New Rochelle School District Publishes Goals & Objectives For Senior Administrators

For the first time ever, the New Rochelle School District has published Goals & Objectives Statements for Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak and Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff with, hopefully, more to follow.

This is a topic Talk of the Sound has raised since last year. I raised it again on Tuesday. As the leading critic of the school district let me compliment the Board. This is the sort of swift, decisive step towards greater transparency and accountability that marks a healthy, well-functioning school district.

Just in case they change their mind I’ve copied and pasted the Goals & Objectives Statements below.

Richard E. Organisciak, Superintendent of Schools

1. To help the Board of Education identify, establish and adopt priorities for the 2009-2010 school year to further the continued success of all students in the District.

2. To implement existing Board of Education policies and procedures that insure the continued operation of a safe, healthy and academically challenging learning environment for all students.

3. To review, revise and amend at least 25% of existing Board of Education policies and procedures to reflect changing conditions, newly identified requirements and enhanced assessment and accountability standards.

4. To communicate with the Board of Education through formal and informal processes in a timely manner on matters of interest, concern and legal consequences allowing for effective decision making.

5. To provide Board Members with updated current information regarding financial and facilities matters.

6. To assist the Board in the preparation of an annual school budget proposal that is cost effective while balancing the need to meet educational requirements for all students.

7. To collaborate with the Board in the presentation of proposed spending plans reflective of community concerns associated with property tax increases and economic realities.

8. To develop a comprehensive, long range plan for the expansion of World Language and Dual Language offerings for all K-12 students. To convene a working group of interested practitioners to provide guidance and direction in the research and preparation of a language plan to be submitted to the Board by June 2010.

9. To undertake a thorough review of existing instructional professional development initiatives and commitments throughout the District to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each and to determine a cohesive organization of offerings by May 2010.

10. To research the feasibility of creating a District-wide Alumni Association to promote the achievements of our schools.

11. To monitor the effectiveness of the newly introduced Full Day Kindergarten program and provide the Board of Education with a summary of activities by June 2010.

12. To continue to expand opportunities to respect and celebrate the diversity of the New Rochelle community through cultural awareness activities, workshops, seminars and aligned presentations throughout the school year.

13. To promote equity and access throughout the District for staff and students through our school and community offices.

14. To sustain all schools and the District “In Good Standing” as identified by Federal and State accountability standards. To have all schools and the District continue to be identified as High Performing institutions.

15. To continue a review of services, costs and commitments to Students with Disabilities as a means to further enhance student outcomes and achievements.

16. To assess the effectiveness of existing guidelines and intervention services in the area of student discipline with a goal to reduce by 5-10% the number of students referred for Superintendent’s Suspension Hearings.

17. To support an additional 3-5% increase in the enrollment of minority students in existing Honors, Advanced Placement and specialized classes and programs at the secondary school levels.

18. To achieve a 94% average daily student attendance rate for the District.

19. To improve the four-year high school graduation rate for the 2006 cohort by at least 2-5% when compared to the 2005 cohort for the following disaggregated groups:
▪ African-American students
▪ Latino students
▪ Students with Disabilities

20. To maintain continued growth in the percentage of Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners scoring within Performance Levels 3 and 4 for the following grade level examinations:
▪ Grade 4 – English Language Arts
▪ Grade 4 – Mathematics
▪ Grade 8 – English Language Arts
▪ Grade 8 Mathematics
▪ 2006 High School Cohort – Mathematics

Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff, Assistant Superintendent

1) To maintain open access and high visibility in my role as Assistant Superintendent in an effort to promote strong, positive working relationships with all constituent groups in our school community. I intend to accomplish this through frequent visits to buildings, monthly meetings with principals as well as regular discussions with our instructional administrators and teacher educators, involvement with the school PTAs and District PTA Council, and participation at Board of Education meetings and related events.

2) To lend ongoing support to the Superintendent by furnishing him, when requested, with specific information about our educational programs in our schools and sharing my perspective on the formal and informal culture, organizational design and management, policies and practices of our school district and the broader New Rochelle educational community.

3) To provide instructional leadership and lend support to principals and teachers as they focus on deepening their understanding of the districts learning outcomes, incorporating these content standards into daily classroom instruction, and preparing students to perform at high levels on the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Math assessments, the Grades 4 and Grade 8 Science test, the Grade 5 and Grade 8 Social Studies test and Regents examinations. I will also work with the principals and teachers to meet the additional academic benchmarks established annually by the Superintendent of Schools.

4) To furnish technical assistance and support, along with our Director of Research, Student Assessment and School Accountability, to help schools successfully handle the multiple new requirements related to data input, verification and analysis.

5) To develop a collaborative planning process, along with our Supervisor of World Languages, to offer recommendations to the Superintendent and Board of Education to guide the expansion of foreign language study in our elementary schools.

6) To continue to involve the elementary school principals and teacher members of our Kindergarten Planning Committee in regular discussions to support and advance the development of the Full-Day Kindergarten initiative.

7) To assist principals and teachers, working with the Elementary Report Card Committee, as we move this year from a pilot to full implementation of our elementary report cards migrating into the eSchools system while insuring that the reporting of student progress to parents is clear, carefully aligned with the districts learning outcomes, and available in either an English or bilingual format.

8) To conduct our Elementary and Secondary Principals Meetings primarily as professional study group sessions, where both local and national issues in public education are discussed with an emphasis on instructional leadership

9) To extend my understanding of the updated State curriculum framework documents, the NYS assessments to be administered in Grades 3-8, Regents examinations, State Education Department regulations, recent educational legislation, and the districts code of conduct and safety plan.

10) To promote greater articulation among our elementary schools, middle schools and high school. My primary focus this year will remain on the transitional grades. That is to say, we will need to take a look at what middle school and high school teachers expect that entering students will know and be able to do. In addition, we will want to examine data on students whose achievement declines in Grade 6 or Grade 9 and analyze whether there are systemic weaknesses in either curriculum or instruction that need to be addressed.

11) To offer teachers an attractive menu of sustained, high-quality professional development opportunities tied to central Pre-K to Grade 12 themes that are designed to encourage them to be reflective about their practice and connect what they do in the classroom to what they know about effective instruction. We will continue to employ a training model which most often utilizes instructional administrators and teacher educators to provide turn-key training and site-based support for both district-wide and school-based professional development initiatives.
Recommendations on professional development will continue to be sought from the District Professional Development Committee.

12) To afford staff expanded access to educational technology (such as smartboards, projectors, desktop computers, laptops, global learning centers, TV studios and publishing centers) and a broad range of training options so that both digital natives and veteran teachers alike will be able to effectively incorporate the use of such technology into their daily lessons.

13) To guide the development and explore the possible expansion of our award-winning Dual Language programs as part of an overall plan for increasing foreign language study in the elementary schools.

14) To confer with our elementary school principals about strategies and models for increasing the participation of high-ability students in enrichment modules or activities alongside the present Kaleidoscope program.

15) To work closely with district administration in educating the public about the May Budget Referendum.

16) To employ my knowledge and skills as a former Director of Funded Programs to contribute to the development of proposals intended to secure entitlement, continuation and competitive grant funds from federal, State and private sources and, as the result, ensure a revenue stream for ongoing innovation and reform designed to make the public schools attractive to all families in New Rochelle.

17) To establish or strengthen institutional partnerships between our district and Southern Westchester BOCES, institutions of higher education, research and development centers, area businesses, community-based organizations, non-profit agencies and other local educational agencies to enhance the educational opportunities offered to the students of New Rochelle.

18) To assist the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources in expanding our present network of college and university pre-service programs to assist the district in the recruitment of highly qualified candidates for teaching and administrative positions.

19) To assist and mentor our probationary elementary and secondary school administrators in an effort to build leadership capacity in the district and develop a group of capable administrators who are well prepared to take on future supervisory roles.

20) To further my own professional growth through attendance at educational workshops, participation in seminars, and involvement in course study.