School Improvement Plan

We are in the middle of writing our School Improvement Plan for 2008-2011. We have several parent representatives in addition to the staff members, serving on the SIP committee. They are a hard working group and we appreciate their service. In addition to addressing academic areas, the SIP plan looks at fiscal accountability, safe schools, retaining high quality staff, professional development, and attendance. With No Child Left Behind legislation, a school could have high growth in academic areas and be labeled a low performing school due to poor attendance. Schools must have an average daily attendance at or above 95% in order to be in compliance. The data at TCE shows that we are just at the 95% attendance benchmark. Please do everything to encourage good attendance in school.

In addition to encouraging good student attendance, we find another area that impacts instruction for many students on a daily basis. The issue is with students being checked out of class early. In upper grades, the literacy block – reading and writing – is in the afternoon. In many of the lower grades, math is in the afternoon. We are engaged in instruction almost up until the bell rings for dismissal at 3:40 p.m. When students are checked out early, not only do they miss out on instruction, so do their classmates. Teachers have to stop class to answer the intercom, check with students as they are leaving, give reminders, etc. which takes time away from the other students in the classroom. Multiply this several times over a class period and the problem intensifies.

Sometimes early checkouts are due to doctor appointments, but often it is a matter of convenience. Parents do not want to wait in the carpool line, need to run errands, or just happen to be in the neighborhood early and want to get going. Early checkouts for reasons such as these send a negative message to the students and directly impacts instruction. Please do not check out children early unless there is a scheduled appointment that cannot be made at another time.