Dr. Viola LaFontaine’s Newsletter
For the Week of October 17, 2011
Our new website is ready for public viewing and I am excited to announce that this website will provide what everyone is wanting; a current, up-to-date website with quality information. Please feel free give comments on the website because we want to continue making improvements. I will be updating my newsletter every two weeks.
Facility Master Plan –
The Williston Public School District #1 will continue to implement the Facility Master Plan that has been approved by the school board. The plan included the addition to Hagan Elementary School, build a new 5th/6th -7th/8th grades campus and renovate the High School. The integrity of the plan is still in place, however, with the recent rapid growth, we will need to adjust the plan.
Originally the plan was to expand Hagan Elementary School with the capability to serve 500 students and to close Wilkinson Elementary School with the idea that the Wilkinson students would be served at Hagan Elementary School. To date, Hagan Elementary School has 400 students enrolled and continues to grow and this number does not include the students that are currently enrolled at Wilkinson. This means we will now need to keep Wilkinson open. Building the 5th/6th -7th/8th grade campus would open 16 classrooms in the elementary schools which will provide more Kindergarten through 4th grade classrooms. However, if we do not close Wilkinson, we will not have the land to trade with Granit Peak. Without additional land, we do not have adequate space to build the 5th/6th-7th/8th grade campus. So as you can see, we are facing bumps in the road as we move toward our goal to build additional needed space. Discussions and planning sessions are held daily in my office to brainstorm on what will work for our school district. I continue to keep a positive attitude for the plans to work out for us. I will be keeping my newsletter up to date with more information.
Vision and Mission —
Last week Dr. Bruce Miles came to Williston to facilitate the vision and mission review for our school district. He presented to our administrative team in the morning, worked with the staff and board in the afternoon and evening. Prior to Dr. Miles coming to Williston, a survey was available on line for staff, administrators, board members and community members to complete to give input on the district’s priorities.
The next step will be another survey to staff to ask specific questions about where we want to be in 5 years to help us fine tune the vision of the school. I will be working with Dr. Miles to get the survey to all staff in the very near future.
Below are the results of the work that has been completed.
Williston Public School District #1 • Administration Session
Successes & Issues
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Positive
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Less Than Positive
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Intended
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1) Alternative School
2) Strategic plan
3) Curriculum team
4) Staff collaboration
5) Teamwork across the district
6) Positive climate & culture
7) Familiarization & consistency
8) Advanced ED accreditation process
9) Policy review
10) Superintendent hire
11) Accessibility of leaders
12) District-level hires
13) Better staff understanding of inclusion
14) Alert Now system
15) Communication re: After School Club
16) Staff appreciate salary progress
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1) Staff professional development & focus
2) Facility plan
3) Recruitment, especially Special Education
4) Parent involvement, especially @ MS & HS
5) Website
6) Salary review
7) Lack of legislative support
8) Policy review timeline
9) Technology: Equipment
10) Technology: # of Tech staff
11) Lack of Orange Calendar
12) ESG
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Unintended
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1) Funding for Alternative School
2) Facility planning group
3) Increasing diversity of staff & students
4) Filled 29 staff positions
5) Growth
6) Alva J. Fields funding
7) Fellowship of Christian Athletes & Youth for Christ work at HS
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1) Homeless students & families
2) Lack of employment pool
3) No mental health services in town
4) Bussing, facilities & growth
5) High cost of living
6) Lack of substitute teachers
7) Employees are stressed
8) Lack of housing & services
9) Communication w/ community may appear disjointed, not planned
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Williston Public School District #1 • Board Session
Successes & Issues
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Positive
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Less Than Positive
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Intended
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17) Healing tension between teachers, staff & admin
18) Work on salaries
19) Collaborative bargaining
20) Ongoing communication @ all levels
21) Committee meetings
22) New superintendent
23) Facility plan involved community & increased awareness
24) Compensated for growth of new students @ staff & building levels
25) Recruitment of staff
26) Working relation w/ WSC
27) Population growth
28) Curriculum work
29) Teacher & staff recognition
30) Hagan recognition
31) Allergy committee
32) Development of district programs to implement state & federal programs
33) Admin are taking more initiative & stakeholder emphasis on projects
34) Audit results w/ fewer exceptions
35) PowerSchool
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13) Community response to facility plan & cost
14) Have not been able to move forward on facility plan
15) Too busy to work on longer-term issues & vision
16) Slower progress on buildings that we would like
17) Tough to get funds to build
18) Have not had legislative follow-up after our time with them
19) Population growth
20) New webpage needed
21) Support for technology (employees)
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Unintended
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8) Collaborative bargaining
9) Population growth
10) Getting one cent sales tax & paying of Middle School
11) Curriculum progress & our reputation in ND & nationally
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10) Building plans are costly & we do not want to order 3 or 4 of them to inform our decisions
11) Population growth
12) Legislature cut out ability to raise & use sales tax
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Williston Public School District #1 • Staff Session
Successes & Issues
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Positive
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Less Than Positive
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Intended
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36) Curriculum
37) Alternative School
38) Building projects
39) Safety training for all staff
40) Computer replacement cycle
41) Book replacement cycle
42) Staff training
43) Enough modules
44) Security & emergency plans
45) Asset-building curriculum
46) Teacher mentoring
47) Accreditation process
48) Grade level meetings
49) School improvement teams'
50) SMART Boards
51) TIESNET for Special Ed records
52) K registration/screening
53) District-level hires
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22) Building projects
23) Tried to hire fulltime subs
24) Website
25) Need paraprofessionals
26) Scheduling: curriculum spaces, times
27) DPI training school by school
28) Our buildings
29) Long range plans vs. our rate of change
30) Curricular alignment
31) Bussing
32) RTI
33) State assessments
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Unintended
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12) 504 plans & allergy committee
13) Increased population
14) ELL students
15) Ability to hire new staff
16) Quality new hires
17) Housing cooperative w/ community
18) Elem registration @ District Office
19) Fruit & vegetable snack program
20) Shortage of subs
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13) Traffic & crowd control
14) Increased population
15) ELL student needs & how to teach ELL students
16) Lack some materials
17) Increased class sizes
18) Keeping up with technology
19) High cost of living
20) Transient students
21) lack of subs affects Professional Development
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Williston Public School District #1 • Staff Session
Priorities
Desired Five-Year Vision for the District
• 21st century school with technology where students have i-Pads & do Power-point presentations, are actively engaged in their learning!
• Updated & adequate facilities w/ new construction & traffic flow
• Professional development that is subject-specific & implemented
• Quality resources
• Proactive in our thinking & planning
Desired Near-Term Priorities
1) Facilities
2) Adequate, top-quality staffing
3) 21st century high-tech classrooms
4) Positive climate
5) High quality aligned curriculum
6) Focus on preschool (PS staff @ curriculum mtgs
Williston Public School District #1 • Board Session
Priorities
Identified Near-Term Priorities
1) Facilities
2) Curriculum
3) Salary Review, Collaborative Bargaining & Education re: All Elements in the Total Package
4) Professional Development
5) Increase expectations & professionalism from all employees
6) Improve staff & community participation in education of legislature re: local needs
7) Improve communication & public relations with community, teachers & parents.