School district seeks help with planning
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
September 17, 2008
The Libby School District is looking for community members to assist in the development of a long-range strategic plan.
Volunteers are needed to serve on working groups, each headed by a school board member and including district staff, in the areas of curriculum and testing, facilities, staff communication and development, environment and safety, and parent/community relations. The groups will meet several times throughout the fall to develop recommendations to turn over to the school board in November.
The agendas for the working groups will be guided in part by the results of a recent survey of parents, students, staff and community members conducted by board member Tracy Comeau. The survey was completed by 252 parents, 147 students, 76 staff members and 71 community members.
"The point of doing all this was trying to find the areas that needed the most improvement," Comeau said.
Priorities identified by the survey for each of the five areas to be addressed by the working groups included the following:
Curriculum and Testing: Address reservations about elementary curriculum; provide more extracurricular activities, especially at the middle school; provide more of a variety of classes at the high school.
Facilities: Address concerns about fourth and fifth grade at the middle school; need for a community swimming pool; snow removal at Asa Wood; updates to middle school and high school bathrooms and lockers; high school needs to be warmer; high school needs a lunch area; district needs a larger gym; modernize facilities with current technology.
Staff Communication and Development: Improve communication among district staff; improve administration/staff relationship; provide more planning time for teachers; encourage better teacher/parent communication; staff would like more input on decisions and curriculum; provide students with more one-on-one time with teachers.
Environment and Safety: Enforce dress code; better food at schools, close high school campus for lunch; drugs; more discipline, less bullying; keep sense of community in the schools.
Parent/community relations: Find ways to increase positive parent/community involvement; communicate academic accomplishments as vigorously as sports accomplishments.
Anyone interested in serving on one of the working groups should call the district superintendent’s office at 293-8811.
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Editor’s Note: See the September 15, 2008 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Monday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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