PLANNING FOR SUCCESS 

BOISE SCHOOL DISTRICT STRATEGIC ACTIONS

Pursuant to Idaho Code 33-320, all Idaho School Districts must publish their continuous improvement plans on the District website. Boise's plan contains five goal areas:

• Quality teaching and learning
• Educational Opportunity
• Hiring, Training, and Retaining the Best Staff
• School Environment and Safety
• Community Relations and Communications

The goal areas really provide a summary of areas of focus. In order to understand how Boise's plan is coming alive in the District, we should look at some of the actions we are starting/continuing. Most can be classified under more than one goal area.

Community Schools

Last year, District personnel traveled to Vancouver, Washington to see that district's Community Schools program. The idea of community schools is to provide coordination of services for students and families in a particular neighborhood. Whether it's help with accessing medical or dental services, filling out required forms, receiving translation help, or other needed services, the Community School Coordinator provides a crucial link for parents and students in need of help.

The Community School model is in its infancy in the Boise District. The first-year locations are all at elementary schools: Morley Nelson, Whittier, Garfield and Hawthorne.

Collaboration Time

The District has worked long and hard to provide collaboration time for teachers in the past several years, in support of the Professional Learning Communities model in place in Boise. Whether through negotiations with the Boise Education Association or through working with principals across the District, the effort to provide such time has been successful, and teachers now have more time to work together for the benefit of students. The latest effort is moving from a six-period teaching day at the high schools to a 5 period day, with the extra prep time partially devoted to providing remediation/extension tailored to student needs.

Facilities Audit

Cincinnati-based DeJong-Richter provides invaluable services to districts across the country, analyzing issues such as capacity, condition, and efficacy of buildings for educating children. Our current partnership (DeJong helped the district do an analysis in 2005) has yielded a trove of data that will lead to approval of a 10-year facilities plan based on the analysis and input from patrons and staff.

DeJong-Richter held two community meetings last month, and will be back on October 17 at 6 p.m. in the Capital High cafeteria to present the proposed 10-year plan to interested patrons.

AVID

The Boise District's AVID program will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in 2016-17, and has provided a legacy of encouraging college dreams for students from the "forgotten middle". There are now almost 1200 students enrolled in the program, and AVID grads are going on to college at a rate of 79%, compared with a District "go on" rate of 61% and a statewide rate under 50%.

College and Career Counseling

The District is coordinating with a non-profit called Step Ahead Idaho to add to our array of college and career counseling services. Step Ahead, which already has a location at the Downtown YMCA, will add a location to expand its services, in coordination with Career Counselors at the five high schools.

Math Interventions - Seminar

Several years ago, we implemented a program known as "Math Seminars", in which teachers have a period devoted to providing "just in time" instruction for students who are in need of a little extra help in their math classes. Students placed in Seminar classes attend their regular math classes, and have another period of math during the day in which they get the extra help.

Career Technical Education Expansion

Beginning in 2017-18, we'll offer the first of three new Career Technical Education classes at the Dennis Center on Victory Road - a program leading to an Electrician apprenticeship. Sophomores will take a class in electrical principles, and then as juniors and seniors will engage in a two-year apprenticeship program which will satisfy the first year of a 5-year apprentice program. The coursework will align with that of the College of Western Idaho.

In the coming years, we will add two other trades to the offering - HVAC and Plumbing. These 3 trades are set to grow by 20-25% in the coming decade, and employers are already finding it very difficult to find good candidates.

Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles

The College Board has a new Computer Science offering known as AP Computer Science Principles. It is much more student-friendly and application driven, and is now offered in every comprehensive high school. Nearly 300 high school students are taking the class this year.

Pre-K

There has been plenty of publicity about the partnership among the City of Boise, Boise Schools, United Way, and other non-profits to create Pre-K programs at Hawthorne and Whitney Elementary Schools. First-year results showed that 83% of Pre-K students scored a "3" (grade-level pre-reading) as they entered kindergarten, compared with 50% of students not involved with the program. This year, we've added another Pre-K session at Whitney to bring the total number of sessions to 4.

These programs and a number of others are keeping the Boise District at the forefront of educational innovation in the state of Idaho. It's an exciting time in public education!