O’Brien reports on Hartley status

Continuing with this year’s series of adding building reports to the school board meetings, Hartley Elementary Principal Ben O’Brien presented remotely from the boys’ wrestling match. O’Brien acknowledged that though facilities are at the forefront as a district, his report focused on the inner workings of the school and the people. Hartley currently has 433 students enrolled. As with all the schools district-wide, there remains a need for paraprofessionals. “We are making it work and being flexible to support the prioritized needs first until applicants come in,” he stated. “We have hired an additional special education teacher to support an increase in that student group.” O’Brien touched upon the vision card goals for the Hartley staff: “Student success in terms of learning is very important. We really focus on student growth versus proficiency.” The learning is not all academic; Hartley includes its behavioral support system of ‘The Blue Jay Way’ in their assessments of growth. O’Brien ended his presentation to the board by stating that instructional practices continue to be evaluated and improved. “The staff continue to come up with creative ways to service students in the most effective learning space.”

Superintendent Eric Hudspith discussed the process of updating the district’s strategic plan, as the current plan expires spring of 2024. “We would like to go from classroom to boardroom, starting with feedback from our staff, our principals,  and bring that up to the board so the board creates the strategic plan, the strategic vision around what’s happening, and add what they’d like to see happen going forward.” Hudspith described how the district has partnered with Teamworks International, an education leadership consulting firm, to provide guidance in creating strategic themes. Board chair Julie Anderson expressed her appreciation that much of the “prep work” for the strategic plan update is already laid out for the fall. Hudspith acknowledged her comments; “You want your staff in your building to say, ‘This is the work I do that supports the strategic plan’ and if they’re helping to create the plan they have a better chance of articulating what the plan is.”