Sean C. Morgan
The District 55 School Board, during its regular meeting on Sept. 12, adopted a set of goals for 2011-12 focusing on student achievement, its strategic plan and finances.
“Our goal-setting session worked differently than in the past, where we brainstormed goals,” said Chairman Jason Redick.
Supt. Don Schrader developed the three goals based on board discussions and with conversations with individual board members, Redick said. “He identified these three areas as areas the board considered important. The consensus was they fit what were thinking anyway.”
The board met prior to its regular meeting to discuss the goals in a work session.
All of the goals tie together, but they focus on specific areas that are different, Redick said.
The following are the goals adopted by the School Board:
n Goal One: Increase achievement for all students and close the achievement gap. The board is committed to providing support to all schools so that students receive the support they need to be successful. The board will support practices that are focused on improving student learning.
“In the past, we always looked at specific numbers in specific areas,” Redick said. When the district has done that, such as with reading, test scores improved in those areas. Meanwhile, other subjects, such as math, had no improvement or even declined.
“The nice thing about this is it’s looking at a broader view,” Redick said. “It also works with professional learning communities.”
The professional learning community process gathers data about students, and professional teachers gather to analyze the data and then to share ideas and develop strategies based on what works according to the data.
n Goal Two: Ninety-five percent of the strategies outlined in the Strategic Plan will be implemented. Data indicate that in 2010-11, only 80 percent of the strategies were implemented. The board is committed to the goals of the Strategic Plan and will review the roadblocks that impede the progress toward implementing the strategies and make recommendations for changes if needed.
The district’s five-year plan is in its fourth year, Redick said. It’s going to be time to look at extending it and figuring out where to go next.
Finances have hampered the district’s ability to meet the objectives in the plan, he said, but when it was created, the district was not in its current financial situation. Things were looking good, and then 2008 happened.
“We’re in a different mode now,” Redick said. Part of this goal is looking at the Strategic Plan and finding areas where the district can do what it wanted to do without the cost. It also includes deciding which ones need to be removed or reworked into something the district can accomplish.
n Goal Three: Foster student success by continuing to make fiscally responsible decisions that support student learning. The district must address the poor economic forecast for Oregon, declining enrollment and escalating operating costs by developing a road map for a sustainable future.
This is probably the most important goal, Redick said. The district has managed to get by the last few years on carryover and other one-time reserves that were created for just this type of situation.
The district is running out of those options, Redick said. The outlook isn’t getting better, and there’s talk of things getting worse.
“We need to find better ways to adjust without impacting the classroom any more than we already have,” Redick said. Class sizes are already up, and classrooms are already impacted.
“It’s really going to take just looking at absolutely everything,” Redick said. One discussion is the combination of maintenance and transportation supervisor positions if the district could find the right person.
“Off the top of my head, things we might be looking at long term savings-wise, we need to get the pool situation figured out,” Redick said. The formation of an aquatics district comes with obstacles, mainly from tax revenue reductions that other government agencies would face, including the city Police Department, library and Sheriff’s Office.
“We have to be aware of that and make sure we can get everybody on board,” Redick said. “Really, we need to let the voters decide what they want to do.”
The board isn’t comfortable closing the pool completely without looking at options like an aquatics district, Redick said, without trying to find ways to keep it open with minimal cost to the district.
Meanwhile, a recent revenue forecast from the state is $100,000 lighter than the forecast used to build the 2011-12 budget, Redick said.
Overall, “I’m very happy with them (the goals),” Redick said. “I think they fit with the direction the board wants to go.”
All of them are achievable, he said, but Number Three has to be achievable.