Dr. Vazquez's First 100-Days Summary
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Jaime Holmes: Hello everyone. I'm Jamie Holmes and we are back with your Superintendent for Mondays with Maria.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Hi everyone. I'm Maria Vazquez.
Jaime Holmes: Wow. Dr. Vazquez, you just completed your first 100 days. I know. Remarkable, right? Yes. And the staff came out, you even got a hundred flowers. That was wonderful.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: It was such a surprise. It was beautiful.
Jaime Holmes: And your husband's like, got those flowers taken care of. Don't have to worry about that anymore.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Exactly. He said that.
Jaime Holmes: All right. Let's talk about what you accomplished in those first 100 days and one of the most critical aspects of that were all those town hall meetings that you went to. What were some of the immediate action items that you were able to get and hear from people that you need to work on now?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: So discipline was definitely an area that came out loud and clear across all of the town halls. And to that effect we have number one, talked with all of our administrators regarding discipline expectations, surrounding discipline, following the code of conduct, the referral process, and looking to put in place positive behavior systems in the schools. We also have a discipline task force that had their first meeting and will continue to meet to help us with strategies on how we can improve our climate and our culture. We want it to be a positive learning and working environment. Discipline was the number one issue that we looked at addressing immediately.
Jaime Holmes: So what are some of the other action items that you're looking to work on, immediately?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Recruitment and retention and looking at the strategies that we currently have in place and which ones we are going to add, such as finding supplements and bonuses for hard to fill positions, asking returning retirees if they would like to come back. Skills based training opportunities, as well as focusing on creating climate in our schools where teachers and staff feel valued and supported. The reorganization that will take place is focused on providing more direct support to our teachers, our students, our schools. That's another issue that came up as part of those conversations. We need to do more. We have new standards. Our children are struggling academically. They still haven't recovered from these past three years. Our data shows that student achievement is not increasing as fast as we would like it, so we are going to reorganize our teaching and learning division to ensure there are more supports to our students in schools.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Early literacy will be another focus for the upcoming year. We know that if our, our students are able to leave third grade reading their pathway after that is so much easier. We're going to add behavioral supports so our students have more tools as they are dealing with some of the conflict resolution problems that they're having that our teachers have expressed. That will look a little bit differently across our district. In some cases, we're looking at a more structured support model in our middle schools. We will be adding behavioral support across the district as well.
Jaime Holmes: What about big picture plans here for the next couple of years out for the district? What were you able to get from, from the town hall meetings on that?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: It was clear that everyone was so happy to be in person, have an opportunity to share their thoughts, give their suggestions. I'm going to continue with town halls, not 44 in a hundred days but continue with town halls. Looking at social media where I can engage more and give parents who may not be able to come face-to-face an opportunity to chat as well as staff and thought exchange has been such a positive tool. We're going to continue using that as well.
Jaime Holmes: And the takeaways, all these key points that you've talked about, how are parents getting that information?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: We have posted on our website a document that outlines the specific actions that we took as part of the first 100 days, the key findings and the next step. So that is there for them to peruse and we will continue to keep them informed of any other changes that we are making to ensure we've got the very best district in the nation.
Jaime Holmes: Well, let's do a hundred more days.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: I agree. I'm ready. Thank you all for watching. I will be sure to continue talking about the specifics of these action items moving forward
Jaime Holmes: And stay tuned for another Mondays with Maria next week.