Superintendent Hopson shared the District's Assessment Framework with School Board members this week. The Board was encouraged to hear about the new annual process for evaluating schools, which will help identify strategic investments for Critical Focus schools and opportunities for communities to be a part of the improvement plans. It's a major shift from the difficult process of making school closure recommendations in the past. 

Thanks to all of your input, along with that of our parents, students and partners, during the "Greater Schools. Greater Community." feedback tour in the fall, we have a deep understanding of the qualities stakeholders feel can have the strongest impact on providing a high-quality education for every student in every school. In the weeks ahead, we'll be planning additional community meetings to start working with families, staff and partners on steps to improve our Critical Focus schools.

We're reviewing our current grading policies and want your help! Your input can help us determine grading categories and the percentage that each category should contribute to  students' nine-week grades. Click here to take a brief survey.

We're gearing up for our "Principal Selection Process" for next school year and looking for bold leaders to take on the challenge of helping students become college- and career-ready. If you'd like to learn more about what it takes to be part of the candidate pool and the selection process, please join us at one of our upcoming informational sessions at the TLA:

February 20: 3:30 - 4 p.m. | February 21: 5 - 5:30 p.m. 

If you're thinking of retiring this year, make plans to attend the info meeting on February 21 or April 20. Both meetings take place 4:15 - 5:30 p.m. in the BOE auditorium. The SCS Benefits Department and Empower Retirement/Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) will be on hand at both to provide information about:

• Types of retirement
• Eligibility requirements
• Retirement application process
• Benefits
• And more…

Lots of questions are still coming in, so, just to be sure, here's another friendly reminder that school is IN on Presidents Day, which is Monday, February 20. This was part of the 2016-17 school year calendar approved in March 2016. A version of the calendar posted on the website earlier in the school year incorrectly showed this as an off-day, so we think people are still referring to that. All calendars are updated and multiple reminders have gone out to staff and parents since, but in case anyone keeps asking, please remind them that Monday is a school and work day. Thanks!