Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Good afternoon, colleagues.
I want to make you aware of a very important announcement I'll be making during tonight's Board Work Session. As part of our continuous commitment to ensure the best learning opportunities for every student in every school, we are releasing a new Assessment Framework that will be used annually to provide our Board, employees, parents and community partners with a clear understanding of how the District makes recommendations for school improvement.
After closing 28 schools in the last five years, we are now hitting the reset button on what has always been an incredibly difficult process for everyone involved. Over the past year, we have worked very hard to not only identify the factors that impact our ability to offer a high-quality education, but also to realign resources so we can be in a position to make meaningful investments that will improve achievement.
Before we take any steps to close another school building, I believe the most responsible thing to do to is provide time and targeted support for students and teachers in order to give schools a real chance to improve.
As a result of our Assessment Framework, a total of 19 "critical focus" schools, which you can view on this fact sheet, were selected to receive a tailored treatment plan based on their individual needs. Each of these schools was identified based on criteria within the framework, including academic performance, building quality/utilization, school climate/enrollment and neighborhood needs.
In the weeks ahead, each critical focus school will be developing an action plan for the 2017-18 school year. Using clearly defined benchmarks, we'll be monitoring progress annually to determine if schools are making the necessary improvements. Potential investments for these schools may include HR support to incentivize effective teachers to remain on staff or fill hard-to-staff positions, funds for strategic recruitment plans to increase enrollment, increased instructional time, similar to the iZone model, and/or construction of new facilities or improvement of high-priority facilities needs.
Tonight, we'll be sharing this comprehensive report, which outlines the Assessment Framework and its criteria, along with a summary of the community engagement process conducted during the fall. That process was so valuable, as it spotlighted what parents, educators and students believe to be the most important elements of a high-quality education. That same input also helped inform some of the treatment plans we've already developed for several critical focus schools.
This morning I spent a few minutes with our SCS Newsroom team to record a message for the community in advance of tonight's meeting. You can view it here. I also conducted a call to share facts about the process with our local media, so you're likely to see a lot of coverage this evening and in the days to come.
To hear this evening's discussion, don't forget you can view all Board meetings live at voiceofscs.com.
Thanks for all you do to support our students.
Sincerely,
Dorsey E. Hopson, II
Superintendent
