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Sidney schools make improvements follow review

Following an accreditation review last spring that gave the Sidney Public School District high marks in most areas – but also identified two places where improvements could be made – the district continues to make strides. Technology infrastructure and a mentoring program for new teachers have been formalized and implemented in the months following the review.

Nebraska state statue requires all schools to be accredited. Every five years, schools must undergo a formal, comprehensive review.

Last March, an accreditation team visited all Sidney Public School District schools and praised each facility’s commitment to students.

The review also found ongoing training for new teachers and staff and updates to the district’s technology infrastructure could use attention.

Sheri Ehler, curriculum and assessment director as well as West Elementary School principal, said the accreditation review affirmed all of the good things the students, staff and community have been striving for.

“We’re constantly reviewing and assessing that the right components are in place,” she said.

And, the areas cited in the review as needing work were quickly addressed.

“We had our accreditation review in March, and by May, things were already put in place as far as resolving and improving our two areas of recommendation,” Ehler said.

It helped that the review only called for improvements on currently existing programs rather than starting from scratch, she added.

To improve access to technology, the district teamed with Cabela’s – on a project that was in the works before the review – to expand Wi-Fi capacity at all of the district’s buildings, as well as improving network security.

“The big piece was getting technology in students’ hands, so we were really fortunate that we were currently teaming with Cabela’s for a big infrastructure improvement,” she said. “The kids were more than ready for it, but our infrastructure wasn’t. That was completed over the summer of 2014, and from that, we’ve been able to increase our number of devices.”

The second improvement entailed formalizing an already existing plan for new staff training and mentoring.

“In Sidney, we don’t have a lot of teacher turnover,” Ehler said. “But we have growth right now in combination with hitting a few years where we’re going to have a lot of retirements.”

The review reaffirmed what had previously been identified in staff surveys: the need for a more systematic approach.

“Within our policies, we already had a mentor teacher built in, but we have increased the amount of support for both the mentor and mentee throughout the district,” Ehler said. “We’ve given them some more specific guidelines as far as basic things to discuss.”

Additionally, the district implemented quarterly new teacher meetings.

“Our first one was on special education, because particularly if they are a new teacher without veteran experience, the undergraduate work is not real strong in providing that, but yet, your first year of teaching, you may need that information,” she explained.

Earlier this week, the third quarter meeting was held, on the topic of technology.

“We do have one of our technology facilitators presenting – he’ll be doing the bulk of the presenting – but what we do prior to each meeting is ask them what kind of things they need to know, what kind of things would they like more information on,” Ehler said.

The constant review at the district and school level, along with the five-year accreditation reviews, help administrators, teachers and staff identify strengths and areas for improvement, she added.

“We always have goals that are reviewed multiple times throughout each year to keep the solid things going but also match student performance data with needs that there might be in staff development,” Ehler said.

 

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