Dr. Jan Vesely, the Kyrene district’s new superintendent, has drafted her first report to the community of this school year. In it she touches on what she has learned during the first weeks of her tenure and how she proposes to guide the district during the next 90 days.
By Jan Vesely
It’s hard to believe that August is over and our students, teachers and classrooms have settled into their routines and rituals.
I too, have settled into my new Kyrene routine, focusing on the ways to improve the already impressive work that we do to educate our students day in and day out.
My focus now is taking all of the information I have gathered to start sharing, building and planning.
I have been working with the Kyrene Governing Board on a concrete action plan for my next “90 days”, and I wanted to share some of the highlights of that plan with you.
By the end of this calendar year, I hope to deliver three key outcomes:
- A comprehensive summary to be shared with the Governing Board and the community on the results of my listening and learning activities
- An outline of the process we will use to review the current strategic plan
- A plan on how we will all work together to put that strategic plan to work to make the changes necessary to make Kyrene the best school district it can be
The first step in this process is to conduct a district-wide audit to help us gather the data we need to build and plan for the future.
The audit will look at things like whether our organizational efforts and resources are aligned to ensure all students are college and career ready; that we are taking appropriate steps to close the achievement gap; to increase our organizational effectiveness and efficiency in providing support to our schools; to review our curriculum services for evidence of effectiveness in improving student achievement; and an assessment of our professional development and capacity for meeting the training needs of principals, teachers and staff so that they can best meet the needs of our students.
The results of the audit will drive our efforts moving forward, from updating our strategic plan, to strengthening our support of our schools and teachers in teaching and learning for students, and to guide our budget priorities.
Another very important focus of my next 90 days will be to engage staff, parents and the community in an open dialogue about their Kyrene experience.
My “Let’s Talk” tours which are starting this month will enable me to meet with staff and parent organizations to listen to their feedback on how they view the future of Kyrene.
We are in the process of establishing a “Let’s Talk” link on the Kyrene website for anyone—staff, parents, community members—to submit their improvement feedback for our District.
I hope to share more info on where you can go to provide feedback in my next message.
We have a lot of work to do, but I am confident that together we can achieve great things for Kyrene.
My thanks for your continued support.
