FROM:Laurie Schmitt, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services

memorandum

DATE:9/7/2016

TO:AAESA Superintendents

RE:SeptemberUpdate

Education Goal:Increase learning outcomes for all by providing and supporting effective relevant programming.

Leadership Goal: Intentionally lead, using evidence-based practices for continuous improvement.

Service Goal: Serve the needs of our community through quality resources, collaboration and compassion.

Educator Evaluation

Website posting is required by September 30. Templates are located at this link
School Advance training can be requested on site or districts may attend a session already scheduled. How do we will to proceed?
School Board training for superintendent evaluation is being scheduled by each district. We will reimburse from the grant. If you still need to schedule training it is recommended you don’t wait.
Danielson training and Thoughtful Classroom training has occurred or will. If it is a training for more than one district, we are paying the provider directly. If a district has scheduled a training for only themselves, we reimburse.
Following training on the tools, we will be looking at additional types of training desired that support any system. For example: Student Growth, Observations/Evidence, Reflective Conversations
The chart below details costs known to date.

District / Educator Evaluation Training 7/1/15 to present / Cost
7/1/15 to present / Projected Training / Projected Cost
AAESA/ Hopkins/ Wayland / School Advance Administrator Training- 2 days (January 7 and 15, 2016 / MASA- $5200 (PD)
expenses- $493.05
Allegan Public / Thoughtful Classroom Administrator Training
Aug 11-12, Oct 12-13, 2015 / $7692.32 training
$695.50 materials
$8387.82 total (PD) / Staff and School Leaders August 2016 ½ day elementary, ½ day secondary / $4025 trainer
Materials
Total=$9609
Plainwell Community Schools / Teachscape Training for 7 administrators / $1727.90 (PD)
Otsego, Hopkins, Fennville
Administrators / 4 days training
Silver Strong- Thoughtful Classroom Admin / $20,000 training
$150 per person materials x 20 = $3000
($23,000)
$13000 to 15-16 budget, 10000 to 16-17 budget
Hopkins / Thoughtful Classroom- 1 day teacher training / $4000 plus $5864 materials (PD)
Otsego / Thoughtful Classroom- 1 day teacher training- Aug 31 / $4000 plus $ 7000 materials
Fennville / Thoughtful Classroom- 1 day teacher training / $4000 plus $6000 materials
Glenn, Wayland, Outlook and AAESA
Plainwell, Martin / 1-2 day Danielson training for admin
Calibration tool / $9000 plus handouts and books (????)
All Superintendents and Boards / MASB for School Boards for Superintendent Evaluation / MASB for board Training
$90 per person x 64=$5760
Administrators: Plainwell, Martin, Otsego, Fennville, Glenn / School Advance training
Date TBD / School Advance admin training Cost: $325 per person or a minimum of $5200 plus $30 /user licensing fee, food, copying
Total Grant Allocation
$114,553.65 / $13,608.77 / Total known costs are Approx. $100,000
Leaves approximately $14,000 for food costs, Danielson resources

Great Start Readiness Preschool (GSRP) – Innocademy no longer has a GSRP classroom, the Hopkins Elementary classroom moved to Sycamore Elementary and an additional classroom opened in Starr Elementary (Plainwell). We are still seeking a long-term sub for Martin. Start Date is 9-13-16 (Martin is 9-20-16)

Enrollment to Date

DISTRICT / # ENROLLED / # OPENINGS
Allegan Hillside / 18 / 0
Allegan Pine Trails / 18 / 0
Fennville / 32 / 0
Martin / 18 / 0
Hopkins (Sycamore Elem) / 31 / 1
Otsego / 16 / 0
Plainwell Starr / 32 / 0
Plainwell Cooper / 16 / 0
Wayland / 32 / 0

Great Start Collaborative- Jeanette Kievit has taken another job and is pursuing her Social Work degree, so we will be looking to hire a new Parent Liaison.

Allegan County Area Technical and Education Center (ACATEC) and Early College Allegan County (ECAC)

Progress on the addition- going to bid in September to begin work during holiday break. Completion scheduled for start of school 2017.

Early Literacy Coaches- We have applied for the 2nd year of funding. Districts will be asked is they will to expend those dollars this year or carry them over. Because we received the grant so late (May), most of last year’s dollars were carried into this year.

STAR Family Literacy current enrollment at the Plainwell Center

Aiming for enrollment of 20. Currently 7 enrolled- 5 are returning: 2 Wayland (1 adult), 3 Plainwell (1 adult), 2 Allegan (1 additional awaiting enrollment paperwork). September is the peak enrollment time for the teen parents.

The STAR program in Fennville is on “hiatus”. We will transport as necessary and look forward to an Early Head Start Expansion grant that would allow reopening. We should hear in January about that grant.

Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered Systems of Support/School Improvement Support

SMART Data- The Regional Golden Packages will be made available in the google folder where we will put all the Principal PLC work. This should be available soon, as well as the local districts’ GPs.

DIBELS- Curriculum Directors have been discussing Early Literacy Assessment, at this time, we will still support the $1 student fee.

DELTA Math- AAESA covers the cost of this screener

English Learner Consultant- We are entering into an agreement with Ottawa, Kent, Muskegon to bring more support to this population. Interviews were in August and a candidate was selected. Estimated start in October.

Principal Professional Learning Communities

Purpose: Build administrative professional learning communities to provide ongoing opportunity for learning, coaching, networking and collaboration for elementary and secondary principals on RtI/PLC implementation to increase student success.

Topics Addressed:

Supporting the Work of Professional Learning Communities/ Early Release and Late Starts- by month
Staff learning in meetings (Global PD)
Support Teacher Evaluation- Goal Setting, Student Growth, Observations
Leading Learning- “Look Fors”, Instructional Shifts
Integrating School Improvement and Program Evaluation with the Above- Using Data
Sharing norms from each district
Data to start- Tasks and Products, Leadership, Pyramid of Interventions

Dates/Structure:

4 Days with Elementary Principals: Oct 4, Nov 8, Feb 7, April 18
4 Days with Secondary Principals: Oct 6, Nov 10, Feb 9, April 20
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM (8 a.m. breakfast)
SCECHs available- attendance at all 4 days required
75 minute Interactive web conference with Paul Farmer at each session
Structured and informal networking time built into each day

Cost:

No cost for the Academy (lunch will also be provided)

Local districts may want to obtain a sub to cover for these days (for either the principal or for an aspiring administrator that is released from the classroom for these days).

October Agenda- Bring Pyramid of Interventions (Keep agenda and process notes- debrief throughout)

Establishing Norms, Purpose, Outcomes, Processes for the work- being explicit about PLCs- when we are in mixed groups/district groups, living the work they are leading at their buildings- Corey

Google- where the work is going to be held- (Teresa and Gayle)Notes, Norms, Resource Doc with links to docs in a folder, Folder for artifacts

Calendar/Project Management- systems and models (CM, Kammy and Rhonda)

Surfacing questions/issues for Paul- Laurie

Connect with Paul via IWC

Lunch and Debrief- Laurie

Continue Project Management- Sharing (CM, Kammy and Rhonda)

Think Tank Time- (Heather and Corey)

Supporting Early Release, Late Start, Staff Meeting- Global PD Playlist (Rhonda, Heather),

Resources/Readings

Mapping the Future- Instead of 3-4 meetings we will only meet once- January 13th, 8:30-12.

Behavioral RTI withTom Hierck- October 25, 2016 and March 23, 2016

Building on the work he started with us in August of 2015.

District Cross-Stakeholder teams

Allegan Area STEM Partnership (AASP)Progress Overview- There are 6 goalsthat drive AASP work:

Position Allegan Area for economic growth
Prepare students for career/college success (academics, leadership skills, 21st Century skills, collaboration)
Identify and address inequities of STEM talent development opportunities throughout Allegan County
Increase alignment between the talent pool and the local career opportunities
Provide awareness to public/parents/students on local high-demand careers
Enhance effective STEM programming through sustainable funding

Progress to date includes:

Established Structure and Leadership - 4 levels of organization:
Full Partnership Advisory Board
Core Planning Team
Strategic Planning Team with three work groups(K-12 Education and Employers Alignment, Career and College Readiness, and Workforce Development Training)
Representation on the Talent 2025 Initiative

Enhance Communications–The Career and College Readiness work group, led by Sonja Skerbeck, crafted a draft newsletter format which will use a non-AAESA site to host. (Goal 5)
Awarded MI STEM Education Grant – $21,000 STEM-focused grant will rely on AASP members to support career exploration in STEM through student challenges (Lego Robotics, Coding, Ecoraces) funded by the grant. (Goals 2, 3, and 4)
Adoption of the Skills4Success Framework- There are 6 skills identified by Ottawa Area employers and educators that will increase employability. Allegan area districts are looking at ways to integrate these “soft” skills into the curriculum and our Response to Intervention work.(Goals 2 and 4)
Designing Perrigo Tours / Problem Solving Opportunities – Perrigo wants to implement an ongoing system of tours and problem solving activities with local school districts.(Goals 2, 4 and 5)

GoSignMeUp- we have a new system with increased reporting capability which also will have an easier administration and user interface. All professional development offerings will be held in this system. The system also allows local district “supervisors” which improves sign up and reporting.

Specialized Instruction Subcommittee- In an effort to promote good two-way communication, allow for sharing of concerns, and collaborative problem solving we would like to have a cross-stakeholder group meet monthly. Ideally, all districts will be represented by one of the following: a superintendent, business manager or special education supervisor. AAESA leadership would also be members. Members would be encouraged to bring information to and from their constituent groups. Please submit your name if interested, or that of your business manager of special education supervisor to Shelby by September 16th. We will then set mutually agreeable dates/times to meet.