April 29, 2004

Board of Education reviews draft 2004–05 district plan

At their April 22 meeting, members of the Yellow Springs Board of Education reviewed a draft of the school district’s 2004–05 Education Plan.

The plan is the school district’s primary planning document, which includes the schools’ vision, mission, program, staffing and budget.

“The Education Plan is pretty sacred for us,” said Superintendent Tony Armocida. “It becomes an important document. If it’s not in the plan, it may not get done, and if it is, it probably will.”

Armocida said that the final draft will be addressed at the school board’s May 13 meeting. Until then, he said, the document is open to change.

According to the plan, the school district’s mission is “to create a challenging educational environment where each student contributes to the intellectual and cultural richness of the community and is provided the skills and knowledge to become a socially responsible, self-directed, lifelong learner.”

That mission statement is “unique” in its inclusion of students as active participants in their learning environment and in the life of the community, said board member Mary Campbell-Zopf. “The expectation is that students will contribute to the community, that they have gifts and talents to contribute,” she said.

The district’s academic performance goal, according to the plan, is for the schools to “meet all state performance standards and local quality standards.” That goal involves reviewing state performance and district data and identifying areas of improvement, assessing intervention and improvement strategies to meet 2004–05 standards, and identifying and implementing standards to meet the following year’s standards.

Beyond state academic standards, the district intends for Yellow Springs schools to address local standards as well, said Armocida, noting that the Quality Education Committee, which started meeting this year, is currently identifying what it considers local standards and will present its findings to the school board in July.

Several board members commented that the school district is unusual in including local standards along with state standards in its plan.

“There are community values that these schools represent, such as diversity, tolerance, critical thinking and social responsibility,” Armocida said. “Our goals need to reflect those values. We need to do both.”

The curriculum and instruction goal in the plan is that the schools will “review, revise, develop and implement curricula to meet the instruction needs of each student.”

Components of that goal include selecting and using new science textbooks at Mills Lawn School, continuing the Writing Across the Curriculum initiative in all grade levels, hiring a full-time English teacher at YSHS and reviewing the 7–12 language arts curriculum.

The district will also consider implementing a theater/drama class at Yellow Springs High School and will review the foreign language program, making a formal recommendation to the board concerning expanding foreign language instruction to grades kindergarten–8 and possibly offering Spanish IV at the high school.

The curriculum goal also includes selecting and implementing materials to meet the needs of special education students and regular education students.

According to the plan, the English teacher will be hired by July 1 and a recommendation concerning foreign language instruction will be completed in time to adopt the 2005–06 Education Plan.

The plan also includes a school climate and structure goal, which states that the schools “will assess school climate and structure and implement programs and structural initiatives that reflect the mission of the schools and the values of the district and community.”

Components of the school climate goal include providing a full-time elementary counselor at Mills Lawn; continuing the antibullying programs at both the elementary and secondary levels; continuing the YSHS Project; implementing school-related strategies from the 2004 youth forums, including the formation of a police advisory group; developing and implementing a Mills Lawn student handbook; continuing to implement North Central school improvement strategies, including a block/extended schedule; and opening the YSHS fitness center to staff and community use.

The district’s technology goal, that “technology will be implemented to support student learning objectives and the administrative functions of the schools,” includes purchasing and installing a new district network server; new network operating software, video broadcasting technology at all three schools, audio equipment and software to support special education students, as well as making operational the media center wireless laptop systems.

The school district’s facilities goals include repairing and repaving parking lots and driveways at YSHS and Mills Lawn and replacing the fire alarm system at the schools; replacing carpeting in McKinney School, the YSHS library and the Mills Lawn library; installing new or refurbished backboards in the YSHS gym; installing additional stage lighting at the Mills Lawn gym; replacing the bleachers in the YSHS gym; and constructing a pole barn to replace the present bus shed and concession shed at YSHS.

Budget additions in the 2004–05 plan include $2,000 for additional supervision in the YSHS fitness center, so that students may use the center after school; transferring $12,000 to the YSHS athletic department to support athletic programs; $13,435 for upgrades in software for Mills Lawn, McKinney and YSHS; the possible addition of $15,000 for a half-time foreign language teacher at Mills Lawn; and $15,000 for Mills Lawn science textbooks. The budget includes a deletion of $11,000 due to the end of the school’s phone lease.

• In other business, school board president Rich Bullock shared his experience the previous week chaperoning 17 YSHS seniors on their senior trip in New York City, during which students received news that their classmate Arla Smith had been killed in a car accident on April 16.

“I can only begin to express my pride in these young adults,” said Bullock, who described the seniors as “unfailingly polite, poised, mature and kind to each other” in their difficult time of receiving the news and grieving the loss of their classmate.

Bullock also thanked the trip’s two other chaperones, Barb Bullock and Jean Rudegeair, and teacher Joyce McCurdy for providing the students with much needed support.

—Diane Chiddister