Superintendent Melissa Conrath and the Worthington City School District hope to climb toward new heights in student achievement in 2008.

Apart from the district's new improvement plan, school leaders will consider proposals for changes at the elementary school and high school level, union negotiations, technology purchases and long-term financial planning.

Conrath said the district has been working hard on a new improvement plan, titled "21st Century Learning for All Students."

"We worked this past summer and fall to develop the district priorities and within each of those, we have identified several strategies, and that is where we will focus our energy," she said. "The most important priority is to ensure all of our students are provided with core academics and that we instill in them the skills to be successful for the 21st century.

"We have a number of strategies, one of which is for the elementary review program to continue so that the school community can help us design elementary schools that best meet the needs of our students," she said.

At two public forums and several administrative meetings last year, Conrath consulted school, community and business leaders on what they were looking for in a "quality school district."

"We recently asked the high school teachers to submit proposals that would help create learning opportunities for students that focus on and address 21st-century best practices," she said.

Conrath said she is looking forward to reviewing the success of the first year of the Phoenix Middle School program, which opened at Perry Middle School in August.

"We've had four months of this program and we are looking forward to reviewing the program and planning for a second year," she said. "We also want to continue to look at all the middle schools and determine how we can best serve the needs of students."

The fact the district did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirement on the state report card for the third year in a row, which dropped an otherwise "Excellent" district rating to "Continuous Improvement," also is a major concern, Conrath said.

"We need to make sure all of our students have the basic skills they need to succeed, and we know we have a lot of work to do in that area," she said. "We will focus on AYP and are working with Battelle for Kids on value-added data. We have also received value-added data from the Ohio Department of Education.

"We are in the process of analyzing that data to determine the best practices we need to put in place to improve our performance on the AYP requirement," she said.

The Adequate Yearly Progress requirement stems from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which states schools must increase student achievement in certain subgroups over a 12-year period, with the goal of 100 percent proficiency in all student subgroups by 2013.

The subgroups include students with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, students with limited English proficiency, and economically disadvantaged students.

Conrath said the district will make "major technology purchases" in 2008.

"They will be from the bond fund and primarily at the elementary level," she said. "We also have a new treasurer on board, so when we all meet together at the board retreat in January, we will talk about the five-year financial forecast and a funding plan, so that we'll have an idea when we'll need to ask voters for more operating money.

"We also have to know when we will need funds for more capital-improvement needs," she said. "The bond issue should address many of our capital needs over the next five years, but we need to have a clear idea of our financial resources and what is needed to support our instructional program."

Both certified and classified employees unions will begin negotiations with the school district in 2008, Conrath said.

"Negotiations will come up at the beginning of the year and we will work with our associations to talk about new contracts," she said. "We're looking forward to successful negotiations with both associations."

The district also will look at how to improve communication, Conrath said.

"We will continue to work with our school partners and enhance our communication to residents, especially those who don't have students attending school in the district," she said. "We need to do a better job on that."

"We need to make sure all of our students have the basic skills they need to succeed, and we know we have a lot of work to do in that area."

--Melissa Conrath