BUCHANAN — Developing responsible, resilient, creative citizens capable of succeeding in a global community. Preparing students for life-long success.
The Buchanan school district’s new mission and vision statements capture the district’s goals for all students attending Buchanan schools.
Buchanan school board members adopted the new mission and vision statements designed to keep district staff on track as well as a new strategic five year plan to guide school district activities through the 2020-2021 school year at their meeting this week. Members also heard reports from district staff on ongoing school improvement efforts.
“The vision and mission and beliefs statements drive the direction of the district,” said Superintendent Dr. Andrea van der Laan. “We should always be looking at this when making tough decisions. For instance, how will a program or class help us get students ready for a global community. How is what we are doing helping student prepare for a life of success?”
Van der Laan noted that the five-year strategic plan was developed in consultation with community members, board members, administration and other staff.
“The five goals will drive the direction of the district for the next five years,” she said. “Every year, we will develop action items with timelines for accomplishment which we report to the community.”
The new plan outlines district goals in five areas: student achievement, facilities, culture and climate, communications and technology. Specific actions in each of the areas as well as the timelines for implementation will be adjusted from year to year.
With student achievement, the district’s objective is to increase student achievement in all subjects. That will be done by providing opportunities for students to reach their full potential, focusing on continuous improvement and fostering partnerships with families.
The goal with facilities is to improve and maintain facilities and increase efficiency of operations. For culture and climate, the district’s objective is to cultivate and maintain a safe, supportive and respectful learning environment.
The objectives for the last two areas are to improve internal and external communications as well as improve the availability and efficiency of technology to enhance learning.
School improvement reports made by Van der Laan and district staff showed that students are progressing in their studies as evidenced by scores on state and national assessment tests. They outlined the efforts being made to specifically address the needs of poorly performing students to give them the help they need to improve their test scores.
The school improvement reports also outlined the professional development opportunities staff members have to work together and keep up to date with new academic initiatives and data assessment analysis. Emphasis continues to be placed on reading and writing efforts as well as updating math, science and social studies curricula as needed.
This week’s board meeting also featured an audit report for the 2015-16 year from auditor Kevin Raade of the Kruggel, Lawton and Company accounting firm. Raade gave the district a clean, unqualified opinion and reported that the district’s general fund deficit ended up smaller than expected.
The district had started the 2015-16 year anticipating a nearly $1 million deficit on expenditures of $15 million. He said the district was able to reduce the deficit to just $187,542 which put the general fund balance at $3.7 million as of June 30, 2016.
Raade said that fund balance amount represents about 25 percent of expenditures. He noted that the Michigan Association of School Boards recommends districts have a fund balance that represents between 15 to 20 percent of expenditures.
Board members also approved the 2016-17 capital outlay budget which calls for a variety of work to be done around the district including repairs to the high school library/auditorium roof, parking lot improvements at the high school and Ottawa and new public address systems at the high school and Moccasin.