Thank you again for your willingness to offer your time and energy by serving on Mission and Beliefs committee. As we discussed this is the first task to be accompished before many of the other SACS committees can accomplish their work. We must complete all of our committee work by Feb. 1 but we need to settle on a draft of Vision, Mission and Belief statements for the next Faculty meeting on Oct. 17. The visit by evaluators from SACS will take place over 2 days around April 28.
As a group we decided that we should start with the Vision statement followed by the Mission and Belief statements. We agreed that by next Wed. we will all bring Vision statements and Mission statements for review by the committee. If this is not possible members can review samples provided in packets that I have sent to you and highlight phrases and/or words that seem compelling and worthy of consideration. We will focus on Vision first and if there's time, the Mission statement. Our next meeting will take place on Wed. Sept. 28 from 3:30-4:30. If we want to meet on a Monday in the future we can always change it. (I don't recall if we thought Mondays were completely out or not.)
We discussed a few examples of statements along with definitions and guidelines for what constitutes a vision statement and a mission statements. Some of the samples are confusing so that it's hard to tell them apart.
These are some notes from the meeting. If you recall something that I should have included, let me know.
Our two terrific students on the committee will get smaller packets just including the sample Mission/Vision statement material. I don't want to add to their burden of work because they work so hard as students and need plenty of time for fun and rest. If you two really want all of the items, just let me know.
Please feel free to bring a beverage and snack to have during the meeting.
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Items being sent to students:
Samples of Mission and Vision statements (13 pages)
Items being sent to rest of committee:
Samples
SMS School Improvement Plan
"Creating a Vision"
Breakthrough School Improvement Chapter One on Vision
"How People Learn" Key findings
"APA Learner-Centered Psychological Principles"
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Committee: Janet McCullough, Karen Byars, Patti King, Cori Raines,
Danna Williams, Pamela Tarwater, Kelsey Bailey and Anthony Zamora
Second SACS#1 Meeting: 9/28/05
Dear Committee Members:
Wow! We had a fine, productive meeting, indeed. After review several
examples of Vision statements and the draft statements and ideas that our
members brought we settled on a good one. See attached.
We will meet on Monday (Oct. 3 at 3:30), Please bring ideas for our
Mission statement and Beliefs in case we have time. --Janet
Third SACS#1 Meeting: 10/3/05
Dear committee members:
Cori, Karen, Pamela, Danna and I worked together until 4:50 pm yesterday
thrashing out a new Mission Statement. (I apologize for not keeping track
of time but it seemed like we were on a roll and wanted put this baby to
bed.) Attached is our draft Mission Statement.
Compare the draft with the current one on the SMS webpage:
SMS strives to educate and guide young people to become active, responsible
citizens and lifelong learners.
Also from the most recent SMS School Improvement Plan:
Sevierville Middle School envisions the future opportunities and challenges
that all students will encounter in a rapidly changing and increasingly
complex society. The faculty and staff accept the challenge and responsibility
to provide an educational atmosphere that will enable student to maximize
his/her full academic, social, physical, and emotional potential.
We also need to make sure the mission and vision statements are related.
Since we cannot meet on Wed., we scheduled our next meeting for Monday, Oct. 10, and probably another one for Wednesday, Oct. 12. We have to have the Mission,Vision and Belief statements ready for the faculty meeting on the following Monday.
Thanks again for all of your time and energy. SMS really appreciates
your enthusiasm and interest in SMS.
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Fourth SACS#1 Meeting: 10/10/05
With copy to: Anthony Zamora
We just completed our 4th meeting and gave our brain cells a workout
once again.
This is what we accomplished:
--revised the Vision statement to define our "community of learners."
--examined belief statements provided by committee members and other
sources
--combined belief statements into one list of statements
--discussed how belief statements relate to both mission and vision
statements
--discussed how we will present our product to the faculty (to be continued
on Wed.)
--ended our meeting on time (at 4:30)
--agreed to meet next on this coming Wednesday, Oct. 12
Thanks again for your help, everybody!
Fifth SACS#1 Meeting: 10/12/05
We met a second time this week to polish up the mission, vision and
belief statements in preparation for the faculty meeting on the 17th.
Our plan was to present our work to the faculty for discussion and approval.
We also prepared a survey for faculty and other stakeholders to complete
by the end of next week.
Sixth SACS#1 Meeting: 11/9/05
We met and discussed how we can provide all of the evidence for standards
1.1 thought 1.6. We were concerned about duplicating the work of
other standards committees and questioned how to operationalize standards
1.2 and 1.3.
1.1 We engaged stakeholders by involving teachers, parents and studnets
in the committee work and surveyed all faculty, administration and staff.
We will send the survey to business sponsors obtained through the PTO.
1.2 Not sure - Janet will check with other chairs and get notes of
their meetings
1.3 Not sure - Janet gave copy of mission/vision/beliefs to all chairs
1.4 Include research we referred to in developing/revising the mission/vision/belief
statements
1.5 Look into school improvement documentation for each year
1.6 We made a list of ways to build understanding -
Handbook for 7th and 8th gr. And planner for 6th gr. - Danna will look
into this
Yearbook-ask about having mission, vision and beliefs inserted this
year - Cori
Mission poster out front - Cori
Include discussion and activities in PRIDE - extra pts in Soc.St. for
students who memorize? - Karen
Have mission statement revised and include vision/beliefs on webpage
- Janet
Suggest to SACS #8 to send out packets on mission/vision/beliefs to
business sponsors and others