Every week the St. Joseph Record is reaching out to a village official, school superintendent, school board member or village trustee to have the answer three questions. This week our Q and A is with Heritage Superintendent Tom Davis.
This post is sponsored by St. Joseph Siding and Window
1. What is the biggest challenge facing your district?
I think all Illinois school districts are facing a huge challenge with finding teachers when spots open up due to retirements or other staff mobility.
This extends to other areas like substitute teachers and bus drivers also.
It is ironic that after the many years of financial and state funding instability that districts have endured where finding personnel now is so difficult. And that is in a period where districts have been able to restore positions that might have been cut and with contracts being settled that provide for raises for teachers and staff.
We have been very fortunate at Heritage to have found and hired excellent candidates for our open positions with our four veteran teacher retirements occurring in May, but the process of recruiting and retaining quality candidates is difficult for all district right now.
2. What was your biggest accomplishment this school year?
We have had many academic and athletic/extracurricular accomplishments this school year.
On the academic side, we have had a large number of students at the high school level make honors and high honors for GPA attainment, and our social media is full with daily and weekly awards and recognition of our students.
At the K-8 level, I was very happy to see improvement in math scores in part due to our new math curriculum and we have also updated our science and, for next year, our ELA curriculum so they are all newly aligned to state standards. I was also happy that the schools all attained the Commendable designation with the updated school report card system for ISBE.
Athletically, this has been an incredible year for Heritage High School, Junior High, and the VGH Cooperative. High School and Junior High Volleyball were very successful, VGH football made the playoffs, our VGH basketball teams won almost 50 games combined, and our softball and VGH baseball teams are having successful spring seasons despite the poor weather. VGH Boys Basketball won both the LOVC final regular season championship and our BSN Christmas Tourney championship. The VGH Cooperative was renewed for 2 more years and we will enter the new Lincoln Prairie Conference for the 2019-20 school year for high school teams.
3. What projects is your district going to tackle next school year?
The list is long, and thanks to prudent financial planning by our Heritage School Board and the County Facility Schools 1% Tax, we have several major projects outlined below for this summer:
Summer/Fall 2019 Heritage District Building & Maintenance Plans
Homer Lockers – install throughout school begins June 2019
Homer Main Gym Roof – ork begins June 2019
Homer Girl’s Locker Room – work begins June 2019
Homer Main Office – cabinets and counters measured for summer remodel
Homer School PA System – install summer 2019
Broadlands HS Main Gym HVAC – work begins June 2019
Broadlands HS Electric Upgrade Project – on track for completion May 2019 and electric run to sports fields and softball electric, water, and softball scorer/concessions building will be completed for Spring 2020 season
j. Broadlands High School Main Gym Scoreboard – Scoreboard delivered, install contract signed with MER Signs, install May 2019
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