Greendale Board of Education Adopts 2016-2017 Goals

GREENDALE -- The Greendale Board of Education, at the recommendation of Dr. Gary Kiltz, Superintendent, and the Greendale Schools Administrative Team, adopted the District’s 2016-­2017 goals at the Board’s September work session meeting held this week.

These goals are set to guide the work of the District as it builds a long-term strategic plan during this school year.

The goals are divided among “Instructional” and “Operational” focus areas and were developed in part based upon the results of a community survey conducted in November, 2015 as part of the superintendent search. In the area of instructional goals, the two priority areas identified are closing the achievement gap and understanding and supporting diversity in the community.

“In recent state report cards, the District has done extremely well on the overall score, placing in the 85th to 90th percentile of all State school districts. But when looking at closing the achievement gap,Greendale Schools have performed under the 50th percentile compared to other districts around the state,” Dr. Kiltz stated in his report to the Board.

“Our instructional goals will target improvement to close the gaps among identified demographic groups, including students who are members of an ethnic minority group; students who speak English as a second language; students who live in poverty; and students who are receiving special education services. This is about maintaining high expectations for all students and providing the right opportunities and supports for them as they move from grade to

grade.”

The District highlighted specific benchmarks in multiple areas, including elementary and middle school student achievement, high school students proportional representation and academic success in advanced/college level coursework, and student engagement and reflection on growth and opportunities in activities to develop the “Attributes of a Greendale graduate.”

Additionally, all students in grades 9­-12 will work to identify their top three career areas of interest and applicable course choices to provide baseline data for the Academic and Career Planning (ACP) initiative.

Operational goals for the school year focus on increasing efficiency, practicing cost-­saving measures, and evaluating the effectiveness of community engagement activities.

These include determining the baseline on technology integration levels, reducing electrical and natural gas usage through proactive usage savings measures, monitoring and practicing smart budgeting practices, establishing a baseline on impact of communication and District engagement activities, improving community engagement self­-evaluation scores for the Board, and focusing on employee engagement activities.

“Community support of Greendale Schools is strong and District leadership is aware and grateful for this long­-standing commitment to education,” Dr. Kiltz added. “Our plan is to proceed through this school year with a comprehensive strategic planning process developed in collaboration with our community and then to take actions and review progress on 90 day intervals.

By taking incremental steps forward, we can hold ourselves accountable to the work, determine impact, and take the necessary steps to make already great schools even better for our students, staff, and community.”

For complete details on the 2016­2017 board goals, visit www.greendale.k12.wi.us.

Image: Scott Anderson/Patch