Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

Clover lays foundation for future

By John Marks

Enquirer Herald

CLOVER -- If failing to plan is indeed planning to fail, the Clover School District took a step in the opposite direction Monday night.

The district made a late addition to the Board of Trustees' meeting agenda, adding and then approving a new district-wide strategic plan with goals and target dates for achieving those goals within the next three school years.

"'This is our roadmap for the next three years," said Superintendent Dr. Marc Sosne. "Let's go to it."'

Included in the plan are six goals, with lists of actions the district can take toward achieving them. Those goals include:

• Recruiting,training and retaining world-class teachers and staff

• Providing meaningful, flexible academic choices that accommodate all students

• Pursuing, encouraging and supporting positive community involvement

• Providing an inviting, safe and secure educational infrastructure

• Making classrooms come alive as active learning environments

• Improving student academic achievement throughout the district

Responsibilities for achieving those goals falls on everyone from district staff to school principals, special program coordinators to food service directors. The decision to go ahead and approve the six-part district plan came following a workshop on the sixth and final goal of improving student academic achievement.

"What are those things beyond the obvious, beyond the testing, beyond the rigor?" asked David Damm, assistant superintendent with the district.

Efforts toward that goal include increasing the number of higher level courses offered and identifying "underachieving students" who should be taking them.

"Do you serve them well by letting them settle for a lower bar?" Damm asked.

Improvement in classroom attendance, both for students and teachers, also is a goal. Currently the general truancy rate in Clover is about 10 percent, two points higher than the state average, Damm said.

"If we can't keep them in class, we can't teach them," he said.

Then there are challenges like creating baseline data for new standardized tests in grades 3-8, then improving those scores in coming years. That goal must be balanced against teaching standards that may not be on those tests.

"We've gotten to the point where if you don't test something, people think it's not important anymore," Damm said.

Other goals within the overall plan include annual teacher surveys of needs, gathering feedback from high school graduates, creating at least one additional Advanced Placement and/or Honors class each year for the next five years, educating students about careers beginning in the sixth grade, educating parents of scholarship opportunities beginning in the fifth grade, creating community service opportunities, hosting "Student Showcase" nights at least once a semester, partnering with local businesses and moving toward a "green" campus environment.

While some goals are grade specific, items listed include planning for every grade beginning as early as pre-K, in which the district would like to evaluate readiness and preparation for kindergarten.

"Young children develop at different rates," Sosne said. "Not every child is ready for the same thing at the same time."

The plan was passed unanimously by the board, although members Kathy Cantrell and Bob MaGee were absent.

For more on the new district strategic plan, contact the district office at (803) 810-8000.