Tuesday, October 15, 2024
MARINETTE - At the Marinette School District’s workshop on Oct. 2, the staff discussed four district pillars and how they plan to make measurable progress in each category in the 2024-2025 school year. Among those present from the district staff were MSD Superintendent Corry Lambie, Student Services Director Polly Vanden Boogaard, MMS Principal Matthew Hartin and Assistant Principal Nathan Motjowski, MHS Principal Steven Linssen and Assistant Principal Matthew Draheim, MIS Principal Stephanie Betts and MPS Principal Shainie Elliot, Tracy Coleman, human resources and Thomas Tickler, facilities director. Seven school board members were also present, including Tom Faller, Terri Florek, Eric Craver, Cindy Verschay, Rose O’Hara and Martin Shaw.
The first pillar the group discussed was educational excellence. The district aims to improve academic achievement with a focus on literacy and math while closing the gap from traditionally underserved groups. In addition, they plan to actively support staff by developing professional learning opportunities that align with the district’s performance expectation. They hope to increase the career based learning experience for the high school, and to enhance capstone experiences for both the middle and high schools.
The second pillar staff discussed was inclusive and engaging culture to support teaching and learning. Some of the measurable goals they hope to achieve include increasing the attendance rate by 1% district-wide — Marinette School District had an attendance rate of 90.8% for the 2023-2024 school year, which is just below the state average of 92.3%.
“This is all about the environment we provide, not only for our students but also for our staff,” Vanden Boogaard said. “Is it warm? Is it welcoming? Is it safe? And I want to think of both students and staff. I want that for everybody.”
The district also aims to reduce the number of major office referrals by 3%.
The third pillar the group discussed was family and community engagement. One way the district plans to increase engagement is by diving deeper into the results from Family Engagements surveys to identify barriers or areas of need.
“We want to continue with the community conversations that were so successful last year, determining the areas of focus of academic achievement, before and after school, care, which we’re hearing so much about today, and managing behaviors and being more consistent through the district,” Coleman said.
The final pillar the district discussed was resources and operations, wherein they aim to align resources with a sustainable and adaptable operational plan that directly supports district priorities. One of the areas the group emphasized was district safety, including establishing a new safety plan to present to the board for the Nov. meeting, identifying staff safety training needs based on administration feedback and establishing the safety drill and student training schedule for each building in collaboration with the district School Resource Officers, building administrators and safety coordinators. The middle school will have one ALICE Safety drill, including the evacuation process, and the high school will have three.
“It’s not always about shooter safety,” Tickler said. “We need to keep track of kids, especially when they try to skip class, and our teachers and staff are our eyes and ears.”
