MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

by Superintendent Robert "Bob" Lewandowski

Our school faces many unique challenges and issues. After extensive administrative and board discussions, due to the number of down and failing students  in both the Middle School and High School at the end of the 2012 Fall Quarter as well as the results of the Prevention Needs Assessment, the Montana Youth Risks Behavior Survey of at-risk students, the District will be seeking a full-time Middle School Principal to provide immediate administrative proximity and involvement with students, parents, teachers and community to help our students succeed.  This position will help address and strengthen student standard proficiency, attendance, dropout rate, disciplinary issues, at-risk behavior as well as the State's AYP corrective actions at both the Middle and High Schools.

Qualified (K-12 principal certification) in-house candidates are preferred to offset financial costs. The start date for the position will be January 2, 2013. Applications from qualified candidates will be accepted immediately. If an in-house candidate is selected, replacement scenarios will be reviewed with a student-centered approach and discussed by the board. The Board will interview candidates on Friday, December 28, 2012 and make a potential hire by special meeting following the interview.

 At this time, the number of students that are academically at-risk of failure complicated by the behavioral at-risk factors calls for immediate action as described above. 

The District will be hosting a community & parent meeting in January to review the at-risk data to mobilize our efforts in identifying the antecedents necessary to address our students' needs.  

The following ACTION PLANS are being implemented to provide students with the additional support needed for academic achievement and success.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ACTION: School Wide Program: Strategies to Address Student Needs, Opportunities for Student Proficiency

1. The District (by school) will identify students at-risk of not being proficient or above in reading, math, English, social studies and science as indicated by the Mont CAS, DIBELS, MAP, classroom assessments, and/or classroom mid-term and term reports.
2. The District (by school) will develop an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) and identify specific skill deficiencies for every student who is at-risk of not being proficient or above.
3. The District (by school) will provide a response to intervention for identified students through a tiered process.
4. Identified skill deficiencies and interventions will be complemented by a progress-monitoring instrument maintained by the classroom teacher for each deficient skill. This process will be developed in the Individual Learning Plan (ILP) on Mileposts.
5. Student progress will be continuously monitored (by school and classroom teacher). 
6. Each student’s personalized learning plan and program will be tracked using a data-warehousing instrument called Mileposts by Silverback Learning and made available to the administration and classroom teachers.
7. Individualized programs, plans and interventions will be developed by the classroom teacher with support from the building administration and instructional facilitator in an ILP that will involve parent meetings and monitoring. All program and plans will be housed in the Mileposts program.
8. The District (by school) will seek best practices and utilize on-line programs and technology interventions that enhance student skills and provided differentiated instructional solutions.
9. Common core standard instruction will be implemented and utilized to describe student needs and targeted outcomes.
10. Provide staff development and support through an instructional facilitator (coach) for embedded instruction and practice for the successful implementation of objectives 1-9.
11. Follow through with  strategies identified in Goal Area 1: Student Achievement in the District Strategic Plan 2011-2016

STUDENT BEHAVIOR ACTION: School Wide Program: Strategies to Address Student Needs, Opportunities for Student Proficiency

1. Increase administrative proximity and involvement with students, parents and teachers to improve attendance, drop-out rate and disciplinary issues as well as referrals.
2. Provide counseling out-reach through disciplinary follow-up linking behavior, academic performance and attendance with parental involvement and the Individual Learning Plans.
3. Harness MBI to help offset the current at-risk behaviors as identified by the 2012 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment and the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. 
4. The District (by school) will research evidence-based programing  that can help identify scientifically based approaches to preventing and intervening at-risk behaviors.
5. Follow through with  strategies identified in Goal Area 5: Student Centered Positive Climate and Culture in the District Strategic Plan 2011-2016

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTION: School Wide Program: Strategies to Address Student Needs, Opportunities for Student Proficiency through professional development opportunities.

1. Provide staff development and support through an instructional facilitator (coach) for embedded instruction and practice for the successful implementation of academic objectives 1-9.
2. Provide substitute teachers to allow for professional development opportunities for the implementation of academic objectives 1-9.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT ACTION: The District (by school) will develop a school wide plan for improvement. Each school improvement team will be lead by the principal.

Increase administrative leadership and direction setters for implementing a working school improvement process.

Develop and identify a comprehensive school improvement planning team.

Develop and conduct a comprehensive needs assessment survey.

Collect comprehensive needs data from multiple sources to identify the most important needs within the school. The data should focus on five specific areas: student achievement, curriculum and instruction, professional development, parental and community involvement, and school perspective and organization.

Develop a Comprehensive School Improvement Plan.

The School Improvement Plan is designed to help facilitate systematic change in the entire educational program of high-poverty, at-risk schools. The purpose of this systematic change process is to increase the academic achievement of educationally disadvantaged

 

PARENT & COMMUNITY ACTION: The District will increase parent and community awareness and involvement.  as well as  administrative leadership and direction setters for implementing a working school improvement process.

Involve parents in the programs, plans and interventions of their children. (See item 7 of the Student Achievement Plan).

Provide Parent/Guardian training opportunities for using the student information system twice every year (once per semester).

Host Fall, Winter and Spring Community Awareness Meetings to review scores outcomes and data.

Design, distribute and collect a Comprehensive Needs Assessment Survey once every three years. (See item 1 of the School Improvement Plan)

Design, distribute and collect a post graduate survey once every three years.

Follow through with  strategies identified in Goal Area 4: Community/Communication in the District Strategic Plan 2011-2016.