West Central School Board Holds Work Session

West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon

The West Central School Board took some time last week to review the corporation’s strategic plan. Superintendent Charles Mellon said the board took a look at their educational goals had all building principals comment on progress and improvement areas.

“As a school corporation, we need to know if the resources were available that they needed,” explained Mellon. “We wanted their input. We’re very much interested in the academic growth of the students, of course. Is there something that we need as far as in-servicing for the staff? There’s a lot of data collection going on – are we using that in the classroom to have data-driven instruction?”

The board also discussed the possibility of hiring a part-time data coach to help teachers dissect the numbers to be able to help each student.

Another big topic was technology.

“Technology has made education more global and we definitely want to stay abreast of that,” Mellon explained. “We want to be a part of that. I’m not saying that we’re out there on the leading edge – we want to be – but on the other hand, we want to take it slow enough where we know it’s not a fad and then something else is going to come along that’s better.”

The corporation will be participating in the one-to-one computer initiative next school year.

“We’re putting the computers in the hands of the teachers this semester and then we’ll begin with the middle school next year. We’ll have the one-to-one device in the student’s hands next year and then gradually get it into the high school and the elementary school,” said Mellon.

The board also discussed the administrative change that will occur in the fall of 2014 when Superintendent Mellon retires. He has been with the West Central School Corporation since 1980.

The teacher and superintendent evaluations were also covered along with a budget forecast.

Mellon said it was a productive three-hour meeting.