Superintendent Message - Dr. David Moyer
Superintendent’s Message Update 5/14/2013
Board Approves Three-Year Operational Plan
On Monday, May 13, the Moline School District No. 40 Board of Education approved a three-year operational plan for the district entitled The Moral Imperative Realized—Raising the Board and Closing the Achievement Gap for all Students.
Action plans for three objectives were determined based on the professional assessment of the district’s priorities and extensive community involvement that included 10 listening sessions in the fall and a community survey that was administered in January. The three areas that the public identified as priorities, student achievement, finances, and facilities, are clearly reflected in the objectives. Much of the plan for 2013-2016 is an extension of the district’s previous five-year strategic plan developed in 2006.
The three objectives are Improve Student Achievement, Provide Quality Facilities Appropriate for 21st Century Learning, and Ensure Long-Term Financial Stability of the District. The plan itself was developed through the lens of three components deemed essential to achieving the moral imperative: student achievement, capacity building, and sustainability.
Five outcomes will be realized when the three objectives are fully implemented:
1) Common formative and summative assessments in all grade levels and content areas;
2) A new teacher evaluation instrument that complies with the State of Illinois’ Performance Evaluation Reform Act; incorporates 70% professional practice and 30% student growth; and includes an evaluation rubric aligned with Illinois State Teaching Standards and appropriate associated forms and protocols;
3) The district will have improved its ability to plan and staff programming for students, increased its ability to deliver instruction consistent with demands for 21st Century learning needs, eliminated as attendance centers one of its oldest (Garfield) and two of its smallest (old Hamilton, Ericsson) facilities, ensured modernized security measures to existing buildings, and increased the percentage of square footage in the district that is air conditioned;
4) The district will experience significant improvements in it ability to positively impact student achievement and provide academic and auxiliary services to students more efficiently. By utilizing an integrated delivery model, special education students will have greater access to the core curriculum and be appropriately placed in their least restrictive environment; class sizes will be more balanced, space will be designed to meet the needs of 21st Century learners; technology infrastructure will be increased; students and teachers will be able to learn and instruct in comfortable, more energy efficient, and economically friendly facilities; specialty areas such counselors, ELL, art and physical education, speech, social workers, media specialists, interventionists, and literacy coaches can be scheduled with less travel;
5) The district will experience sustainable annual savings of approximately $2.3 million in its annual operating budget.
On Monday, April 22, the administration presented the proposal to the Board. As stated, the objective Provide Quality Facilities Appropriate for 21st Century Learning includes the expansion of Hamilton School to a four-section school and the closing or Garfield and Ericsson Schools as attendance centers. The new Hamilton School is slated to open for the 2015-16 school year. The district hosted Community Information Sessions on April 24 at Ericsson School, April 29 at Hamilton School, and May 1 at Garfield School to listen to concerns and explain the rationale behind the proposal.
This project is an extension of the district’s long-range facility plan that was approved by the Board in January 2011.
The complete operational plan, including action plans is available at the district’s website at http://www.molineschools.org/op_plan.html.