The Wright City R-II School District recently added a new program evaluation to help further improve the district. The new program will focus on professional development and the staff’s needs. 

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Holly Broadway-Yates presented the new program to the R-II School Board of Education at their previous school board meeting on Sept. 19. The board had previously requested a program that focused on this need. 

Dr. Broadway-Yates started off by assessing the district’s needs assessment that was taken at the end of the 2023-24 school year. 

She noted there were areas of strengths from the test’s results, such as the staff felt the work of their impact teams was either proficient or advanced, the staff felt confident in their ability to use assessment data to provide pointed interventions for students and the staff was confident in their classroom management skills. 

The assessment also showed areas of possible improvement, such as a need for response to intervention. This type of training would include how to handle situations where a student might be having behavioral issues, or how to handle possible trauma and learn restorative practices. 

There was also a need for standard based grading and vertical teaming.

After reviewing the data, Dr. Broadway-Yates came up with the first goal. The district will allocate 1% of the state foundation formula to professional development. This will be aligned with the district’s continuous school improvement plan and 75% of the funds will be spent in that same fiscal year. 

The second goal is that 75% of Wright City teachers will be in favor of the amount and quality of professional growth made available to the staff. 

Dr. Broadway-Yates also planned action steps for achieving these goals, such as revamping the needs assessment survey to receive more recent data, which will allow them to allocate needs better. 

A developed professional development evaluation survey will also be administered after each of the four professional development days. One has already been handed out.

Then, the feedback will be used to assess the effectiveness of the professional development opportunities that are given. 

Dr. Broadway-Yates noted a high percentage of staff filled out the new survey and the district is currently taking the information to put together a plan that will be approved by the board of education. 

The district is still in early steps of creating the program, but are taking steps in order to reach the needs of the staff. For example, on the staff’s first CSIP day, there was a need from the staff that wanted more support with the district’s growing English Language Learner population. 

So on Sept. 23 during their first CSIP day, Rob Greenhaw, an ELL consultant, provided the staff with professional development on that specific topic. Then, Dr. Broadway-Yates led a work session with the staff on what things can be put in place to better support the ELL students. 

“Our teachers needed some support in that area and so that was one area that I knew we needed to support them pretty quickly,” Dr. Broadway-Yates said. “For the next CSIP day that I’m planning, we’re looking at offering several different opportunities that day for staff from assessment work, curriculum work, another small ELL session for those that feel like they still need it, but it’s in the very early planning stages now.” 

Dr. Broadway-Yates has drafted up a plan for the professional development program. The next step is to have the administration team, building principals and assistant principals to go through it and give feedback. 

After that, the plan will be taken to the Professional Development Committee to receive their feedback and then it will go to the school board to be approved. 

Dr. Broadway-Yates does not currently have a date on when the program will be officially up and running, but is hoping to have it done this year. However, it does not have to be done this year. 

“It has been drafted, but it still needs lots of eyes on it and lots of feedback from the people that will be working with it,” Dr. Broadway-Yates said. 

Ultimately, Dr. Broadway-Yates is hoping this program will help support and grow students in the best possible way. 

“I want to be compliant with MSIP six, but I think more importantly, it all leads to higher student achievement,” Dr. Broadway-Yates said. “When our adults are being appropriately trained and developed, then our students benefit from it.”