LPCSC Intermediate Campus:
Staffing, Programming, and Planning Details
10/12/2017
This communication has been created to provide a path for the future planning and programming implementation process. It is not intended to be all inclusive and information will be updated and, in some cases, may change as we progress on our journey.Vision
The overall vision for the “ Kesling Intermediate Campus” is that within one complex there will be two intermediate schools. One school will be the “La Porte 5/6 Intermediate School” and the other will be the “La Porte 7/8 Intermediate School.” LaPorte 5/6 academic programming will take place in the area of the campus that is now Kesling Middle School. The 7/8 academic programing will be delivered in a newly constructed academic wing.Each school will have its own state identification number, its own name, ISTEP data, school grade, legal standards, administration, office staff, academic teaching staff, counselors, custodians, daily schedule, and intercom. “Slicers” will be each school’s mascot name. Efforts will be made to establish small learning communities in the school. 5th grade daily schedule and instruction will look differently than 6th grade programming. We anticipate that grades 7 and 8 student schedules and course choices will be similar. All of the grades will have teams of teachers working together for student instruction.
Details
Upon entering the campus, students in grades 5/6 will enter through different doors than those students in 7/8. We are working with the architects and the City to finalize the traffic plan, which will confirm where parents will be able to drop-off and pick-up. We know that bus traffic, including drop-off and pick-up, will be separated from parent drop-off and pick-up.
Each school will have its own schedule of extracurricular activities, clubs, organizations, etc. Academic areas for each building will be off limits except to students from the grade level assigned to those areas. Related arts teaching staff will be shared between the two schools and school schedules will be created in which grades 5 and 6 are in the related arts areas at times when the 7/8 students are not. The plan, at this point, is to have four lunch periods. Each intermediate school will have two lunch periods for their students. Lunch periods for grades 5/6 will be at different times than lunch periods for grades 7/8. In between the academic wings, there will be related arts classrooms, the cafeteria, offices, and the media center. Students in all four grades will share these areas; however, daily schedules will be established with limited interaction in these areas between grade levels. Each school will have its own office entrance for parents and students from the outside. The offices will have shared spaces for staff in between the main offices for each school.
2. What choices will students have that they did not have in our previous middle school settings?
3. What ways will we commit to our five continuous improvement domains of Safety, Professional Development, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum, Goals and Feedback, and Parent and Community Engagement?
4. What do our planning teams recommend suggest for student experiences in grade 5, grade 6, grade 7, and grade 8:
5. How do we differentiate instruction and choices for students according to their ability and interests?
2. Why do we believe that these experiences will lead to student success in their future college and career challenges?
2. How many staff members do we need to deliver these experiences?
2. Who will the coaches and sponsors be to supervise the activities after school?
3. Who will the students be who are participating in the programs we are providing?
We understand the anxiety and interest of our staff to know their assignments. In reviewing the timeline for implementation, the goal is to have staff assignments completed by the start of the 2018/2019 school year. Some of this anxiety is due to the fact that it has been years since the current scheduling and programming were implemented. Today, student needs and trends in education are much different than when we planned the current staffing formats and programming in 1984. It was in 1984 that we moved from a Grade 7-9 configuration to the current programming format.
Regardless of the timing for placing staff in positions it is our intent to identify the positions needed and work with current staff to place them in roles that they prefer. In cases where all preferences can’t be met we will work out a procedure with the teacher association which is fair to all parties. With the new curricular areas there will be opportunities for current staff to move to teaching college and career readiness courses, stem courses, be instructional coaches, teach high ability, and world culture. We have no reason to believe that we will be reducing staff in order to make this transition, in fact we may end up having to add staff in order to provide the new experiences we will be working into the curriculum.
Each school will have its own schedule of extracurricular activities, clubs, organizations, etc. Academic areas for each building will be off limits except to students from the grade level assigned to those areas. Related arts teaching staff will be shared between the two schools and school schedules will be created in which grades 5 and 6 are in the related arts areas at times when the 7/8 students are not. The plan, at this point, is to have four lunch periods. Each intermediate school will have two lunch periods for their students. Lunch periods for grades 5/6 will be at different times than lunch periods for grades 7/8. In between the academic wings, there will be related arts classrooms, the cafeteria, offices, and the media center. Students in all four grades will share these areas; however, daily schedules will be established with limited interaction in these areas between grade levels. Each school will have its own office entrance for parents and students from the outside. The offices will have shared spaces for staff in between the main offices for each school.
Planning
There is an implementation timeline below that will reflect the timelines for solidifying key elements of the intermediate programming, which include student curricular choices, student supports, student extracurricular experiences, and staffing. Strategic planning teams are answering key questions which will eventually lead to recommendations on these important elements.Programming
It is important to note that our Feasibility Study identified areas in which we needed to address for student programming. High Ability, Career and College Readiness, STEM experiences, Visual Fine, and Performing Arts are areas that will be guaranteed to students in the new curriculum. We have set out to intentionally create intermediate programming which will not look exactly like the current experiences for students in grades 5-8.In planning the new campus, our first priority is to focus on the “WHAT?”
1. What programming will best prepare our students for future college and career readiness?2. What choices will students have that they did not have in our previous middle school settings?
3. What ways will we commit to our five continuous improvement domains of Safety, Professional Development, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum, Goals and Feedback, and Parent and Community Engagement?
4. What do our planning teams recommend suggest for student experiences in grade 5, grade 6, grade 7, and grade 8:
- Math
- English
- Science
- Social studies
- Reading
- P.E
- Music
- FACS
- Health & Wellness
- STEM/Technology/Industrial Technology
- College and Careers
- Art
- World Languages/Cultures
- Extracurricular-sports, music, clubs, activities
5. How do we differentiate instruction and choices for students according to their ability and interests?
Second on the priority list is to be able to explain “WHY?”
1. Why have we selected these experiences for students?2. Why do we believe that these experiences will lead to student success in their future college and career challenges?
Third, we will need to identify “HOW?”
1. How will we deliver these experiences throughout the course of the day, a week, or a year?2. How many staff members do we need to deliver these experiences?
Last, we will plan to address “WHO?”
1. Who will the staff be to teach the courses we have selected?2. Who will the coaches and sponsors be to supervise the activities after school?
3. Who will the students be who are participating in the programs we are providing?
We understand the anxiety and interest of our staff to know their assignments. In reviewing the timeline for implementation, the goal is to have staff assignments completed by the start of the 2018/2019 school year. Some of this anxiety is due to the fact that it has been years since the current scheduling and programming were implemented. Today, student needs and trends in education are much different than when we planned the current staffing formats and programming in 1984. It was in 1984 that we moved from a Grade 7-9 configuration to the current programming format.
Regardless of the timing for placing staff in positions it is our intent to identify the positions needed and work with current staff to place them in roles that they prefer. In cases where all preferences can’t be met we will work out a procedure with the teacher association which is fair to all parties. With the new curricular areas there will be opportunities for current staff to move to teaching college and career readiness courses, stem courses, be instructional coaches, teach high ability, and world culture. We have no reason to believe that we will be reducing staff in order to make this transition, in fact we may end up having to add staff in order to provide the new experiences we will be working into the curriculum.
Staffing
In addition to the attached staffing flow charts, the following summary outlines how staffing will look for each school.La Porte 5/6 Intermediate School Staffing
- One Principal
- One Assistant Principal
- 5th Grade Counselor
- 6th Grade Counselor
- Parent Resource Liaison/Social Worker
- Four administrative support staff
- Teams of teachers for each grade level
- Lead Custodian
- Media Specialist/Assistant
- Core Team
- Crisis Team
La Porte 7/8 Intermediate School Staffing
- One Principal
- One 7th Grade Assistant Principal
- One 8th Grade Assistant Principal
- 7th Grade Counselor
- 8th Grade Counselor
- Parent Resource Liaison/Social Worker
- Four administrative support staff
- Teams of teachers for each grade level
- Lead Custodian
- Media Specialist/Assistant
- Core Team
- Crisis Team
Schools on the Kesling Intermediate Campus will share the following staff:
- 5-8 Instructional Coach
- 5-8 AD/Attendance Officer housed at 7/8 school
- Media Center Specialists and Assistants
- Parent Resource Coordinator
- Related Arts Staff - Music, Art, PE, Industrial Tech., FACS, Health,Careers
- Readiness, Technology, Foreign Language, STEM, High Ability
- School Resource Officer
- Nurse and Health Assistant
- Campus Head Custodian
- Special Education Supervisor, Speech Therapist, Psychologist, Diagnostician
- Food Service Staff
- Parent Resource Assistant
- Campus Head of Maintenance and Grounds
Administrative Positions
The 5-8 structure of the building presents administrators with an opportunity to demonstrate creativity, ownership, empowerment of staff, and leadership that has had little precedence in our district. The selection process and expectations for the leaders of the intermediate complex will be strategic and vision-minded in order to assure that those selected to lead are motivated have the capacity to lead others to places that they have not been. Regardless of the pre-planning and organization that is done prior to the intermediate schools opening, there will certainly be challenges and decisions to be made which were not foreseen. In typical work place situations, change is difficult for staff. The central office team is committed to being “a” resource for our administrators and staff. It will take a special leader to exhume confidence and ownership in the new configuration.Timeline for Assigning Administrative and Teaching Staff
The goal for administrative staffing determinations is to have the principal for each intermediate school identified by December 31st of the 2017/2018 school year. The goal for teacher, professional, and support staffing is to have assignments made by the start of the 2018/2019 school year.Continuous Improvement Domains
The LPCSC continuous improvement domains have been instrumental in providing vision and guidance for planning, to date. We will look toward the domains for guidance, as well as evaluation of continuous improvement. The following summary identifies how each domain has and will play a role in shaping the new intermediate campus. Currently, strategic planning teams are producing answers to key questions in each domain that will be used to shape our programming, practices, and improvement.Safety
Safety of students and staff is a focus in the planning stages. Going back to the Feasibility Study, we were aware of safety concerns with the way that student pedestrians, buses, and cars entered and exited the campus. The design of the building and the traffic flow will reflect every effort to account for the safety of our students, staff, and visitors.With a large number of students attending the campus, the building structure has been designed to make the schools smaller by designating areas for each grade level, thus creating schools within the school.
One liaison officer will be assigned to the campus and each school will have its own safety team to monitor safe school data and improvement. Building security cameras and emergency technology will be updated and current regarding available technology.
Along with the safety team, the campus will have a safety team which includes representatives from the school teams. Students will enter the building in specific locations for 5/6 and 7/8. Parent drop-off and pickup will be separated from the bus traffic. Emergency vehicles will be able to drive around the building as needed, so they could enter all doors from the outside. We expect to have camera systems for protection of students, and modern technology for guest entrance in the front of the buildings. Any emergency drills, lockdowns, or crisis responses that occur on campus will be directed and monitored by the campus safety team.
Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
One of the benefits of the 5-8 configuration is the fact that each teacher in the corporation in grades 5-8 will be at the campus, and opportunities will be scheduled into the routines to enable grade level teachers to meet regularly for monitoring student progress, creating common curriculum maps, and analysis of student assessment data. An Instructional Coach will be assigned to the campus in order to facilitate these opportunities for staff. The curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students at the campus have been identified during the strategic planning process and are designed to meet the needs and interests of all students. The traditional “related arts” experiences for middle school students will be expanded in order to engage students in the use of technology and college and career readiness. We expect the element of choice to be introduced into the scheduling process so students and parents can make choices according to student needs and interests.Professional Development
Selection of administration and staff a year in advance of our move-in date was intentional. The importance of professional development and staff bonding is pivotal to the success of both student and staff transition to the new configuration. In addition to the preparation for the start of the 2019/2020 school year, ongoing professional development time for teacher collaboration will be scheduled into the calendar and the school day, in order to assure that staff members are learning from each other, similarly monitoring student progress, and working within a curricular schedule that aligns with formative and statewide assessments. Continuous improvement in this domain will be demonstrated by documenting the meaningful opportunities that teachers are engaged in from one year to the next, as well as data analysis of the impact that training has had on our five domains of continuous improvement.Parent/Community Engagement
Parents and the community will have a learning curve regarding the new configuration. True engagement of parents will be important in this new setting and we will need leaders and staff who are willing to look beyond the traditional conferences, newsletters, online grade checks, etc., in order to connect parents with the school. This will be more important than ever in order for us to accomplish our mission to make the school smaller by creating small learning communities within the campus. Community engagement has been documented through our feasibility study and strategic planning and will be a focus for the new intermediate campus. College and career readiness programming will provide school leaders and staff with opportunities to engage for guest speakers, organize field trips, and sponsor student activities. Continuous improvement in this domain will be evidenced through documentation of engaging opportunities for parents and businesses from one year to the next.Goals and Feedback
Feedback will be embedded into processes in order to assure that teachers, students, parents, and community members have opportunities to share their thoughts and provide suggestions that can contribute to our continuous improvement efforts. Each domain will have goals for the year and feedback in the form of data will be analyzed in order to assess success and growth. This cycle of goals, interventions, and feedback within each domain is currently at the school and corporation level. The vision for the new intermediate campus is to model this same practice at the classroom and department level. In other words, teachers and departments will have interventions, strategies, and goals within the five domains that align with the continuous improvement focus of the school. Attached is a document which summarizes our five domains and the products we will use to monitor growth.Current Boston Building
Once the details for the intermediate school are in place, we will begin to shift our focus onto the current Boston building. The Boston building will be a center for educational services that will house all of our departments along with a number of other programs some of which are in the early planning stages.The following departments will be located in the Boston building:
- Technology - currently at the Coke building
- Maintenance - currently at the Coke building
- Human Resources - currently at the ESC
- Special Education - currently at La Porte High School
- Payroll - currently at the ESC
- Business Office - currently at the ESC
- Administrative Offices - currently at the ESC
- Childcare
- Virtual Learning Academy
- UNITY program that is currently at St. Joseph’s School
- Special Education preschool and kindergarten, which is currently at the high school.
- Career and technical classes - currently not available at LPHS
- Homeschool Academy – does not currently exist
- Parent Resource Center – does not currently exist
- Childcare - currently at schools - this will be an additional location
- Employee Health Clinic – does not currently exist
- Read La Porte County Adult ENL Classes - currently at LPHS
- The third floor will serve as a much needed location for storage
Intermediate Campus Implementation Timeline
The following timeline will be updated and used to guide our progress in developing and opening the new intermediate schools.August 2017
- Design of interior and exterior of the campus begins to be finalized to include ingress and egress routes, entrances for specific grade levels, buses, etc.
- Design of early parking lot project for parking during construction of cafeteria and media center
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meetings
- Strategic planning team meetings
- Communication of implementation timeline
- Make decisions on materials for the new construction side of the project
September 2017
- Communication of planning details, to date, at the Board Work Session
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting, including an update to teams on the building project and planning timeline
- Announce details of staffing outline for each intermediate school
- Bid early parking lot package
October 2017
- Final design of full project complete
- Conduct interviews for campus administrative positions
- Award early parking lot package and start construction of parking lots
- Strategic teams focus on producing answers to key questions
November 2017
- Planning teams meet
- Communication of results of planning teams
- Parking lot work begins at the current Kesling Middle School
December 2017
- Award full project
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Start construction of cafeteria and media center areas and relocation of utilities
- Administrative positions for the campus will be determined
- Principals will begin the work of placing staff in positions for the 2019/2020 school year
January 2018
- Discussion and communication of details to the 5/6/7/8 planning team and school board
February 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Final determinations made on student program of studies for both 5/6 and 7/8 schools
March 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Final schedule adjustments made for both schools
April 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
May 2018
- Staffing discussion with Teacher Association
- Grading periods confirmed
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
June 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Work on Kesling remodel begins
- Work on Staffing
July 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Work on staffing
August 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Final staffing decisions made
September 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
October 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
November 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
December 2018
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Media center and cafeteria turned over to us for occupation
January 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Start construction of new band room, classrooms, etc., in existing cafeteria, commons and kitchen areas
- Start construction of new classrooms in existing media center
February 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
March 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Move into new office space spring break
April 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Start construction of new ED area in existing office area
May 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
June 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
- Summer construction of renovated spaces
- New additions for building project completed
- Begin moving into facility
July 2019
- 5/6 and 7/8 planning team meeting
August 2019
- Renovated areas completed
