Welcome Back Teachers to the 2016-2017 School Year

The following was the message sent to the Laurel School District Faculty.

August 10, 2016

To Spartan Educators:

It is a great time to be an educator. It is a stressful time to be an educator. As public school educators we are under enormous pressure to perform and to do so with less. The Laurel School District is not immune from this unique dynamic.

The good news is that as a unit we can enjoy the great times and handle the stress. We need to be there for one another. We need to support one another. We need to grow together. We will look to follow the fearless attitude of our mascot, the Spartan. By coming back with our shield or on it, we will advance the district rather than regress.

We will begin to scaffold our professional development. We will look to embed literacy and content literacy into our instruction. We will launch a k-12 writing across the curriculum (WATC) initiative. We will differentiate our instruction. We will have lessons centered on Big Ideas and Essential Questions that generate understanding.

We will continue to scaffold our professional development. We will be on a year-long journey that will focus on:

·         Integrating Big Ideas and Essential Questions, and Quadrant D Assessments into instruction.

·         Evaluation v. Differentiated Supervision

·         Exploring Moodle technologies

We will remain a school that has an inclusive differentiated educational process. We will continue to provide authentic connections to what we do.

Our first two in-service days are August 22^nd and August 23^rd. The agendas are available on district server under superintendent 2016-2017. We will start with breakfast in the HS cafeteria at 8:00. A specific schedule governing the in-service days and first 3 days of school will be distributed during the morning meeting.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns. Go GREEN!

Yours in education,

Leonard A. Rich

Superintendent