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The intent of this narrative is to give a brief historical overview of the Christa McAuliffe RSIP (Restructuring for School Improvement Plan) team. This overview will not mention individual names other than to give a list of all members who have served or are serving as an RSIP member.
Encouragement in the RSIP team formation was directed by the district school level. Suggestions as to the time table for implementation was given by the Brevard County School Board and was carried out by district personnel to educate all of Brevard Schools. State legislators gave the initiative to the Brevard County School District as well as to all Florida School Districts by enacting state laws to create and recognize this new Federally rooted Blue Print 2000 approach to school restructuring.
CHRISTA McAULIFFE SCHOOL began this journey of school Restructuring in September of 1991 and from THE START it has been A LEADER IN HELPING TO FACILITATE THIS TEAM CHALLENGE IN OUR COMMUNITY. It is, however, not without struggle that this changing process gave birth to the RSIP team. The first team came out of the old school advisory council and knew very little about what was happening under the new state laws. The process of learning as you go was the modus operandi at the time. District workshops at Viera for the members were conducted and through cooperative learning experiences a working team was formed at Christa McAuliffe.
During the first year (Sept. 1991 - May 1992) the team met twice monthly. Team brainstorming regarding the future possibilities of our school was encouraged. Needs assessments were sent out to the stakeholders to canvass the school population regarding areas needing improvement. The first year saw a lot of growth taking place in understanding the process of restructuring and consensus building through facilitative leadership. Through the process the team developed an RSIP logo, sent out RSIP news letters, solicited members, developed ground rules, discussed teacher duties, asked for a waiver on early dismissal, spent RSIP monies, stated our vision statement, educated team members, and had fun.
The second year of RSIP (Sept. 1992 - May 1993) built upon the first year and began intensive work on setting goals for school improvement using the guidelines set in the Blue Print 2000 and the State Goals for Education. Monthly meetings and special work shops were held to gather information on our problems and to state our goals. The development of the strategies, timeline, assessment, and people responsible for the tasks all started to formulate. "On going work" is the norm as constant reassessment is needed in looking at our problems and trying to do better.
Year number three of RSIP (Sept. 1993 - May 1994) again built upon the previous years and continued the work of revisiting our problems and assessing our goals. Attitude surveys were used with both students and teachers as to their feelings towards Christa McAuliffe School. Monthly meetings of the RSIP team were held and information regarding the importance of this group was shared. State guidance as well as District help in seeing the influence which restructuring is making with state legislators as moneys are being tied to the RSIP team. Christa McAuliffe School RSIP team presented its plan before the Brevard County School Board with a multi media presentation of our goals and it passed without revision.
The fourth year of RSIP (September 1994 - May 1994) is an outgrowth of the previous years. Revisiting how we can better our school is the constant reminder. Formation of groups to share the work of the team is welcomed and is a strategy to get more people involved with Christa McAuliffe for the sake of our children and society. The State legislature is making grant monies available for Christa McAuliffe School through plans submitted by the RSIP team. This grant monies is an outgrowth of the support which is being shown by state and national leadership for the need in educational reform and it involves directly the RSIP team. The team submitted our 1995 - 1996 School Improvement Plan (SIP) to the Brevard County school board in May and it was accepted without any revisions. The School Improvement Plan includes benchmarks to help in accountability of progress and lists our accomplishments and strategies. Communication and Action flow Chart was established for the school. We participated in the grant writing for the Feeder School Grant in January. Our School was recipient of the Parent Involvement in Education Grant (PIE) that provided special parent training classes in the spring of 1995. Orientation classes for new members, interested parents, and teachers were offered as a service to let others know the functions and policies of the McAuliffe team as well as to enlist support and cooperation. We continue to access information which is gathered through surveys, open discussions meetings and through the encouragement of participation with local businesses and citizens for the betterment of our students. The team meets monthly on Wednesday from 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM.
Our fifth year (September 1995 - June 1996) saw the team following our School Improvement Plan (SIP) in setting the agenda for the 1995-96 team. The official name of the team at McAuliffe is now called the School Improvement Team (SIT). We were again funded by the Florida State Legislature ($4 per student) and held accountable to the State School Improvement Team. Accountability in our SIP and showing adequate progress was expected by the District and State Departments of Education in going over our School Improvement Plan. A special SIT orientation meeting was held to better equip new members with the task of being a member. The term called "School Culture" was used by many at our school and other district school officials to determine what people "feel" our work place (school) is like. The Dove Network (our school close circuit TV production) helped to foster , focus and define our friendly "school culture" and was slated for an expanded DoveNetwork in our new School Improvement Plan for 1996 / 97 year. The official name of the overseeing state team is the "Florida Commission on Education Reform and Accountability." Our School Improvement Team met monthly on Wednesday from 3:00 - 5:30 p.m. Some of the high lights of the year included three Math and Take sessions for families to make educational games to help their children in math, a PTO sponsored Read-a-thon, a school Math-a-thon, and several educational fund raising events. Christa McAuliffe Elementary school helped to write and received a $12,000.00 Feeder School Grant to help improve reading for our children through technology using new hardware and software. The team was involved in surveying our parents through a "Life Long Learning Survey" at the end of the school year. This survey will help determine areas of service which we may offer to our parents to use with their children. We were active in Celebrating our tenth year as a school with a Grand Celebration on May 24th plus we held numerous history programs telling about Christa McAuliffe and the beginnings of our school. Helping our school culture to foster "team work" we bought new round tables for the dining room and implemented encouragement for showing good manors and respect in the dining room as well as all areas of the campus. Our new School Improvement Plan has a Summary for the 1995 -96 year and includes areas of accomplishments and measurements of progress in testing. We said farewell to Mrs. Murphy who retired after being our Principal since the beginning of our school.
Our sixth year (August 1996 - Present) is a year we welcome a new Principal, Mrs. Parsons, to the team. We will be engaged in working the School Improvement Plan for the 1996 - 97 year. The meeting times for the team will be on Thursday mornings before school twice a month. Facilitative leadership again will be the style of the meetings as we welcome several new team members. Focusing on the SIP and breaking down into goal groups and special goal groups will be how our team will work to accomplish the goals of the School Improvement Plan. Input from all the stake holders will be welcomed as the team endeavors to communicate and implement our School Improvement Plan.
Florida Department of Education School Improvement Hotline 1-800-447-1636
Patricia Breier, Jane Ingoglia**, Sally O'Neill, Elaine Passanisi **, Bill Powell, Steve Best, Joyce Chapman, Cynthia Scott, Doug Wiegner**, Veronica Richards, Norma Murphy, Millie Curtis*, Penny Dunham, Mary Krause, Barbara Belanger, Carlos Britos, Michael Grant , Renee Sumper, Judy Bonar*, Gail Nelson, Lisa Malley, Pam Mulligan, Karen Sadoff, Reggie Allen, Donna Entsminger*, Kathy Adams*, Joanne Michael Barbara Nie, Denise Gentry*, Judy Burden*, Laura DeFillippo*, Terry Field*, Carol Parsons*, Bonnie Cameron*, Tricia Oxrieder*, BettyJean Humpherys*
* Denotes present member
** Denotes member since September 1991
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