More than 200 volunteers worked on committees for about six months to put together the Pine Bush Central School District Strategic Plan. Their goal: to establish what is needed in order for our district to serve the unique needs of each student in the future.
The co-chairs of the eight teams then took these results and created this draft strategic plan. We solicited feedback from our community members, parents, students and staff members. This is the result.
We thank you for your time, interest and continued support of the Pine Bush Central School District.
To view a PDF version of the Strategic Plan, click here.
Pine Bush Central School District Cabinet and Board of Education
Message from the Board of Education President
Message from the Superintendent
Why do we event need a strategic plan
Implementing the Pine Bush Strategic Plan
Pine Bush Central School District Cabinet
- Tim O. Mains – Superintendent of Schools
- Donna Geidel – Assistant Superintendent for Instruction
- Michael Pacella – Assistant Superintendent for Business
- Ryan Reed – Executive Director, Human Resources and Data
- John Boyle – Principal, Crispell Middle School
- Brian Breheny – Principal, Pakanasink Elementary School
- Amy Brockner – Principal, Circleville Elementary School
- Elizabeth Halsey Sproul – Principal, E.J. Russell Elementary School
- Lisa Hankinson – Principal, Circleville Middle School
- Aaron Hopmayer – Principal, Pine Bush High School
- Chris Mummery – Assistant Principal, STARS Academy
- Eric Winter – Principal, Pine Bush Elementary School
- John Hicks – Director, Educational Technology
- Jim Licardi – Director, Operations and Maintenance
- Lyn Prestia – Director, Food Services
- Alex Tremper – Director, Safety and Security
2018-2019 Pine Bush Board of Education
- Lloyd GREER, JR., President
- Gretchen MEIER, Vice President
- Kristin GRAESSLE
- Dori JOHNSON
- Kristi KHEIRALLA
- Cara ROBERTSON
- Ross TOMPKINS
Message from the Board of Education President
To the Pine Bush community,
Pine Bush is a special place. If you are new to the district, you surely have noticed its natural beauty. Surrounded by the Shawangunk Mountains, the entire area is a tranquil, outdoor paradise. But it is the heart of this community, its people, that truly makes Pine Bush so special.
Our tight-knit community supports our school district on so many levels and in so many ways, from cheering on our sports teams to making graduation a neighborhood event with hundreds in their lawn chairs lining up on the football field to encourage our new graduates and their families.
We brought our new superintendent, Tim Mains, to our district in 2017 with many goals, one of which was to produce a strategic plan to guide Pine Bush schools into a more individualized learning environment. With the Board of Education’s strong support and the help of nearly 200 volunteers, that plan has now been realized. If you are one of the volunteers who helped produce this plan, I want to thank you for your diligence and your contributions.
Please take the time to review this plan. It is the district’s vision for creating our schools of the future. The goals will benefit each and every one of our students, no matter how they learn. There will be opportunities for staff and parents to be involved in the plan’s execution and we hope you will consider participating when those opportunities arise.
Our ultimate goal is to prepare every student for the world, whether it is to continue their education, become part of the military or join the workforce.
Whatever the case, we want each Pine Bush student to be ready for real life and to be successful.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Greer, Jr., President
Pine Bush Board of Education
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
— COLIN POWELL
Message from the Superintendent
Dear Pine Bush stakeholders,
Ensuring success for every student is the ultimate goal for all of us involved in education. But schools are not currently organized to address the individual needs of each student. We still too often teach the same thing at the same time in the same way to the same group of students. Some of them learn it and some of them don’t. That approach fails to recognize the differences among our learners. It’s time for us to invent new approaches. Schools, like the world around us, can no longer be a one-size-fits-all kind of place.
The goal of our strategic plan is to meet the needs for every single one of our students. To construct this strategic plan, we brought together administrators, teachers, other staff members, parents, community members and students.
We asked them to focus on the classroom of the future, on utilizing technology to help us reach our goals, and on communicating and engaging our parents and community in new ways. Ultimately, we want to transform our schools into the purveyors of success for all of our students.
This strategic plan is an outline, a road map for our journey to achieve what must be done in order to prepare our students to thrive in the very challenging world they will encounter once they leave us. The plan is based on what we know today, realizing that we will learn more as we begin to implement it. Like any journey, sometimes there may be the need for a detour. That’s okay. We want to evolve the plan as we learn more about both our students and the processes we develop.
Everyone in the community is invited to be a part of this journey, to assist us in making Pine Bush schools the very best they can be for each and every one of our students.
Sincerely,
Tim O. Mains, Superintendent
Pine Bush Central Schools
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
— JOHN WOODEN
Strategic Plan Countdown
5 Years – 2018-2023
4 Domains:
Domain 1: Cognitive Domain – Mastering knowledge and skills
Domain 2: Personal Domain – Developing the whole person
Domain 3: Relationships Domain – Creating and expanding partnerships
Domain 4: Systems Domain – Maximizing resources and strategizing for success
3 Audiences:
Students, Staff, Parents/Community
2 Promises
To Honor Both Our Vision and Our Mission
1 Pine Bush
DISTRICT VISION AND MISSION
VISION
The Pine Bush Central School District’s vision is to empower students to dream big, think globally, value diversity and achieve personal success.
MISSION
Our mission is to provide real world, state-of-the-art, innovative educational strategies that prepare our students for higher education and career pathways. Each student will be prepared to become a contributing member in an ever-changing world.
Values and Beliefs
A district-wide commitment to the following values and beliefs is vital at all levels of the organization if we are to fully realize our vision and mission:
Students must always come first.
- We believe it is essential to place the interests of students above all others in every decision we make.
- We believe that students should feel a strong connection to school and have positive relationships with the adults in our schools.
- We believe that the core work of the district is supporting student learning.
- We believe it is our responsibility to do whatever it takes to ensure that every child, regardless of challenges or circumstance, be supported and expected to achieve at his or her highest level.
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”
— IGNACIO ESTRADA
High–quality teaching and learning are key to student success.
- We believe that all children can learn and excel, and that we have an obligation to uncover the best ways to make that happen.
- We believe in high expectations for all students and staff built on a culture that includes fair treatment, honesty, openness and respect.
- We believe high-quality instruction is key to our students’ success and is built on a rigorous and relevant curriculum that is aligned to high standards, measurable outcomes, appropriate professional development and equitable access to educational opportunities.
- We believe that we will need to operate in perpetual learning mode, seeing professional growth as an ongoing responsibility for all.
Positive social, emotional, and behavioral growth provides a sturdy foundation for academic and personal success.
- We believe schools are the heart of our communities and are committed to providing healthy, safe and caring school environments.
- If we want children to be successful in school and in life, we believe they must possess strong social skills plus emotional self-awareness and self-control.
- We believe that students want to know what is expected, and we have an obligation to tell them.
- We believe structured opportunities outside of the classroom can provide rich experiences that foster positive social/emotional development and responsible behavioral choices.
Strong leadership, effective systems and reliable measures are needed to accomplish our goals.
- We believe that leadership is essential. It should be developed and distributed within every constituency and throughout the organization.
- We believe that routine review of how we do business will help us to maintain effective and efficient systems that support our core business of teaching and learning.
- We believe that a continuous improvement cycle can most effectively be maintained by the routine collection and analysis of data.
- We believe that data should help us refine our approaches within our classrooms and in the systems that support those classrooms.
Our efforts will require us all to work together.
- We believe we must partner effectively with our parents and tap community resources.
- We believe students are far more likely to be successful in school when their families share in the commitment to that school success.
- We believe that teachers and other staff must maintain a collaborative spirit and be willing to share both resources and ideas.
- We believe positive relationships are key to accomplishing our goals. This includes relationships between and among staff, between teachers and students, between administrators and teachers, and among school staff, families, community and the Board of Education.
How did we get here?
The story of this plan begins in the spring of 2016, when the district organized a Community Summit to explore what our schools of the future might look like. A cross section of staff, parents and community members spent the day brainstorming possibilities. The process was interrupted, however, when then superintendent, Joan Carbone, announced her retirement. To help ensure that the new superintendent would understand the Board of Education’s (BOE) desire to continue and complete this effort, the search consultant prepared a video used in the superintendent recruitment process.
“Every team had a healthy mix of staff, parents, community representatives and students, and all had begun their work before the first semester had concluded.”
As of this writing, that video, A Brand New Day, is posted as the featured video on the district’s website – www.pinebushschools.org. The video begins with Board of Education President Lloyd Greer describing the day he dropped out of an unyielding Pine Bush High School. The video highlights many of the student-centered efforts now underway in Pine Bush, and it also presents interviews with more than two dozen people (staff, students and parents) who alternately praise our district and explain why our schools must change to become even more responsive to student needs. The message is clear: we want to become the district where students don’t have to figure us out; but rather, the district that figures them out so well that we are able to offer each and every student exactly what she or he needs to leave us for a productive and fulfilling life.
The video was successful in catching the attention and the imagination of our current superintendent, Tim Mains. When the board hired him, Mr. Mains understood that he would be expected to complete the process of developing a strategic plan. After just four months in his new district, Superintendent Mains asked the staff to participate in a “Back to the Future” exercise that allowed the entire instructional staff to think about our future schools, much as the Community Summit had done. He took the results of that exercise and completed a pattern analysis to identify eight broad areas – Academics, Family and Community, Metrics, Schools, Students, Teachers, Technology, and Well Being – that the plan would have to address.
At the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, the new superintendent summarized his analysis of the Back to the Future exercise during his opening convocation address to the Pine Bush staff, and he laid out the plan for launching the creation of this strategic plan. Rather than hire a consultant to work with the district’s senior leadership, Superintendent Mains chose a more inclusive and organic process. We would form teams around each of the eight areas identified in his pattern analysis. Each team would include a cross section of staff, students, parents, and community members. Each of the seven members of the board of education would also sit on one of the eight teams. Each of the teams would have two co-chairs – a Pine Bush administrator and either a parent or community leader.
Each team would attempt to identify the components in our future schools from the vantage point of that particular team. Then the teams would identify the goals that should be attained to make this a reality and enumerate a few essential action steps to get there.
The process of strategic plan construction occurred throughout the 2017-18 school year. In the fall, we invited participants and recruited our co-chairs. We actually had more volunteers than we ever anticipated – 193 in all! Every team had a healthy mix of staff, parents, community representatives and students, and all had begun their work before the first semester had concluded. By June 2018, the teams had all produced their reports, and the co-chairs met twice to refine those recommendations into a single plan that was both manageable and coherent.
The recommendations from all the teams were sorted into four broad themes that seemed to cut across the eight team reports. This merged document was then posted on our website for 30 days, so all the people who may not have been able to participate on one of the teams would be able to leave warm and cool feedback about the draft. That feedback, along with revisions made at our administrative retreat, led to this final document.
Why do we even need a Strategic Plan?
For almost as long as anyone can remember, schools have been organized to teach a set number of subjects in a sequence of increasing difficulty to students who were organized into specified age groupings known as grades. This structure was developed to help prepare students for an industrialized society, and it employed many of the principles of mass production. Schools were designed to create graduates who could become the interchangeable working elements within a very predictable economy. Everyone learned the same thing in the same way at the same time. Teachers were expected to target their instruction to the average child so that most would be successful. The world today is not only far less predictable, but we have also come to understand that hardly anyone is truly “average.”
As the 21st century approached, major shifts began to suggest that the structure of American schools may not be adequate to prepare our students for success in the new “knowledge economy.” Employers suggested that in addition to the three “Rs” – readin’, ‘writin’, and ‘rithmatic – that schools should be paying attention to the six “Cs” – communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, character and citizenship.
The standards that had been widely adopted just a few years before were often considered insufficiently rigorous as work expectations continued to increase. And theoptions for low skill/no skill employment were rapidly evaporating. Even the option to enlist in the military was removed for people without a high school diploma. At the same time, new research on the brain and learning vastly expanded our understanding and creation of new instructional options. Technology made it theoretically possible to deliver instruction tailored to the needs of each child, allowing students to move at different paces and potentially along different paths to learn the same things, but in different ways.
The challenge facing schools throughout the country is to redesign their educational delivery systems without neglecting their responsibility to manage and monitor the success of each and every child. The desire to replace the mass education system of the past with a new, more personalized system is not unique to Pine Bush, but few other districts share our deep commitment to find ways that allow all of our students to achieve personal success (it’s a core part of our vision). This strategic plan is our effort to begin that journey in a purposeful and comprehensive way. It represents the best thinking of many people, all of whom want the very best for our students. We acknowledge that because this plan was built on our understandings today, it is likely imperfect. We don’t know what we don’t know. So, we will treat this plan more as a map than as a recipe, making adjustments as we move along our journey.
It is our strong belief that to have attempted a major overhaul without first creating this plan would have been entirely foolish. We invite all of the district’s stakeholders to join us in this venture, and to provide us with your insights and your feedback as we seek to make our schools maximally responsive to the needs of each and every student.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
— ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Implementing the Pine Bush Strategic Plan
The co-chairs from all eight teams worked together to select the most important goals and action steps from the eight team reports and then identified the themes that could be found woven through and among them.
There are four themes that we are calling “domains.” We chose to depict the strategic plan as a wheel, to represent forward progress, and we allotted equal space to each domain to communicate that all four are needed together if we are going to reach our objective of successfully redesigning our schools. At the center of our wheel is a mortarboard to represent our ultimate desire – to see 100% of our students graduate.
On pages 14-21, we detail the specifics of our new strategic plan. First we provide a brief overview to the domain, then we outline the goals and action steps for each one. For each action step, we also tried to project in which of the five years of the plan we expect to execute that particular action step. It’s important to note we are not starting from scratch. We attempted to list some of the things we are already doing that fit within each domain.
There is a lot for us to do so we’re asking everybody to just pick one – one domain or one goal within one domain or one action step within one goal within one domain. No matter how broad or how specific you choose to be, if everybody just picks one, then we feel confident that we can get this all done.
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
— BEN FRANKLIN
Eight Teams
ACADEMICS TEAM
Co-Chairs: Donna Geidel, Eric Winter
Donna Boncek
Brian Breheny
Finian Brown
Donna Cullen-Dolce
Peter Dolan
Kathryn Dowling
Thomas Druke
Jenn Fitzgerald
Andrew Gibson
Richard Girgenti
Donna Griffenkranz
Monica Hasbrouck
Dori Johnson
Veronica Jones
Taylor Kloczkowski
Robert Lawrence
Melissa Meere
Derek Perez
Daniele Raccio
David Rivera
Bexsabell Santiago
Edward Stelmaszyk
Catherine Stevens
Linda VanDunk
Halina Velkovska
Matthew Watkins
FAMILIES & COMMUNITY TEAM
Co-Chairs: Annette Kahrs, Kristin Slover
Katie Carson
Arlene Cooper
Hannah Damon
Terri Hatfield
Jennifer Lepore
Dawn Mazzella
Shane Merone
Lee Ann Noonan
Danielle Pappalardo
Cheryl Reidy
Gina Rubino
Alezandra Saccoccio
Seth Siegel
Linda Smith
Dottie Spears
Kaitlyn Sternemann
Janice Sweet
Kaylee Webb
Kelly Williams
METRICS TEAM
Co-Chairs: William Bassett, Ryan Reed
Daniel Aktas
Alexa Balkissoon
Amy Brockner
Nicole Dawson
Kiyan Hocek
Traci Johnson
Danuta Kliti
Rosemarie Lindsay
Tim Mains
Gretchen Meier
Ryan Reed
Madeline Roche
Megan Vinella
John Yelle
STUDENTS TEAM
Co-Chairs: Shari Haas, Chris Mummery
Linda Bradley
Kathryn Bull
Arianna Castanon
Terrilyn Cohn
Jada Conde
Wendy Crandall
Melissa Dewitt
Melissa Druke
Sarbjit Garcia
Roxanna Garmindez
Katie Green
Lloyd Greer
April Grieco
Scherece Griffith
Alexa Irwin
Madison Jasko
Tania Kadi
Sarah Levato
Debrianna Lewis
Leticia Madden
Madelyn Metcalfe
Richard Murray
Cimarron Neeld
Andrea Reitman
Elizabeth Sproul
Kristen Terranova
Jessica Torres
Brittany Vasquez
SCHOOLS TEAM
Co-Chairs: John Boyle, Dan Depew
Keith Bischof
Mark Coleman
Christine Colom
Kelly Cooke
Debbie Goebel
Kendra Hajek
Connie Henke
Jillian Kahrs
Lisa Lesczynski
Brian Lynn
Karen Pastormerlo
BobbiJean Reisert
Francis Reisert
Cara Robertson
Lori Stapleton
Kimberly Steele
John Strucker
Alex Tremper
Margo Tucker
Samantha Veaz
Nancy Vinella
Erica Walentin
Eileen Wishinski
TEACHERS TEAM
Co-Chairs: Aaron Hopmayer, Carla McLaud
Jamie Almeida
Shauna Best
Melissa Boniface
Joanie Cichon
Kerri Dec
Colleen Delles
Lisa Donohue
Helen Fitzgibbons
John Flanagan
Jessica Fobert
Rachel Gibson
Gabriel Girault
Eduardo Jaime
Stacey Mark
Jodi Martin
Michael Pacella
Allison Squillante
Susan Sturm
Roseanne Sullivan
Patricia VanLeuven
Kristin Zelonis
TECHNOLOGY TEAM
Co-Chairs: Jay Anthony, John Hicks
Peter Agro
Jillian Crawford
Eleanor Dana
Christina Gabriele
Lisa Hankinson
Ann Harper
Nora Hines
Morgan Ketcham
Brian Miros
Kimberly Orndorff
John Parsells
Robert Pawson
Michelle Reisert
Tim Rubino
Matthew Schomber
Robin Sklar
R.J. Smith
Michael Sturm
John Tobin
Scott Van Pelt
Skyler VonDeben
WELL-BEING TEAM
Co-Chairs: Greg Jaloszynski, Rosemary Mannino
Asia Anthony
Heather Bavolar
Richard Blazeski
Jennifer Crane
Jordan Donley
Heather Fagan
Teddy Fernandez
Michael Gillespie
Katerina Groutkas
Kristin Kherialla
Jimmy Korpai
Owen McKane
Lisa Metz
Judy Parsells
Kim Pawlowski
Lyn Prestia
Joseph Prestianni
Kristin Raucci
Kara Sprague
Jamie Tamurello
Katie Viola
Kelly Wallace
Margaret Winsper
Shamya Zindani
Jennifer Stroh
Domain 1:
THE COGNITIVE DOMAIN
College and Career Ready
This domain is the easiest to understand, since it represents the core of what schools have always taught – the requisite knowledge to be culturally competent and the essential skills to be personally and economically productive.
That said, what students need to know, understand, and be able to do to thrive in the 21st century is far more complex than the expectations that were held for their parents and grandparents when they were in school. With the standards-based approach that has driven public education for the past three decades, we continue to expand and refine our instructional expectations.
This domain does not merely address the “what,” but also the “how.”
Technology has created new avenues for presenting information and ideas, augmenting instruction and tracking success. You will notice that this domain emphasizes the need to provide multiple pathways for students not just to learn new material, but also to demonstrate their mastery of that material. This domain requires us to both develop new methodologies and to ensure that successful experiments in any given school or classroom are made available throughout the district.
We’ve already started:
Engineering is Elementary – OUBOCES/VoTech – Universal Pre-K – STEAM Coaches – Elementary Literacy – Coaches – Technology Coaches – Technology Task Force – Fountas & Pinnell Classroom – STAR Math, Reading and Early Literacy – LLI Kits – NYS Next Generation Learning Standards – Unpacking Released – 3-8 Assessment Items – Engineering Adventures – Media AIS – STEAM AIS – STARS Academy – AASA – Personalized Learning Cohort
Domain 1: Action Plan
THE COGNITIVE DOMAIN
College and Career Ready
Goal 1: Develop instructional methods and materials that create differentiated paths, pace and performance tasks for students.
Action Steps
a. Schools will develop their own “portrait of a graduate” and schools will work to merge their “portraits” into a common portrait for each level (ES, MS, HS). 2018-2019
b. Teachers will provide flexible small group learning opportunities (Based on interest, need and/or skill level) where they can listen, coach, mentor and build strong relationships with their students. 2018-2023
c. Teachers will develop assessments to verify when a student has attained mastery of key standards. 2019-2020; 2022-2023
Goal 2: Develop curriculum maps for all content areas P-12; provide multiple pathways for students.
ACTION STEPS
a. The district will help teachers become familiar with the New York State Next Generation Standards in order to ensure that instruction is aligned. 2018-2020
b. Teams will review and adopt an articulated P-12 curriculum for each of the unified arts (art, music, physical education and library). 2018-2020
c. Teams will review current curriculum in other subjects with an effort to create crosscurricular units or courses and provide multiple pathways to master the same standards. (Use new curricula to drive purchase priorities for instructional resources). 2019-2022
d. The district will create opportunities to showcase innovative instructional approaches. 2019-2023
Goal 3: Make the use of data routine in order to better inform teaching and learning.
ACTION STEPS:
a. Teachers will use multiple data sources to guide instructional decisions. 2018-2023
b. Data teams will meet regularly to analyze student data to assess individual student progress. 2018-2023
c. Students will use rubrics and learning targets to monitor their own progress and to create instructional groups. 2018-2023
Goal 4: Increase the use of project-based learning for greater student engagement.
ACTION STEPS:
a. We will spread the use of Project/Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to more classrooms and more subjects. 2018-2023
b. Teachers will ensure that students understand their learning targets for each daily lesson and will use those learning targets to check for understanding. 2018-2023
c. We will focus on daily instruction and expect “mastery,” not just competence. 2018-2023
Domain 2:
THE PERSONAL DOMAIN
Positive School Climate
While we all want our children to excel in math, science, language arts, and social studies, we have come to understand that academic excellence is not enough to guarantee success in our new 21st century society and economy. Our students will need to be resilient, adaptable and collaborative to survive and thrive in the world today.
Studies have shown that students with strong social-emotional skills also show higher academic achievement in both P-12 and college. And it’s not just school. Strong social-emotional skills also have been shown to have a positive impact in the workplace and in life. Yet at this point in time, Pine Bush has neither identified nor adopted a coherent social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum.
Selecting such a curriculum, along with the assessments to track student development in these arenas, are a key part of this domain. So, too, is attending to the physical and nutritional aspects of child development along with the assurance that students and families who need help beyond the expertise of school staff have access to such services.
We’ve already started:
School-Based Mental Health Clinics – Emotional Intelligence – Nurtured Heart – No Place for Hate – Speak Up! – Project Impact – Stress Management – School Counselors – Social Workers – Educating – “The Whole Child” – School Psychologists – Athletics – Extracurricular Clubs – SADD – Fine Arts – PBIS – Health and Wellness – HS Options Program – Social/Emotional Learning – Primary Project – Universal Pre-K – No More Campaign
Domain 2: Action Plan
PERSONAL DOMAIN
Positive School Climate
Goal 1: Identify and implement a social/emotional learning curriculum.
ACTION STEPS
a. A team will research currently available SEL curricula and make a recommendation for adoption. 2018-2019
b. The superintendent will secure board approval for the recommended SEL curriculum. 2019-2020
c. The district will train staff and plan the implementation of said SEL curriculum. 2019-2021
Goal 2: Provide resources, education and strategies to ensure our students are emotionally capable, responsible and resilient individuals.
ACTION STEPS:
a. A team will research available instruments that measure such things as social, organizational, self-advocacy and communication skills and adopt assessment(s) that provide actionable data. 2018-2020
b. Schools (with district guidance) will partner with outside agencies and organizations to provide specialized services for students. 2018-2023
c. We will utilize research-based programs (like PBIS, No Place for Hate and Safe School Ambassadors) to promote positive student behavior, diversity and respect. 2018-2023
d. School counselors and social workers will continue to provide support and intervention and expand social skills lessons for students in more grade levels. 2018-2023
e. Schools may explore the use of mindfulness, meditation, peer mediation, and/or other practices helpful to improve student success. 2018-2023
Goal 3: Provide opportunities for students and staff to develop healthy lifestyles that include good nutrition and ample exercise.
ACTION STEPS:
a. The district will explore the creation of fitness rooms that can serve as PE instructional stations during the day and provide an exercise option for staff and community outside of the school day. 2019-2021
b. The district will consider the acquisition of programs and equipment that would provide for “recess in the classroom.” 2019-2021
c. Students will receive developmentally appropriate instruction about healthy diet and exercise habits. 2019-2023
d. The district will consider the creation of extra-curricular activities designed to keep children active and healthy (especially in elementary schools). 2018-2023
Domain 3:
THE RELATIONSHIP DOMAIN
Crucial Connections
Educators have long understood that rich learning begins with a solid relationship. Research has shown again and again that students learn best when they like their teacher and they believe that their teacher likes them. Yet in our schools of the future, we also know that we need to expand the number and nature of relationships that are available to our students.
This domain seeks to maximize the potential community connections that we have already begun to tap. Finding ways to bring the world into our schools and to take our students out into that world are part of what this domain entails. It also recognizes that our children’s first teachers – their parents – are another resource that we have traditionally underutilized.
This domain asks that we work to enlist and empower parents to better support their children’s learning at home. This will require us to educate parents about the new approaches we are taking and to learn from parents what strengths and challenges their children bring to school.
By building stronger partnerships with parents and the community, we can truly enlist the whole village in our pursuit of educating each child.
We’ve already started:
HS Summer Academies – Extracurricular Clubs – Athletics – HS Excelsior – Summer School Programs – District Website – Community Service – MS Human Rights Academy – Grade 8 STEM Academy – Peer Tutoring – National Honor Society – Elementary Engineering Clubs – Odyssey of the Mind – Project Based – Learning – Surveys – District Newsletters – District Calendar – Internships – ACE Mentoring – Colleges/Universities – Pratt & Whitney – US Army – Local/State Law Enforcement – HAAS Automation – Tri-County Community Partnership – ADAC – Orange/Sullivan/Ulster County Agencies – OUBOCES – SME PRIME – Initiatives – Parent Workshops – Polaris University
Domain 3: Action Plan
THE RELATIONSHIP DOMAIN
Crucial Connections
Goal 1: Engage parents so they can better support the learning and development of their children.
ACTION STEPS:
a. Schools will use ongoing surveys (with district help) to determine how to better support parents and families and offer classes/workshops for parents based on topics of interest they identify. 2018-2023
b. The district will provide links on our website to resources that will help parents support their children’s cognitive social and emotional development. 2018-2023
c. We will rely on the dual capacity-building framework of Dr. Karen Mapp to guide our efforts. 2019-2023
Goal 2: Provide frequent opportunities for students to apply their learning in real world settings.
ACTION STEPS:
a. We will expand opportunities for students to earn credits through work-study, paid or unpaid internships and community service. 2019-2022
b. Schools will create more opportunities for older students to mentor younger students. 2018-2023
c. Teachers will develop new curricula to apply real-world experience and knowledge to units of study and provide students the chance to demonstrate their learning through authentic, real-world applications. 2019-2022
Goal 3: Expand learning beyond the classroom and the school day.
ACTION STEPS:
a. The district will make a wide variety of athletic and extracurricular opportunities available to students in elementary, middle and high school. 2018-2023
b. Schools will coordinate field trips within each school and across school buildings to maximize student engagement and provide consistency across the district. 2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2022-2023
C. The district will ensure that access to learning tools, such as Chromebooks, remains equitable across all student demographics. 2018-2023
d. The district will expand accessibility to online courses, virtual field trips and other platforms for learning. 2020-2023
Goal 4: Expand partnerships with parents, businesses and agencies in support of student learning and development.
ACTION STEPS:
a. The district will coordinate among buildings and community groups to determine what programs and organizations might serve as resources for one another. 2019-2020, 2021-2022
b. Secondary schools will develop additional partnerships with area businesses and community agencies to maximize the opportunity for mentoring, internship, or externship experiences based on student interests and career goals. 2018-2023
c. School counselors will increase student and parent engagement in course, career and college planning. 2018-2023
Domain 4:
THE SYSTEMS DOMAIN
Maximize Resources
This ambitious plan can only be realized if we acquire and use the right technology, and if we provide ample training for staff, students, and parents to make appropriate use of these new methods and tools.
We will need to continuously monitor what technological tools our students will need to use once they leave us, and then endeavor to provide access to those tools while our students are still in our care. Without attention to this domain, we would surely fail to reach our goals in all the other domains.
Just as we seek to personalize learning for our students, this domain challenges us to also endeavor to personalize learning for our staff. Because we realize that we are actually expanding what we want our students to master while they are with us, we realize that we must either find ways to expand the amount of time we have with students and/or to develop ways to be even more efficient with the time we do have.
This domain also acknowledges that we should be exploring what sort of space and school furnishings might best facilitate this more independent, personalized approach.
We’ve already started:
Navience – Flexible Scheduling – Innovative Furniture – Smart Schools Bond – Grad Point – Google Classroom – Maker Spaces – Library Media Centers – Chromebook Carts – 3D Printers – Checking For Understanding – Learning Targets – Models, Critiques & Feedback – APPR – My Learning Plan – Virtual Reality Lab – Virtual Field Trips – Project-Based Learning – EL Education – Danielson Group Consultant –Collaborative Learning Spaces – School Tool – District Website – Gaggle – Navigate Prepared – Educational Advisory Board
Domain 4: Action Plan
THE SYSTEMS DOMAIN
Maximize Resources
Goal 1: Work to maximize student instructional time.
ACTION STEPS:
a. The district will implement flexible scheduling in order to increase instructional and extracurricular opportunities for students. 2020-2023
b. The district will explore the possibility of changing start times for different levels (i.e. – earlier for elementary, later for MS/HS) in order to maximize learning potential. 2019-2020, 2021-2022
c. The district will offer more online platforms that promote personalized learning that can be done anywhere/anytime. 2019-2023
Goal 2: Provide an array of technology (software, devices, websites, and digital content) in order to foster student engagement and learning.
ACTION STEPS:
a. The district will expand access to technology resources and ensure that the infrastructure supports them as tools evolve. 2018-2023
b. The district will continue to pursue its 1:1 initiative in order to maximize the availability of digital content to its staff and students. 2018-2023
c. The district will endeavor to review and select appropriate digital tools for writing curriculum and presenting curriculum (learning management systems). 2018-2019
d. The district will launch an effort to identify the information needed for a student learning dashboard. 2019-2021
Goal 3: Ensure that staff training is widely available to support the district’s transformation.
ACTION STEPS:
a. We will focus on building student ownership for learning, constructing formative and non-traditional assessments tied to learning targets, conducting collaborative learning conversations and utilizing appropriate instructional technology. 2018-2023
b. The district will endeavor to create personalized and online training opportunities in addition to whole group staff instruction for key professional development objectives. 2019-2023
c. The district will continue to expand the number of full-time release instructional coaches to support colleagues in their classrooms. 2018-2023
Goal 4: Create multi-purpose learning spaces that facilitate collaborative teaching and learning.
ACTION STEPS:
a. The district will use its capital improvement project to explore flexible learning spaces. 2019-2022
b. The district will purchase a wide variety of furniture options that support flexible learning. 2019-2023
c. The district will purchase materials and resources that expand personalized learning and improve student engagement. 2018-2023