By Janine Davis Record Staff Writer The Wright City R-II school board has formalized the goals that will guide its oversight of district activities for the new school year. In a unanimous 5-0 vote, the board agreed to a set of goals and strategies in five areas covering academics, staffing and other pillars of education: Student Performance; Highly Qualified Staff; Facilities, Support and Instructional Resources; Parent and Community Involvement; and Governance. Student Performance: The board stated that its first goal is to attain “On Track” status levels for Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) standards for the 2015 school year that will be reported next fall. MSIP reviews and accredits school districts in the state. Under the current MSIP cycle, schools are evaluated based on test scores that place them in one of four categories: 2020 Target, On Track, Approaching, and Floor. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) defines “2020 Target” as a level of performance about equal to the projected 2020 performance of the top 10 states. DESE’s goal is for Missouri to be in the top 10 performing states by the year 2020. “On Track” represents about 75 percent of students scoring “proficient” by year 2020 as projected out with equal annual progress increments to reach the 2020 target. “Approaching” represents about 100 percent scoring at “basic” level, while “floor” represents less than 100 percent scoring basic. R-II Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines told board members the district had been achieving “On Target” in all 14 MSIP reporting categories. “We were meeting all 14 standards until MSIP changed,” said Gaines. “Will we hit all of the standards on target? The targets are continually increasing, but we expect to be close,” said Gaines, who noted that goals for No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress programs also are regularly increased. “We could be on target this year and have the same exact score next year and fall short, because the bar is rising. But we’re progressing in a nice fashion.” Highly Qualified Staff: A second goal is to maintain a climate conducive to attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers and support personnel. Strategies to attain this goal are the provision of competitive salaries and benefits, engagement of personnel in decision making, recognition and professional development opportunities. Gaines said the district is planning to recognize outstanding teacher and staff service at the beginning of the school year instead of at the end to gain broader attention for those district employees. An evening banquet for Teacher of the Year, Support Staff of the Year and retirees also is in the works. Additional funds for professional development opportunities will be provided for teachers of the year as another reward. Facilities, Support, and Instructional Resources: Other goals are to monitor student population and to implement its long-range plan as needed, and as well as written plans relating to facility maintenance, technology, curriculum and assessment. Gaines told the board that the district’s long-range plan for facilities is two-fold. One enables the district to turn East Elementary School into a K-5 facility as it was originally intended. It current serves kindergarten and first-grade students. The second is to build a new high school. “Those are the two big things on the horizon,” Gaines said. “The more immediate thing that’s come into play in the six or seven months is the preschool.” He said a new high school depends on bonding capacity and how much funding is available there, and that the plan for East Elementary hinges on population on the east side to be able to draw an attendance boundary beyond Wildcat Drive. “We have the land for the high school, and we promised when we opened East that we’d make it a K-5 when enrollment would support it,” Gaines told the board. Parent and Community Involvement: The district will engage the community through the CAT, study groups and town hall meetings. “We’re trying to make the town halls more building-specific, and that’s helped (increase attendance),” said Gaines. Governance. Goals in this area are to maintain operating fund balances between 18 percent and 22 percent, maintain district financial solvency and to engage in board self-evaluation. Fiscal responsibility and maintaining proper financial controls and procedures were approved as strategies to achieve the governance goals.
R-II school board sets goals for new year
