By Steve Mayer
Early each July, the Robbinsville Board of Education gathers for an annual goal-setting retreat. This year, as in the past six, the board evaluates the district’s progress against five major goal areas in order to establish a clear focus for the coming school year. The five goal areas we adhere to in all of our work are: to maintain a strong academic culture in Robbinsville, to effectively manage facilities and advance school security, to maintain sound fiscal practices, to foster community engagement and to promote a healthy school culture where developing competence and character are integral to our work.
The year, the board agreed upon 23 objectives that anchor in these five areas. This article will highlight a few of these objectives, and I encourage you to review the comprehensive document located on the school district website. Further, the Board of Education will review the objectives and outcomes at the next two public board meetings before authorizing them for the start of the new school year.
Academically, the district will focus on refining the scope and sequence of foundational math programs so that students are prepared for the rigor of standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Emphasizing deeper conceptual understanding and facility with basic facts and number sense, teachers will foster critical thinking and problem solving skills that are required as algebraic and mathematical thinking is developed. To promote this work, the district will lean on recommendations from a program review commissioned in 2013-14 and conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania as a way to continue to refine how we promote sound math instruction across grades.
Given the world’s growing emphasis on globalization, improving world language instruction is also a target for our work as we prepare students for the 21st century. By holding fast to standards established by the American Council on Teaching Foreign Language, the district is pleased to add everyday Spanish instruction for sixth graders, and hopes to send middle school students to high school prepared to reach Advanced Placement courses, which require active listening, reading and speaking skills. Beginning in September, the district will offer Spanish in grades 6 through 8 and four languages at the high school.
Increasing our use of instructional technology is also an area of academic focus. This year, we are expanding the one-to-one Chromebook initiative to include all students in grades 3 and 5 and, by September 2017, intend to provide a Chromebook every student in grades 3 through 8 for in-school use. As we move forward leveraging the Google Drive to promote collaboration, build organizational skills, and foster stronger school to home partnerships, starting in September 2018 we will begin to expect students in grade 9 to enter high school with their own device. Taking advantage of technology to help develop writing and analysis skills makes good sense as we prepare students for college and career.
This brief article does not permit sharing detail from all of the goal areas, but please mark your calendars for Thursday, Nov. 19 when we will hold the first annual State of the Schools event at Robbinsville High School. The primary aim of this event will be to engage community members in the work of the schools by sharing information about vision and direction and providing a forum that will enable us to listen to our constituents. We believe we are at our best when our school district represents the values and dreams of our community. We look forward to partnering with you in the coming school year.
Steve Mayer is superintendent of Robbinsville Schools.
