Grain Valley News
  • Home
  • About
    • Submit Your News
    • Contact
  • News
    • Online Puzzles
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • Marketplace
    • Parade
  • Job Board
  • Best of Grain Valley
  • Support
    • Advertise
    • Become A Sustaining Member
  • Business Directory Submission Form
  • Home
  • About
    • Submit Your News
    • Contact
  • News
    • Online Puzzles
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • Marketplace
    • Parade
  • Job Board
  • Best of Grain Valley
  • Support
    • Advertise
    • Become A Sustaining Member
  • Business Directory Submission Form








​news

Behind the scenes, district staff prepare for a new school year

7/28/2022

 
by Cole Arndorfer, Grain Valley News Intern
     When many people think of school and summertime, the two don’t necessarily mix. As Dr. Glenna Bult, Grain Valley Schools Director of Curriculum and Instruction, says, it is the district administration’s busiest time.
     “At the district level, your busiest, craziest time is the summer,” Bult explains. “That is when we are working our tail-ends off.”
     Director of Operations, Gary Goetz adds with a bit of a chuckle, “In three weeks my favorite question will be ‘what’d you do all summer?’ Well, we were here getting ready for you all.”
     There is so much that goes on over the summer within the schools that nobody really thinks about because they don’t ever see any of it. Things as simple as wiping down each and every desk, to much larger items such as complete overhauls of kitchens and bathrooms.
     Director of Maintenance, Josh Elefson, as well as Goetz described their work as having two seasons; the first being the school year maintenance and the second being the summer prep.
     Elefson explains that each building gets a deep cleaning every summer which consists of each desk being cleaned, along with carpet cleaning or replacement, and new paint. Each principal also receives a summer request list around March where they are able to mark down the needs and wants for each building for that summer.
     Goetz says that with nine buildings over four campuses, it can be a tall order trying to get everything done in the relatively short amount of time summer provides.
     “We look at their lists and determine what’s a wish and what’s a need.”
     After they determine that, they take care of the needs first and if they are able, they can take care of as many of the wants as they can.
     “A lot of that is budget driven,” Goetz says. “Costs of everything is going up so that limits how much we are able to do each year.”
     The world of technology is a rapidly changing environment and especially in the education field. Director of Technology JaMere Waddy explains that he does everything he can to keep schools, classrooms, and kids up to date.
     “One of the things I am proud of is our four-year refresh cycle for students and staff,” Waddy said. The four-year refresh cycle means that the longest any student or staff member in the district will have a Chromebook or computer will be four years.
     “This allows us to stay current and it allows us to be sure that the technology is useable.”  
     After that, Waddy says the student or staff member will receive a new piece of technology. His department will look at their old one and determine if they can use it somewhere else, in some cases they may find that they will be able to get another few years of use by sending it to one of the elementary schools in the district.
     Waddy says that it is very important to stay creative with technology in the classrooms. Something they have done is using Apple TVs in order to let teachers move around their classrooms freely instead of being stuck in one spot while projecting something to the class. He says they like to try out new things with focus groups of teachers in the district who welcome the technology and embrace it in their classrooms.
     The Technology Department was also able to replace a whole computer lab at North Middle School this summer, another project Waddy is very proud to have been able to do.
     One of the critical tasks tackled over the summer is curriculum, which is Dr. Bult’s job. When building a curriculum, the Missouri Learning Standards are the legal guide, but after those standards are met, there is a bit of flexibility.
     Bult said that it usually takes about three or four years to build a full curriculum so there isn’t always a whole lot of change from year-to-year; rather, it comes in waves.
     “I pull groups of teachers, I believe that teachers need to be heavily involved in writing the curriculum,” Bult said. Within those groups, they take the standards from the state and apply it to the district by writing essential questions, learning targets, and essential vocabulary.”
     Bult mentioned that she has a particularly busy week this week as she is meeting with different groups of teachers for various reasons almost all day each day.  She says what gets her through the busy times is teamwork and the fact that everyone is working toward the same goal.
     Everyone at the table nodded in agreement when Bult said that the first step in preparing for a new year is expecting that not everything will go perfect. She said that somewhere along the line something will go wrong and they will have to roll with it and adjust what they are doing.
     While not everything may be able to go perfectly, each of them are excited for a new school year and they are ready for what’s in store.
Picture

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Burton Kelso
    Business
    Cathy Allie
    Celebrations & Transitions
    Census
    City Of Grain Valley
    Columnists
    Community Profile
    Covid19
    Covid-19
    Economic-development
    Education
    Elections
    Financial-health
    Fitness
    Food Inspections
    Good News
    Good-news
    Grain-valley-assistance-council
    Grain Valley Fair
    Grain Valley Historical Society
    Grain-valley-partnership
    Grain Valley Schools
    Health And Fitness
    Health-and-fitness
    Home And Garden
    Jackson County
    Ld
    Local News
    Looking Back
    Lorne-meinershagen
    Missouri House Of Representatives
    Missouri Senate
    Musings From The Middle
    Neighborhood View
    On-the-job
    Pets
    Police Blotter
    Quick-news
    Rdn
    Recreation
    Sally-whitaker
    Seniors
    Senior-send-off
    Sports
    State Of Missouri
    Technology
    Tracey-shaffer
    Transportation
    University Of Missouri Extension
    Waynes-world

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018

Grain Valley News

Grain Valley News is a free community news source published weekly online. 
(c) 2023 Grain Valley News

Contact Us

PO Box 2972
​Grain Valley MO 64029

Privacy Policy
Picture