Willow Run Community Schools and the School District of Ypsilanti Unification Design Plan

A working document August 6-7, 2012

Members of the Willow Run and Ypsilanti Communication and Collaboration Task Force:
Laura Lisiscki, WRCS Superintendent Dedrick Martin, YPS Superintendent Youssef "Joe" Yomtoob, Retired WRCS Superintendent James Hawkins, Retired YPS Superintendent David Bates, YPS Trustee Kira Berman, YPS Trustee Ellen Champagne, YPS Trustee Don Garrett, WRCS Trustee Greg Myers, WRCS Trustee Kristine Thomas, WRCS Trustee JoeAnn Allen, Community Member E.L. & Lavada Weathers, Community Members Sharine Buddin, YPS Principal Charles Raski, WRCS Principal Celeste Hawkins, YPS Parent Andrea Johnson, WRCS Parent Karen Siegel, YPS Teacher Debbie Swanson, WRCS Teacher Kevin Fortune, YPS Support Staff Rosalind Williams, WRCS Support Staff Kelli Hatfield, Community Member Design process facilitators: Steve Ventura Lead and Learn Michelle Moore Lead and Learn Domain Breakout Facilitators: Holly Heaviland WISD (College Credit and/or a Career Credential Prior to High School Graduation) Margy Long WISD (Prenatal Through Kindergarten Entry) Scott Menzel WISD (Effective Leadership) Naomi Norman WISD (High Quality Teachers/Teaching) Alan Oman WISD (Prenatal Through Kindergarten Entry) Sarena Shivers WISD (Positive Culture/Climate Focused on Learning)

Index
Executive Summary Design Process Core Values Key Domains Early childhood Effective Leadership at all levels High Quality Teachers and Teaching Culture and Climate focused on student learning Career credential or college credit prior to high school graduation Recommendations Next Steps Appendices Appendix A: Visioning Sessions Appendix B: Data Portrait Sessions Appendix C: Design Session Appendix D: Domain Notes Appendix E: Additional Supporting Documents

Executive Summary
The Ypsilanti and Willow Run School Districts are at a critical decision point with respect to the future of public education in eastern Washtenaw County. Both districts are struggling with the common challenges of poor academic performance and deficit budgets. Give the nature of these challenges, in August of 2011 the boards of education came together to formalize their efforts to achieve cost-savings by consolidating or sharing services with a fundamental commitment to making decisions that lead to improved achievement for all students. To that end, the boards appointed a Collaboration and Communication Task Force to explore opportunities and make recommendations for action. In April of 2012 the boards convened a second joint board meeting in response to a recommendation from the Task Force to consider placing the question of consolidation on a future ballot. At that meeting the boards approved the following resolution:

Now, therefore be it resolved that the question of bringing the school districts of Willow Run and Ypsilanti together to form a new, unified education system be placed on a ballot to be considered by the electors of each district at such time as recommended by the Task Force, and supported by an appropriate resolution properly passed by each board, and only after the two communities and two boards of education collaborate to establish a clear and detailed plan with broad participation for the development and implementation of a unified education system that is adequately supported by specific legislative and financial incentives so as to reasonably ensure the achievement of rigorous academic standards for all students and the financial viability of the new district.

The decision to consolidate is never an easy one. Each district has a storied past with significant points of pride. However, the current economic and academic realities require significant and dramatic change in order to ensure that the students of these two districts have access to a high quality educational system that is designed to ensure they graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed as they move on to college and career opportunities. Subsequent to the decision to move toward placing the question of consolidation on an upcoming ballot the Collaboration and Communication Task Force, in partnership with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, embarked on a strategic visioning process designed to elicit input from the community with the objective of identifying the core components of a new unified school district. In order to truly appreciate the impact of consolidation, the following matrix is provided to frame the potential outcome of a yes or no vote (Figure 1.):


Potential Outcome of a Yes Vote Community maintains local control of the district Reinventing an education system with innovation, inspiring proven methods resulting in academic gains Financial incentives from the state to support restructuring Extended repayment of deficit Potential Outcome of a No Vote A Financial Emergency Manager is assigned to each district and local control is lost Both high schools are persistently low performing and could be assigned to the Educational Achievement Authority, loss of local control No financial incentives and deeper program and staffing cuts A deadline of two years to repay millions of dollars in debt

The following pages outline the process that was used to gather input from the community and the vision for the future that emerged, along with specific areas of focus that serve as the nonnegotiable aspects of the new unified district.

Design Process
The future-focused design process was comprised of three key components: Identifying core values and vision (Visioning Sessions), reviewing the current reality (Data Portrait Sessions), and developing strategic focus areas (Design Session). Members of the Willow Run and Ypsilanti communities participated in various sessions throughout the summer to address these components. The final step in the process is to communicate and seek feedback on the design plan. (See appendices for more detailed information.)
Session Participants and Outcome Session Activities Best/Worst outcomes of consolidation: Clear concern about losing local control of school system, but a hope for a new and improved district Unique strengths of community: diversity, history, strong sense of community identity, heritage, many community resources such as universities Ideal characteristics of a graduate: well-prepared, skilled, ready for college, global, pride in their community and heritage, problem-solver, respectful, well-rounded, appreciate diversity, academic, life skills, successful Vision for a new district: Creating an educational system designed to meet the needs of children from birth through college and into careers, with students who appreciate the history and diversity of their community and who are prepared to become responsible citizens. Reviewed community and school histories and current realities that could be confirmed through public data sets. Demographics: growing diversity, and growing population in townships, shrinking in the city of Ypsilanti Enrollment: declining except at high school level, 5,300 current combined enrollment, 2,600 resident students select other districts or charter schools (note: declining in both districts from a high point of more than 11,000 students to the current level of 5,300. Overall high school numbers are relatively stable but the participation of students at both comprehensive high schools has declined due to enrollment in other districts and innovative new shared programs such as the Early College Alliance at EMU, the Washtenaw International High School, New Tech at Ardis, and the Widening Advancements for Youth program). Test scores: less than 20% of students college ready in math, less than 40% college ready in reading. College enrollment: high levels of college enrollment by district graduates (70-80%), with low levels of college completion (15-24%). 66% of college-going students attend in Washtenaw County. Revenue/Expenditures: both districts have multiple-year deficit budgets.

Visioning 120 community members at six different meetings (June 18-July 9) Brainstorming and synthesis through focus group-type dialogue

Data Portrait

60 community members at four different meetings (July 10-16) Presentation and feedback on vision areas


Design 82 community members at a twoday session (July 18-19) Presentation, table discussions, and domain-focused design groups Learned about schools and district improvement in other areas through case studies. Identified areas where the districts are leaders and programs that should be dropped. Developed five domains.

Core Values
The core values emerged from the community input at the visioning sessions and activities conducted on the first day of the design session. These core values articulate a set of ideals and beliefs that should be used to prioritize and focus design and decision making efforts in the unification process. These core values are considered non-negotiable and must be reflected in every aspect of the new unified school system. 1. High expectations for all students 2. Embrace diversity and develop cultural competence 3. Learning is the constant, time is the variable (i.e. rather than the conventional configuration where students are required to move uniformly through the system whether or not they have mastered the content--thereby making time the constant, we envision a future where learning is the constant and time becomes the variable-students who can move more quickly through the system are encouraged to do so and those who need more time and support are given it so they can also achieve mastery of the standards). 4. Student voice and engagement 5. Vibrant community and Family Partnerships (recognizing the significance and importance of parent partnership in the learning and success of their children as well as the key role the larger community plays in emphasizing the importance of education and creating meaningful learning opportunities outside the walls of the school buildings). 6. Honor culture and heritage while preparing for 21st century 7. Respect

Design Team Domains -- Framing a New System

During the two-day design team retreat, participants created a comprehensive list of characteristics associated with high performing, high functioning schools. From this list, five strategic domains were formed: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Prenatal Through Kindergarten Entry Effective Leadership at All Levels Positive Culture/Climate Focused on Learning High Quality Teachers/Teaching College Credit and/or a Career Credential Prior to High School Graduation

These five domains represent strategic focus areas for the new district. Rather than identifying, which buildings will remain open or closed, what the grade configuration of various buildings will be, etc., the design process focused on creating a framework for designing the system that will guide decisions once the community has decided whether or not to proceed. This framing is critical since it creates the structure (see illustration below) on which the detail design work will be completed. Focused, intentional implementation of the domains will ensure the creation of a successful district. Beginning with the end in mind (college credit and/or a career credential prior to high school graduation), we worked to identify the common structural elements of successful school districts in districts with demographics that were similar to Ypsilanti and Willow Run.

Early Childhood for Consolidated Ypsilanti and Willow Run School District (Prenatal Through Kindergarten Entry)
Every family will have access to high quality programming from prenatal to kindergarten to ensure that each child in the Ypsilanti and Willow Run will be successful in school and in life. The effectiveness of a quality early childhood education experience is well documented. The HighScope Foundations 1995-2011 study demonstrated a dramatic increase in student success. The study followed a group of children who attended Michigans preschool, Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), from preschool through high school and compared them with children from similar backgrounds who did not attend a classroom preschool program. Significantly fewer GSRP participants were retained in grade (36.5% versus 49.2%) than those who did not attend preschool. In addition, more GSRP students graduated on time from high school than non-GSRP children. Even more importantly, 60% GSRP children of color graduated from high school on time compared to 37% of children of color who did not attend preschool. The evidence is clear that access to quality early childhood education and development programs ensure future education success for children and provide a significant economic return on investment. The Early Childhood system in Ypsilanti and Willow Run will: 1. Create community-wide awareness and understanding of the value and importance of providing every child with the opportunity to access high quality early child development and education services and then engage the community as a whole to ensure that comprehensive programs and services are accessible to every family with children from prenatal through kindergarten. 2. Utilize a Family Development Center model to create local learning hubs for all families to access comprehensive one stop shopping services and to provide an early linkage to the local school system. Programs and services available through the Centers will include: high quality early care and education, access to pediatric health and mental health services, and education and support programs and services for parents. 3. Engage all community stakeholders in developing a single, collaborative and seamless system of early childhood programs and services, accessible to all families. The system will ensure that children receive high quality, developmentally appropriate, best practice programs and services that are inclusive of all children and are culturally sensitive to the needs of young children and their families.

Effective School Leadership at All Levels

Effective school leadership remains one of the top indicators of effective schools. While thousands of books have been written on the topic of leadership, the leadership domain workgroup adopted the following as a working definition of leadership: moving people from where they are to a better place. Leadership is complex, multifaceted, and a critical component to achieving improvements in academic outcomes for students. When we think about leadership we are not only talking about the superintendent. Effective leadership begins with the board of education (especially since they are charged with the responsibility of hiring the superintendent and establishing appropriate policies for the district), and is distributed throughout the organization. Each leader has a different role to play within the system, but a successful system is comprised of an effective superintendent, building principals, teachers, students, parents and the community. Leadership can be formal (chain of command and accountability) or informal (people who exert influence in positive or negative ways), it is often situational (designing the system requires a collaborative approach that values the diverse opinions of people in the community, whereas in a crisis a more direct approach is required), and to be sustainable, the vision for the organization cannot be embodied in a single person as the leader. The vision for the school district must be shared by leaders throughout the organization and in the larger community. Effectiveness vs. popularity Some of the most important decisions leaders make are among the least popular. In previous decades, courageous school leaders made difficult and unpopular decisions in the pursuit of the greater good on topics ranging from racial justice to prohibiting corporal punishment. In hindsight, these decisions seem clear, but many leaders who made them lost friends, supporters, and elections. Given the current state of affairs and the unacceptable levels of low achievement in both districts, the call for courageous leadership is clear. Characteristics of effective leaders The individuals who focused on the leadership domain identified various traits of effective leaders on the following levels (board, superintendent, principal, teacher, student, parent, and community). The full input from the session is included in Appendix (D). Certain themes were common across all levels of leadership. Effective leaders are good listeners, have a vision for the district, genuinely care for the success of students, are able to make difficult decisions, and make decisions based on solid principles and not on what is popular at the moment. The group discussed the challenges associated with attracting and retaining effective leaders and ultimately noted that it will be imperative that each hiring decision for the new district be driven by a commitment to only selecting leaders who demonstrate the appropriate characteristics of effective leadership.

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Positive Culture and Climate Focused on Learning

Members of this work group identified the following areas as being essential to the climate and culture of the unified school district. The basic premise was that exemplary high quality schools have a culture and climate conducive to social/emotional growth and academic achievement. In addition, the workgroup identified the following list of non-negotiables for the continuation of this work:

Honor, respect, and solicit parent and student voice Identify models of effective school culture and climate A closer look and examination of the relationship between student achievement and school climate More qualitative and quantitative data is needed to ensure the specific needs of this community are met (i.e., attendance, discipline, student health--physical and mental). A working design team should be established with key partnerships to include public health, law enforcement, parents, students, educators, local business/community, postsecondary (where applicable).

Critical Areas/Key Examples

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High Quality Teachers and Teaching

Teaching in the new district is robust, relevant, rigorous and creative and meets the needs of a diverse study body. It focuses on creating a community of learners, and teachers are expected to create positive, safe and engaging learning environments. Because it is important to meet all students needs, teachers use assessments and artifacts to make important instructional decisions and track their progress with individual students. Teaching methods and curriculum allow students to move at a pace that best meets their needs. There are high expectations for all students and teachers.

Critical Components of High Quality Teaching Professional practice Community of Learners

High quality teaching requires high levels of academic and discipline-specific knowledge, as well as high levels of teaching skill. Utilizing responsive teaching practices that are personalized to student needs is critical. Assessments, done in a balanced way with both formative and summative components, are utilized to make decisions about adjusting teaching to meet student needs. Lastly, high expectations and respect are non-negotiable. Liberated Approach Working with a focus on the Common Core State Standards, there is a focus on an integrated, creative, robust, relevant and flexible instructional and curricular approach. The approach is not confined to the classroom, but instead takes advantage of community partnerships. A positive environment is essential and it begins in the classroom and extends to the learning environment as a whole. It is about creating a community of learnersfrom the students in the classroom, to the teachers in the school, to the leadership and to the parents and larger community. Students own their learning.

Foundations for Success There are structural supports for the robust, rigorous, relevant and creative teaching. The resources are aligned to support the curricular and instructional goals. Teachers are involved in the process of determining resource allocationsfrom classroom resources, to collaboration time, professional development, and other program priorities.

High quality teaching is supported by the procedures that recruit, select, hire, support and evaluate teachers. Careful attention must be paid to the design and development of these procedures. Ideal teacher qualities and skills for the unified system:
Teacher Qualities
believe in and be committed to lifelong learning for themselves and their students, value the teaching profession and learn about new methodologies and practices, hold high expectations for themselves and their students, embrace a multicultural commitment.

Teacher Skills
strong content and pedagogical knowledge, ability to build relationships with students and families, assess and understand the diversity of the classroom, school and communityunderstand the full context, understanding of data and how to make it useful, ability to enact a developmental model of teaching and learning where the teacher adapts to individual student needs, is reflective of their practice, trained to lead--and are skilled in creating--a community of learners, active listener, ability to take responsibility for community outreach to connect with resources, seek support and problem solve

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Every Student Will Have an Opportunity to Earn College Credit and/or a Career Credential Prior to High School Graduation
Another key component of our new unified system is for all of our students to have the opportunity for career credentials and/or college credit. Our community aspires to have a seamless cradle to career learning system that allows youth to successfully and easily transition to postsecondary for career & college training, without needing to participate in remedial course work within the post secondary system. Washtenaw Community College is positioned within our community to be an economic & workforce development engine, based on the history of the community college movement. They are positioned to engage as a key partner within our new unified system to link into career exploration and college readiness. We are able to leverage key design components from the early college work within our county to expand within a larger education system. Additionally, we would like to create a system that is non-time centric, focusing on mastery of learning. This would be a flexible learning system to honor and address the diversity of learners needs. We would also like to develop a community vision on 21st century employability skills needed for our graduates to be successful citizens within their community and work settings. It was recommended that a College Access Design Team be developed with Washtenaw Community College as the anchor organization. Other key stakeholder groups include, but are not limited to: Washtenaw Intermediate School District Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation Representative from the health care sector County Government-Workforce Development & Sherriffs Office Eastern Michigan University Representative from parents Representative from youth

Preliminary Recommendations
The citizens of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run School Districts have an unprecedented opportunity to hit the reset button and create an educational system that will meet the needs of children and families from birth through post-secondary education (cradle to career). While such a vision may seem impossible given the current economic and academic challenges, success stories from around the country in districts with similar demographics coupled with the support pledged by key leaders (State Superintendent of Instruction, State Representatives, local community leaders) provides reason for optimism. As representatives from both districts gathered during the course of the summer to consider what a new district might look like, a clear picture emerged of seven core values and five essential domains that serve as the framing, non-negotiable aspects of the new district. At each meeting people began to exude a sense of hope and optimism as the conversation turned from

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what else needed to be cut in order to balance the budget to what can we create together if the community decides to step up and tackle this challenge. The path ahead is not an easy one, but the future of the 5300 students who are currently enrolled in these two districts is dependent on the community identifying a positive path forward. Ours is a community with a rich history of innovation (think Elijah McCoy) and can do attitude (think Rosie the Riveter). Rather than allowing the state to appoint an emergency manager to impose solutions on the community, we recommend that the voters be given the opportunity in the November 6, 2012 election to decide the fate of public education in these two districts by voting on the question of consolidation. To that end, we urge the boards of education of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run School Districts to vote on August 8th to place the question on the November ballot.

Next Steps
DATES August 8, 2012 August-October ACTION Joint board meeting-vote to place the consolidation question on Nov. 2012 ballot Presentations and forums: to connect with parent/student groups, civic, neighborhood and business organizations for the purpose of informing and gleaning feedback. Election* Forming work groups (representation from both districts and larger community) to develop specific implementation plans, including budget, structure governance, buildings, transportation, programs, teacher/union contracts and more. 10 days after election is certified - The WISD Board appoints a 7-member board which will assume responsibility for operation of both districts until June 30, 2013 and then of the new unified district effective July 1, 2013 Outline a multi-phased approach to implement the specific elements of the new unified school system. Some aspects of the new system can be implemented immediately (July 1, 2013) and other components may take more time to develop and implement. At this juncture it is anticipated that full implementation will take place in various phases (up to three years).

November 6, 2012 November 7, 2012

November 2012

March 2013

*Once the outcome of the election is clear (and assuming that the voters of both districts decide to proceed with consolidation) the remainder of the action steps will take place. For more information: Scott Menzel, Superintendent, smenzel@wash.k12.mi.us, phone: 734/994-1800, ext. 1301 or Emma Jackson, Communication Specialist, ejackson@wash.k12.mi.us, phone: 734/994-1800, ext. 1321. Also visit: www.together4ss.org.

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