At final school board meeting of year, Superintendent Champ gives year-end report, reviews new strategic plan

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Dr. Cheryl Champ presented her end-of-year report and preview of the upcoming strategic plan.

Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Pelham School District.

The Board of Education ended the 2018-19 school year with a busy meeting that included recognition of retiring Trustee Peter Liaskos, the superintendent’s year-end report, and a draft presentation on the District’s new strategic plan.

A summary of the meeting follows and the full meeting video is also available for viewing on the District website.

Acknowledgement of Retiring Board Member

The Board kicked off the meeting by acknowledging the work of retiring Trustee Peter Liaskos, who was first elected in 2016. Mr. Liaskos has chaired or served on a number of Board committees, including the Policy, Monitoring and Governance, Bond Steering, Curriculum and 21st Century Learning committees during his tenure. In recognition of his service to the District and community, he was presented with a proclamation and a commemorative school bell.

End-of-Year Report

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Cheryl Champ’s year end report focused on six goals identified by the Board at the beginning of the year which relate to the four pillars of the Strategic Plan, development of the budget, implementation of the bond and creation of a new Strategic Plan.

Highlights from this year include successful expansion of the FLES program into 4th grade, continued expansion of the STEAM strand through expansion of Science 21, plans to revise the Tech 6 curriculum, new coursework introduced at PMHS, MakerSpace experiences K-12 and implementation of the Teachers College Writers’ Workshop in the elementary schools.

Additionally, Dr. Champ noted progress made in examining and redesigning the master schedule to make more efficient use of instructional time and allocation of staff to better support student needs as well initial cultural proficiency training held in the first half of the school year among staff, parents and students. The District will move this work forward as part of the new Strategic Plan.

The presentation slides for the year-end report are available on the District website.

Draft Strategic Plan

Following the end-of-year report, Dr. Champ presented a draft of the next Strategic Plan to guide the work of the District from 2019 to 2024. The plan, which will be further reviewed and refined before it is officially adopted next school year, begins with the preamble “The Pelham School Community will develop empowered, adaptable, well-balanced individuals who are equipped to meaningfully contribute to our local, national and global society.”

The plan focuses on three goals: Cultural Competence, Authentic Learning, and Whole Child. These goals rose to the top through a collaborative process undertaken by the Strategic Planning Committee, which included surveys of the community and stakeholders, an analysis of student achievement and outcomes data and focus groups.

For each of the three goals, subcommittees met to define action steps that will guide the next 18 months of work with progress being monitored at six month intervals. This approach is intended to focus the scope of work and build depth in the identified areas of growth.

The presentations slides, including draft action steps for each goal are available on the District website.