by Mary Wilson, mwilson@jcadvocate.com
The preparations for the new school year have been completed
as area districts welcomed students back this week. District leaders from
Grandview, Hickman Mills, Center and Kansas City are focusing on predetermined
Board of Education priorities heading into 2017-18. Superintendents from each
district presented those focus areas to members of the South Kansas City
Alliance on Monday, August 16.
New Hickman Mills Superintendent Dr. Yolanda Cargile said
that the focus of the district continues to be acquiring full accreditation.
Hickman Mills is a provisionally-accredited district and Cargile said that
emphasis will be on the five priorities, including highly-qualified staff,
attendance, being fiscally responsible, racial equity impact and increasing
community and family engagement.
“We believe focusing on those five items will help us to get
closer to full accreditation,” said Cargile. She added that her personal goal
as the new superintendent in Hickman Mills is to be visible in the community
and establishing trust and relationships with the Board of Education and
district staff.
Hickman Mills is also implementing restorative practices in
order to think differently about how to discipline students. Cargile said that
not every offense should result in a suspension, and the district will be
looking at new, innovative ways to determine punishment when rules are broken.
She said that Hickman Mills has seen a decrease in out-of-school suspensions and
formal hearings that have occurred over the last few years.
“I’m a proud graduate of the Hickman Mills School District,”
said Cargile. “Being able to come home and serve as the superintendent of
schools for a district that educated me? I attended Ingels Elementary,
Smith-Hale Middle School and graduated from Ruskin High School. I never would
have thought that I would come back and be superintendent, but here I am. I’m
proud of that. So, when we think about commitment and successes, I’m super
proud to be able to come back and talk to kids that I relate to. My goal is to
inspire students and inspire staff.”
Center School District Superintendent Dr. Sharon Nibbelink
spoke about the Made Smart initiative and campaign to promote student academic
achievement. The goal of Made Smart is to engage parents and the community in
the learning process from birth through graduation to make students college and
career ready.
“The influence of parents on student success cannot be
understated, and we want to support that,” said Nibbelink. The district doesn’t
assume that parent guidance in education is natural, and has developed support
materials to help families through every step of schooling.
Nibbelink added that the four districts presenting share a
lot of the same students, and therefore all have student success at the
forefront of their goals. “We celebrate the successes of all of the schools
around us because we all rise together,” said Nibbelink.
Center’s strategic plan includes six goals focused on
academic achievement. The district has hired a college and career coordinator
to help with the focus on having students ready to enter the world after
graduation.
Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell is
beginning his second year at the helm as students headed back to the classrooms
on Monday. He said the first year provided an opportunity for him to get a feel
for the district and gain some contextual understanding as to why the district
is where it is.
“Unless you just recently moved to the city, there is a very
dark history in the district,” said Bedell. “In addition, there is a
conversation that we have to deal with in KCPS that a lot of other districts
don’t have to, and that’s charter schools.”
He added that the mobility of families in his district is
high due to the other 14 school districts surrounding KCPS, along with the 23
charter schools that reside in his boundaries. Preliminarily, Bedell said it
looks like Kansas City Public Schools is trending in the right direction
according to the district’s strategic plan. As part of that plan, the district
engaged 170 secondary students to provide feedback and insight into KCPS’s
blueprint for success.
“We have to accelerate and close these gaps. We have to give
these kids what they need because we don’t have a lot of time,” said Bedell.
“My kids are down to 179 days remaining in the school year. We need to focus on
what we are doing in the time that we have them and make sure that this plan
addresses that."
Grandview Superintendent Dr. Kenny Rodrequez said that the
focus on his district is around centralizing their message. He said that
everyone who works in the district is a teacher, and that building positive
relationships with students is a priority.
“On any given day, there is an opportunity for three or four
employees to have an impact on a kid before they even step foot inside a
classroom,” said Rodrequez. “We don’t want to miss those opportunities. If we
don’t do this, we will never get to the academic side.”
Each staff member in the Grandview School District has gone
through cultural competency training, and is working on trauma-informed care
training this school year. The focus is also on making sure students in the
district are successful when they leave for work or college. Rodrequez said that
the district’s ACT scores were not where they needed to be, so they are working
on ways to implement test-taking strategies and trainings for students to be
better prepared.
“We want to make sure we can meet the needs of all of our
kids,” said Rodrequez.
All four district leaders presented highlights of their
students and staff, and continue to work together to better the community as a
whole.
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