To: Michael GreenFrom: John ShoupCC: School Board membersDate: 5/03/11Re: April 2011 Review
Here is an overview of the key activities we worked on in relation to teaching and learning this month and a bit of a preview for May.
Monday's: We only had two Monday's in April for staff development time. We split those two Monday's between department collaboration time and preparing staff for Navigation lessons. However, we did use Monday, April 25th for an optional staff development day and we had about 20 staff members hear a very good presentation on Gang awareness and learn about Google Docs.
Accreditation: I wanted to inform you and the school board that on Friday, May 20th we will be having a contingency of educational professional from the region spend the entire day at our school reviewing our school improvement plan and overall efforts to improve the learning experience for our kids. This is part of the accreditation process which is required by NAAS every 6 years. Our high school has been accreditated since 1929 and we want to make sure this accreditation is maintained.
Other information: Our sophomore students took round #3 of HSPE testing this month and anxiously await results. Students took the science exam on Tuesday, April 12th. Also, we have the bulk of our seniors finish their high stakes final culminating presentations. We have a high percentage of seniors who were successful. The seniors (8 students) that did not present or did not make standard yet will have opportunities on May 5th and June 1st to meet this graduation requirement. I am almost 85% complete with senior interviews right now and the time has again been very beneficial to reflect with each individual student before they graduate which would not be possible without the tireless work of Cindy Hadaller who schedules all of the students into my calendar. April also saw the annual "Every 15 Minutes" presentation for our seniors which was very well received. This always coincides with Prom.
Changes in the air: We have a group of dedicated teachers who are meeting weekly to bring about some refinements to our Opportunity Time and Navigation 101 programs. We believe that combining the two efforts and finding better motivating rewards for being on standard for our kids will be beneficial. I anticipate having a full report on our proposal for you and the school board in June or even perhaps July.