Revised Strategic Plan is available as a PDF document. You will need Acrobat Reader to view it.

PLANNING TEAM #1 #2 #3 #4 Linda Amsden Newton Baker Jennie Ball Linda Berger Kate Breer Sharon Bresette Edward Brown Susan Catlin Peter Clarke Harry Colombo Kristin Commito Gail Falk Betsy Goddard Laurie Gossens Paul Hartmann Richard Herbert Martha Hicks-Robinson Arthur Hildebrandt Kathy Jelly Kerrin McCadden Karen Meyer Tina Muncy John Nelson Jude Newman Elizabeth Nicholson Brian O'Regan Mary Paulman Carol Phillips Charles Phillips Steven Roby Isaac Zaur Abdo, Daniel Blakeman, Alan Brin, Anne Cody, Paula Downing, Beth Gerdel, Karen Griffith, Gary Haake, Diane Jamison, Vicki Manghi, Matt Murray, Diana Patterson, Jason Phillips, Carol* Prentice, Hilary Redmond, Mary Richards, Greg Sakovitz-Dale, Jane Salzberg, Olivia Skea, Edward Stahl, Than Stone, Jessica Swenson, Deedee Walker, Andrew Whitcomb, Linda* Zunder, Marjorie Austin, Coleen Carbee, Patty* Colombo, Harry Corley, Cassandra Dale, Steve Davison, Rebecca Edwards, Nerissa Goldwyn, Charon Goudey, Pelton Haines, William Herbert, Richard Kasten, Timothy Naquin, Carole Peebles, Giovanna Philips, Carol Ressler, Janet Ritz, Susan Rome, Alan Sargent, Robert Smith, Russell* Aldrich, Mary Berger, Linda Clarke, Peter Crowley, Roger Cykon, Cindy Flynn, Tim* Foster, Cindy Khan, Karim Koch, Susan MacIntyre, Micum Mello, Mary Mesner, Susan Parke, Kristy Sargent, Deborah Skelding, Pat Smith, Barbara Snell, Andrew Walke, Steve Whelan, Thomas Amato, Libby Backman, Felicity Blank, Judith Boltax, Phyllis Carlyle, Terri* Cranse, Pratima Fischer, Cheryl Fitzhugh, Didi Hodgdon, Terry Jelly, Kathy Johnson-Aten, Bonnie* Johnson-Surwilo, Deborah Kaufman, Eli Kesson, Dr. Kathleen Lefebvre, David Leno, Vernonica Newman, Jude Ollman, Cheryl Rice, George Rowell, Phyllis Syz, Linn Walker, Douglas Warzer, Jill Zahner, Ginny PLANNING TEAM #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 Eichholz, Alice Falk, Gail Finn, Carlen* Hartmann, Paul Hildebrandt, Arthur Paulman, Mary Pavlus, Renee Quintana, Elsie Snell, John Warnke, Andrea Wasik, Gene Adamski, Blanche Arno, Connie Baker, Newton Ball, Jennie* Bate, Will Beattie, Betty Butterfield, Cathy Davidian, Rich Ferris, Carolyn Gaston, Patricia Giffin, Theresa* Griffith, Gary Hicks-Robinson, Martha Jacobs-Carnahan, Eve Lipman, Andrew Malloy, Dennis Meyer, Peter Muncy, Tina Nicholson, Elizabeth O'Connor, Michael Phillips, Charles Roby, Stephen Roby, Cheryl Rome, Gale Scudder-Chase, Holly Amsden, Linda Brown, Edward Bueno, Natalia Catlin, Susan Clarke, Nikki Gibson, David* Hinds, Steve Lendway, Alan Meyer, Karen Patno, William Robinson, Norm Shapiro, Steven Spaulding, Susan Stahl, Gretchen Ayer, Carole Cassidy, William Fitzhugh, Nicholas Garabedian, Tanina Giuliani, Paul Grenier, Harriet Haynes, Charles Heney, Tim Jones, Keith MacPherson, Stephen Nelson, John* Nooney, Ben Russell, Cynthia Stahl, Alan Washburn, Robin* Battistoni, Heather Bluhm, Valerie Cheney, Kim Coates, Barbara Heney, Donna O'Brien, Michaela Parker, Samara Salzberg, Olivia Shannon, Neil Silsby, Carolyn Silvey, Rebecca Toolan, Ray Wageman, Carole* Walke, Judy* Woods, Alex

Table of Contents BELIEFS MISSION STATEMENT OBJECTIVIES STRATEGIC PARAMETERS STRATEGIES Strategy #1 Strategy #2 Strategy #3 Strategy #4 Strategy #5 Strategy #6 Strategy #7 Strategy #8 Strategy #9 Strategy #10 BELIEFS We believe that we share responsibility for the well-being of future generations. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with respect. We believe that food, shelter and clothing are basic human rights. We believe that every individual has unique, inherent value. We believe that people thrive best in a loving, caring and supportive environment. We believe that all people need to feel that they matter. We believe that we cannot know what a person is capable of achieving. We believe that people are responsible for the choices they make. We believe that everyone has the right to experience success. We believe that fun is good. We believe that hard work and commitment are necessary for meaningful accomplishment. Table of Contents MISSION STATEMENT The mission of Montpelier's Public Schools, a learning alliance that values individual worth and community participation, is to ensure that each student achieves intellectual and personal excellence to live happily and realize extraordinary goals through student-centered education that fosters individual and community success through a commitment to continuous inquiry, creativity, citizenship, and respect for all people (life). Table of Contents OBJECTIVES One hundred percent of our students will complete an individualized educational program meeting performance standards consistent with their aspirations and goals. Throughout their lives, all students will be responsible citizens, actively contributing to their community. All students succeed in their life choices. Table of Contents STRATEGIC PARAMETERS We will practice participatory decision making throughout the organization. We will engage only in those activities that support elementary/secondary teaching and learning. We will not tolerate prejudicial discrimination in any form. Table of Contents STRATEGIES We will develop an individual education program for each student. We will develop community partnerships to support the mission of the Montpelier School District. We will create an educational environment that ensures the accomplishment of our mission. We will create dynamic curricula which encompass both common standards and individual specialization. We will determine and address students' needs to ensure the successful completion of their individual educational program. We will ensure the best use of time and space in order to support each student's achievement of the individual educational program. We will ensure the continuous improvement of the total system through clearly defined standards and dynamic assessments. We will identify, define, acquire, and allocate resources for the benefit of all students. We will have only the most effective, caring individuals working with our children. Table of Contents Strategy #1 We will develop an individual education program for each student. Action Plan Summary 1. Establish program hierarchy and guidelines for the development and implementation of an IEP Program, Grades EEE-12. 2. Create an effective and supportive partnership between school and community. 3. Establish an individual team for each student who will develop, implement and evaluate the IEP, Grades EEE-12. 4. Ensure student mastery of core competencies as determined by individual abilities. 5. Provide academic supports through various networks. 6. Provide for independent study options for students of middle and high school age (lower grades on an exceptional basis). 7. Provide an opportunity for alternative learning settings and experiences. 8. Create a range of apprenticeship options based on community partnerships. 9. Develop a mechanism for getting academic credit for selected experiences gained outside the classroom; i.e., Life Credits. 10. Provide the option for students to be accelerated in grade or course material as appropriate EEE-12. 11. Evaluate each student's progress by a variety of assessment methods. 12. Ensure students achieve at their highest personal levels. Table of Contents Strategy #2 We will formulate community partnerships to support the mission of the Montpelier School District. Action Plan Summary 1. Create a partnership between teachers and parents in the education of children. 2. Create career awareness through community partnerships at all grade levels, emphasizing the connection between academic learning and work. 3. Create a Program that encourages all children to be actively involved in the community through human service and/or outdoor experiences. 4. Actively coordinate community partnerships and seek out underutilized resources in the schools and community (people, programs, businesses, organizations, materials, funding sources) and match them with educational needs. Table of Contents Strategy #3 We will create an educational environment that ensures the accomplishment of our mission. Action Plan Summary 1. Create a physical environment and atmosphere that conveys a sense of welcome, respect, achievement and pride to everyone entering our schools. 2. Redesign the physical environment of Montpelier High School, Main Street Middle School, and Union Elementary School from an "institutional feel" to one of respect for health and wellness of individual students, faculty and community members. 3. Create annual events and ceremonies that students, staff and the community look forward to throughout the year, creating a closer, more nurturing environment. 4. Create tolerant and respectful school communities. 5. Practice a collaborative decision making process in our school system. Our decision-making practices will be based on consensus building and inclusive of parents, students, administration, staff and community. 6. Create safe opportunities for all members of the school community to engage in constructive dialogue concerning the schools' educational policy, programs and practices. 7. Create a respectful process for airing and resolving conflicts between members of our community. 8. Develop district-wide opportunities designed to build self-esteem in students, staff and parents. 9. Create school communities that value and support the unique contributions of each individual. 10. Promote academic excellence and independence, the schools and parents will share with students the responsibility for their learning in increasing amounts as they grow. 11. Recognize excellence in academics in addition to sports and arts. 12. Implement a rational evaluation plan that encourages a spirit of openness and respect for administration and staff. 13. Establish a communication system that results in a true feeling of trusting partnership. Communication between schools and families will be frequent, honest and mutually respectful. 14. Prepare students to assume responsibility for their own behavior and to be responsible members of the larger community. 15. All members of the school community will own, understand and consistently implement the discipline system and school rules. Table of Contents Strategy #4 We will create dynamic curricula that encompass both common standards and individual specialization. Action Plan Summary 1. Ensure that curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation be carried out in accord with the principles developed by community, teachers, staff, students, and parents through the strategic planning process. 2. Reach agreement on what all Montpelier students need to know and be able to do. 3. Create a system of on-going curriculum development and evaluation that accommodates individual needs and common standards. 4. Ensure curriculum coordination system-wide, Grades EEE-12. 5. Create a meaningful, substantive, district-wide professional development program that provides the time and training to develop and teach the new curriculum. Table of Contents Strategy #5 We will determine and address students' needs to ensure the successful completion of their individual educational program. Action Plan Summary 1. Each student shall have a navigator whose role is to know and support the student over a long term, to coordinate the development of the student's individual educational program, and to observe and facilitate their progress toward its successful completion. 2. Educational experiences are provided based primarily on students' authentic needs. Opporotunities to learn and grow will be commensurate with students' potential as unique human beings. 3. Each student's needs are determined and documented periodically, using each student's previous experiences, present interests, abilities and life goals, through consultation among the student, parents and school personnel. 4. Existing home and community resources are identified and coordinated to effectively address students' needs. 5. Establish programs and practices, EEE-Grade 12, that proactively prevent or remediate learning barriers. 6. Establish a communication system with parents, students, faculty, administration and staff to provide comprehensive, timely and accessible information explaining all programs, curricula and services. Table of Contents Strategy #6 We will ensure the best use of time and space in order to support each student's achievement of the individual educational program. Action Plan Summary 1. Provide varied, quality spaces for the following grouping and activities: adult and 5 students, 20 students, moveable walls for combining up to 40 people, large group gatherings (over 100), the entire school, individual instruction, outdoor meeting space; and incorporate the following areas in a determination of needed space: Instrumental music, vocal music, visual arts, multimedia center. industrial arts, library, science labs, teacher and staff planning space, physical education, cafeteria, convertible space for special needs, nurse; copier, administration, clerical; confidential telephone, alternative physical education space. Quality space means space that is clean and in good repair, has individually controllable climate (heat, cooling, and clean ventilation) and light (natural when possible) in all spaces 2A. Create community support for a single track 45-15 calendar of 175 student (185 teacher) days with 4 intercessions to achieve: continuous learning, increased student achievement, more effective student remediation and enrichment, preteaching opportunities, opportunities for community involvement, community apprenticeship opportunities, enhanced staff and student morale, more effective staff planning, more effective staff training; fuller, more productive time spans; more productive use of days prior to and following breaks, curriculum and assessment with definitive temporal boundaries easily and positively adapted to quarter-course format. 2B. Implement Result #2A (contingent upon successful completion of 2A) 3. "School"* will be open for learning experiences from morning through evening from Monday through Friday. *School is defined as any learning experience undertaken by a student that is an administratively-sanctioned activity with all necessary support and services provided. 4. Students' schedules will accommodate individual learning styles, needs and interests, and coincide with specific programs to foster community involvement. 5. Time for Individual Education Plan conference meetings will be incorporated into schedules and calendars at least three times a year. 6. Instructional staff will have adequate consecutive minutes each day, in appropriate space, for individual planning. 7. Schools will have a system in place for collaborative planning incorporated into schedules and calendars. 8. There will be spaces and time scheduled for students to eat lunch and have activities in 60 minute/one-period blocks each day in varied-size groups. Table of Contents Strategy #7 We will ensure the continuous improvement of the total system through clearly defined standards and dynamic assessments. Action Plan Summary 1. Develop and adapt content standards (what all students should know and be able to do). 2. Develop and adopt student performance standards to measure how students are doing in relation to the content standards using generalized rubrics (as in the Vermont Writing & Math portfolios), and that can be measured by performance assessments, criterion-referenced testing, and/or student portfolios for each of the 20 Vital Results, with grade level benchmarks. 3. Establish an assessment program for student outcomes that is keyed to the district's content standards and includes the following three components: limited response tests, performance assessments, student portfolios 4. Improve the teachers' use of all three components of the envisioned assessment system: limited response tests, performance assessments, and student portfolios. 5. Develop and adopt professional standards and define the indicators of novice to expert on these standards for all educational professionals based on national and state standards for professional educators. 6. Establish an assessment system for all educational professionals which uses the indicators of novice to expert, and which combines and achieves the purpose of improvement and evaluation. 7. Develop and adopt standards of excellence for parents and community participation in education. 8. Establish a system to measure, inform, and promote the awareness, participation, and involvement of all parents and the community of Montpelier in the continuous improvement of the schools. 9. Develop and adopt school standards for facilities and delivery of programs which provide students and educators opportunities to attain proficiency in the performance and professional standards. 10. Add meaningful new community and organizational measures to school data that is now being collected in order to provide improve information for the community's monitoring of its provision of opportunities and facilities for all students to reach the standards. 11. Establish standards for continuous review and action planning to enable Montpelier students, educational professionals, the community at large, and parents to define the ways in which the implementation of standards and assessments help them to realize their goals for education and improve the total system. Table of Contents Strategy #8 We will identify, define, acquire, and allocate resources for the benefit of all students. Action Plan Summary 1. Create a database of people, places, things, and financial resources from within the school district and larger community to be used by educators who have a need to identify resources. 2. Establish a system to approve requests for unbudgeted resources. 3. Establish a system to ensure that when revenue from local and state tax sources is insufficient to meet the needs of the school district, alternative sources of revenue will be acquired. 4. Create a multi-year financial plan establishing programmatic expenditure priorities for more than one year. Table of Contents Strategy #9 We will have only the most effective, caring individuals working with our children. Action Plan Summary 1. Develop a mentoring program for new staff during their first two years. 2. Establish a procedure that leads to enhancement of the educational experience through peer coaching. 3. Establish a development program that provides the time and resources to promote individual success of staff. 4. Provide a system for daily relief from teaching/administrative duties to permit planning, reflecting, and periodic interaction with staff from other schools within the district. 5. Provide direct teacher support by lowering the student:teacher ratio. 6. Develop a broader evaluation process for administrators. 7. Establish guidelines and assessment processes for support personnel (office staff, cafeteria staff, custodians, bus drivers, volunteers, substitute teachers). 8&9 Develop and implement an evaluation process that fairly leads to continued employment or removal of staff (two-year project). A. Draft evaluation instruments and processes for staff in the bargaining units that are consistent with Appendix 8-A and have them ready to pilot. B. Test the new system with two pilot groups, make any needed changes, and be ready to implement.   Table of Contents Strategy #10 latest minutes We will provide optimal access and opportunities for the learning community, using current educational technologies. Acvion Plan Summary: (draft) working copy from May 1999 meetings Specific Result #1 Focus on learning. Use technology as an enabling force that brings new capabilities to the learning environment.   Specific Result #2 Increase efficiency in record keeping, communication, planning and other responsibilities of the educational community.   Specific Result #3 Develop a set of core competencies in technology for K-12 students   Specific Result #4 Acquire and maintain a state of the art technology infrastructure.   Specific Result #5 Share our technology resources with the community.   Specific Result #6 Ensure equity in access and learning opportunities using technology. Table of Contents

Last Update: May 6, 1999