By Chris Walker
walker@emporiagazette.com
Q What are the district goals this year?
A Our goal for this year is to take kids where they are and get them as far as we can. Something that will be a little different is we have a district improvement plan that we are implementing this year. The main component of that is something called “professional learning communities” that we are implementing across the district. It involves small teams of teachers getting together and working on curriculum and instructional issues for their students.
Q What will students see that is new this year?
A The main thing that students will see this year is that we implemented a new core reading program. So all the elementary students will see a different reading program that they have never used before.
Q Diversity in the schools is a big issue for the district. Are you starting to see more Somali children entering the school system and has that posed any unique challenges?
A At this point there are only a handful of students. Some speak English, some don’t and some in between. It is not a lot different than what we have dealt with in the past.
Q School safety is a big issue across the nation. What have you done to keep students safe?
A We are going to study that issue this year. It has been a while since we have looked at it. After Columbine everyone focused on that for a while and then it kind of slowed down. Over the summer we reworked some offices in our elementary schools to give them better supervision of the front door. We keep all the doors locked at the elementary schools except for the front door. At the high school we have a security guard but we don’t have a resource officer. The resource officer was cut three years ago when a grant with the city ran out.
Q Any budget challenges this year?
A It has been nice these last two years because of the Legislature’s reaction to the lawsuit, we have had the resources we need to do the things we need to. Money is always a concern, but it is not number one like it has been in the past.
Q What facility improvements are you wanting to complete?
A Number one on the list is getting some additional space at Village School. The way the population of Emporia has grown, we just haven’t been able to get a good balance at a couple of elementary schools and Village is one of those.
We need a couple more classrooms and more space. What we are looking at right now is at the back of the building and trying to add some new classrooms.
Q What are your thoughts on consolidating some of the smaller school districts?
A The only talk I hear about consolidation is in districts that have gotten so small that they can’t offer a viable curriculum anymore. I know there were a couple more schools that consolidated this last year I think in northwest Kansas.
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
the high school dont need a resource officer,the security guard seems to be effective.
August 13, 2007 at 6:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )