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Pickerington Schools transforming curriculum
(by Anne Holmes, staff writer - August 20, 2009)
The curriculum department at Pickerington Schools is undergoing a complete transformation.
In addition to the usual summertime tasks performed by administrators, this year, the Curriculum Department has been turned into the Department of Teaching and Learning.
Superintendent Dr. Karen Mantia said the term "curriculum department" is an outdated concept. The work is about teaching and learning, and this reorganization centers the work and workers in the locations that best serve the students and teachers of the district - the school buildings, she said.
The goal for this new, de-centralized organization structure is to help teachers teach, she said.
"The work that needs to be done needs to be done closest to the children," Mantia said.
The most obvious change of the reorganization is staff that used to work at the central office are now assigned into the school buildings where they serve as a resource for principals and core teams leaders working directly with classroom teachers.
The former curriculum department employees now will direct their efforts to dissecting learning data and designing new instructional approaches to better serve the unique needs of individual students, Mantia said.
In addition, each building will have a technical resource person responsible for identifying learning issues and then working with the core teams and coaches to figure out how to best utilize technology to help students learn.
Mantia pointed out that instruction can improve by "meeting the needs of all different learners."
With the continuing goal of controlling expenses, Mantia emphasized that this reorganization was completed without any additional cost to the district and that there has been a reduction in staff by two. One person retired from the department at the end of last school year and another has left the district.
Information about the reorganization is available on the new district Web site at www.pickerington.k12.oh.us and Mantia will provide a detailed presentation outlining all of the changes at the next school board meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 14 at Heritage Elementary School.
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