What Islands of Excellence Would You Expand

Maya Cole wants to expand the district’s island of excellence if she’s elected to the school board.
What islands of excellence would you expand?
The islands might be a particular teacher, an afterschool program, an academic program, or a particular class. Just list what you’d like to expand and briefly tell how you’d expand it.
To get things started, I’d expand the championship chess at West High School by recruiting chess enthusiasts to teach chess after school at each school in the district.

4 thoughts on “What Islands of Excellence Would You Expand”

  1. Paul Duvair, freshman biology teacher at East, is an island of excellence, even to the point of being featured in Isthmus a couple of years ago.
    To expand this island of excellence, I’d ask the district to set up an in-service for him to talk with other biology and science teachers to explain how he inspires students — at least, he inspired my daughter.

  2. From what little I know about Read 180, used in some district schools, I think it’s an island of excellence. You can search the blog for my previous posts about Read 180, a direct and systematic curriculum to teach non-readers to read.
    It can be expanded for an initial investment of about $30,000 per school.
    I hope that the board appropriates some funds in the upcoming budget for expanding Read 180.

  3. There is an after school club/program at Jefferson that should be used as a model. Focus is on community service and a diverse group of kids participate.

  4. I’d expand early childhood and the M-Team (which identifies young kids with special ed needs) to include new arrivals in the district- all the way through high school. We have a fabulous, nationally recognized group of special educators in the MMSD. They should be given the chance to make a difference (like they made with my son) for more students, especially the ones whose parents have dropped the ball for a variety of reasons that they may or may not be able to control.

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