading materials for the school, Sheehy
said.
Upper-grade students at Bret Harte Elementary School were trained
as technology tutors, and at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, the
bi-monthly Patriot Press has kept parents informed of school
activities.
School board member Dave Kemp said the accomplishments in all the
areas go a long way toward achieving the district’s goals.
“I want to give the teachers credit for all the work they do, and
the administration leadership is also important. They have to do the
monitoring and reporting,” Kemp said after the meeting.
Without the plan, Supt. Gregory Bowman said the district would
have only test scores to rely on, and it would be denied a
comprehensive view of achievements at all schools.
“The Strategic Master Plan has become a holistic reporting
process,” he said. “It gives anecdotal information about our fine
schools.”