Strategic Planning Report - Article 3
As we reported in our previous two articles, during the 2007–2008 Strategic Planning session, the Pawnee CUSD 11 Board of Education worked with our community to establish a number of goals for the 2008-2009 school year and beyond. The Strategic Planning goals developed at that time have been made available to the public and are on the district website to provide easy access for the community. This is the third in a series of articles designed to update our community on the progress made toward accomplishing those goals. The major areas for which strategic goals were identified last year included; Community Outreach, Building/Grounds/Transportation/Cafeteria, Administrative Functions, Student Faculty Handbooks, and Curriculum/Academic Opportunities. I’m pleased to report that the vast majority of high priority goals in all areas have been either reviewed or accomplished through the very hard work and dedication of our staff, administration, and board of education. Our first articles addressed progress made in the areas of Community Outreach, and Building/Grounds/Transportation/Cafeteria. Copies of this and future articles will be available on the district website at http://www.pawneeschools.com. Next week our final article will address the goals established in the areas of Curriculum and Academic Opportunities.
ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS
Develop methods to identify at risk students and provide interventions as early as possible.
Mrs. Cline and the elementary staff are working on developing the new Response to Intervention (RtI) framework. RtI will accomplish identifying at risk students and has established components of intervention training and teaching techniques. We are extremely confident in this concept, so much so that we approached the board about sharing a position with SASED this spring. We simply cannot underestimate the value of early intervention and the need for us to focus our attention and resources on those students.
Review long term financial options for major projects
For the moment, due almost exclusively to the extremely important work of our comptroller Mrs. Hamilton, the district is blessed with a surplus. Intensive long term financial planning is generally driven by two things; short term debt or building projects. Since neither is apparent here, long term financial planning beyond the charts and graphs illustrating fund balances over time is all that is needed. That could change very quickly if the board determined that a major building project was needed or if the corporate tax distributions we enjoy were to drop dramatically.
STUDENT/FACULTY HANDBOOKS
Investigate ways to improve parent communications, especially in transition grades
Special parent meetings were conducted for the parents and students transitioning to junior high.
Review policies, standards and programs pertaining to all forms of bullying, intimidation, and hazing.
District policies were amended or created to address all forms of bullying. I wrote an article to the Pawnee Post advising parents how to deal with Internet bullying at home. Both handbooks were reviewed and updated to make sure the handbooks reflected the policies in place.
Investigate positive reinforcement programs
Mrs. Cline and the elementary staff reviewed a number of options. They determined that the majority of student conflicts either originated or culminate during recess. Therefore they recommended to the board the Peaceful Playgrounds program which the board has approved. We believe that Peaceful Playgrounds is reducing the number of student issues that arise.
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