WALDRON ELEMENTARY & MIDDLE
SCHOOL STAFF

 

The Fowler School District resides in a close-knit rural community, with very strong work ethic and values. It is because of this community and its high parental support that our children have excelled in academics and sports.

The city of Lansing, Michigan State University, and Lansing Community College are located 25 miles southeast of Fowler. Central Michigan University and Grand Valley University are within 60 miles.

All of the children in the community attend Waldron Elementary/Middle School from kindergarten until third grade. The district offers a preschool program, for those interested, and a Continuous Progress Kindergarten Program. The kindergarten program is a one to two year developmental program for children who turn 5 by December 1st. Students’ learning needs are evaluated in this program and their lessons are geared towards those learning needs. When students have mastered the necessary skills they progress on to first grade.

At fourth grade, parents make a decision to keep their children in our public school or go next door to Most Holy Trinity. Approximately 55-60 % of the students remain at Waldron. Even though some may leave us to attend Most Holy Trinity, those children still come to Waldron for physical education, art, music and band. We have a very close working relationship with the Catholic School. All students will eventually come back together in high school.

In addition to our own Resource Room, Waldron also houses a County Special Abilities Room. Children from throughout the county who have Special Education needs can attend, while being mainstreamed for portions of their day.

Waldron School sponsors many specialized academic programs designed to give students individual instruction as needed. Reading Recovery is offered for first grade students who are in most need of remedial reading services. Literacy Support Services is a four-to-one student/teacher ratio group that works to bring up the child’s reading skills. Title One services are also offered through the use of teachers and paraprofessionals. Students in grades 3-8 who are classified "At Risk" receive academic support from designated classroom teachers 1-3 times a week, as needed. Student Concerns meetings are held monthly to bring up any concerns that teachers may have about a specific child, to offer support to the classroom teacher and to make aware the special needs of a student. A school counselor is available as well, on a part time basis, to help children in need of additional emotional support a Psychologist, Speech Therapist and Occupational Therapists visit our district weekly to service children in need.

The Waldron Staff is comprised of an experienced group of professionals. We pride ourselves on a successful mix of veterans and young educators. Our teaching experience, in terms of years, ranges from enthusiastic rookies to several staff members with 25 years or more of classroom teaching. Many of our teachers have taught more than one grade level during their careers. And most have taught more than one subject matter in the upper grades. This makes it possible for our staff, as a whole, to really appreciate each other’s individual assignments, and to feel comfortable sharing new ideas and useful suggestions to improve learning across the curriculum. The Physical Education, Music, Computers, and Art teachers all share time with the high school during the school day. This gives them a true understanding of the K-12 curriculum in their area of expertise. They know what it takes to prepare the students for experiences in their later years of school.

Waldron started our current cycle of School Improvement Accreditation in the fall of 2001-2002 school year and has received accreditation every year since. Our target is to have the School Improvement Endorsement completed by winter of the 2005-2006 school year.

The faculty identified three target areas to improve student academic achievement. The staff members began formulating our needs by reviewing data, and then were divided into committees to work on possible tools to aide in our goals, and assessment tools to measure success. The three goals that were chosen to help all students achieve were; "increasing writing skills across the curriculum", "improving knowledge and practice of scientific methods", and "increasing critical thinking skills in Social Studies". Staff members collected information and performed a triangulation of data for each goal. This work has been documented within the NCA Visitation Reports and in this manuscript with vast improvements shown in each of the three goal areas.

The Waldron Staff is an extraordinary group of professionals who work extremely well together as one unit to achieve an ultimate goal: To develop each child to his or her maximum potential, not only in the academic areas, but in social and emotional growth as well.