The Administrative Retreat
published October 21, 2011
The administrative team met yesterday to discuss our school’s progress this year, how we support our efforts to maintain FOCUS the remainder of this year, and to begin planning for the 2012-2013 school year. While it seems early to begin planning for next year, our goal is to maintain our FOCUS, support our schools, and provide a clear sense of direction that is effectively shared and communicated across our community.
There were several commitments associated with the retreat including:
- Planning for and continuing to emphasize FOCUS – FOCUS – FOCUS.
- Committing resources to support teaching and learning.
- Emphasizing the continual building of skills associated with standards, common formative assessments, and technology.
- Ensuring alignment to board goals, to the strategic plan, and across the district.
- Relieving stress by providing information sooner to all staff.
- Accessing and utilizing information shared by teachers, administrators, and the board of education.
- Using data appropriately to guide decisions that support teaching and learning.
- Creating a calendar that supports collaboration, professional development, and the needs of students and all educators.
As you review the data you might notice a couple of things. During our conversation about PLCs, we discussed the evidence we expected to collect that suggests we are continuing to grow as a professional learning community. The significance of that time frame, October 20th through January 11th, is connected to our next retreat. Our administrative team will come together once again on January 11th to continue the planning process.
The second thing you might have noticed is the commitment to provide professional development that builds upon our FOCUS – FOCUS – FOCUS theme of this school year, and we have made the commitment to refrain from adding anything new for teachers and schools. The goal….the continual building of skills in the areas we have been working on this year.
We met the entire day in the lower-level conference room here at district office. The structure of the retreat can be found on the agenda attached in this email and the structure of the retreat supported collaboration, collective inquiry, and shared vision.
This is information that we will continue to share along the way. We plan on visiting with different groups to get their feedback to ensure the path we are taking truly supports teaching and learning.
