| Our next Continuous Improvement Planning Committee Meeting is September 11, 2013 Our next continuous improvement planning committee meeting will be held on September 11, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. in the District Administration Office located at 20550 South Cicero Avenue in Matteson, Illinois, 60443. As we continue to move our district forward through vision, praise, academic progress initiatives, motivation and thanksgiving, we are reminded that with teamwork, there is nothing we cannot accomplish in a host of cooperative ventures. Without teamwork, there is little we can accomplish for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds being non-collaborative and disunited. As tax payers and citizens, we have a moral imperative to improve our schools and community. As a school board and school district community, through ECRA, the data group decision makers, we will keep a data base on what we are doing and how well. At this time, we have not won the first battle in our effort to improve student achievement levels, but we are beginning. To do what we have not done in twenty years will take courageous and transformative leadership, saying no to low expectations, no to school improvement shutdowns, and yes to data-decision-making, vision, intelligent collaboration, new insights, being a team player, being open to new knowledge, new breakthroughs, new respect for our schools and children, caring, and vigilance. Today, we have set a green light to begin helping our children now! The community is now setting a deadline to improve student achievement levels and it is saying now or never. It is not enough to continue to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the community or another, or to deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand. Our obligation, our task, our response is to make that revolution, that change for progress peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting more shame as well as more unaccountability and incompetence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality. At this time, we have asked school board 227 to act. To make a commitment, which has never been made in the twenty-first century, to support a framework for improving student achievement performance levels that if not fully made now will continue to breed school improvement shutdowns, under achievement, school failure, and despair. To follow a regular process to review student achievement data with the superintendent and board, or board representative chair, on a monthly and/or bimonthly basis to ensure continuous improvement. To take part in training on principles of continuous improvement including the use of data and customer focus. To provide funding for continuous improvement. To adopt board policies that support continuous improvement, and to support publicly and communicate the value of continuous improvement to the community. Education is freedom. In this regard, again we wish to thank those citizens North and South, East and West, who have been working in our communities to make life better for all. You have acted not out of a sense of legal duty but out of a sense of human decency. Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the globe, you're meeting freedom's challenge on the firing line and we salute you for your honor and your courage. At our next meeting, this time around, we will again, be broken up into specific groups addressing specific topics as outlined below with an assigned facilitator for each group. Specific topics to be discussed and/or reviewed in groups AMONG THE FIVE ESSENTIALS THAT NEED TO BE CHANGED FROM WEAK TO EFFECTIVE IN SCHOOL DISTRICT 227 AS REVEALED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO'S RESEARCH INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING. The ones to be discussed are preceded by a star (*) as follows: (1) * AMBITIOUS INSTRUCTION. (2) EFFECTVE, HIGHLY SKILLED AND COLLABORATIVE LEADERS. (3) COLLABORATIVE AND EFFECTIVE TEACHERS. (4) * INVOLVED FAMILIES. (5) *SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT. In preparation for our discussions, we can review these topics online, and we look forward to your leadership and rich feedback on the facilitation teams addressing these topics. We hope to see you there. We will eat prior to our break-out sessions and topic discussions. Thanks for all you have done! I am also looking forward to your input and support on superintendent selection which, within the period of the next fifty days, will be our next great assignment. We thank you for remembering the meeting dates for these important and significant events in our goals toward school district turn-around and in charting a brighter future for our children and community. This time around, we will not sleep on superintendent selection day. Kindest regards, David E. Morgan, Ph.D., Educational Leadership School Board Member Rich Township High School District 227 Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461 |
