Winston (right) answered questions submitted by attendees Tuesday at Fairview.
(WTIU News, Bente Bouthier)
The Monroe County Community School Corporation hosted a “Listen and Learn” event at Fairview Elementary School on Tuesday. Attendees submitted questions, comments, and observations, which MCCSC’s director of student affairs Becky Rose posed to interim superintendent Markay Winston for response.
The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Rose: I'm going to kick us off. Dr. Winston, what is your future vision for MCCSC?
Winston: My vision is for us to be the number one destination school corporation in the state of Indiana. And I think that's an achievable goal. And we're already a lot of the way there. I really do believe that we have some of the best educators in the state of Indiana. I believe we have some of the most talented students from arts, from athletics, academics.
Rose: Can you elaborate on what we’re doing to accomplish this?
Winston: One of the areas that we need to improve upon, and that we are working towards, is removing barriers within the curriculum materials and the content of our curriculum for students. We have an opportunity, I think, to continue to focus on that.
We need to make sure that we are providing our teachers and building leaders with adequate amounts of support. When we have our professional development days twice a year, our teachers are pretty much at the center of that work. Supporting our building leaders; making sure that they have the tools and the resources that they need to support the teachers within their buildings.
So, there are a few things, from a leadership, instructional design, instructional delivery perspective. But also, in terms of the decision making about the materials we put in front of our students. So, I think each of those areas are essential to continuing to allow us to be stronger and to become that number one destination school district.
Rose: Can you talk a bit about MCCSC’s student advisory council?
Winston: MCCSC is meeting on a bi-monthly basis with a group of its high school students. It’s an opportunity for them to provide input and feedback as we begin preparing for our new strategic plan that will roll out in the in the next school year. We want them to share with us what they think some of our data means. We want them to share priorities that they think we should pay close attention to. Every high school is represented. We've got a lot of diversity among the students that are participating. They've got some great ideas, and they are not shy in letting us know their thoughts. Our next task is going to be asking them to help us in the prioritization.
Rose: Are there any key takeaways from that first session last month?
Winston: Some of the things the advisory council really wants us to tackle include making sure that every student feels welcomed and supported. They want to make sure that we are being thoughtful about representation within our curricular materials. They had thoughts and suggestions on some safety aspects and how we can make some improvements there.
Winston: There are a couple of members of our executive team who are in the audience. I wonder if any of them would add anything?
Jeff Henderson, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources & Operations: One of the topics brought up was representation in the staff. So, one of the things that we're looking to do in my office is expand our outreach for purposeful recruiting of staff that represent our student demographic.
Rose: This question is about our accelerated learning program for students, ALPS. The program was recently expanded and moved to Fairview from University. Can you share a little bit about how more students may be benefiting from that?
Winston: It was a board priority for us to increase accessibility so more students could participate in the ALPS program. So, the program moved to Fairview about two years ago. We did a three-year transition, and now we've expanded the program from third grade to sixth grade. We're looking at ways to increase the demographic background of students that are participating, and we're beginning to see some encouraging results. We're still too early to talk about all the outcomes. But in terms of participation, we have seen increases in the numbers of students who are participating, who have come over to Fairview to be a part of that program.
Rose: Is there a plan for all elementary schools to have a focus? Why do some schools not have one? For example, Lakeview is a STEAM school. University, an IB school, Fairview has the arts integration.
Winston: We need to have strong elementary schools in every one of our communities. Several of our elementary schools jumped out and said that they'd like to have this kind of focus, or that type of focus, and we want to continue to support that. We do want every school to have its own identity. So, our task ahead is to hone in on what that identity needs to be. One of the things that we're working on within all our elementary schools is to make sure that STEM and STEAM education is a consistent factor. Often times, school leadership will come forward with an idea based on their areas of expertise like language immersion.
Rose: Regarding the MCCSC 2023, referendum, expanding early learning. How is that going to benefit families next year? How has it benefited families this year?
Winston: The 2023 referendum allowed us to expand our offering of pre-K programming this year, and that's for four-year-olds. Our first focus was to expand the number of children who had access to pre-K programs at age four. We've already seen more than a 70 percent increase in that area.
Next school year, we're going to focus on plans for our three-year-olds, and we call that preschool. Our expansion of preschool programs, we're having those conversations now. We have a young child advisory group that we've begun meeting with on a bi-monthly basis to help us decide and determine what that's going to look like.
That 2023 referendum was essential. It's going to really impact the economic growth of our community. It's going to impact graduation. It has the potential to change the trajectory of education and opportunities for our youngest learners. We're recognizing that the investment in our earliest, youngest learners is going to pay off in the long run.
Dr. Tim Dowling, Director of Early Learning and Enrollment: We've added 137 students to our Pre-K program, like Dr Winston said, over a 70 percent increase. We also have 44 students who we’re helping to support at area providers right now.
