Funding to help school effectiveness

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Education announced funding to support boards in working with their schools to identify strengths and next steps for improvements.
This announcement resulted in an increase in $75,000 of funding for the Rainy River District School Board for the 2007/08 school year through the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat division’s “Effective Schools Framework: Funding for Capacity Building.”
In past years, the Ontario Focused Intervention Strategy (OFIP) and the Turnaround Program used external diagnosticians to provide the service.
Within the Rainy River District School Board, an external diagnostician did a review at North Star Community School in Atikokan in 2006/07. A work group was established with stakeholders to develop a framework that could be used in schools across the province.
The 2007/08 year will serve as an implementation pilot, with the primary goal to support boards in determining their own effectiveness and equipping those who work in schools with the diagnostic skills they need to bring about or to sustain improvement.
This funding will support professional accountability. It will enable boards and schools to engage in self-reflection, collegial analysis, and the ensuing dialogue and action planning that leads to further improvement.
Thus, the board must appoint a person as lead to this project.
Linda Hill, assistant to the director, has been focusing on these types of activities in her portfolio for a number of years. The Rainy River District School Board has designated her as the lead and will draw on her expertise in this area to increase the board’s focus.
“I look forward to being part of this exciting pilot over the next year,” said Hill. “We will build upon our strengths, and identify areas for focused attention to ensure continuous school improvement.
“Our ultimate goal is to provide the best possible education for our students,” she stressed.
As a result of Hill’s increased portfolio, there will be a shifting of portfolio duties to Superintendent of Education Heather Campbell.
The Student Success, Learning to 18, and e-learning portfolios (Student Success Board Leader) will be assigned to Rainy River High School principal Casey Slack from Campbell.
To continue to provide support for our schools, Jim Chorney will be a full-time vice-principal for 2007/08 at RRHS while Kerri Tolen will be full-time vice-principal at Riverview and McCrosson-Tovell schools.