Morristown Elementary School District

Morristown Parents and Stakeholders,

As we move into November, we understand that we are quickly winding down the first semester of the school year. Our role as educators, along with the ultimate mission and vision of the district, is to ensure that we properly prepare our students for success as they move through life and into future academic endeavors.

In November, the Arizona State Board of Education released its A–F school labels. Unfortunately, I need to report that Morristown Elementary School received a letter grade of a “D”. This is a big change from the school’s past performances and an aspect that is unacceptable. In my short time here at the school, I have fully recognized the many good thing that our school accomplishes. This is creating a safe, supportive, and nurturing environment for our students. We have small class sizes ensuring a greater opportunity for involvement of our youth. Youth of today have many more challenges than we did when we were in school. Regardless of all this, our job at Morristown is to ensure our students’ academic performance takes second to none. We have and continue to look at our academic programs to ensure we are accomplishing what we need to do.

As a result of the “D” label, the school has formulated a team that will work with the Arizona Department of Education on the school improvement process. This team will work collectively together to determine the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and will look for root causes that are impacting student academic performance. We have put interventions into place and are reviewing our curriculum to ensure we are addressing the grade-level standards. We are proud that we have one-to-one Chromebooks for students in grades three through eight. We have updated some of our interactive boards in our classrooms and look to improve their usage. Our job is to maximize the use of technology that can support and enhance academic development. We have a strong focus on improving in the area of reading this year. We have identified a Title I coordinator, and have brought on a reading interventionist in supporting the implementation of the 95 Percent Program. We have also added paraprofessionals from the past year. These are only a sample of current steps we are taking to support our teachers in the classroom.

We cannot change our past performance, but we can be proactive and assertive to address deficiencies and to build a stronger program. With everyone’s support, we will eventually attain the “A” label that we will be striving for.

Thanks,