May 5, 2005

By Robert Mihalek

McKinney Middle School will concentrate next school year on a project to help students transitioning from sixth to seventh grade better adjust to a new building, atmosphere and curriculum.

During the 2005–06 school year, Yellow Springs High School plans to incorporate new strategies to improve graduating students’ senior projects, and the science teachers will review and recommend changes to the school’s science curriculum.

Mills Lawn School will analyze the effectiveness of the school’s anti-bullying program, and teachers will review the school’s reading programs.

In addition, the school board will begin preparing for the possible retirement of Superintendent Tony Armocida in 2007 as well as determine whether the school system should pursue a levy in 2006.

These are among the goals contained in the Yellow Springs schools’ 2005–06 Education Plan, which the Board of Education reviewed with administrators at its Thursday, April 28, meeting. The board is expected to approve the plan at its next regular meeting, on Thursday, May 12.

The Education Plan, the primary planning document for the school district, articulates the district’s vision for the 2005–06 school year, including academic programs, projects and the budget, Armocida said. Including a project or budget request in the Education Plan validates those items, he said, adding that if a project is not listed in the final plan, “it’s our obligation to make a case for why it should be done.”

“Ninety percent or more” of activities that the district will undertake are contained in the plan, he said.

The district’s administrators are responsible for writing the plan, though Armocida said that the plan was developed through discussions with the school board and at meetings with the community, the district’s PTOs and staff.

Activities at McKinney, YSHS
The McKinney School Project, which helps students transition from elementary school to middle school, will be “the biggest thing we’ll focus on” next year, Principal John Gudgel told the school board.

According to the Education Plan, the McKinney Project includes helping students make responsible decisions and improve their study habits, examine substance abuse issues, study the negative aspects of bullying and incorporate “thematic units” in the curriculum. Students and staff members will also look at issues that middle school students face, the plan states.

Work on the project is already underway. Last week, sixth-graders from Mills Lawn spent four hours at McKinney during an orientation. Each student was paired with a seventh-grader and spent several hours observing seventh-grade classes. The students also toured the school. The sixth-graders and their parents also were given a questionnaire about their visit. Students from the Antioch School visited McKinney earlier in the spring.

Next year, all McKinney students will read the same book, The Misfits, for a “thematic project,” and the school will organize a program on substance abuse in the fall, Gudgel said.

The Education Plan states that YSHS will focus on “transforming” the senior projects, including requiring students to write a research-based paper to complement their projects. Gudgel said he wants to create a team of teachers to oversee the senior projects and assign faculty mentors for each project.

In addition, YSHS and McKinney science teachers will review and revise the science curriculum.

The high school will also “develop instructional strategies and corrective measures” based on students’ results in the Ohio Graduation Test, a state-mandated test students must pass to graduate. Students in Ohio took the test for the first time this year and the results will be released in May or June.

After YSHS receives the test results, “we’ll have to develop a plan” to assist students who need extra help pass the test, Gudgel said.

Next year, YSHS will install new bleachers in the gym and construct a new bus barn and multipurpose facility on campus.

At last week’s meeting, Gudgel also announced that McKinney and YSHS are “no longer pursuing block scheduling,” noting that because the schools share facilities they would encounter problems in teachers’ schedules and the use of rooms.

Mills Lawn activities
The Education Plan reports that next year Mills Lawn will focus on the reading programs for grades kindergarten through third and fourth through sixth. Teachers in the younger grades will create a reading plan for the type of content for each grade, while teachers in fourth through sixth grades will investigate “diagnostic tools” for reading interventions, the Education Plan states.

In addition, teachers will work with the district’s math committee to “enhance and improve mathematics instruction for grades K–6,” the plan states.

The school will also analyze the effectiveness of Mills Lawn’s anti-bullying program “to determine if the incidents of bullying have decreased, increased or stayed the same,” the plan states.

The elementary school is also considering adding a third kindergarten class because of a projected increase in students, Armocida reported. The school expects 52 students, including 10 through open enrollment, to attend kindergarten next year, which would lead to a higher student-to-teacher ratio than the school prefers, he said. Adding a third kindergarten class would lower the number of students per class to the preferred average of 18, Armocida said.

If a third kindergarten class is added, Mills Lawn would hire a part-time teacher. Treasurer Joy Kitzmiller said that tuition from the open-enrollment students would cover the teacher’s salary and benefits.

Armocida said he thinks that “it’s a good move” to increase the number of open enrollment students in kindergarten and add the extra kindergarten section.

Mills Lawn will also plan an all-school Cultural Arts Festival in the spring of 2006.

Districtwide goals
The three public schools are pursuing several shared goals for the 2005–06 school year. Teachers and administrators are discussing changing the start time at McKinney and YSHS to 8:30 or 8:35 a.m. and Mills Lawn to 8 or 8:10.

Currently, the school day at YSHS is from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.; McKinney is from 8:05 to 3:15; and Mills Lawn from 8:30 to 2:45.

A later start time at YSHS and McKinney would provide teachers with time to meet and plan, Armocida and Gudgel said, something Gudgel said the instructors currently lack. An earlier start time at Mills Lawn would provide the school with a half an hour more of classroom time, Armocida said.

Another project is the creation of a timeline to purchase textbooks at all three schools.

The district will also review and revise its music program for grades kindergarten through 12 “to increase participation and meet state content standards,” the Education Plan states.

School board goals
Perhaps the most significant activity for the school board will be planning to hire a new superintendent if Armocida retires after the 2006–07 school year, when his contract expires.

After the meeting, Armocida stressed that he has not made a final decision about whether he will retire in two years, though he did say, “I’d likely retire at the end” of the 2006–07 school year.

“If I’m retiring [the school board] needs to do planning,” said Armocida, who is in his 33rd year in education.

The Education Plan is more specific. “The Board of Education will begin the planning needed to hire a new superintendent to begin service on or before August 1, 2007,” it states.

The plan also suggests that the school board consider whether to place on the November 2006 ballot a property tax levy. Armocida said that 2006 would be the earliest that the board could ask voters to approve the district’s emergency levy, which provides operating expenses. Voters last approved the levy, for three years at 10.1 mills, in 2003, and it went into effect in January 2005. Armocida said that typically the levy would be placed back on the ballot in 2007.

When asked if there was a connection between his possible retirement and the tax levy going on the ballot next year, Armocida said that voters approve school levies “not because of me but because we’ve had such wonderful levy committees.”

In addition, next year the district will implement an instrument to assess the local “Quality Education Standards” that the schools are using to balance the standards required by the state in proficiency tests. The local standards, which were approved last year, include community and parent support, whole life learning, integration of knowledge, respect and responsibility, individual instruction, and diversity and inclusion.

Armocida said the schools will institute a pilot assessment of the local standards and review the results in the spring of 2006 along with the state report card.

Other district activities listed in the plan are an energy audit of the three school buildings, a proposal to cut field trips by 30 percent because of high fuel costs and the completion of installing video broadcasting equipment in YSHS and Mills Lawn to broadcast programs live on channel 13, the local cable access station.