Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill with the Poplar Bluff R-1 School District presented at the Cooperative Conference for School Administrators on Monday afternoon about the process the school district has taken to look at the research based practices to improve the district.
The session, called Districtwide System of Support, was focused around a program that R-1 has been part of for many years under the different names it’s had — including the District Continuous Improvement Framework. However, Dill said it can be simplified down to supporting the implementation of reach-based, best-instructional practices.
The presentation was made with two other superintendents in the state, each talking about how their schools have incorporated the program.
For R-1, Dill said he used to have meetings with other administration and his cabinet in his office at the central office. However, they approached him about moving those meetings into the school buildings and he agreed to give that a try to see if it worked better.
Now, for those meetings, the principal of that school gives a tour of the facility and talks about the challenges and successes they’ve been having lately. Then administrators split off to go into classrooms and talk to students and teachers in order to get their input as well before coming back together to discuss their findings and how things could be improved.
Dill said the district is trending in the right direction right now. Lake Road Elementary was recently recognized as a Blue Ribbon School by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Dill said he’s hopeful that another school will receive the same distinction after another year’s data is available.
He said the whole process is about making things the best they can be for the district’s students.
The presentation went well, Dill said, with many of those in attendance coming from struggling districts who were looking for help.
“There’s no silver bullet,” he said.