Gerry's Gargon
By GERALD HENDERSON
USD 408 Superintendent of Schools
I have mixed emotions about writing this, the final edition of Gerry's Gargon. My contract as superintendent of Marion-Florence USD 408 extends through the month of June, but as I have not used all of my allotted vacation time since coming here six years ago, I plan to use some of it during my last month.
Early in the month I will be getting my "stuff" out of the office so new superintendent Lee Leiker can have room to move in. You will want to make an effort to welcome Lee to the community and to get to know him. Lee is a bright, personable school leader who will take what we have started to a higher level. We are fortunate that Lee and Diane have accepted the board's call to join us.
I want to use this last edition of Gargon to visit about some of the things we have accomplished together in the past six years. I am not so much interested in tooting my own horn (those who know me best know that I am very uncomfortable doing that), but rather to let the community know about things that are right with this school district — things about which the entire community should feel proud.
First is the quality and dedication of the people elected to serve on the USD 408 Board of Education. They are people with a passion for children, a commitment to quality education, a vision for what our public schools might be, and the courage to do what is right for children in the face of dwindling support from the state. I could not have asked for a better group of people to work for than the 12 citizens who serve or have served on the board during the past six years.
Planning
High on my list of significant memories is an event that occurred during the spring of my first year with you. In March of 1999, 13 patrons and 12 school employees gathered at Rock Springs 4-H Ranch, and in two and one-half productive days wrote a comprehensive strategic plan for the district.
That plan has guided everything we have done or proposed to do for the past six years. While the board has annually revisited the plan and established annual goals based on the strategies identified at Rock Springs, the belief statements, parameters (what we always will do and what we never will do), and the basic objectives stated in the original plan have not changed and have served us well.
The strategic plan needs now to be revisited and perhaps rewritten in certain areas, and it is my firm belief that the new leadership will cause that to happen.
Curriculum
One of the original planning strategies called for the development of a curriculum and an assessment system for documenting student performance. Under the leadership of Curriculum and Assessment Coordinator Missy Stubenhofer, USD 408 now has an agreed upon curriculum of study for grades K-12 that is totally aligned with state and national standards. This curriculum is the product of a lot of hard work by every teacher and administrator in the district supported by the involvement of patrons on the three building improvement teams. I have often referred to this body of work as the "agreed upon WHAT."
This written, prescribed curriculum for each of the grades and for each of the subject disciplines is WHAT we expect students to know and be able to do when they finish certain levels of their school career.
The state-mandated assessment system, coupled with our own locally designed tests let us know how well each student has mastered the agreed upon WHAT. To the credit of teachers, students, and everyone else who support what happens in our classrooms (and that is all of us not assigned as teachers), the level of demonstrated competence in the mastery of what we have agreed all children should know and be able to do has been on a steady incline.
Our student scores on state and local tests have risen steadily. Some have reached the "Standard of Excellence" on state assessments. Parents, teachers, administrators, support staff, and especially students should be proud of this accomplishment. Do we have curricular issues to work on? Absolutely! Are we getting demonstrably better? Absolutely!
Facilities
In the area of school facilities, USD 408 has much to be proud of and much to look forward to. After the completion of the new middle school in 1998, the 1920s vintage high school building looked shabby by comparison. The new lighting systems in the high school and the Hill Building, paid for in the most part through a federal grant program, coupled with the refurbishing of the high school hallways to match the new wall-tile motif in the middle school hallways went a long way toward improving the esthetic environment in the old brick building. New paint and carpet in high school classrooms last redecorated in the 1960s, further improved the learning environment. New furniture in the media center (library) and in the high school office made by Ken Arnhold and Daryl Enos added greatly to these important spaces. The addition of networked computers added significantly to the versatility of the secondary media center.
Adding the stone-faced ramp and the elevator to the Hill Building made this historical building accessible to all students. The removal of the "gulag" fence along Main Street and the reseeding of the high school lawn have improved the impression visitors and citizens have of our high school campus. The landscaping plan approved when the middle school was added to the secondary campus has yet to be completed, mainly because of lack of funds for such purposes. New windows in the old high school building improve not only the esthetics but the safety and energy efficiency of that building.
The addition of the west wing to the elementary school in 1998 and installation of a gabled roof on the old east wing of that building this summer should serve the needs of our younger learners for years to come.
In my judgment, the same cannot be said for facilities at the secondary campus. The 7-12 instrumental and vocal music programs are housed in one rehearsal space with essentially no room designated for small group or individual instruction/practice. Final rehearsals prior to music performances require either hauling equipment and students to the city auditorium (a huge misuse of rehearsal time) or shutting down a gym floor to athletic and/or physical education activity. With 10 7-12 basketball teams searching for practice time during the winter, two additional courts at the secondary campus are needed.
If the city auditorium is expected to serve the school's needs for the foreseeable future (and such an arrangement makes the most fiscal sense for this community), consideration needs to be focused on expanding that facility to meet the needs of both the drama and music departments. The stage area at the auditorium is just too small.
Possibly the only major facilities project not involved with either gym floors or auditorium space for the immediate future will be the need to refurbish the east wing of the elementary school once the roof project is completed. Furniture, carpets, and wall treatments in the classrooms of the MES east wing are old and tired.
Warrior Stadium
Enhancements to Warrior Stadium are probably the most visible of our several improvements to district facilities and quite likely the most controversial. But, the addition of ADA-compliant seating at the stadium was long overdue. And with the numbers of students participating in both middle school and high school track, I contend that so was the renovation of the track and field facility long overdue.
The community should be especially proud that when the school decided to upgrade the track facility at Warrior Stadium, it did so thoughtfully. That we included in the renovation the installation of the four-foot fence around the perimeter and first class field event venues just east of the track made our facility second to none in the state. What many have come to realize, namely that the track is an economic draw to the community, was an expected bonus.
The annual Warrior Relays already is an excellent meet, drawing some of the area's best track and field teams. Three-time Warrior Hall of Fame member Gary Melcher, now assistant principal and athletic director at El Dorado High school; but for more than 20 years a coach and teacher at that school, has promised Grant Thierolf that, "As long as you hold the meet, we'll be there."
In addition, league and regional meets will, over time draw hundreds of people to the community.
Policy
A number of policy statements have been initiated or improved upon during the past six years. A new teacher evaluation system based on Charlotte Danielson's research has been implemented and is the result of input from the entire teaching staff and the coordination and hard work of an excellent steering committee. "A Framework for Teaching" is grounded in the demonstrated improvement to student academic performance and should serve the district well for a number of years.
The new "Crisis Management Plan" has allowed us to work through some tough situations, and has essentially removed brick and mortar memorials from consideration.
Trish Wells provided the staff with ideas which have resulted in "Instructional Discipline," a K-12 student behavior management plan which taught all of us that if we want certain behavior we must 1) clearly identify what we want, 2) teach the expected behavior, 3) provide consistent monitoring, and 4) provide reasonable consequences for infractions.
Under the leadership of chairperson JoAnn Good, the Professional Development Council has designed procedures and provided record-keeping devices that will assist all educators in tracking and documenting individual professional development and training. That the development of each teacher must be tied to the school improvement plan of each building now dictates that USD 408 has staff development with a purpose. Regulations and directives from the Kansas State Department of Education have not always proven to be helpful in the redesign of PD activities and procedures, but the work of the district Professional Development Council has kept our staff ahead of the change curve.
On a related subject, the teacher/mentor program has grown from a two-day academy setting to an ongoing relationship, especially at Marion Elementary. Susan Hall has provided much of the momentum and leadership in forging the partnership with ESSDACK that resulted in an improved mentor/teacher program.
Finally the Marion-Florence USD 408 Student Illegal Substance Policy for Extra-curricular Activities adopted Jan. 21, 2003, by the board of education has served to say to the community that we do indeed care about the use of illegal drugs in our schools.
I was particularly pleased that while the board was struggling with the issue, members of the community stepped up to publicly support the planned system of random testing. Has drug use stopped since random testing began? No. Has the policy made a difference in the use of illegal substances by students? The students themselves say, "Yes."
As with all communities, illegal drugs including alcohol will be a problem until all responsible adults become a part of the solution.
Thank you
For most of my life, when I have paid attention, God has put me where I needed to be. Never has this fact been more true than when in 1998, seven citizens of Marion-Florence USD 408 took a chance on a 58-year-old rookie superintendent. While we have had some challenges to work through, never has there been a day in six years that I didn't look forward to going to work.
Working in an office with Becky Summerville, Martin Tice, and more recently Mike Fruechting has contributed greatly to the satisfaction I feel every day. Beyond that immediate daily contact are the hundred or so people in this district who are dedicated to making a difference for children.
All have bought into my often expressed idea that the focal point of what we do in schools lies between one teacher and one child and that all others either contribute to that point of truth or detract from it. In this district secretaries, custodians, cooks, bus drivers, administrators, aides, and teachers are contributors.
Such an atmosphere is sustainable only when the community cares for children, and this community does. Research has proven without question that as a community's children go, so goes the community. When children are nurtured, nourished, and otherwise well cared for, systems exist which allow everyone to grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Our job as adults is to ensure that those systems are continuously monitored and updated. Cathy and I chose to remain in Marion partly because we believe these ideas are valued by this community. My thanks to all for allowing us to be a part of YOU.
