The PTO Board is looking forward to another great school year! However, we cannot do it without you! Please considering partnering with us and joining the PTO. All active PTO members will receive 10% all apparel and spirit wear all school year. Visit http://pto.voyageracademy.net/join-pto-online for more information, including the calendar of events!
On Facebook? Please like the Voyager Academy PTO page, just another way to get important PTO information right at your fingertips.
Another opportunity for parent participation is participate on the School Improvement Team (SIT). As PTO President, I serve on this committee and am excited about the work they are doing for our school. We would love addition parent participation from other parents. Some background
SIT is a team of administrators, teachers, students and parents that was formed to develop a school improvement plan, which is reviewed annually. The initial goal was to have the SIT teamwork towards documenting a school improvement plan in conjunction with the Advance ED accreditation in 2015-2016. Since that time, SIT has focused upon 3-4 priority areas each academic year thereafter.
SIT’s membership includes approximately 12 parents, approximately 12 administrators and teachers, and, when fully subscribed, 4 high school student representatives.
Most recently, SIT spent time and energy on the following priorities:
i. Partner with PTO leadership on formalizing a parent liaison network to provide more targeted support to teachers, and to enhance communication among parents by class and grade level, in order to build a more cohesive and engaged community of volunteers and advocates.
ii. Review and recommend a social and emotional learning curricular framework, which resulted in the adoption of the “11 Principles” character education model.
iii. Assess and promote additional measures to reinforce Project-Based Learning (PBL) methods, a hallmark of the Voyager identity, including additional professional development training through the Buck Institute. There is further work to do to communicate and reinforce information about PBL throughout the community.
iv. Encourage and endorse a “catch-up raise” pay scale plan for Voyager teachers, to retain our great teachers by reducing the compensation deficit for Voyager teachers as compared to DPS teachers (using a graduated scale approach recommended by a committee of teachers).
If you have any questions, please contact pto@voyageracademy.net
Feel free to contact me at buchanan@law.duke.edu if you have suggestions for the School Improvement Team, or if you wish to be considered as a prospective future member of SIT.
Thank you for all that you do as parents and members of this great Voyager community to help our children and teachers thrive. Have a great school year. Go Vikings!
Kate Buchanan
Mom of Blake ’18, Holden ’20 and Graham ’24