Part 2: Candidates Discuss District's Competitive Standing

Editor's Note: Earlier this month, Patch submitted a series of five questions to each of the seven candidates running for four seats on the School District 199 School Board. Each day this week, we'll publish the candidates' answers to one of the questions we posed. To promote fairness, we asked each candidate to limit responses to 150 words; we reserved the right to edit for clarity and length if necessary. The general election is Nov. 8. Click on the candidate's names to view profiles of each candidate. Candidate Bridget Sutton has not yet turned in her response to the questionnaire.

Inver Grove Heights Patch: What can the district do to maintain or improve its competitive standing among school districts in the area?

Winning awards at the state and national level are nice when marketing our school district to potential new residents, but we must make sure that the quality of education meets or exceeds the standards set by other school districts, or we will see more families choose other districts over ours.

We need to align our curriculum so our students have an opportunity to achieve at the highest levels at every grade level. Implementing programs like Achieving Via Individual Determination, which is currently being introduced at the middle school level, will not only help students in their current grade level but will prepare them for success in the AP courses offered at Simley, as well as college.

We do many things well in our district and have many success stories; we need to be better at getting that word out.  Families in our community don’t need to leave here to get a quality education.  We have something to offer everyone.  We have literally rebuilt our middle achool, both inside and out. Not only is there a new physical structure and administration, but we are constantly evaluating and improving the academics. There are new and challenging class offerings, including challenge-based learning, Project Lead the Way (a pre-engineering technology class) and new curriculums in reading, math, science, social studies. Simley High School, consistently recognized as one of the best schools in the country, has expanded AP offerings and the number of students taking those classes.  There are new, relevant class offerings such as eComunications and eLiterature and Project Lead the Way engineering classes.

The community elementary school study was presented to the school board in June 2011.  I agree with the study and most of the improvement actions also apply to middle and senior high.  They are as follows: Develop common expectations for student behavior and common response sets for inappropriate behavior across elementary schools; host school meetings out in neighborhoods to appeal to a diverse community; diversify the work force; develop a partnership with a teacher preparation institution that provides extensive time for teacher-in-training candidates for the classroom; define focus on teacher effectiveness to improve student achievement; increase the integrity and consistency of definitions, observations and feedback to instructional staff by supervisors; develop and implement Professional Learning Community training for administrators; develop and implement grade-level benchmarks to insure consistency in covering the standards, and  increase the use of SchoolView by teachers as a consistent means of communicating with parents.

Our school district currently is in a very good position. Our schools and programs have won numerous awards for excellence. We have a very strong curriculum in kindergarten through 12th grade. Our teachers are very active in curricular areas and do a lot of grade level or department planning. In the last eight years our school district has addressed the updating of facilities, so that our students and teachers have good learning environments. Parent groups have done helped our classrooms by raising money to supplement technology efforts. Interest groups in the community have initiated a number of events to bring the community together.

Without overtly competing with neighboring districts, we do have a lot of resources in place if our schools are compared with our neighbors. Inver Grove Heights has changed from the quiet, little town of the 1980's to a vibrant, progressive community.

 We cannot be satisfied to simply maintain what we have, and the district should always be attempting to improve our educational system. We need to understand the offerings students are requesting, and the courses and curriculum to allow them the best chance to succeed in whatever post-secondary education offering they may choose. We need to ensure the curriculum review cycle is thorough in its examination, and determine if changes need to be made.  Technology also needs to continue to be brought into the classroom at all levels, and be placed in the kids hands, as the students of today are learning in a different environment than many of us did during our school years.

The district has already started to move forward by opening enrollment to full-day kindergarten classes. We can continue to form partnerships with other districts and school leaders regarding the implementation of new ways of learning and developing. We must also keep identifying strategies to close achievement gaps, continue to enhance educational opportunities, ensure equity for all of our children and families and continue to improve the quality of teaching and learning. As I mentioned before, I believe flipping the classroom with videos. Digital technology should be added to classrooms and we should move away from textbooks.