Principal Goals 2015-16

My major goals for the year, approved by the Board at the September 18th Board meeting:

1.  Support, retain, and develop our faculty.

·         Provide regular and varied forms of constructive feedback for all faculty.

o   Visit all classrooms at least twice by end of October.

o   Conduct longer observation of all faculty members by March 15^th.

·         Implement Beginning Teacher Support Plan.

·         Steward processes for reflective practice for all faculty.

(e.g., peer-to-peer observations, school visits, teacher book groups, Mini Rounds, Grand Rounds, CONNECT  board, etc.)

2.  Build community among faculty, students, and the whole school.         

3.  Practice Leadership-by-Walking-Around.

·         Be present in classrooms, hallways, and at extracurricular/athletic events.

4.  Communicate regularly with Woods families using multiple forms and forums.

·         Leverage traditional and digital media for articulating and reiterating our philosophy, mission, and values.

·         Compose four blog posts per month.

5.  Build a stronger, more cohesive EC team.

6.  Continue to focus, energize, and expand our fundraising capacity.

·         Raise $225,000 through the annual fund and auction.  Increase participation by Woods families beyond 85%.

·         Secure 2-3 significant corporate donations/sponsorships.

7.  Improve the precision of our financial modeling and forecasting to maximize money going to faculty salaries.

·         Conduct full salary scale analysis and find ways to make Woods competitive with state and local salary scales.

·         Complete a facilities maintenance plan by March 2015.

           

8.  Diversify our student body by increasing the diversity of our lottery pool and attracting more job applicants from teachers of color.

9.  Work creatively with faculty to integrate our outdoor campus into our curriculum and teaching.

10.  Lead Directors and Faculty in ongoing review of our curriculum to assess whether it is in service to our School mission and philosophy.

Native Plants and Pollinators at Woods

A visitor to our new pollinator garden.

     Until this past year we've done very little in regard to the landscaping in front of the school.  Mostly we've weeded and put down new mulch from time to time as needed to give a semblance of order and basic tidiness.
     Yet, I've always hoped that we could bring life and color to the front entrance in the form of a large pollinator garden that would attract butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles, moths, etc.  I've also thought it would be particularly interesting if we could get away with using only plants that are native to our North Carolina piedmont.
     Two of our teachers attended a summer institute at the NC Botanical Garden called Earth Partnership for Schools,  the goal of which is to help educators create rain gardens, native plants gardens, and/or restored natural habitats on schools grounds.  With their newly gained knowledge and with the help of students and landscape designer Matthew Arnsberger, we began design and installation of phase #1 of our pollinator garden this past spring.  It was great fun to have students, parents, and teachers all out front digging and planting, and our efforts have been rewarded with many blooms and butterflies to greet us at the front as we arrive and depart from school.

     Here are some glimpses of the installation:

And some of the fruits of our labors . . .