Summer: Preparation for the Coming School Year
At least a few times each summer, someone asks me if I’m enjoying my time off. It’s true that for many people the summer is a time for at least a short vacation. The summer in a school district, though, particularly in KPS, is a busy time.
In addition to educating 1,143 students in our summer-school program at 5 different sites and sending 7,864 books to our 983 5th graders, KPS was involved, among many other activities, in the following projects during the summer.
• Two building additions at Milwood Magnet and Hillside middle schools. Both projects are on time and within budget, with the Milwood addition completed and the Hillside addition due to be completed by the end of winter break.
• Capital projects at 12 other schools, which ranged from roofs to flooring, energy efficient lights to site work.
• Added security cameras at Linden Grove Middle School as well as Milwood Magnet School and installed complete security-camera systems at Hillside Middle School and Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts.
• The planning and accomplishment of professional development for more than 1,400 employees — teachers, secretaries, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, administrators, and other employees.
• Cleaning of all the buildings, including those in which summer school or capital projects had taken place.
• Hiring, initial training, and placement of staff members in a variety of positions across the district.
• Three weeks of substantial, pre-beginning-of-school professional development for staff members at Maple Street and Milwood Magnet.
• Pilot projects in family literacy at New Genesis on the north side, Open Door Ministries on the east side, and the Hispanic American Council and the Boys and Girls Club on the south side.
• Pilot projects in parent education for the parents of newborns and the parents of 3-4-year-olds at New Genesis, Open Door Ministries, and the Hispanic American Council.
• Planning for the expansion of the family literacy and parent education programs with additional community partners.
• Review of long-term goals and operating procedures with the Board of Education, as well as the beginning of training of new board members.
The summer is certainly a different pace than the rest of the year. There are fewer students in school, and more concentrated planning takes place during the summer than at any other time during the year. But summer in a school district, particularly one as large as KPS, with as significant a reform agenda as KPS, is by no means laid back.
Michael F. Rice, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Kalamazoo Public Schools
