Clarion-Goldfield Community School Mr. Dennis March, Principal 1111 Willow Drive Clarion, IA 50525-0393 Document Generated On October 2, 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 3 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 4 Additional Information 5
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1
Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? Clarion-Goldfield-Dows High School is located in North Central Iowa. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows resides largely in Wright County and includes portions of Humboldt, Hancock and Franklin counties. Geographically the district includes 355 square acres. The district stretches approximately 50 miles from the Northwest to Southeast.Clarion is the county seat of Wright County with a population of approximately 3,000. Goldfield is located 8 miles west of Clarion, with a population of 700. Dows is located 16 miles southeast of Clarion, with a population of about 500. The district shares personnel with Eagle Grove Community School District. The district share Vocational Agriculture instructor and transportation personnel. The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows is also involved in a Regional Academy Center with Iowa Central Community College, Eagle Grove Schools, Webster City Schools, and Fort Dodge public schools. In 2014-15, the official merger of Dows and Clarion-Goldlfield occurred. In the high school there is around 280 students in grades 9-12. The FTE of the high school staff is 20. Approximately 16% of the students in the high school are Hispanic. Challenges facing us are to strengthen our ELL program to meet our students needs, providing access to programs to all students considering the large area of the district, and maintaining a strong technological presence in our educational process. Page 2
School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. "Preparing Students Today for Tomorrow" Core Values - Educational Philosophy The Clarion-Goldfield0-Dows CSD will endeavor to provide the means of education for its students to equip them to be successful today and tomorrow. This will be accomplished in a culture that embraces its Core Values. Progressive: We will provide an innovative and visionary educational program to meet the needs of students for the future. Cooperative: We will work together as a team in a family and community of learners. Driven: We attack learning challenges with effort and desire. Compassionate: We will respect and care for each other. Passionate: We are engaged in the learning process and energetic about our growth. Accountable: We take leadership in our learning and are responsible for our success. We embody these values through offering programming that will reach all students. Some of this programming includes: Alternative education program, strong fine arts and vocational programs, ELL, 1:1 computer initiative, Regional Academy, offering of college classes in-house and online. Page 3
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. In the last three years, the most notable achievement has been our 1:1 Computer initiative. All students in the high school have a Mac computer that they are assigned each year. Each teacher has a computer and IPAD and projection capabilities. Our high school also now has a video-conferencing room that will be used to deliver college instruction to our students. For the next three years, our school will really focus on Career Readiness. We are also working on increasing STEM presence in our school, expand TAG, and alignment of the Iowa Core. Page 4
Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. Strong community support - bond issues, projects, strong booster clubs in athletics and music As far as measuring student achievement and not using standardized tests, each senior must successfully complete our Senior English class, which would be considered a capstone course for the English department. One part of this class is service learning and it requires all students to help deliver meals to shut-ins in Clarion. Another component of this senior level English course has a project component that needs to be service/community based. Students have helped with blood drive, sponsor dances to raise money for groups in need, etc. Page 5