January 26, 2024
GLPS Families,
It was another wild weather week, with ice and fog. I want to reiterate how much I appreciate everyone’s flexibility and willingness to help on Wednesday, as well as how thankful I am that the road commissions were able to get those gravel roads cleaned up for Thursday and today. As we head into next week, it will feel more like spring than winter, so hopefully you won’t be hearing from me about the weather for a while!
In my video last week, I mentioned that my next couple of communications would highlight new positions, board policies, and strategic plan goals. So for today, I am going to focus on the new building and district goals that we updated and developed during the first half of the school year. As you know, we are progressing through a multi year strategic plan, and part of that process is continually monitoring, assessing, and as needed, updating goals in each of our five focus areas. This ensures that our goals are constantly monitored to align to our mission, vision, and beliefs, which are included in this graphic, along with our focus areas, that you see around the district.
Our district school improvement team, comprised of administrators, teacher leaders, and instructional coaches, review our goals and plans monthly to ensure we are on the right track.
By working within this framework, we are able to update our goals annually. The board reviews and approves them as well, which they did in December. Each building has its own goals, and there are also district wide goals that we track and monitor. To see our most updated targets, please click here. These will also be available soon on our board of education strategic plan page, which can be found here. There are many, many ways to measure the success of a school district, and our comprehensive set of goals gives us clear and measurable outcomes to ensure that we are meeting our students’ needs and creating an effective, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for our students and families.
As I wrap up, I want to remind you that we released next year’s calendar this week, and it can be viewed here. We are always open to feedback, which is helpful as we plan future calendars, so if you have thoughts or comments on this one, please reach out and let me know. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I would be remiss if I did not add a “Go Lions!” to this week’s update! As always, we appreciate the opportunity to work with your children every day and are thankful that we are able to serve such a wonderful community.
As always, I am #proudtobeacomet!
Dr. Bill Barnes
Superintendent of Schools