Alamo Elementary Principal Melissa Koenig, Washington Street Elementary teacher Sue Raven, Alamo Elementary teacher Kristen Glerum, and Dix Street Elementary teacher Kim Seger traveled to San Luis Obispo, California last week for training through the Lindamood-Bell Institute. They attended a conference called Visualizing and Verbalizing to learn how to help children who are having trouble with reading comprehension. They will serve as leaders in their buildings and will train other staff members to use these new techniques.

Left to Right: Kim Seger, Kristen Glerum, presenter Phyllis Lindamood, Sue Raven and Melissa Koenig.

by Mark Rollandini, Otsego High School Assistant Principal

School Improvement Planning is an on-going process that schools use to make sure all students are achieving at high levels.  Schools can create more effective environments for learning so more students achieve at levels expected by the state and local communities.  Continuous improvement of programs and services is essential to reach these goals.  For more than 100 years, Otsego High School (OHS) has been accredited by the North Central Association (NCA).  The NCA assists, monitors, and evaluates school improvement processes for their member schools.  Otsego uses the NCA process, now know as AdvancED, to remain in compliance with the State’s school improvement requirement to design, develop, and implement a 3-to-5 year school improvement plan.  The 2009-10 school years finds the OHS staff in the first implementation year of the school improvement cycle.   This follows two years of design and development of the plan.  During the design phase, staff evaluated their own values and ideas of education at OHS.  Surveys of students and the community were used to gauge their perceptions and feelings of the atmosphere and academic rigor of the school and its programs.  Standardized test scores as well as local achievement data was also measured.The data gathered from these sources guided the development of the school improvement plan.  The NCA/AdvancED guidelines direct schools to focus on a few areas of need through the 3-to-5-year process.  This is the “what” of the plan; the “how” is determined through a process with the local staff.  Again, the NCA/AdvancED offers exercises for the staff to use in order to develop the “how” of the school improvement plan.In the following editions, the “what” and “how” will be discussed. 

by Superintendent Denny Patzer

With all the recent focus on budget woes in the state of Michigan, I want to take this opportunity to explain how OPS is going to allocate and spend the Federal Stimulus dollars that will be coming to the district for the next two years. The Stimulus Funding can be very confusing because it comes to local districts in different pots or categories and each one includes specific rules and guidelines for spending. The main categories are Title I funds, which are tied to free and reduced lunch numbers, Title II funds which are designated for technology and staff development, IDEA funds which are tied to Special Education interventions and programming services, and Stabilization Funds which are tied to State aid.

In Otsego, we have been working with other county schools and the Allegan Area Educational Service Agency to coordinate some of the programming with IDEA funds. The ESA staff is involved because they will receive the money and disburse it to local districts. The main level of responsibility for reporting and accounting of funds will be done by ESA staff. This relieves local staff from the liability in reporting and provides us with checks and balances by an oversight organization.

Our areas selected are: technology purchases of equipment and software, equipment to outfit the new kindergarten classrooms, student intervention programs like our new after school programs that will be held in each of our five buildings beginning this fall and a staff professional development program titled Capturing Kids' Hearts. It is important to note that these funds are to be used in the next two years and must be designated toward programs that will have a lasting effect without the need for long term funding.

I hope you agree that we are using a multi-faceted approach to get the "best bang for the buck" with this stimulus money. We were required to submit an application in June 2009 and we have received initial approval from the state regarding our plan for spending the funds.

(Left to Right) The school district has received an Education Excellence Award from the Michigan Association of School Boards. Otsego Public Schools Board of Education trustee Renny Ransbottom, Washington Street Elementary kindergarten teacher Sue Raven, Dix Street Elementary Principal Tim Allard, early literacy trainer Trish Martin, Dix Street Elementary third grade teacher Kim Seger, Superintendent Denny Patzer and Board of Education trustee Wendy Stafford received an Education Excellence Award from the Michigan Association of School Boards for professional development initiatives involving the district’s Rewiring the Brain literacy. 

Congratulations to the Mileage Club at Washington Street Elementary! On May 18, students logged 10,000 miles.
Students collect sticks to keep track of how many laps they've made around the track. Parents often join their
children for a walk at lunch time. Physical education teacher Amy Nieuwenhuis, who organized the activity,
is pleased that students are having so much fun becoming physically fit!

The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. on May 9 in the Otsego High School auditorium. The musical program is entitled “Celebrating Bernstein.” Barry Ross is the conductor and tenor Jeremy Koch will sing. Donations will be accepted at the door.