Principals from three schools in the Hernando County School District shared unique, wide-ranging, and multiple initiatives utilized in their respective schools to improve school grades at a Hernando School Board workshop last week.
The “secrets to success” implemented over the last few years were not held back in detailed presentations compiled by the three principals which ranged from relationships to data crunching to attitudes.
The first presentation featured Spring Hill Elementary, currently an “A” rated school of excellence with Michael Maine as principal.
Spring Hill traversed the path from a grade of “C/D” in 2013 to “D” in 2014, a “C” in 2015, a “B” in 2016 and finally to an “A” in 2017. Spring Hill, in year one, emphasized “one team-one mission” in order to raise the bar and rebuild its culture. The school’s continued pledge to excellence includes “shaping a vision of academic success for all students, a vision based on high standards.” The staff, faculty and students are encouraged to take risks and “don’t be afraid to fail.” The elementary school mantra also stresses a “we-focus” instead of a “me-focused” school that “fights for the underdog” making sure that students understand that the school believes that students matter and that students are significant.
Brent Gaustad, principal of Parrott Middle School, exemplified the nature of that school’s climb from a “D” school to a “B” school in three years by the title of the presentation: A Parrott Family Culture.
“Failure is the key to success,” states the Parrott presentation which touts its upswing from the “D” in 2014 to “C” in 2015 to “C” in 2016 and to “B” in 2017. The turnaround from the “dreaded D” to aspiring toward an “A” at Parrott can be accomplished by “focusing on what is best for students,” proclaims its presentation, concluding “End of story!”
Specific steps to improvement at Parrott begin with new targets by the principal which include a focus on technology as well as creating a culture of trust between principal and staff/faculty.
The third and final presentation came from Toni-Ann Noyes, principal of Nature Coast Technical High School. Initiatives at this school led to school grades of a “B” in 2014 and 2015 with a dip to a “C” in 2016 before a rebound to an “A” by such initiatives as close monitoring of guidance for students, building capacity in the core by not moving teachers around in order to develop experts, and by administrators mentoring at-risk students. Nature Coast includes the ambitious school improvement plan for 2017-18 of increasing standards-based instruction in the core to increase student achievement. Among the various means to get to this goal, the high school staff will “observe and learn best practices” from other schools in the Hernando District.