Karin Parker’s April, 2007, Steller
Yeller article
"Without a
sense of caring, there can be no sense of community."
--Anthony J. D'Angelo
This
school year has been filled with ideas about the schedule, the programs, and
the organization of Steller. I have
heard from many of you regarding your viewpoint on the ideas that have come
forward, from the Wednesday Schedule Proposal to the Renew Steller
initiative. Almost to a person, the
position expressed was a strong one, whether it supported the new ideas or did
not support them. Without a doubt, however,
there is a strong sense of caring about our school.
As
I have listened to those viewpoints and processed the input I have received, I
found myself looking for the common ground; what ideas were expressed most
consistently in the discussion. It all
came together for me in a Strategic Plan Committee Meeting in February. As you may know, in the spring of 2005, many
members of the Steller community spent a beautiful spring Saturday in the MPR
working to develop a strategic plan for Steller. The result of that meeting was a document,
Steller’s Strategic Plan that outlines goals for our school through 2010. This January, a group of our community
members met to discuss the goal areas presented in the Renew Steller initiative.
Those present broke into groups to discuss key areas and notes were taken from
those discussions. During the February
Strategic Planning Committee meeting, it became clear to me that the three
goals for this year and next from the Strategic Plan (Orientation, Advisory
Groups, and staff training) were three of the main topic areas that came forth
from the January meeting on the Renew Steller initiative.
Obviously
the community valued these three issues during both of these important
gatherings. The students proposed and
had approved through Operations Group and Advisory Board the formation of ASEC
(Advisory Student Engagement Committee).
One of their goals is to increase student participation in
Orientation. Advisory Groups, Operations
Group, and Staff have already begun discussing norms for Advisory Groups. Both
last year and this year, Steller has taken the lead in providing training in
the area of Seminar facilitation and the vast majority of the staff has seminar
training. Clearly, staff, students, and
parents support these three topics as goal areas to be addressed.
On
Thursday, April 26th at 6:30 pm in Steller’s MPR, we will hold a
meeting to discuss these three topics and to examine the development of a plan
to move forward in each of these areas.
If you or your student have an interest in Advisory Groups, Orientation,
or staff training, please plan to attend this meeting and participate in the
discussion. We hope to create committees
that will focus on each of these topic areas.
Your participation will be valuable and I encourage you to join us.
Thank
you to all of you that have written, called, e-mailed or attended meetings and
discussed your vision of Steller with me.
It is important to hear all of the voices of our community and I
appreciate hearing from you.
Karin