ADMINISTRATION BUILDING 835 OLD CLAIRTON ROAD JEFFERSON HILLS, PA 15025 PHONE 412.655.8450 FAX 412.655.9544 www. wjhsd. net
MESSAGE FROM
Dr. Michael Ghilani West Jefferson Hills School District Superintendent est Jefferson Hills WEST JEFFERSON HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
With the formation of a new leadership team this summer, it was the perfect time to re-evaluate our current practices and re-focus the district in order to reach heights that have never before been attained. The parent, teacher, and student surveys that were administered as part of my hundred-day plan gave us valuable data to develop and shape the vision of the district and our goals over the course of the next three years.
It was crystal clear from all stakeholders in the surveys that the single most important metric by which district success would be measured is student growth. It was refreshing to see such an overwhelming amount of support that was consistent with the beliefs and values of our administrative team; thus, our overarching goal of the district’ s three-year comprehensive plan was to
personalize the educational experience for every child in order to guarantee at least one year of academic and socio-emotional growth for every year of instruction. By using data from Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System( PVAAS) projects, Northwest Evaluation Association( NWEA) benchmarking, and results from PSSA, Keystone, and PSAT tests, we will know the expected growth versus the actual growth for every child every year. This overarching goal drove the creation of our three-year
48 West Jefferson Hills
comprehensive plan which can be viewed in detail on the district’ s website at www. wjhsd. net. I encourage everyone to visit the website and view the plan to gain a better understanding of where the district is headed over the next three years.
The next step of our plan was to again utilize the survey data as well as a human-centered design activity with our administrators and school board to identify the district’ s personal and organizational core values. All good organizations know their“ why” and what they believe on a personal and organizational level. After a thorough review of the data, our personal core values became Empathy, Respect, and Integrity. Our organizational core values are to deliver a personalized learning system, create a learner-centric focus, and foster positive relationships. The faculty, staff and students have all embraced these core values and it is
evident in their daily lessons and activities. In addition to our district social media channels, all of our administrators and schools have taken to Twitter to share the many positive events and learning initiatives happening on a daily basis that exemplify our core values. We have adopted the twitter hashtag of # WErTJ to be used on all of our tweets to see our core
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on Twitter! @ GhilaniMike @ MPattersonWJHSD @ stmilburn @ emwst12 @ PrincipalSef @ WJHSD @ GH _ WJHSD @ MrsMerwin @ vpzunic @ PWareTJHS @ phmsjaguars @ McClellan _ WJHSD @ JES _ wjhsd
values in action each day. A list of our district twitter accounts is included above, and we encourage you to follow us throughout the year.
I thank you for your continued support and look forward to many new and exciting things in the New Year ahead. Wishing you and your families peace and happiness throughout the holiday season.
Dr. Michael Ghilani