In our work with the School Improvement Team (SIT) we have worked to create our priorities for next year. Usually, this is handled by leadership but including staff members and educators from the SIT in the process has been very valuable. The document attached is a rough draft of middle school priorities (also listed below). High school priorities are being finalized. 

Increasing Academic Achievement: Ensure effective and consistent delivery the Veritas instructional model to give students access to rigorous content that prepares them for college.

Close Learning Gaps: Notice and respond to gaps in learning quickly and effectively.

Mission Alignment: Instructional, culture, and operational initiatives work to prepare students with the skills necessary for success in high school, college and career.

Drivers are the things we are going to do to improve that priority. 

The interim measures are what we hope along the way to mark our progress. 

Ann asks how we are going to keep an eye on these things and how are we going to use this information?

Amy says these are the things we will focus on the most. They may align with PD, observation rubrics, SLT meetings, what our summer work for leaders will be most geared towards. There is another tab on this document that highlights actions - how are we going to work to achieve these priorities. This may also turn into one of our accountability data dashboards. Amy mentions we will also do monthly step backs where we will see how we are doing in terms of meeting these priorities. Amy adds that we are working with Open Architects and we hope that a lot of the data we collect related to these priorities will be housed on one data portal. 

Dale asks about shared values and Big 7 routine.

Amy says what we realized this year was that the last few school years has steered us away from talking about our mission and values and using those things to make decisions. Now we are getting back to this. We do a lot of great things but we aren't always great about articulating these things in a mission/values-aligned way. Amy describes the word "restorative" in terms of what it represents in this document. It is focused on relationships and being able to fix things when they go wrong so everyone feels safe and supported (this applies to staff and student and student and student). This is in it's own bucket because if a conflict doesn't get resolved, it can be all consuming. 

Jonathan adds it is centered around our values, beliefs, and norms.

Dale asks about when Amy and Jonathan started at Veritas, were these things handled differently?

Amy says 2018-19 we had consistency in the way conflicts/issues were handled and we've lost that. Bringing this consistency back is the essence of this goal.

Rebecca mentions that this is a lot - three priorities doesn't look like too much but baked into the drivers there is a lot that we are planning to do.

Amy says that is very true but many of these things are not new. Now we just need to do what we say we are doing.

Rachel adds that we have a lot of momentum around these areas - now we need to focus on accountability. 

Ann asks how we feel about rebuilding culture?

Amy says we have made a lot of progress. We are not there yet but we're doing better. 

Rachel adds that we have had to work really hard to get back to being mission-aligned in terms of our team and what our expectations are for them. The SIT has been an incredible asset in helping us return to who we were pre-pandemic. 

The information shared above will drive a great deal of our summer PD. 

High school PD plan: 

Amy says there will be 3 weeks of PD in August. There will also be a three-day Special Education teacher intensive PD before general PD begins the second week of August. 

Our next steps are including the priorities into the PD and figuring our where and how they are going to show up. 

In terms of the high school staffing, only two teachers are not returning next year. 

Dale asks about the current market for teachers?

Amy says she thinks it's in between - for certain roles there are a lot of options and for others it is hard to find one person. 

Rachel would say it's still at crisis level in terms of the overall teacher shortage. It is not what it once was and it is still problematic. 

Rebecca says that it might be important to encourage the HS leadership team to focus on PD that relates to the priorities and have it be more focused around these things rather than cover so much content. She is all about going deeper not necessarily broader. 

Rebecca mentions that we often skip the July meeting. Rachel concurs. The committee decides to cancel the July meeting. 

In August, we should have MCAS data and summer PD for staff will be launching. We can also start setting priorities as a committee for 2023-24. 

Dale was thinking about an academic and school summary over the last three to four years. Where were we pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and post pandemic (where we were and where we are). Then this can serve as a platform to move forward. This could have data and analysis and could be disseminated. 

Nikki reminds the committee that at the last Board meeting we decided to change the time of this meeting from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (starting in August). 

The committee discusses the importance of prioritizing academics at Board meetings. 

The committee discussed preliminary MCAS data results for planning purposes.