Gorham School
Department
Superintendent’s
Annual Goals
2015-16
Goal #1 – To strengthen the Gorham Schools
overall district mission/vision and core documents by completing a school and
community wide “re-visioning” process involving all appropriate stakeholders.
(NE) Deals with:
Vision/Mission, Climate Culture, Organizational Management, Human
Resource Management, School Committee Relations, and Educational Leadership
I have completed 101 interviews thus far with various school
administrators, school staff, parents, and community members as part of my
entry plan with the goal of completing 120 such interviews by the end of
September. Throughout these
conversations about perceived “strengths” and “areas of challenge” one theme
that has emerged is the need to strengthen and re-invigorate the great work
that was done here in Gorham about 5 years ago when we last updated our
Mission/Vision and Core Beliefs documents as a school system.
In many interviews individuals acknowledged that they didn’t
have a strong sense for what our K-12 district vision was and what role they
would need to play in making it a reality for our children. Many individuals spoke of having strong
school visions, but they weren’t sure if those connected to the district’s or
not. Many individuals also talked about
feeling as though each school was beginning to re-form the “silos” that had
existed before the last visioning process was conducted and they didn’t want to
see that happen again.
As a new incoming Superintendent, it is clear to me that
these original documents (created in 2010) were well thought out and have
served our district well. However, it is
also clear to me that these documents are no longer “alive” and that because of
this lack of a strong, transparent and well-known K-12 vision we are not
maximizing our efforts and instead are being pulled in too many directions at
once without an ability to prioritize the work and align it with our vision. Additionally, these previous vision documents
were created prior to our Proficiency Based Learning (PBL) work and we need to
include our PBL vision within a re-visioning process.
The process I am suggesting would NOT throw out the old
documents and start from scratch.
Instead, the process I would like to facilitate would merely involve a
“re-visioning” process that would use our already existing mission/vision and
core documents as the foundation of our work.
We could then build on and “revive” these core documents through
discussion and “tweaking” to meet the current demands being placed upon our
school system. This process would
involve all stakeholders (School Committee, School Leadership, Staff, Parents,
Students, and Community members) and would culminate in the creation of a
revived School Vision, School Mission, and Core Belief documents. These documents could then be used to later
create a comprehensive Strategic Plan that will help to guide our work moving
forward and allow us to focus and prioritize our efforts and to align our
entire organization to these well-articulated beliefs and practices.
Planned Action Steps
|
Draft Timeline
|
Anticipated “Deliverables”
|
* Discuss with
School Committee and gain approval of the overall process.
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By End of September, 2015
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* School Committee
Vote to approve of re-visioning process.
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* Hire
Consultant/Facilitator to assist Superintendent in the re-visioning process.
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By October, 2015
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* Approved Contract
for services
|
* Create
Stakeholder Design Team to include the following approximate membership:
Proposed Team (16):
- SC members (1)
- District Level
Leadership (1)
- School Level
Leadership (2)
- Teachers (1 from
each building)(5)
- Students (2)
-Parents (one from each grade level (3)
-Community Members (2)
(I might suggest we
“re-purpose” our District PBL team to create this group)
|
By October, 2015
|
* First meetings
agendas and minutes
|
Steering Committee Designs strategies & tools for
community engagement process, seeking stakeholder’s input on vision.
|
October – January, 2015
|
* Meeting agendas,
minutes; flyers, posters, surveys, meeting invitations, etc.
|
* Conduct public
forums and surveys to gather feedback that will be used by Design Team
(DT) to determine themes in the
vision.
|
January–mid-March, 2016
|
* Flyers, posters,
meeting, invitations, agenda, survey responses, etc.
|
* Design Team
organizes data from stakeholders; invites 30-40 additional stakeholders to a
2-hour evening meeting to determine main themes/big ideas that should be in
the vision.
|
April, 2016
|
Data summary, meeting agenda, identified themes, etc.
|
* Vision Writing
Group drafts a newly “re-visioned” Gorham Schools’ Mission and Vision
Statement and core beliefs document utilizing data collected at public forums
and via the community and staff design team process.
|
April, 2016
|
* Draft Mission/Vision and Core Beliefs Document.
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* Steering
committee gathers feedback on draft from conference attendees, subset of
staff & school committee (brief post period on web site for general
public feedback)
|
Late April – early May.
|
Feedback results.
|
* Steering
committee makes final revisions to MVB based on feedback.
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Mid-late May, 2016
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Meeting agendas, minutes.
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* Final draft MVB
document goes to School Committee for approval.
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June, 2016
|
Final Approved Re-Visioned Gorham Schools Mission/Vision
& Core Beliefs Document.
|
Goal #2 – To Be Visibly Present within the
Schools and Community of Gorham.
(NE) Deals with:
Vision/Mission, Organizational Management, Human Resources Management, and Educational leadership.
The 101 Entry Plan interviews I have conducted thus far have
helped me to create this goal as an area of emphasis and need within the Gorham
School District. A clear theme that has
surfaced is that many individuals from both the school and community level
suggested that they didn’t really see top school administration present a great
deal within the schools and within the community.
Granted, this is often a theme in any Superintendent’s position
I have ever held as the required work load of a Superintendent does not leave a
lot of “free time” available to participate in as many events as one would
like. However, there is no more
important component to leadership than simply “being present”, and if one
doesn’t pay close attention to this as a goal, then it is often one of the
easiest things to forget and accidently not do.
Therefore, I am making this increased visibility a priority for my first
year here in Gorham.
Planned Action Steps
|
Draft Timeline
|
Anticipated “Deliverables”
|
* Attend at least 1
home game for every sport in every season (Fall, winter, spring) at the HS
level.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend at least 1
home game for every sport in every season (Fall, winter, spring) at the MS
level.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend at least 1
away game during each season (Fall, Winter, Spring) for a sporting event of
my choice.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend Holiday
Band Concerts for MS/HS level
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November/December, 2015
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Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend Parent
Conference nights at Elementary Levels.
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October, 2015
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Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend the High
School Musical in the spring
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Spring, 2016
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend at least 2
academic extra-curricular events (such as Odyssey of the Mind, Robotics,
Civil Rights Team, etc) at Gorham High School
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 Survey
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*Visit with the Lakes Region Senior Center and the Gorham
House at least once during the year.
|
Throughout the year
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Twitter/FB/Blog posts& 360 survey
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* Continue to
participate and facilitate the Business Roundtable.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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*Attend/participate in at least one event from the Gorham
Business Exchange.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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*Work to set aside Thursday mornings as “School visit”
mornings so that I can visit each school at least once per month.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
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* Attend assorted
school staff meetings, K-5 or 6-12 Cluster meetings, RTI meetings, etc.
throughout the year.
|
Throughout the year
|
Twitter/FB/Blog posts & 360 survey
|
Goal #3 – To Continue to Move the Gorham
Schools Towards the Creation of It’s PBL System of Education for Grades K-12.
(CF) Deals with:
Vision/Mission, Organizational Management, Human Resources Management,
Educational leadership, and State Requirements of LD 1422.
The Gorham Schools have been working to create a Proficiency
Based Learning System for several years now, even before the introduction of LD
1422 by the State of Maine, our Elementary Schools were aligned to and
reporting out on Standards. With the
advent of the Common Core standards and LD 1422, we have had to spend the past several
years re-aligning our K-5 work with these new standards and bringing our 6-12
Schools into alignment.
Our newly created position of Assistant Superintendent in
Charge of Curriculum and Instruction led this work over the course of the past
year and was able to get the Gorham Schools to a point where we now have clear
performance indicators and learning objectives for grades K-5, complete with
assessments and scoring guides for ELA and Math. In grades 6-12, we have identified our
graduation standards and have worked to begin creating Performance Indicators, Learning
objectives and aligned scoring criteria across all content areas. Additionally, we have created a district wide
PBL committee whose charge it is to assist in continuing to lead this work. This is all good, but as you might imagine,
there is still much work to be done.
The Assistant Superintendent will be leading this continued
work on a day in and day out basis, however, I believe there are several
overarching themes that need continued focus by the Superintendent of Schools
in order to align this work to the re-visioning process described under goal #1
and to communicate this work
effectively across all stakeholders (Staff, students, parents, and community).
Planned Action Steps
|
Draft Timeline
|
Anticipated “Deliverables”
|
* Work with the
Asst. Superintendent to create a detailed Action plan for specific PBL work
to be completed by the district for the 2015-16 school year and to share this
plan for feedback with the Leadership Team and the Gorham School Committee.
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September, 2015
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*Completed PBL Action Plan.
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* Hire Great
Schools Partnership to work with the Assistant Superintendent to accomplish
required work at the grades 6-12 level according to the detailed action plan.
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August, 2015
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* GSP contract and
work agreement.
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* Provide a monthly
presentation to the School Committee updating the School Committee on our PBL
work via the SC member on the District PBL Team and Asst. Superintendent.
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October – June, 2016
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*SC minutes
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*Work with Assistant Superintendent to create
A comprehensive PBL Parent communications plan
specifically geared towards assisting parents in understanding how our grading
structures will work via JumpRope (focus on K-5 and grade 7 for 2015-16).
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November ,2015
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* Completed Parent
Communications Plan.
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*Work with the Asst. Superintendent to create a tab on our
website for a “PBL Informational Page” where a description of our PBL
“vision” will be housed (once re-visioned) as well as any appropriate notes
of meetings, curriculum outlines, graduation standards, policy development,
etc. This will allow the public to
follow our work and increase transparency amongst all stakeholders.
|
December, 2015
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*Update website with PBL informational page.
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Goal #4– To Monitor and Assess the First
Year Implementation of our new Teacher and Building Administrator Evaluation
System.
(CF) Deals with:
Climate/Culture, Human Resources Management, Educational Leadership and
State Mandate.
The 2015-16 School year will be the first full year
implementation of our newly created Teacher and Building Administrator
Evaluation Systems. This first year
implementation will be the culmination of almost three years worth of
work. We will be utilizing new standards
(Danielson standards for Teachers and Marshall Standards for Principals/Program
Directors) and new software systems that will require a great deal of training
and learning in order for these to be effectively implemented across all
schools K-12.
We have devoted our full day workshop days to this work over
the course of the coming school year. It
will be important to continually monitor and assess the effectiveness of the
processes so that we can insure success.
Planned Action Steps
|
Draft Timeline
|
Anticipated “Deliverables”
|
* Work with Asst. Superintendent to upload all required
standards and information into our “Reflect” software system.
|
August/September, 2015
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*Completed spreadsheet.
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*Conduct initial Admin. Training in use of “Reflect”
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August, 2015
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*Training notes
|
*Collect from Admin. Lists of all staff to be evaluated
and on what cycles and when.
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September, 2015
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*Completed spreadsheet
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* Conduct initial
teacher mentor training in “Reflect”
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September, 2015
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*Training notes
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* Provide time for
mentor teachers to train school staff in use of “Reflect”
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October, 2015
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*Oct. 9 Early release agendas/notes.
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* Bring the two
separate steering committees together under one steering committee.
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December, 2015
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Agendas/Meeting notes
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* Oversee
Completion of Admin. Training in “Focus” Phase I.
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By end of January, 2016
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*Report pulled from Focus.
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* Oversee
Completion of Admin. Training in “Focus” Phase II.
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By end of June, 2016
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*Report pulled from Focus
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*Create cyclical monitoring of progress via Cabinet and
Council meetings to make sure timelines are being met and software system is
being properly utilized.
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September – June, 2016
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*Cabinet/Council meeting agendas and notes.
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* Check lists of all required evaluations to make sure
they were completed.
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May/June, 2016
|
* Completed
spreadsheet with “spot checks”.
|
* Collect feedback
from Administrators and staff to inform any necessary changes to the system
for the 2016-17 School Year.
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May/June, 2016
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*Survey results/data.
|
Goal #5 – To Create and Implement a
Needs-Based Budgeting approach for the creation of the FY 17 Gorham School
Department Budget.
(NI) Deals with:
Vision/Mission, Organizational Management, Human Resources Management
The Gorham School Department’s annual budget is
approximately $35,000,000.00. Since
2008, the Gorham Schools (along with every other school system in the State of
Maine) has struggled to balance the needs of providing our children with high
quality educational programming with the ability of our taxpayers to fund those
necessary programs. As the State of
Maine continues to decrease its commitments to fund public education the local
burden to fund these necessary programs becomes even greater, stretching our
already scarce resources.
During such times, it is important that school district
budgets are built from the bottom up, making sure that every item being
requested within the budget is necessary to meet the needs of our children and
the mission/vision of our school system.
The development of a needs based budget ensures this process is thorough
and transparent so that by the time the budget reaches our local taxpayers for
approval, it is clear that what is being requested is needed and not just there
because it was the year before.
The overall goal of a needs-based budgeting approach is to
use the entire process of developing a budget as a communications tool so that
the process is transparent, easily understood, and clear that every item
requested is necessary and aligned to the fulfillment of our school’s
mission/vision.
Planned Action Steps
|
Draft Timeline
|
Anticipated “Deliverables”
|
* Draft budget
development timeline and steps and communicate with School Committee to gain
approval.
|
* September, 2015
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*Approved Budget Development Timeline
|
* Train Principals
and Program Directors regarding expectations and processes required.
|
* October/November,
2015
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*Cabinet/Council agendas and minutes
|
* Joint “Dine and
Discuss” meeting with School Committee and Leadership Team.
|
* November, 2015
|
* Prepared booklet
information
|
* Begin initial
school/program budget process.
|
*
November/December, 2015
|
* Template
spreadsheets created and used as desired.
|
* School/program
budgets due to Finance Officer and Superintendent
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* December, 2015
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* Completed budgets
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* Individual
meetings with each Principal/Program Director with Superintendent, Finance
Officer, and Asst. Superintendent.
|
* December/January, 2016
|
* Notes from
meetings.
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* Review of initial “status quo” and superintendent
proposed budget with Leadership team.
|
* January, 2016
|
* Cabinet/Counsel
meeting agendas and notes.
|
* Finalized “Status
quo” and superintendent proposed budget presented to Finance Committee.
|
* February, 2016
|
* completed status
quo and superintendent’s proposed budgets.
|
* Development of
website Budget Development page and Blog posts used to inform community about
key pieces of information.
|
February – June, 2016
|
* completed
web-page and blog posts.
|
* Finalized Finance Committee Budget presented to School
Committee for workshops
|
* March, 2016
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* completed FC
proposed budget.
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* School Committee
approves proposed FY 17 Budget.
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* April, 2016
|
* Approved School
Committee Proposed Budget.
|
* Workshop and
meetings with Town Council to approve FY 17 Budget
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* May, 2016
|
* Approved Proposed
FY 17 Budget.
|
Budget validation Referendum
|
* June, 2016
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* Approved Proposed
FY 17 Budget.
|
These five goals will be my priority goals for the 2015-16 School Year.
In addition to these priority goals, I also have several
other “smaller goals” that are important in the following areas:
I.
Educational Program:
·
To continue to monitor, assess, and submit
periodic updates on vertical team implementation at the Narragansett School.
(CF)
·
To monitor, assess, and submit a report to the
School Committee regarding fall implementation of Jump Start Program across all
schools. (NE)
·
To continue to monitor, assess, and submit
periodic updates on the new K-5 Alternative Education Program (NE).
II.
Budget/Finance:
·
To revise processes used to communicate monthly
financials to the Finance Committee in order to increase transparency. (NE)
III.
Personnel
·
To negotiate in collaboration with the School
Committee a new GTA contract with teachers. (CF)
·
To monitor, assess, and make recommendations to
the School Committee regarding the continuation of DARE program at our elementary
schools and the overall focus of our School Resource Officers. (NE)
IV.
Facilities
·
To continue to work with the School Committee on
addressing the Capital needs of all facilities across the district. (CF)
·
To work with the School Committee on further
improvements to our security and safety systems across the district’s five
schools. (CF)
All of this in addition to my “normal” duties of conducting
monthly School Committee meetings and workshops, monthly leadership team
meetings, overseeing a 35 million dollar budget, 2,600 + students, 370+ staff,
working to increase collaborations within the community, and much much more!
I look forward to a GREAT YEAR here within the Gorham
Schools!
