- Whitko Schools are doing great things and it's because of our amazing staff and what they do for children every day
- Academic Achievement is up!
- Facility Projects are getting wrapped up for full use next year!
- Technology Integration (1-1) is going to be in place for all grades next year!
- The Whitko Community is continuing the caring, collaborative and committed drive to excellence.
For details read below
Whitko Schools are doing great things and it's because of our amazing staff and what they do for children every day. It was two years ago we posted our vision as see in the clip below. The progress on that vision has been nothing short of amazing. Remember we are only two years into this with three to go.
We have certainly attained the collaborative nature of our advanced and the shared leadership that comes with it. Whitko has people that just help out no matter what else happens. It is evidenced in our classrooms with teachers, assistants and volunteers all pulling together to help our kids. It is evidenced out side of the classroom as whenever something needs done, people rally together to get it done. It is evidenced in our leadership as administrators and teachers work collaboratively in getting people what they need. Let me give you simple example.
Last week we needed to move some rooms around at South Whitley Elementary School. If you we watching you would have seen custodians from other buildings helping, central office people helping and volunteers helping the people that needed to move. This happens all the time in Whitko.
The vision also talked about things we wanted to see. Things like a technology rich environment; the elementary schools updated; students aware of what they needed to be able to do; of course there are a few things like music on Broadway, AG having manufactured fertilizers, and business interactions that we have not attained yet but are gaining on this.
Our enrollment has dropped but seems to be leveling out. The State of Indiana did change the Common Core to the Indiana Academic Standards. The changes in our own economy and funding did throw us some curves but let's see how we are doing with the 4 areas I mentioned as bites.
The first bite came from the 4 questions we ask ourselves about student learning. What is it we want children to know and do? How will we know if they know it or can do it? What will we do if they don't? And finally what will we do if they already know it?
Now that the standards are in place buildings have done a good job of looking at core areas and determining if the learning targets have changed. Many formative assessments are being used or introduced to determine the daily learning and summative assessments exist now in almost every course so we can know if students know the standards and if they have grown through the year. We have many interventions in place for those students that don't know it but I think all would agree not enough and not for all subjects. The last area is beginning to be better addressed in broad strokes by our High Ability Program but the progress there is not consistent across the board. So 2 years in and well over 75% complete. Our achievement results shine brightly in comparison to many schools around us. I know we are not satisfied but we need to at least enjoy the work of figuring out the balance of this because we've done so well getting to this point!
Bite two is all about technology integration. We are 1-1 in the high school and middle school already and will be next year in the elementary. So what does that mean? It means we have two pillars of the technology vision in place. Pillar one was getting our network updated to handle the gear. Pillar two was getting gear into everyone's hands. We have a good start at pillar three which is instructional processes. That is when and how to use the technology to improve achievement. Our focus through the next couple years will be on using the technology appropriately. This will include further discussions on eLearning and eLearning days for missed instructional days. We have come a long way already in making great use of the resources. The tools technology gives us will simply help the great instruction our teachers give daily.
Bite three is all about renovating and replacing our two elementary buildings. South Whitley Elementary School in now in phase three (3) of their renovation. They have a new Art/Music area, four renovated classrooms, a learning commons (replacement for the media center) new entrances at both the North and South as well as new office areas. The next phase addresses the kindergarten rooms and the new project room. We then move to finish the classroom renovations. Pierceton Elementary has all the interior and exterior walls in, all the underground plumbing and sections A and C close to receiving finishes. All areas have the major plumbing and heating in place. The exterior is close to being finished as well and when the ground thaws we'll start landscaping.
Finally Bite 4. Whitko is community. It shows in how you attend events and help with various projects around the area.
So the state of our schools is great! Of course we have work to do and challenges to meet but there is not better place to meet those challenges that here in Whitko.
