Margaret Brown, Senior
The 2020-2023 Comprehensive Plan outlines the goals Palisades School District intends to accomplish during the 2020-2023 school years. The Comprehensive Plan 2020-2023 is to be submitted to Pennsylvania on November 30 of this year. Palisades School District is committed to providing a safe learning environment, promoting leadership, developing problem-solving and communication skills in students. Palisades is also committed to developing responsible citizens that are respectful, responsible, and have an appreciation for diversity. The major concerns that the 2020-2023 Comprehensive Plan hopes to address are improving the rigor and educational value of the curriculum, decreasing bullying, increasing student involvement in the community, improving district community communication, and doing more to prevent and help students deal with mental illness.
One of the goals of the upcoming comprehensive is to continue to improve academic excellence. One way the plan hopes to do this is by enhancing the educational experience with technology. Palisades School District plans to do this by researching the best practices regarding integrating technology and education and making sure teachers are following these practices. Palisades will also continue to improve academic excellence by making sure that students who need extra help are identified early on and receive the support they need to succeed. Palisades will also add more and improve existing career pathway programs. Existing career pathway programs include global studies, engineering, medical, business, art and design, and education careers. The career pathway programs at Palisades are designed to give high school students the opportunity to shadow people that work in the career they are interested in pursuing.
To improve communication, Palisades School District will develop a communication plan and investigate software that can be used for two way communication. They will also continue to improve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
To maintain facilities, Palisades School District will continue to monitor enrollment and staffing. Palisades will also continue to maintain buildings and grounds and respond to any safety concerns in a proactive manner. To maintain facilities, Palisades will also continue to assess the changing needs of the libraries and PALMS music department. Palisades will also consider implementing a keycard/ID card system in high school and middle school for taking attendance and for students to use when entering classrooms.
Another major goal of the 2020-2023 Comprehensive Plan is to improve the emotional well-being of students by researching and implementing a district-wide bullying prevention plan and implementing fair disciplinary procedures. Palisades will research and implement a social-emotional curriculum that will focus on the ability to manage emotions. They also plan to develop community knowledge of common mental health issues and develop better intervention and support systems to address the needs of these students. The first step to improving community knowledge is to assess current community knowledge and assess the effectiveness of current systems.
Palisades School District also has a professional development program that will help Palisades meet the goals outlined in the 2020-2023 Comprehensive Plan. Professional development will make sure that teachers are aware of the impact of childhood trauma on a student’s ability to learn and know how to help these students as teachers. Professional development will also make sure that teachers know how to teach students with different learning styles and will provide information and ideas on ways they can improve their teaching methods. Professional development will also be used to inform teachers of best practices for integrating technology into the classroom.
Source:
"Comprehensive Plan." Palisades School District, Intrado Corporation, www.palisd.org/our_district/comprehensive_plan. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
O'Connell, Bridget. Palisades School District School Board Meeting. Digital file, 15 May 2019.
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