The mission of Ridgeview Elementary School is to provide continuous learning for all students by using data that involves all stakeholders. (Stakeholders are those groups and/or individuals who have a vested interest in the capacity of the school to meet and even exceed customer requirements.)
The Goals of Ridgeview Elementary School are:
*All students will perform at or above grade level.
*Increase stakeholder involvement and satisfaction.
*Sudents will be provided with a quality learning environment.
In order to fulfill this mission and these goals, Ridgeview uses the "Koalaty Kid" and Baldrige approaches for continuous improvement. These are approaches formerly used for business that have been applied to a school setting using the Plan-Do-Study-Act process. During this process, the staff will first use existing data (such as test scores) to develop a goal [Plan]. Next, they will develop strategies to reach that goal and put them into action[Do]. They will watch to see the results of their actions [Study], and then either make those actions a permanent course or go back to the beginning to develop new strategies [Act].
Our staff also works in teams to address opportunities for improvement. We currently have the following teams:
Building Leadership: Collects and analyzes data school-wide and comes up with expectations and goals that are shared and implemented with the staff.
Parent Involvement Team: A team of parents and staff who increase communication between the school and parents through awareness of teaching structures, content standards, curriculum and the school in general, as well as aiming to increase volunteerism.
Literacy Team: Required by Ohio Reads and the Ohio Reads Grant, this team collects and analyzes data and determines the Literacy Focus for the year.
Book Study Groups: Read and discuss professional resources, sharing pertinent information towards improvement.
Intervention Assistance Team: Share ideas and strategies to be used by the teacher and parents of a child needing assistance.
Grief Counciling/Crisis Intervention Team: Deal with traumatic and emergency situations.
Building Safety Team: The main goal is to ensure the safety and well being of all students both at the school and coming to and from the school, as well as trying to improve how smoothly the school runs. They have worked on the Building Security Policy changing such things as when and which doors are locked and how walkers and car riders are picked up from the school.
An example of one of these teams at work, is the institution of the Communication Envelopes by the Parent Involvement Team and the PTO. Collected surveys showed that parents were unhappy with the level of communication they received from the school and were concerned about papers they never saw. In order to improve communication, Communication Envelopes are filled once a week with important papers and sent home on Wednesdays. Parents are aware of this procedure and look for these envelopes. Surveys since then have shown that parents are increasingly happier with the level of communication they are receiving from Ridgeview.