State of our Schools

• 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.

Facility Project

Last night the Whitko Board accepted the recommendation of the 25 year Facility Goal Committee. Part of the committee recommendation was to renovate South Whitley Elementary and build a new Pierceton Elementary. Now starts the long process of getting firm ideas of what is feasible based on the principle we are not going to raise taxes to do this. We are blessed that the debt of the middle school is getting paid off so we can do this without raising taxes if the committee numbers are correct.

There is more documentation on our web page. As I said it will now be a long process. We need to find our architect, financial advisor and others that will make up our planning team. Once we get firmer ideas of specific needs, costs and possible layouts of facilities we will move into the design work. This is where we get more specific on exact site locations if we are to build a new Pierceton. The committee hoped it could be located on the existing campus. Below is a possible timeline. Please note the Board is very much interested in community input so you'll be hearing about meetings once we have something to present. I will be updating this timeline as we move forward.

A Possible Timeline for School Construction (It depends on when we feel the community, Board, and administration  have enough information to move to the next steps. The green is complete and you'll see there is a lot of work ahead.
2 – 3 months (July – Sept 2011)

Pre- A Determine the path to follow with the Board and administrative. (Board Goal)

2 – 4 Months (Sept – Dec 2011)
A. Preliminary Board Goal Planning:

1. Recognize and define present and long term needs.
2. Analyze existing buildings, site requirements, transportation needs, finances and budget, grade structure, joint use of facilities, etc.
3. Review School Building Guidelines
4. Develop broad goal recommendations with community committee input

1 – 2 Months (Jan – Feb 2012)

B. Program

1. Update philosophy and goals, prepare educational program.
2. Select architect
3. Translate to architectural program.
4. Define quality of construction and level of maintenance.
5. Review and approval by School Board.
6. Prepare timetable for planning and construction
7. Estimate cost/budget.
8. Some community input but mostly sharing of ideas

2 – 4 Months (March-April 2012)
C. Development of Preliminary Drawings

1. Prepare preliminary plans and specifications based on approved architectural program.
2. Estimate cost
3. Community input
4. Review and approval by School Board

6 months (May 2012 – November 2012)
D. The referendum process which would be either the primary election in May 2013, general election in November 2012 or a special election. We could start the process in May 2012 with what is called our 1028 hearing for a November 2012 election or in January 2013 for May 2013 election.
(Tons of community input!)
Presuming referendum passage …

6 – 8 Months (November 2012 – July 2013)(May 2013- July 2013)
E. Development of Contract Documents

1. Set timetable
2. Complete financial arrangements
3. Develop approved preliminary plans into final working drawings and specifications
4. Estimate cost
5. Review and approval by School Board

2 -3 Months (August – September 2013)
F. Contract Administration
1. Review State procurement requirements
2. Receive and analyze bids
3. Execute contract and bonds
4. Provide for adequate supervision of construction

18 – 24 Months (September 2013- September 2015)
G. Execution of Contract

TOTAL TIME

31 – 45 Months

We could make our first Debt service payment in 2015 the way our debt is structured right now. This would work out fine as we are renovating SWES. If we were to build a new PES we could not make a debt service payment on that part of the project until after occupancy.

Big enough to deliver and small enough to care.

People often ask me why Whitko? What makes you special as a school system? I must respond that our caring atmosphere of high expectations separates us from the crowd. While we can’t offer the exact experiences you may receive at a larger school system, through the use of technology, we can offer about any course a student would want. AP, yes we have that. Dual Credit courses, we have those, too! Ag or career preparation, you bet. We have the highest graduation rate in the area, yes that’s Whitko. Up to date secondary facilities, you bet! Our middle school is just 17 years young and has state of the art technology infrastructure, large classrooms for problem-based learning and the best outdoor facilities in the conference. Our high school was renovated only 5 years ago and, likewise, has state of the art technology infrastructure and almost a one-to-one student computer ratio.


One of the greatest strengths is students get known here and grown here. We know our kids and love them all, even those that for some reason are unsuccessful. This atmosphere of caring allows us to design instruction tailored to meet the needs of each student. We do this by differentiating the instruction within and between classes. We believe you take students from where they are to where they need to be and for some that may mean more time or a variation in assignment. For others, it may mean grouping them with peers to master materials. Whatever the strategy, we strive to meet the needs of the individual. Beyond the striving academically, we also strive to make our students great people.

Whitko High School always has students in various clubs excel in community service. Last year, the SADD organization held huge drives and events to benefit the community. The National Honor Society has students active in community projects. Our middle school Clean World Association does more than monitor the environment, they also do food drives and community outreach. The Peacekeepers group trains students to intercede with their peers that may be having some type of problem. Our elementary schools have Bulldog and Cubs awards to encourage students caught doing good to continue that behavior in and out of school.

I could and will later go on and on about things like these. Truly, Whitko is big enough to deliver and small enough to care. Keep checking back to hear more examples of our schools’ success.

Whitko Studies Facilities

The Board of Education recently adopted the following Goal:

In order to provide the most appropriate, well maintained, and effective educational environment for our students, and do it in the most fiscally appropriate manner, the Board will, by the end of the 2011-2012 school year, have in place a 25 year Facilities Plan that includes the maintenance, renovations and anticipated new facilities that are necessary to carry out the instructional programs for our children.

A community and school committee of 25 members is working up a recommended plan to present to the Board for their review. The committee has met 3 times already reviewing the current status of our facilities and will meet at least a few more times to develop the plan. The idea is to have a short range 3-5 year part of the plan, a 5-15 year part of the plan and a long range part of the plan that may go beyond the 25 years. We want to make sure we proactively provide what our community needs for the education of the children.

Why the goal?

Schools have only 2 sources of funds for maintaining schools.

 One, like a home owner, is a mortgage or home equity loan. In the schools case it is called a bond sale. Those bonds are then paid off with property tax collections over a number of years. That is how large projects are funded like Whitko Middle School 17 years ago and the Whitko High School 4 years ago.

The other fund is called Capital Projects. This fund pays for maintaining the buildings but over the years as the state has provided less money to send to school for buying technology, or paying utilities, these costs have shifted to the Capital Projects fund and have decreased the funds available for maintenance. Capital Projects now is barely keeping up with roof replacement, driveway sealing and technology. We fear as the middle and high school begin to need more maintenance the fund will not be able to keep up.

Additionally our elementary buildings have not been substantially renovated since the 1980s and are showing their age.

Rather than wait the Board wants a plan to address the issue of keeping appropriate educational facilities for our kids.

Grading Changes at Grades 3-5

The change to assessing student work both by a standards based rubric of 1-4 and a letter grade has begun. This undoubtedly will be confusing for a little while as the two systems are not alike. The standards based score states if a student has mastered the work at a particular time. The grade letter score indicates the overall average work presented over time.

Okay that’s confusing and I wrote it. Here is an example.

Student 1 received a standard grade of "2" based on the rubric below.

1. The student’s work does not demonstrate mastery of the standards.

2. The student’s work demonstrates partial mastery of the standards.

3. The student’s work demonstrates adequate mastery of the standards.

4. The student’s work demonstrates superior mastery of the standards.



The same student received a "C" letter grade indicating their body of work on the assignment or course met between 70% and 80% of the criteria for that work based on the scale below.

90 – 100 A

80 - 89 B

70 - 79 C

60 - 69 D

59 or below F



It could be possible that over a grading period or project a student masters the standard at the very end but did not do well during the grading period or unit. In that case a student could see a final standard score of "3" and yet have a letter grade of "D" for the bulk of the work was not satisfactory. Likewise a student could grasp the standard early on in the grading period or unit and do well on all the assigned work. Their standard grade could also be a 3 but their letter grade could be a B or higher.



Again I realize this is a bit confusing, we are trying to indicate to everyone both does the student understand the standard and do they indicate appropriate work along the way to that understanding.

Assessment Program

The Assessment Committee met today and refined our district wide assessment program. The following assessments will be given with some questions remaining on the transition to these for some building from existing assessments.

Primary-


• Running Records – A measure of reading skills is an addition to SWES (PES end of September and end of May official collection, 4 data points per child per year) (SWES—materials, training and data collection done by February 2012, data collection May 2012, fully implemented by 2012-2013 school year)

• Primary MAP – Is an achievement test that measures growth this is an addition to PES (August 23 , January 9, May 14) – Kdg Winter/Spring only

• Writing Prompts – As named this is a writing assessment modeled after the state test and rubric based. This is an addition to SWES (need training to learn how to score them, need prompts and rubrics, training and data collection done by February 2012, data collection May 2012, fully implemented by 2012-2013 school year)

• DIBELS – A reading assessment will no long be administered

• COGAT – HA identification in K-2--October

• Coming IREAD (spring)

• Kingore – formerly used in HA identification will no long be administered
• Standford 10 — formerly used in HA identification will no long be administered
• SIGs – A HA identification test is given to the pool of nominated HA students –January

Intermediate

• ISTEP - Our State achievement test is given March 5-14, April 30-May 9

• MAP - Is an achievement test that measures growth given three times a year. August 23 , January 9, May 14

• Running Records – A measure of reading skills is an addition to SWES (SWES—materials, training and data collection done by February 2012, data collection May 2012, fully implemented by 2012-2013 school year)

• Writing Prompts – As named this is a writing assessment modeled after the state test and rubric based. This is an addition to SWES (need training to learn how to score them, need prompts and rubrics, training and data collection done by February 2012, data collection May 2012, fully implemented by 2012-2013 school year)

• OLSAT— HA identification - October

• SIGs – Administered to a pool of nominated HA students in 3rd and 5th –January

Middle School

• ISTEP — Our State achievement test is given March 5-14, April 30-May 9

• MAP — Is an achievement test that measures growth given three times a year. August 23 , January 9, May 9

• OLSAT— HA identification - October

• SIGs – Administered to a pool of nominated HA students in 7th –January



High School

• Practice SAT – An achievement test given to students in Grade 9 in October
• PSAT – An achievement test given to students in Grade10 & some 11 in October
• ASVAB – An aptitude test given to Grade 11 during October

• ECAs—Course specific achievement tests given the 2nd week of May to beginning of June

• Success Tracker with Math series is a formatitive assessment to assist instructional decisions given throughout the school year

Report Card Revisions

The Report Card Committee met July 7, 2011. The past year we have been discussing needed changes to help parents have better information about their student's progress. Our meeting today led to some changes in our report cards. There will be letter grades included with standards grades on the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade report cards. (New examples coming soon!) The Kindergarten will have the new core standards in place of the Indiana Academic Standards. We rewrote the four point teacher rubric to be clearer and the 4 point parent rubric on the report card to be friendly.

Our group also talked about how to communicate this well with parents and staff. We will launch a campaign to educate about grades and grading for the elementary groups as school starts in August. Look for more details soon.