The fifth Foundational Principle of Effective Governance: The Board Monitors Performance.  This means it is the Board of Education’s job to continually review the progress the district is making towards its stated goals and to assess how well its written policies are being fulfilled.  This does not mean that the Board of Education evaluates the individual performance of staff members (except for the Superintendent, as I described in a previous article) but rather it assesses how the district is progressing as a whole towards it stated objectives.  Having a strategic plan in place is paramount to doing this job well because without a good plan, it is hard to gauge if you are making progress.

We have spent time at almost every Board meeting this autumn and early winter listening to reports from all of the schools in the district and about many of the major programs currently in place across the district.  The Board needs to be familiar with what is happening in the schools to be able to monitor performance.  We will also continue to review the data that the District Staff continuously collects on student performance. All districts are charged by what most people refer to as No Child Left Behind – the Federal reauthorization of the Education Act. Their responsibility is to make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined by the State of Illinois. Dr. Herrmann, our Superintendent, is continually exploring and implementing new strategies to improve our performance.  She has already initiated the new elementary reading curriculum and the “focus on writing”, as well as the middle school math curriculum changes that over the long term should continue to enhance the learning of our students.