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Middle States Accreditation

"Excellence by Design" 
 
District Planning Team Meeting Recaps
 
The page is your resource for keeping yourself up-to-date with the accreditation process. Please check in monthly to track our progress and provide your feedback.  Feel free to post a comment or a question to both the district planning team or the internal coordinators.
 
 

  • Meeting 5.8.13

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 5/9/2013
    Thank you to all who attended last evening's meeting.  It was a very productive night.  There were alot of great ideas shared, and some very clear action plans emerged.   Here is are the highlights;  
     
    Students Achievement
     
    1. A portfolio of language arts work to follow the student throughout the district. 
    2. A focus on data collection and data analysis to help track students and identify areas of weakness
    3. A focus on student centered lessons and more interactive classes
    4. The idea of academic supports being built into the school day or programs that offer academic support extended in after school hours. 
    21st Century Skills 
    1. Exploring the  need to move to a one-to one ratio in available technology
    2. Providing training for staff, so they are comfortable with the available technology
    3. Increasing and enhancing our tech support staff
    4. Increasing opportunities for student in regards to technology courses
    5. Enhancing lessons and assessments with technology
    6. Creating informational centers for parents with tech support for all school technology programs
    Communication
    1. Work to enhance community relationships
    2. Explore the option of Warren Hills having a social media presence
    We started to talk about engagement, however, we did not get an opportunity to finish. We will discuss this, as well as other ideas that may have came to mind on June 5th.  Please plan to join us, attendance at our last meeting was a little light.  Come and BE THE CHANGE!!!!  
     
    Comments (0)

  • Meeting 3.13.13

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 3/14/2013
    Welcome Back!!
     
    After a month of working with the schools' faculty and starting to get the vision off the ground, the district planning team was back to working on the Middle States Process.  To view the powerpoint of the progress to date, please click here.  
     
    The rest of the meeting was spend collaborating on how to get the word out.   To view our list, please click here.  
     
    Our next meeting is scheduled for May 8, 2013.  Please note that our April 10, 2013 meeting will be cancelled.  If you have any other suggestions, or questions until then, please post a comment or contact any of the internal coordinators. 
     
     
    See you all in May!  
    Comments (0)

  • Meeting 12.5.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 12/5/2012
    Tonight's meeting opened a lot a great dialogue regarding the direction of our district for the next seven years.  The goal of the Middle States process is creating long-range planning for improving our district and the input and feedback from the meeting is an example of the commitment of the District Planning Teams to create these long-term objectives. 
     
    To view tonight's powerpoint, please click here. 
     
    Below you will see a list of the possible objectives we formulated at our meeting.  We ask that you take time to consider the objectives and offer some input via the comments section to help the internal coordinators combine the suggestions and create the objectives to send to Middle States for approval.  Remember we could choose 3-5 objectives that are district wide or create objectives specific to one of our schools.  If you have any questions, please contact any of the internal coordinators. 
     
    ACADEMIC IMPROVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT
    •By the year 2020, the students at WHRSD will demonstrate an increase in Math proficiency as well as improving on areas of weakness in other subjects.
    •By the year 2020, students in WHRSD will be able to demonstrate increasing and thriving test scores in each subject while improving weaknesses.
    •By the year 2020, students of WHRSD will show measurable growth on standardized tests.
    •By the year 2020, students of WHRSD will show individual growth and proficiency levels as measured by various assessment tools.
    •By the year 2020, WHRSD will demonstrate academic growth.
     
    STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
    •By the year 2020,  WHRSD will develop a sense of community and demonstrate increased interest and engagement among school, community among the  students, staff, and its community of stakeholders. 
    •By the year 2020, WHRSD students will demonstrate increased interest and engagement in school and community as measured by:
    •By the year 2020, stakeholders of the WHRSD will develop a sense of community, spirit and increased engagement between students, staff and community members.
     
    TECHNOLOGY
    •By the year 2020 , WHRSD students will demonstrate improvement of their use of 21st Century skills needed to appropriately and effectively apply those skills.
    •By the year 2020, WHRSD will support a technology structure that promotes efficient and effective use of educational technology.
    •By the year 2020, WHRSD will develop and implement a technology plan that will provide students an opportunity to integrate technology into their lives.
     
    COMMUNICATION
    •By the year 2020, the WHRSD will increase opportunities to communicate between all stakeholders in a variety of formats.
    •By the year 2020, the WHRSD community will engage in effective communication.
    •By the year 2020, the WHRSD will enhance its methods of communication with stakeholders and constituents. 
     
    NOTE: Organize or time efficient was brought up and it could either go in as part of the objective or it could be part of our action plan
     
    Please post any comments by 12.14.12, and remember that you may not see your post immediately, it will appear after it is approved. Thank you in advanced for your input.  
     
     
     
    Comments (2)

  • Meeting 11.14.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 11/15/2012
    Our November meeting was well attended by both current and new members of our District Planning Team.  After welcoming our new members, as well as some brief introductions, the internal coordinators recapped the progress of identifying areas for our district objectives, and reiterated the goal of the process. 
     
    As another piece of our Educational Programs standard, the district's Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Dawn Moore, shared state assessment data form the 2011-2012 school year.  To view this presentation, please click here.
     
    The planning team spent the rest of the meeting looking over the evidence for standards 9-12.  After a lot of great discussions, we have complied a list of the main themes, and the main areas for improvement.  To view this list, please click here. 
     
    Please feel free to read through these and post any comments or clarifications.  If something stood out to you, but you do not see it on this list, please post a comment.
     
    At our next meeting, 12.5.12, we will be formalizing our objectives to be set the Middle States for approval.  The Internal Coordinators would like to thank all of you for your diligence and your commitment to improve our school community.  
    Comments (0)

  • Meeting 10.3.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 10/3/2012
    After a brief overview of our last meeting, the district planning team worked through standards 5, 6, 7, and partly through 8 to state objectives for consideration.  The updated list of possible objectives can be found here. 
     
    The "homework" for the member was to take a deeper look at standard 8, which will start off with at our next meeting, 11.14.12 at 5pm.
     
    Comments (0)

  • Meeting 9.12.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 9/13/2012
    Welcome Back!
     
    This was the first meeting of the 2012-2013 school year.  We started off our meeting with introductions and with an overview of last years' progress.  We reviewed our districts' mission statement, core beliefs, and the profile of graduates.  All of these were direct results of this committee and all the hard work and diligence of last school year.
     
    After our overview, we began discussing our process for choosing 3-5 objectives for improving our schools.  We started by walking through the first standard, Mission and Philosophy.  We looked at our self study and validated the work of a district planning team  by showing our surveys proved the mission and philosophy were areas of weakness. 
     
    The planning team then spent time looking deeply into our self student and comments for standards 2, 3, and 4.  This process produced a list of possible objectives which can be found here.
     
    Our next meeting is scheduled for October 3, 2012 at 5pm in the high school library.  We will continue to look at the standards and formulate a list of possible objectives.  
    Comments (0)

  • Meeting 5.16.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 5/20/2012
    At our district planning meeting we heard about a middle states visitation from internal coordinator, Cristy Ortu. Although we are headed in the right direction, we need to try to gain more support from our on faculty and staff.  When it is time for our visit, we will need to showcase the involvement.  
     
    After some thought and discussion, the district committee developed the following profile of graduates.  
     
     
     
    After the profiles of graduates were finished, we started to take a look at all the different comments from  our surveys.  The goal of the activity was to look for common themes over the twelve standards.  Once we have found these common themes, the district will incorporate solutions for these problems within our objectives and our action plans. We will be continuing with this activity at our next meeting on 6.6.12.  
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  • Meeting 3.22.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 3/27/2012
    At our meeting, the internal coordinators briefly updated the planning team on the boards approval of the mission statement, how the communications committee was formed (and that the ideas about the mission statement communications was forward to the new committee), and about how the internal coordinators met with the building team and they were organizing the comments so we would eventually take a look at our biggest neeeds as a district committee. 
     
     A show discussion about our core beliefs resulted in the following revised list: 
    We believe that:  
    • All students are unique and deserve equal opportunity to quality education.
    • Learning potential increases in a positive and safe environment. 
    • Students learn best when they are active participants in their own learning. 
    • A quality education requires a school community partnership. 
    • Utilizing relevant technology is crucial to student success. 
    • Individuals must be challenged in order to grow. 
    • Embracing the diversity of our school is essential. 
    The internal coordinators shared the "Profile of Graduate"  process (right from Middle States) then we showed them about 4 examples of profiles of graduates from other high school and middle school websites.  The members of the planning team started writing their ideas on notecards for both the middle school and the high school in terms of what we want them to know, what we want them to do with what they know, and what we want them to display as characteristics/values.  After each group came up with a bunch of notecards, the input was collect, and they will be organized by the internal coordinates.  At the next meeting, the profile of graduates will be revisited and we will be discussing additional ways to collect pertinent data from our alumni. 
     
    This meeting was attended by Luanne Ferenci, Geri McKelvey, Cristy Ortu, Susan Rader, Dr. Altonjy, Dawn Moore, Chip Clymer, Pat Hetrick, Theresa Iacobucci, Jayne Howard, Elizabeth Smith, Kim Sigman, MacKenzie Holguin, Joe Flynn, Casey Brands, Nia Shaw, Jen Hylkema, Kenneth Wilson, Emily Despres, and Sarah Howard. 
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  • Meeting 2.23.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 2/24/2012

    Our fourth meeting started off a brief overview of the data collection process and a summary of the input collected on Middle States Standard 1: Mission and Philosophy.  The underling theme of the data collected was our stakeholders were not aware of the district current mission statement.  To review the presentation, please click here.   The input gathered validated the district planning team's objectives and proved that our district needs this process.  

    After discussing the data, the mission statement was revealed.  The committee adopted the following:

    "The Warren Hills Regional School District challenges and empowers a dynamic, diverse student body in a supportive learning environment by providing academic and co-curricular opportunities to become successful, productive members of the global community. "

    This mission statement will be presented to the board of education at the March 6, 2012 meeting. 

    A brainstorming activity produced alot of great ideas for promoting our new mission statement to the teachers, students, parents and the community. The internal coordinators are going to facilitate the formation of a Communications Committee and all the ideas will be given to them.  

    Part two of three is to adopt a list of core beliefs.  After some discussion and a voting activity, the district planning team narrowed our list to 8 core beliefs.  The core beliefs are:

    We believe that:

    • A quality education prepares the student for a future of diverse opportunities.

    • All students are unique and deserve equal access and opportunity to quality education

    • Learning potential increases in a positive, safe environment.

    • Students learn best when they are active participants in their own learning.

    • A quality education requires a school-community partnership.

    • Taking risks and learning from mistakes is crucial for achieving goals.

    • Building confidence and perseverance is important. 

    • Communication between home and school is critical -or- Communication between home and school is important

    The fourth meeting was attended by; Luanne Ferenci, Christopher Kavcak, Geri McKelvey, Cristy Ortu, Sue Rader, Dr. Altonjy, Dawn Moore, Chip Clymer, Pat Hetrick, Theresa Iacobucci, Elizabeth Smith, Marsha Gross, MacKenzie Holguin, Abby Jefferies, Casey Brands, Nia Shaw, Michael Teddick, Kenneth Wilson, Amanda Elbassiouny, Brian Normile, Nate Detrick, Jennifer Hylkema, Karl Meiers, Sarah Kochan, Emily Despres, Sarah Howard and Emma Fink.

    Our next meeting will be held on March 22, 2012.  At this meeting we will be finalizing our core beliefs and we will begin talking about the profile of graduates.

    Comments (2)

  • Meeting 1.18.12

    Posted by Christopher Kavcak at 1/19/2012
    Our third meeting started off with welcoming new attendees and with a recap of the Middle States Association (MSA) and Excellence by Design (EBD).  The internal coordinators outlined the role of the district team and reviewed the components of a good mission statement. The third meeting was attended by; Luanne Ferenci, Christopher Kavcak, Geri McKelvey, Sue Rader, Dr. Altonjy, Dawn Moore, Chip Clymer, Pat Hetrick, Theresa Iacobucci, Jayne Howard,Elizabeth Smith, Kim Sigman, Marsha Gross, John Katrensky,  MacKenzie Holguin, Abby Jefferies, Casey Brands, Nia Shaw, Michael Teddick, Kenneth Wilson, Amanda Elbassiouny, Brian Normile, Nico Flora, Karl Meiers, Sarah Kochan, Emily Despres, Sarah Howardm and Emma Fink. 
     
    Based on the mission statements the district planning team produced, the internal coorinators narrow the list of 7 down to 3.  The three mission statements were presented to the committee and the members rated each1, 2 or 3 (1 - top choice).  The mission statement with the lowest total is: 
     
    "The Warren Hills Regional School District challenges and empowers a dynamic, diverse student body in a supportive learning environment by providing academic and co-curricular opportunities to become successful, productive members of the global community. "
     
    The internal coordinators shifted the focus to the district's core beliefs.  The committee ended the meeting by brainstorming a list of core beliefs.  After compiling the results, the internal coordinators produced a list of 14. They are : 

    1) a quality education prepares the student for a future of diverse opportunities.

    2) all students are unique and deserve equal access and opportunity to quality education

    3) Learning potential increases in a positive, safe environment.

    4) Students learn best when they are active participants in their own learning.

    5) Learning how to think critically is crucial in the learning environment

    6) competency in academic and interpersonal skills increase personal growth and opportunity.

    7) Learning is a continuous process

    8.) A quality education requires a school-community partnership.

    9.) Diverse background for character teaches appreciation of others

    10.) changing ourselves fro the better by taking risks and learning from mistakes is crucial for achieving goals.

    11.) Common values and ethical conduct are fundamental

    12.) Building confidence and perseverance is important.

    13.) The role of the parent guardian is to support their children and keep an open dialog with educators.

    14.) Utilizing technology is crucial to student success.

     Our next meeting will be held on February 23, 2012.  At this meeting we will be narrowing our core beliefs down and we will begin talking about the profile of graduates. 
     
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OUR MISSION:
The Warren Hills Regional School District challenges and empowers a dynamic, diverse student body in a supportive learning environment
by providing academic and co-curricular opportunities to become successful, productive members of the global community.