Dustin Bradshaw ‘School Effectiveness Survey and Action Plan Stephen Kelish EDL. 646 Principal: Leader and Administrator Gien Paul School is made up of an Eureka main campus containing 8 classrooms with students’ ages ranging from 3 to 22 with severe disabilities. There are also 8 offsite classrooms with students of similar demographics in areas ranging from southern Humboldt to Arcata. All of Glen Paul's students come from various districts around Humboldt County, but are served by Humboldt County Office of Education. Every class contains a teacher and at least one classroom aid. Most classrooms have this along with additional (up to six) special circurnstance instructional aids. The overall atmosphere of Glen Paul is a positive environment containing employees who love their job. It is absolutely a great place to ‘work, but there is always room for improvement. | administered the school effectiveness survey to 5 employees and received quick responses. ‘After analyzing the data many of the qualities that make Glen Paul a great school were confirmed, but there were a few surprises. Again Glen Paul is a school that lives and breathes positivity. As staff we recognize all students for their accomplishments no matter how small. Working with students with disabilities it is crucial that one celebrates every success witnessed. Students love to come to school. It provides them with safe structure and interactive activities all day long. Another strength, is that staff feel that the teachers consider the interests and needs of each and every students. This is first and foremost for students to reach their goals because without this motivation we would not have many students who are willing to learn. in these areas Glen Paul had a perfect score, and I also believe that to be true. ‘There areas of surprise were in climate and communication. The staff reported low scores on free and open communication between parents and administration. To me this might be a misunderstanding, but still must take the concern seriously. When working with students with severe needs staff often communicate with many outside agencies besides the parent themselves. We have behaviorists, psychologists, doctors, and support staff on almost every student that attends one of the schools’ classrooms. There are constantly faxes, and phone calls going back and forth making sure that the students Individual education plan is being followed and executed correctly. In this tangle of out support, it can often look as though communication is not happening as much with the parents as it should. In reality, these people have been entrusted to help with the students’ plan in places where the parent isn’t an expert. To an outsider it can look like there isn’t alot of direct communication with parents. Another area of weakness is that parents and parent groups don’t actively participate in school functions and activities. On a general education campus the PTAs often a loud and active member of the school community. They set up events, volunteer in classrooms and help fund extracurricular activities. Many of our students require round the clock care and supervision. Many students are capable of independent tasks, but for minimal amounts of time. My explanation for this area of weakness is that | believe that the time that students are at school is the only time parents get to take‘care of themselves and to work. | think this is true for parents of general education students as well, but more so when you are caring for a child with severe special needs. ‘On a general education campus students are have opportunities to play team sports, be in clubs, ‘and participate in student council. The survey showed that staff felt there were not many opportunities for extra-curricular activities at Glen Paul for students to participate in. There are organizations that facilitate similar programs as a general education campus such as Special Olympics and Autism Speaks, but those aren’t facilitated through the school. Glen Paul does have 2 school band that consists of special needs students as well as Glen Paul staff, and we just started a basketball team that competes against Special Day classes from other schools. This area is one that could henefit from more parent involvement because many extra-curricular activities would require volunteer time from staff. When ‘working with special needs students sometimes the easiest of tasks such as loading students up for transportation can become extremely difficult depending on student behavioral needs. Along with that, ‘administration would want to be sure that volunteers working with our students outside of the scheduled schoo! day were appropriately trained to work with students of this population. There are many explanations for why scores could be low in these areas, but also | think that having the information provides opportunities to make these areas better. ‘Action Plan Currently the school is running like a well-oiled machine. We have many veteran teachers who put effort and excitement into their daily lessons. The new hired teachers work tirelessly to improve everyday, and seek out our veteran teachers for help when needed. The previous administrator was well liked, dare I say loved by all. He left on great terms and is still a great asset to the school. We have a beautiful main campus that stays clean and well maintained throughout the year and our staffis proud to be a part of the Glen Paul team. Because in most ways the schoo! is running perfectly, | will be transactional leader. The status quo here at Glen Paul exceeds standards, and | believe most all of our teachers, staff, and parents would agree. As the new administrator, | would like the teachers and staff to know that | will continue to serve and support them. In the areas in which our school can improve | will collaborate with teachers and parents alike to ensure that change does not happen without a team mentality. Tough decisions will have to be made throughout the year, but they will always be made with a student centered approach. | will continue to be a sounding board for every staff member here at Glen Paul. My door will be open. Concerns will be heard and acted upon. Glen Paul is near perfect, but there are some current concerns for many of the teachers. Free and open communication between administration, teachers, and parents is important in all schools. Public schools should show unrelenting transparency when it comes to education plans for parents’ children, Often schools implement the “don't call unless there is a problem rule.” Because of Glen Paul's small classroom size, | believe that we can easily and effectively check in with all parents at least once a ‘month or more. | know that many parents can be difficult to contact via phone, email, or even letter home, but the attempt to make contact s just as important to our school community and our schoo'’s responsibility as the contact itself.| want parents to know that we welcome their ideas for their children’s goals and progress towards them. | also think this willbe a great way to personally updateparents on their child’s achievements between progress report periods. As their teacher, you have the opportunity to contact parents in any way you choose. If you would like to create your own form letter to send home or make a call it is up to you. The office will also have a form letter outline that you can use if you would lke. The office also has a template for you to use to mark off your monthly contacts and the form in which you made contact ie., written, face-to-face, or a phone call. You are not required to prove that you've made contact, but we do feel thet this could greatly improve relationships with the parents of our schoo!’s children. That being said, we also have very little parent involvement here at Glen Paul. | know that it can be difficult to have parents in your classroom. As special education teachers, we thrive on our routine because the students do as well. Most of us already have enough staff to help, and adding another person (a parent) can make the day go a little less steady. It can also be hard fora parent when they don’t at least feel welcome to be a participant in their child's academic life. Having a parent in the classroom can actually be mutually beneficial because many of our parents aren't familiar with best practices for their child’s disability. Think of it as an opportunity to reinforce the fessons that you are teaching at school to be generalized to their home environment. Our main goal here isto facilitate as much independence for our students as possible, and | believe that can happen at a higher level if your lessons are being exposed at home as well. |am not saying that we need to be encouraging each and every parent to be a part of the class, but we do have some really talented and good hearted parents in our Glen Paul community. | believe that if we encouraged more participation with our school we might see some positive things happen that we didn’t even know needed changing. We are doing great things in each and every classroom. | personally have seen the energy, creativity and grit that each of you put into your lessons to help your students reach their goals ‘Along with a lack of parent involvement, there is also feeling that we could provide more opportunities for extra-curricular activities. | believe that these two concerns go hand in hand. The staff here at Glen Paul already stays after hours creating lessons, facilitating IEP's and going to professional growth seminars. Unfortunately, most extra-curricular activities require adult supervision, transportation and support past the standard school day. Currently, there are opportunities for or special needs students to be involved in sporting and music activities. | believe that if we can facilitate more parent involvement with volunteering and promoting fundraisers these activities could be easily achievable for our students. One of our great teachers got our students involved with other districts for a basketball competition and it went off without a hitch. There are other opportunities that are available, but they are outside of the typical school day. | would be happy to support ideas for ways in which to get parents more involved. | believe that just inviting parents to be involved in their child's education will spark interest in being a more active member of Glen Paul school. Once they witness the warm climate and positive atmosphere of our school it could generate much needed volunteer time.