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 Dear
Christina Community,
Welcome Back. We begin
the 2011-2012
school year with great expectations for excellence
for everyone.
Last year, our Race to the Top planning process
brought together staff, parents and community
members to build on our Plan for Excellence and to
design a comprehensive blueprint for excellence.
This year, we will launch several Priorities and Key
Initiatives from Pre-K to 12 that we believe will
prepare every student for success. Here are some
highlights of these initiatives:
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Understanding the importance of strong
beginnings, we are excited that this fall we
will open the Christina Early Education Center (CEEC)
in the site of the former Delaware School for
the Deaf. This will allow us to
consolidate our suburban preschool programs into
one location over the next two years. By
consolidating, we can offer more services to
students. This is a Bold Exploration from
our Strategic Plan that became a reality and we
are extremely excited about it.
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For the past year we have worked intensively to
transform our Partnership Zone schools, Glasgow
High School and Stubbs Elementary School.
They will open this year with unique
organizational structures and course offerings,
extended learning time for students and
energized staffs dedicated to accelerating
achievement and success.
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We
now have Full Day Kindergarten available to
every Christina family, in every elementary
school, thanks to the support of our
legislators, the Delaware Department of
Education, and our community. This is both
a wonderful opportunity for families AND an
effective way to increase school readiness and
success for our youngest elementary school
students.
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This year we enter Phase II of our Middle School
Sports programs, offering expanded options in
the Fall, Winter, and Spring, including soccer,
basketball, cheerleading, and track at all four
middle schools.
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We
will once again offer schools additional
resources to build their arts programs and
extracurricular offerings. Additional
per-student allocations have been made in each
school for the arts, and a Co-Curricular Fund
has been developed to support purchases,
programs, and materials needed by schools.
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We
have dedicated $2.5 million dollars for
textbooks and curricular materials and all of
our elementary schools will have new math and
reading materials.
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We
have the largest share of Race to the Top
funding in the state, totaling almost $3.5
million for one year. The largest part of
this funding is targeted towards developing and
retaining effective teachers and school leaders,
and supporting students so that every Christina
student is prepared for college or a career
after high school.
We
will continue to cultivate professionalism,
leadership and collegiality among all of our
educators and provide teachers with additional
opportunities to collaborate, share best practices
and lead. We want the best teachers and
leaders in our schools and will provide support,
incentives and opportunities to lead in order to
recruit and retain talented teachers and leaders.
We are committed to safe, nurturing learning
environments and engaged parents and community
members. We will fine-tune our implementation
of our Code of Conduct and expand our anti-bullying
initiatives. We will also offer new
opportunities to engage and support our parents and
we are eager to open our Parent University.
Yes, we have great expectations. There is much to
be done. Together, we
will do it.
Join us as we begin the journey.
Marcia V. Lyles, Ed.D.
Marcia V. Lyles, Ed.D.
Superintendent |
