James Feil: MPSD is ‘well on its way’ to regaining status as high-achieving district
The Manitowoc Public School District is well on its way to regaining its status as a high-achieving school district. As a result of a phenomenal group of teachers and principals, our reading scores are up 10% after two consecutive quarters of gains, 6% and 4%, respectively.
While some will attribute this early increase in reading proficiency levels to the district’s adoption of the proven Success for All whole-school reform model of improvement, educators understand that only happens with a highly effective teacher in every classroom.
Adopting the Success for All curriculum was critically important, but you need highly skilled and caring teachers to implement a program with this level of rigor. Fortunately, Manitowoc Public Schools has a committed core group of highly tested and capable teachers and administrators to lead this turnaround effort.
Change is hard, but as the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. And going we are, with our sails set to the high mast and all hands on deck.
Despite the hiring challenges felt across the state and country, the Manitowoc Public School District is exhibiting a resiliency to stay the course and reach higher.
Yes, there are challenges and challengers, but one by one, this core group of SHIPBUILDERs continues to hurdle the barriers and obstacles. It started last year with the School Board’s commitment to engaging stakeholders in vetting the Success for All whole-school reform model of improvement and participating in developing and adopting an ongoing three-year strategic improvement plan. Community taxpayers stepped up next with a narrowly passed school operating referendum that enabled us to be more competitive with neighboring school districts and districts of similar size. And now, with our core group of teachers, administrators and new hires, we are off to a great start!
We are now entering phase two of our improvement effort. Other curriculum content areas and aging facilities also need our attention. Fortunately, we anticipated and already have strategies to address these desperately needed improvement areas. We have an aggressive curriculum review process in place, and we are in the final months of completing a comprehensive assessment of all facilities and supporting infrastructure. We will also be engaging parents as partners as we raise expectations for student behavior and other stakeholders as partners to address our students’ social, emotional and mental health needs.
We have also come to realize, through our listening sessions with teachers and staff at every school site that teachers and principals take a great deal of pride in their work. While teachers and support staff don’t need much encouragement beyond that witnessed with a child’s academic and behavioral growth, the negativity displayed at public meetings and through social media can harm staff morale. The faculty and support staff must also be part of the decision-making process. While we had to take some immediate action to put together a turnaround improvement plan, we will be working to ensure teachers’ input, in addition to students, parents and taxpayers, is always a part of the decision-making process.
James Feil is Manitowoc Public School District superintendent and can be contacted at 920-686-4781 or feilj@mpsd.school.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc schools superintendent praises teachers, reading scores rise
