Superintendent Message from Dr. Ember Conley Greetings PCSD Community! I was welcomed back to Park City School District from winter break with earth shaking sounds coming from our neighborhood ski resorts that continued periodically throughout the morning. As I experience my first winter in Park City, it is full of new sights and sounds. That particular sound took time for me to process what it was, and as I later learned from our Park City Municipal City Manager, Diane Foster, “That is Park City’s way of saying good morning.” It also was the perfect sound to represent the race toward finishing this school year and planning for next. As superintendent, I am working to complete this year’s goal of completing a district learning plan that is aligned to the strategic plan and creates alignment among our school improvement plans. The draft of the District Learning Plan is started. I have begun to share with cabinet level administrators, will push it out to building level leaders, and have it ready for the Park City Governing Board by the end of the month as a draft. Please know that the hardest part of our learning plan is having measurable goals, due to the lack of end of year testing consistency from the state test and the lack of having an internal district wide benchmarking system. Thus, the first goal will be to establish one district system of benchmarking to replace what each building is doing, albeit good, but different. In order for us to be data driven, this benchmarking system is crucial. In addition, I am working with district office administrators to streamline all professional development and programs toward two broad goals: 1. Continue level of high performance and high growth for students in reading and math. 2. Close the achievement gap These are two separate goals that require intentional efforts to address. We have done remarkable work in creating consistency using the SIOP Observation Protocol to address engagement. As we layer these instructional methods with Marzanos work of classroom instruction techniques and use a system of collaborative teams to address learning for each student using data to drive decisions (Dufours PLC Model), student learning will increase. Please understand that these structural changes will take three to five years to implement, which the district learning plan will address. The layers of the district learning plan include the following specific learning programs. Each program is undergoing an intensive review and will result in upcoming recommendations from me for you to discuss and make decisions accordingly: • GATE: Gifted and Talented/ High Performing Students • STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math • DLI: Dual Language Immersion • HAT: High Access to Technology • PCCAPS: Park City The interim curriculum director, Korrin Ledbetter, and I are gathering information from staff members, teacher leaders, and administrators to create a more supportive environment to teachers to increase their effectiveness. We are looking at all current models of professional development, use of outside consultants, and the coaching model. As with the district learning plan, the curriculum and instruction plan will be articulated through a three to five year implementation plan with a scope and sequence driving the implementation. As a follow up to the teacher and administrator evaluation system, we will give a report at the February Board Meeting. We met with key staff members from USOE on January 10, 2014. They provided an update to the State Models. We are following the Jordan Model for the Teacher Evaluation, which is an approved State Model. We are critically evaluating our Administrator Evaluation and will make decisions in the next month to ensure that the model we use fits all requirements and creates growth for our leaders. As we finish this year and start the next year, we are holding to the quickened pace as we thrust forward into creating the most engaging, challenging, and rigorous learning opportunities for our students in Park City School District.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 14:30:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015