Melissa Hornyak

Context Overview Huron Valley Schools Kurtz Elementary School

Setting The Huron Valley School District is one of the largest districts in Michigan covering 107 square miles and encompassing the townships of Commerce, Highland, Milford, White Lake, and the Village of Milford. The district ranks 6th out of 28 Oakland County districts in the number of students it serves. Currently, Huron Valley School District is home to 9,951 students. Those students are enrolled in one of the districts nine elementary schools, three middle schools or three high schools (including an alternative high school). The district is also the second largest employer in the community with a budget of $84 million. 84% of the expenditures are personnel related. The main focus is on high quality instruction and the instructional costs and salaries make up approximately 73% of the total costs. The administrative costs for Huron Valley are ranked in the lowest 12% of public school districts in Michigan. The Huron Valley School District employees approximately 600 teachers and over 1,400 staff members. Kurtz Elementary School is located in Milford Township. The estimated population of Milford is 12,605. The average single-parent household with children is 11.6%. There are approximately 25.6% of adults with a high school diploma, 21.4% of adults with at least a Bachelors degree, and 16.3% of adults with a graduate degree or higher. The average median household income is $67,260, the median house value is $178,800 and the average household size is 2.62 with an average family size of 3.06. Huron Valley School District (Kurtz Elementary) Community Demographics Single-Parent Households with children (%) Adults with at least a high school diploma Adults with at least a Bachelors degree (%) Adults with a graduate degree (%) Population 65 years or older (%) Household Income (% <$29,999) Median household income Average household size Average family size Total population District Average 11.6% 25.6% 21.4% 16.3% 10.1% 19.1% $67,260 2.62 3.06 12,605 State Average 27% 31.1% 15.6% 9.7% 25.4% 25% $48,668

Students Served Kurtz Elementary is home to 516 students in grades Kindergarten through 5th grade with 91% of the student population being white. Over the past couple of years, Kurtz has had a growing population of Hispanic students. Huron Valley Schools does a good job at providing resources for our Hispanic families. The district provides interpreters during Kindergarten round-up and conference times. Kurtz Elementary also has ESL meetings a couple of times per year to allow families to come together and ask questions regarding their students progress in reading. The following table shows the demographics of Kurtz in comparison to the demographics of Huron Valley School district. 1. District & School Demographics a.)Total Number of Students b.) Enrollment Breakdown by Ethnicity White (%) Black (%) Hispanic (%) Asian/Pacific Islander (%) American Indian (%) Multi-Racial (%) Kurtz Elementary 516 91% 1% 3% 1% 1% 1% Huron Valley School District 9,951 71% 16% 6% 3% 2% 2%

Staff Members and Characteristics Kurtz full time staff is comprised of one administrator and office coordinator, 19 classroom teachers, one physical education, music, art, teacher consultant, and literacy coach. There are also part time staff members which includes a half day kindergarten teacher, speech pathologist, school psychologist, and office assistant and eight para-professionals. There is only one male teacher on the staff and the majority of the teachers are tenured with only two classroom teachers still being on probation. All of the teaching staff is highly qualified as well.

Curriculum, Programs and Services Currently, Kurtz has the only half day Kindergarten program left in our district. The half day program continues to be of interest to parents and that is why Huron Valley Schools continues to offer the program. Kurtz also has a 1st/2nd grade multi-age classroom and team teaching in first and fifth grade. Kurtz offers math and reading nights for our socio-economic disadvantaged families. Also, there is a resource night at Kurtz where local businesses such as dentists and doctors come and talk with families about the importance of keeping their children healthy. The families are also served dinner on all of these occasions. Huron Valley School district has started a program called Inspire U for teachers. This program provides teachers with a learning experience from other teachers in the district. Teachers who attend classes receive $150 stipend to use on classroom supplies and $400 toward any technology of their choice. Teachers who teach classes get $300 stipend and $400 toward

technology. This new program was created to bring more technology into the classroom on a daily basis. Resources Kurtz Elementary is the only school in the district with increasing enrollment over the past two years. Our Kindergarten classes are maxed out at 28 students per classroom. In grades first through fifth, our student class sizes average 25 students per classroom. Although an increased enrollment is a positive thing for our district, it raises the student to teacher ratio in the classroom. Kurtz has one computer lab that is shared between all 19 classrooms and each classroom has two student computers. PTA is currently looking into buying I-pads or Chrome Books for each grade level to incorporate more technology at Kurtz. School Climate Kurtz school climate is a positive one. The teaching staff meets every Tuesday morning for 45 minutes before school begins. These meeting rotate between whole staff, cohort and school improvement meetings. If there is a fifth Tuesday in the month, we are free to use this time to work in our classrooms or get together and meet within our grade level. Internal communication is done daily with emails. The current administrator also sends out an email Sunday night, informing the staff of weekly happenings for the upcoming week and also an electronic newsletter called Tuesday Tidbits to our school family. Kurtz has also adopted the Huron Valley Schools district motto of Leading from within with Wednesday morning whole school assemblies. Each month a different grade level is featured and they present how they are leaders at our school. The Kurtz families are also informed about school happenings and upcoming events through our monthly Kurtz Connector newsletter that comes from the administrator. Also, lower elementary teachers are required to send home a weekly newsletter and upper elementary are required to send one home monthly. Kurtz PTA is very involved in the school. Each year an action is held to help raise money for Kurtz. Last year the auction brought in over $20,000 which was enough to install Smartboards in the remainder of the classrooms that did not have one and also build a new playground structure. This year the PTA is hoping to raise enough money to purchase iPads or Chromebooks for each grade level and also one for each teacher. Performance Outcomes The Kurtz staff does an outstanding job of teaching the curriculum with fidelity. They know their students very well and try and provide as much opportunity for them to succeed as possible. Kurtz school-wide reading proficiency is 77% with the district average being 75% and the school-wide math proficiency is 55% with the district average being 53%. The Kurtz SIT meets monthly to go over school data and discuss the schools school improvement goals.

Issues Currently Occupying the School and Administration Kurtz is currently moving forward with implementing The Leader in Me program by Steven Covey. This program requires a whole school buy-in in order for the program to work successfully. The reason for this program push is to create a sense of cohesiveness throughout the entire school. The Kurtz staff participated in a voluntary book study and a Survey Monkey survey was sent out to get the staffs opinion about implementing the program. The majority of the staff wants to implement the program starting in the fall of 2014. The administrator and a select few of teachers submitted the application to the Covey Foundation to ask for a grant to help fund the program. A phone interview was conducted and we are still waiting to hear about the status of our grant application. If our grant is not approved, Kurtz Elementary will not be able to move forward with the implementation of the program. For this exact reason, adopting The Leader in Me program is a current challenge for the administrator. Work Cited Huron Valley School District website, www.hvs.org U.S. Census Bureau website, www.factfinder2.census.gov