VALPARAISO | Valparaiso school leaders, parents and students discussed the district's future during the School Board's Wednesday night’s meeting.
“We are trying to pull a lot of pieces together and ask you your input into one of the big pieces: What is learning going to look like in the future?" said Valparaiso Community Schools interim Superintendent Michael Berta.
Among those topics discussed were curriculum, guiding principles of the organization, accreditation and technology.
Teachers provided input on how their teaching standards dovetail into state and federal standards. Some questioned which state standards were followed and how those standards change each year.
Berta also discussed the other elements that contribute to the corporation’s plan for the future and he identified some challenges.
“We have a mission statement and the vision statement, and the vision statement tells the organization what we want to be years from now, that’s the ideal," he said. "The mission statement is how we act to get there.
"But each school’s handbook doesn’t have these listed, and that tells me there is a disconnect,” Berta said.
When it came to the topic of technology, Berta said, “They had a technology curriculum by grade level that died in 2003 or 2004, so absent a well-defined curriculum, teachers do what they think is best. But we want to be as consistent as we can across the (school) corporation to be aligned in what we teach the kids.
“There have been discussions on a countywide initiative to have the seven school corporations aligned with technology," Berta said, "and that’s in its infancy now, and my prediction is that will escalate in the next month or two."
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