School District staff attends turnaround program

Members of the Senath-Hornersville School District recently attended a Virginia Turnaround Specialist Program, a program designed to increase teacher leadership and technique.

According to Middle School Principal Chad Morgan, he, along with Superintendent Larry Wood, Elementary Principal Kevin Reddick, and faculty members Gaylon Orf and Laurie Hoffman attended the turnaround program this past summer.

"It is the sixth year for this program," Morgan said. "Our group had over 100 participants which was the largest group that this program has ever had."

Morgan said the program is one of the most comprehensive and well-established turnaround programs in the country. It is the only national program that engages school district and state level leaders to implement school turnaround initiatives.

Morgan added that the program works with leaders to identify issues, take actions focused on producing meaningful and effective change with the emphasis placed on imperative or dramatic change in school culture, as well as methods for utilizing data to monitor student achievement and to identify effective practices.

"We attended this program [and] we heard presenters from different colleges," Morgan said. "We also heard some presenters from administrators who have been there before, who have gone back [and] put what they have learned into practice and then came back and shared their successes, also shared some of their failures.

Morgan said the team created a 90-day plan and have already been communicating with the University of Virginia about its progress.

All the middle school administrators from around the area who attended will take part in a phone conferences and monthly meetings, according to Morgan.

Morgan said some of the other schools who attended include Charleston, Caruthersville, Hayti, and others.

Morgan said it is good to have the network of local schools there to see what they were doing in their schools and the successes that they have had.

"We are going back in January for about three days," Morgan said. "It will be a different group."

Morgan said the district will also be working with the Southeast Regional Professional Development Center, which it has worked with in the past.

"We are going to work with them more this year than we probably ever have," Morgan said. "They are going to be coming our school building, and I know Mr. Reddick's [building], probably on a monthly or a weekly basis to do observations to help teachers with different teaching strategies and just to be there for support."

Morgan also said teachers throughout the district worked on professional development over the summer as well, with

"Our district, I think, is ahead of the game on a lot of programs that we are involved with," Morgan said. "Now it is just making sure that we have that follow through...that was mentioned in the [recent Missouri School Improvement Program report]."

Elementary Principal Kevin Reddick said he has been to several of the turnaround programs prior to coming to Senath-Hornersville, adding that "was the best one, as far as a leadership conference, that I have ever been to."

"It was the most intense workshop that I have ever been to," said Wood

"This was a good program to attend," Morgan said. "I am glad we were able to be a part of it."