A Message from Dr. Wood |  |
Dear Bixby School Patrons: It's the beginning of the 2009 - 2010 school year, and we are off to a successful beginning. As I write this, several construction projects are under way, sporting events are taking place, children are learning, teachers are teaching, and plans are being made and implemented to further the success of Bixby Schools. If you are new to Bixby Schools, WELCOME! There are great things taking place here! All faculty and staff kicked off the school year with motivational speaker, Keith Hawkins. His message focused on the impact a supportive adult-teacher, coach, mentor, administrator, parent-can have on a child's life. Fortunately, Bixby is blessed to have such people interacting with our children on a daily basis. We recently conducted two volunteer orientations provided through our Bixby Education Support Team program, and over 150 volunteers were trained. If you are interested in volunteering, dates for additional volunteer trainings can be found by visiting our web site, clicking on administrative departments, and choosing B.E.S.T. Volunteers. Several meetings of administrators and teachers, in the form of workshops, retreats, and faculty meetings are focused on school improvement and increasing student achievement. While Bixby students continue to perform well and demonstrate tremendous success, we are always looking for and focusing on ways to improve. As I told you in the summer letter, stimulus funds have been used with this goal in mind by employing instructional and graduation coaches. The mission of the Graduation Coach is to provide counseling, mentoring, guidance, and support to students and their families in order to assist them with reaching the ultimate success in school and beyond. The overarching purpose of an Instructional Coach is to increase student achievement by providing ongoing teacher support and development in the implementation of best-practices instructional strategies and data analysis. We have adopted a model of continual teacher development, one that focuses on teachers as life-long learners and the quest for perfecting the pedagogical craft. We're excited about the possibilities these new positions will provide. They are off to an excellent start, and we anticipate great things! Our facility improvements continue to make progress. We successfully opened the 4th Grade wing to North 456. It is a beautiful addition to a wonderful school, and I know there will be many great days to come for students and teachers in the new classrooms. Three Central Elementary projects are taking shape. The new drainage and sidewalks for bus safety are completed on the west side of the school. On the east side, the new playground area is almost complete as additional playground equipment is going in as I write this update. The new parking lot is making progress. The inordinate amount of rain lately has slowed that project, but progress will continue and before long, we'll have a very nice new parking, walk-up, and sidewalk area for Central. New canopies on the west and east sides of Central will go up after the completion of the parking lot. Also, the Board recently approved bids for the new addition to Central on the east side, creating office space and a new entry for the school. Additional classroom space will also result from this new addition. Finally, our students are already actively participating in sports and activities. On any given day you can visit the school and find sporting and fine arts activities ongoing-softball, football, volleyball, cross country, choir, drama, and instrumental music, for example. Band students are up early to practice for their performances on Friday nights and prepare for competition. In addition, school organizations are busily meeting, preparing, and organizing student events. We have a great bunch of students and teachers who are highly involved in making Bixby Schools a great place to be! We're off to a great start! Sincerely, Kyle Wood, Ed. D.
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