DERBY — Should Derby Public Schools combine the city’s elementary schools into a single building?
How do teachers plan to meet the growing achievement gap among white students and kids from minority and low-income families?
With the cost of education increasing each year — and the public’s ability to pay stretched to the limit — can the small Derby school district even continue to exist in its current form?
Those are some of the tough questions asked in a Strategic Plan, a draft of which was published Sept. 22. At its base level, the document provides a number of things to explore as Derby schools try to move forward.
On Monday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. in Derby Middle School, the school district was scheduled to hold its third and final public hearing on the 60-page document.
Prior to that meeting, school Superintendent Stephen Tracy sat down with the Valley Indy to talk about the plan.
Members of the Derby Board of Education are expected to adopt the plan in December.
After that, committees will be formed to research and report back to the school board on a number of ideas raised in the plan, ranging from consolidating the school district to how educators plan to improve reading skills among third graders (assuming those ideas make it into the final draft of the plan in December).
Among the topics Tracy discussed with the Valley Indy during an interview:
- The achievement gap within the school district. Click here for more information from ConnCan.
- The perception that the Bradley Elementary School is a far superior school to the Irving School.
- Why staff training is so important to the Derby school district.
- Why the plan is needed.
- Feedback, so far from Derby residents.
An executive summary of the Derby school district’s strategic plan is available on the school district’s website. The entire plan is also available on the district’s website.
The Valley Indy has also posted a copy of the report, which you can read by clicking here.
Click here to read the press release announcing the public hearings.
Click here to read a previous Valley Indy article on the strategic plan.