Webberville Community Schools

Since arriving to the Webberville Community I have been continually amazed at the strong support the community has for the education of its students. The community is extremely supportive of the schools and wants what is best for their students. They have demonstrated their support over the years by passing mileages and bonds consistently when the school has put forth a need. Parents have donated their time as volunteers, donated money and labor to build a new storage facility for the Webberville Community Recreation program and for the schools’ track equipment, community members have donated money for playground equipment, and the list goes on. I have had many parents offer their support and help with anything that the schools needs. Last fall, we had parents and community members volunteer to take time off work to donate two and half days to be a part of our strategic planning committee. What is driving our strategic plan is the vision the Board of Education has for our district.

Webberville Community Schools Board of Education shared a vision for the future during my superintendent interview. When I asked the question, “What are three goals you would like to see the new superintendent achieve within the next three years,” I received the following response. “We want to become a premier rural school system where our students compete with the best students in the country for acceptance in the best universities and/or for the best employment opportunities.” What is important about this statement is the board had a vision of where it wanted to go. There are two things that will attract parents, students and employees to a school district. The first one is, “What are your current assets.” What do you have to offer? However, the second one which is a stronger attraction is, “Where are you going?” People want to know that you have a plan for continued growth and future success. People want to be part of an organization that has a vision and knows where it wants to go and how to get there.

When looking at Webberville Community Schools’ current assets they have a unique niche of being a small rural school where we can offer a personalized education with small class sizes. Typically, a class has less than 20 students in it. We have a great teaching and administrative staff. Our current Board of Education is made up of very progressive individuals who want to see Webberville Community Schools become an exemplary rural school system in setting a new standard of excellence. Having a progressive school board makes the responsibilities for a superintendent very exciting.

How will Webberville Community Schools achieve a premier status among small rural schools? Below is a sample of where we are focusing our efforts to achieve this vision.

• Individualizing the education of our students through just-on-time learning and assessments

• Providing parents a written guarantee of one-year’s growth or more in academic achievement with one-year of education

• Designing and implementing an instructional technology that will allow teachers and students to access any information

– anywhere on demand. The system will be so user friendly, it will be intuitive

• Integrating interactive multimedia instruction that will use a whole brain, multi-sensory and active student approach to teaching

and learning that will accelerate the learning process. Student recall, retention and comprehension will all improve

• Build a community wellness center to meet the needs of students and community members from the cradle to grave.

This center will be focused on community wellness both physical and social

• Five-year strategic plans with accountable to the community for achieving all of the goals. Every six months we will give an

account for our goals publicly and update our plan accordingly so our five-year strategic plan is always current

• Increasing communications between the home and school. Voice mail, email and the website will be conduits by which we

actively engage our parents more in the education of their students. Secondly, it will provide parents the timely information they need

on their students 24/7. The information will include current grades, homework assignments, attendance, test dates, video

streaming of lessons that they may have missed, and links to websites that will assist students with their homework.

• Increase global learning and dual enrollment opportunities through distance learning. Students will be able to have live interactive

instruction from Lansing Community College, Michigan State University and other colleges through distance learning. The students

will not have to travel to the college or university anymore to take advantage of these opportunities. Students will be able to

graduate from Webberville Community High School with one-year of college completed in the near future.

These are just some of the examples of what you can expect to see at Webberville Community Schools over the next few years.

Please monitor our website regularly for updates to what is happening in our school district to better serve students, parents