May 17, 2013 Message to Northshore School District staff and community from Superintendent Francois

May 7 was National Teacher Day. Northshore is fortunate to have outstanding professional educators, and it is fitting to recognize them on this day. Thank you to all who reached out to share your thanks and appreciation to our teachers! Expectations and accountability for educators have changed greatly over the past two decades as the focus has rightly shifted from the “inputs” of teaching to the “outputs” of student learning. Changes that we are in the midst of implementing include new national learning standards, assessments and accountability requirements and a new, more rigorous evaluation system which incorporates student growth over time, continuous improvement, ongoing training and professional collaboration. At a district level, we are continuing to implement an aggressive curriculum renewal plan, advance our district goals and performance measures and plan for grade reconfiguration. While all of these efforts are intended to improve the “outputs” of student learning, our success on all of these fronts is directly related to the “inputs” of time, energy and resources we can apply to this critical work. Over the past eleven years, the district has operated under a waiver from the State Board of Education for a 175-day student school year (180 days is the legal requirement without a waiver). The five waiver days have been scheduled as non-student days throughout the year for activities associated with school improvement initiatives, teacher training, staff collaboration and instructional planning. In recent years, it has become more challenging to meaningfully accomplish this work and maintain momentum and progress when there may be weeks or months between opportunities for schools and staff to engage around this work. Most of our neighboring districts moved some time ago to schedules that allow for regular, consistent weekly release time for teachers and principals to sustain these continuous improvement efforts. The district and the Northshore Education Association recently agreed to a framework that moves us to a regular, consistent weekly release time schedule next year. Key elements of that agreement include: Eliminating five current non-student days and returning to a 180-day student school year. Adding 10 minutes of instruction to the school day. Implementing a regular, consistent weekly 2-hour release time for staff collaboration, planning and professional growth. Most importantly, maintaining overall student instructional time at current levels. Between now and May 27, I invite you to participate in an online survey to provide input on the scheduling of this weekly release time. The survey can be accessed on our Web site at www.nsd.org. I certainly understand that this change presents a number of potential challenges for some families. We are working on creating a menu of options and resources available across our community. We will post this information to our Web site and push it out through our schools to interested families. As a parent myself, I can also relate to the question of how a 2-hour weekly release improves my child’s learning. It is a very valid question, and one I’ll answer in this way. If I ever need open heart surgery, I want to know that my surgeon has spent plenty of time studying the best techniques, collaborating and learning with and from fellow heart surgeons, practicing and refining her skills, engaging in meaningful opportunities to be critiqued and provided feedback, and having a full “toolbox” to deal with any unexpected or unique circumstances that may occur during my surgery. Teachers and principals need similar opportunities to learn new content and skills, partner and practice with others, assess, refine, reflect and revise their craft. Being able to engage in these professional growth opportunities on a more regular, consistent basis is the purpose of moving to this different model of instructional planning and collaboration time. Ultimately, the success of this new schedule will be measured by the achievement of our students. Working in partnership with our teachers and principals, I am committed to maintaining accountability for utilizing this time well and in pursuit of our shared mission of success for all students.