Standard 5.  Resource & Support Systems

STANDARD: The system has the resources and services necessary to support its vision and purpose and to ensure achievement for all students. 

Impact Statement: A system is successful in meeting this standard when it has sufficient human, material, and fiscal resources to implement a curriculum that: enables students to achieve expectations for student learning, meets special needs, and complies with applicable regulations.  The system employs and allocates staff well-qualified for their assignments.  The system provides ongoing learning opportunities for all staff to improve their effectiveness.  The system ensures compliance with applicable local, state, and federal regulations. 

Indicators Rubric: Please indicate the degree to which the noted practices/processes are in place in the school system.  The responses to the rubric should help the school system identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement as well as guide and inform the school system's responses to the focus questions. 

Indicators Evidence: For each Indicator, click the (Add Evidence) link to provide examples of evidence that support the rubric response. 

Definitions of Indicators Rubric
Not Evident - Little or no evidence exists
Emerging - Evidence indicates early or preliminary stages of implementation of practice
Operational - Evidence indicates practices and procedures are actively implemented
Highly Functional - Evidence indicates practices and procedures are fully integrated and effectively and consistently implemented 

INDICATORS: Human Resources.  In fulfillment of this standard, the system:

5.1 Establishes and implements processes to recruit, employ, retain, and mentor qualified professional and support staff to fulfill assigned roles and responsibilities:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Personnel policies ensuring appropriate hiring practices; Personnel policies ensuring certification, licensure, evaluation, training; Program descriptions: Special Needs Populations; Staff Handbooks; Student Handbook; Schedules: District, School, Extra-Curricular; Transportation; Professional learning opportunities; IEP: Individualized Education Plans; Agendas, minutes, decisions for district and school level IEP meetings; Staff schedules and assignments; District staff can affirm that special needs students receive needed support; Native language usage is evident for the purpose of supporting learning; Appropriate space is provided for special need support programs

5.2 Establishes and implements a process to assign professional and support staff based on system needs and staff qualifications as may be required by federal and state law and regulations (i.e., professional preparation, ability, knowledge, and experience):

Operational

Operational

Operational

Evidence Provided: Personnel policies and practices; Master schedule; Policies regarding NCLB highly qualified teachers; Class size indicates appropriate and effective support of student learning

INDICATORS: Financial Resources.  In fulfillment of this standard, the system:

5.5 Engages in long-range budgetary planning and annually budgets sufficient resources to support its educational programs and to implement its plans for improvement:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Annual budget - current, forecasted, fund-equity; School-level budgets; State and Federal program budgets for targeted support; Consolidated Application (federal); Fiscal policies: use of all funding, including donations, reserves, discretionary; Facilities protection documentation: insurance, amortization; Purchasing/replacement policies: adherence to EEO; Infrastructure plans: short and long range; Space is adequate and appropriate to support student learning; Practices that support appropriate use of allocated funds

5.6 Ensures that all financial transactions are safeguarded through proper budgetary procedures and audited accounting measures:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Audit reports; Organizational oversight of fiscal authority; Fiscal protection plans: insurance; Payroll and purchasing policies and processes; Secure management of all fiscal processes; Practices that support appropriate use of fiscal resources

INDICATORS: Physical Resources.  In fulfillment of this standard, the system:

5.7 Maintains sites, facilities, services, and equipment to provide a safe, orderly, and healthy environment:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Facilities maintenance reports and plans; Policies and processes regarding safety; Policies and processes related to student/staff injury; Policies regarding dispensing prescription medications; Calendar of safety drills: fire, tornado, emergency crisis; State and Federal regulations regarding special program safety requirements; Stakeholder survey data supporting safety; District-wide environment is clean and safe; All district-wide facilities are properly maintained; District support staff are knowledgeable about safety policies

5.8 Establishes and implements written security and crisis management plans with appropriate training for stakeholders:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Crisis intervention plan; Student Handbook; Staff Handbook; Secure record system; Emergency procedures; Wellness policy; District staff are involved in the crisis intervention team; Health support staff are available; District staff and students are knowledgeable about emergency procedures

5.9 Implements processes and plans for maintaining and improving sites, facilities, and equipment:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Policies and procedures for maintaining and improving physical assets: site facilities, infrastructure, equipment, etc.; Physical assets plan: short-term and long-range; Appropriate district staff affirm their knowledge of the plan for physical asset maintenance and replacement; Other: Follett online inventory system

Highly Functional

Evidence Provided: Policies and procedures for maintaining and improving technology infrastructure: hardware and software; Policies and procedures regarding the purchase of technology tools; Policies and procedures regarding appropriate internet access; District staff are knowledgeable about the short and long range plans for maintenance and replacement of technology infrastructure; Stakeholders are knowledgeable about policies regarding appropriate internet access

INDICATORS: Support Systems.  In fulfillment of this standard, the system:

5.11 Provides and coordinates support services that meet the health, counseling, nutrition, safety, co­curricular, transportation, and special learning needs of all students:

Operational

Evidence Provided: Staffing of Counseling and Guidance programs; Student referral policies and practices; Alternative Education Program; Policies and procedures that are ADA and IDEA compliant; Special Needs Department/Committee; Master schedules demonstrating support for special needs; Stakeholder survey data supporting special needs programs; Teacher certification, licensure, etc. supporting special needs; Student referral process and procedures; IEP: committee, minutes, calendar, agenda, sign-in sheets; Professional development calendar and topics; Policies regarding use of languages other than English for district communication; Students and staff affirm their understanding of special needs populations; District monitors instruction for special needs inclusion; District provides guidelines for Response To Intervention program and is demonstrated at classroom level; District provides guidelines for classroom instruction that demonstrates variety of instructional methodologies to support all students; Other: Bullying Prevention programs

5.12 Provides student support services coordinated with the school, home, and community:

Highly Functional

Evidence Provided: Guidance and Counseling Department/Committee; Curriculum for Career Preparation; Career Preparation Department/Committee; Orientation to Career Preparation programs; Master schedule indicates availability of career preparation; Community based programs; Job Placement program; Staff assigned to career preparation programs; Students are knowledgeable about career planning programs; Students are enrolled in career preparation; District staff are knowledgeable in all aspects of appropriate social/emotional support for student learning behavior; Other: Graduate First Program, Parent Mentor Partnership

Focus Questions:

1.  What is the school system's process for recruitment, induction, placement, development, evaluation, and retention of qualified professional and support staff across the system and its schools?

With the current economic situation, there is little turn over in the system, but recruiting highly qualified teachers, especially in areas of special education and math, to fill job openings remains a challenge.  Because of a limited pool of qualified candidates, system leaders have been resourceful in their means to recruit highly qualified teachers.  The system advertises available positions on Teach Georgia, a recruitment web site for Georgia's public schools, and actively participates in area job fairs when there are job openings.  Those within the system are constantly on the lookout for experienced or new teachers who are willing to travel to the county. The system maintains a close working relationship with the University of West Georgia by placing numerous undergraduates in system classrooms for practicum and student teaching.  Two Haralson County School System employees regularly teach part-time in the College of Education at the University which further supports our relationship and recruitment of highly qualified applicants.

Induction is an ongoing process for new staff members.  An initial orientation, led by the district leadership team, is held for new staff members at the beginning of each school year.  During the orientation, new hires have the opportunity to get acquainted with system personnel and their job responsibilities, are given a general overview of the system, and are provided a list of available supporting resources, as well as inducted in practices, policies, processes, and ethics.  Personnel handbooks, which are provided to all staff members yearly with pertinent updates, are reviewed with new staff during the orientation.  Mentors are paired with new teachers at each school to provide support and ongoing induction on the daily operations of the school.  Teachers at grade levels or in content areas also serve as a resource for new staff members.  Support staff, assistive technology trainers, and consultants provide training in the use of technology, software, and related equipment.  Consultants are brought in from the University of West Georgia, Regional Educational Service Agencies (RESA), the Georgia Department of Education (GADOE), and other professional learning agencies.

Staff members are placed in specific positions based on appropriate certification, experiences, strengths, and past references.  Previous classroom assessment data are used to identify personnel strengths and weaknesses and are also considered when filling teaching assignments.  For new candidates, the hiring process involves a team of peers and supervisors (including GADOE staff and community members when appropriate).  The team conducts the interview using standard questions with a scoring rubric and follows up by checking references and past work history.  Then staff members are hired and placed in appropriate positions.  When the system has been unable to fill positions with suitable candidates, long term substitutes have been used until qualified candidates are found. 

The system provides ongoing professional learning that is needs-based and job-embedded in a variety of ways.  Northwest Georgia RESA is a tremendous source of support in meeting individual professional growth needs as well as systemic needs.  Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI) is used to build leadership capacity within the system and to help institute a “Plan, Do, Check, Act” process of continuous improvement that ensures systemic alignment of targeted initiatives.  Support personnel from the Georgia Department of Education and RESAs ensure that staff members are trained in Class Keys and Georgia Performance Standards and have also supported content specific training.  Participation in the State Personnel Development Grant provides resources for professional development in early intervention, educational, and transition services in order to improve results for children with disabilities.  Georgia School Boards Association and outside consultants have worked diligently with board members.  Select teachers have been trained through the Georgia Assistive Technology consortium to develop an assistive technology team for ongoing job-embedded learning for teachers of students with disabilities.  In addition to these resources, a variety of public and private agencies provides guidance to support systemic initiatives.  When appropriate, academic coaches, special education facilitators, and/or teachers leaders conduct professional learning activities.  As needs are identified for specific staff members, consultants and resources are sought to best meet these needs.  This support might be related to content specific instruction or classroom management.  Professional learning teams made up of teachers, academic coaches, and administrators provide for the ongoing development of instructional staff.  Teachers through the eighth grade meet in grade level and content area teams, and teachers at the high school level meet by departments, to participate in grade/content specific professional learning.  After participating in voluntary GAPSS Analyses, in collaboration with the Teaching and Learning Department, professional learning priorities were identified for each school.   These priorities are aligned with the System Strategic Improvement Plan and are articulated on individual School Improvement Plans.

Evaluation of staff is done both formally and informally.  The official tools for formal evaluations are the Georgia Teacher Evaluation Program for certified staff and a system developed leader evaluation instrument aligned to Georgia’s Leader Keys.  A second observation instrument, the Standard-based Classroom Observation Checklist, provides formative information to help teachers improve in the area of standards-based instruction and is based on Georgia’s Class Keys.  These instruments provide rubrics for observable best practices and are aligned with Georgia Standards.  System personnel are familiar with the expectations and use guidelines to influence professional growth.  Administrators and academic coaches frequently visit classrooms to monitor instructional practices and provide specific feedback based on observation results.  All schools participated in voluntary Georgia Assessment of Performance on School Standards (GAPSS) analyses and used the results to target system and school level goals. 

Retention of staff has not been a great concern in the past, except in the area of special education and math; however, recent trends indicate progress in this area, partly because of the surplus of teachers currently in the state.  Some staff members do not live in Haralson County and drive in from surrounding districts.  As jobs (often with higher local supplements) have become available closer to home, employees have chosen to transfer.  Realizing the challenges this presents for continuous school improvement, the system has premeditated ways to stop this trend.  While monetary supplements are not feasible, the concept of building and empowering teams to drive school improvement initiatives has resulted in a sense of ownership for success.  This degree of collaborative accountability has helped to create camaraderie among staff members and is supported in structure through the use of school Leadership Teams.  In addition, system and school leaders strive to retain highly qualified professionals and support staff by developing a positive, supportive work environment.

2.  How does the leadership ensure that the allocation of financial resources is supportive of the school system's vision, programs, services, and its plans for continuous improvement?

The leadership ensures that the allocation of financial resources is supportive of the school system’s vision, programs, services, and its plan for continuous improvement by following a process that is aligned and monitored by system-level personnel.  Deliberate decisions are made which support the system’s strategic goals as identified on the System Strategic Improvement Plan and Balanced Scorecard, and school improvement plans.  The system is careful to support only those initiatives that are proven to be effective and founded in research-based best practices.  The process for expenditures involves procedures that are in strict compliance with legal guidelines and requires the completion of purchase orders that must be approved at the system level.  Audit reports of bookkeeping records, fund raisers, grants, and program reviews are conducted periodically to serve as a check-and-balance system.  Teachers and administrators are made aware of these procedures through the annual personnel handbook.

During summer Communities of Learning & Achievement (COLA) meetings, school leadership teams, Central Office personnel, and GLISI consultants meet for several days to develop and align the system and school improvement plans and discuss areas of financial need based on the previous year’s data and the results of the annual needs assessment survey completed by administrators, staff, and parents.  School leadership teams use their school improvement plans to assess resources and identify needs that are then put into their building level budget through a priority list system.  Specific needs of students with disabilities are addressed using both prioritization and immediacy through the system’s special education facilitators, who work in conjunction with building level administrators and central office personnel.  As funds become available through various federal, grant-funded, or local funds, items are ordered, inventoried, and then distributed to the appropriate personnel.  The greatest strain on the budget currently is the lack of funding for personnel in the local and Quality Basic Education (QBE) budgets.  Federal and grant funded monies are plentiful for supplies, supplemental resources, and technology to serve the individual needs of the students.  Internal stakeholder input on budgets is gathered through department/grade level meetings and Leadership Team meetings where priority lists are developed based on the needs of the students as evidenced through assessment data.  Budget decisions on curriculum and intervention materials are made by the school and system level administration by examining research-based materials and deciding which materials best meet the needs of our students.  External stakeholder input for financial expenditures is reviewed with the appropriate groups when deciding on how to spend particular funds.  For example, the School Councils are consulted in the decision-making process on how to spend parent involvement money.  Two Title I meetings are held each year in the spring and the fall to collaborate with parents on the expenditure of Title I funds and parent involvement activities.

3.  How does the school system ensure, support, and monitor the provision of resource and support services that meet the needs of all students?

Because of the unique needs of the community, the school system supports and maintains a symbiotic relationship with partnering agencies that provide invaluable services to students within the schools.  Below are descriptions of some of these partnerships:

1.    The staff of Solutions and Tanner Behavioral Health agencies is provided consultative space to meet with students and their families. 

2.    The school system is an active partner in a court appointed Local Interagency Partnership Team (LIPT) that works with families and students who are in high risk situations and require monitoring by the court. 

3.    Truancy Treatment Team (system social worker, community juvenile justice members, and families) meet regularly to provide support and community linkages for students who are having attendance issues.

4.    Space for probation officers is provided at school sites, and in turn they provide officers to support security and safety at school or system sponsored activities. 

5.    The school system received the Improving Literacy through School Libraries Grant to work in collaboration with the two local libraries to support and collaborate on community literacy initiatives.

6.    Through the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, the 4-H Program is provided for students. 

7.    West Georgia Technical College maintains a partnership with the system through their participation in Career Days, vocational programs, and dual enrollment.

8.    The University of West Georgia collaborates on several grants for teacher quality in the areas of math, science, social studies, and special education.  Haralson County Schools also place many of the teacher candidates from the University’s College of Education in all grades and content areas which provides a rich pool of new teachers from which to recruit.

9.    Haralson County School System is one of 83 systems in the state to actively participate in the Georgia Parent Mentor Partnership.  Our Parent Mentors work to build school, community, and family partnerships that improve the achievements of all students, particularly those with disabilities.   

10.  Haralson County School System participates in Graduate First, a grant program through the U.S.  DOE Office of Special Education and GLRS that focuses on improving graduation rates for students with disabilities and students at-risk of dropping out.

11.  Haralson County Schools participate in the backpack program where area churches provide meals for the weekend for needy students.

In addition to these external support services, the system supports numerous initiatives that are intended to assist in meeting the needs of all students.  Some of these include:

1.    Credit recovery opportunities using online courseware during the day and after school.  After school sessions include support from system paid content teachers. 

2.    After school tutoring available to any student in grades K-12 with snack and transportation provided.

3.    Intensive remediation based on the comprehensive benchmark in the weeks prior to the CRCT

4.    “Crunch Week” activities based on the diagnostic test to prepare for the GHSGT

5.    Targeted small group tutoring following the CRCT for struggling students. 

6.    Targeted post-CRCT acceleration for students who meet standards. 

7.    Implementation of inclusion/co-teaching model for students with disabilities. 

8.    Training of new staff on technology equipment and system initiatives.   

9.    Assistive technology training and equipment to support special education students. 

10.  Classroom observations by principals, assistant principals, academic coaches, and system-level staff to monitor instruction.

11.  Teams consisting of the superintendent,  system-level staff, school counselors, school administration, and the system social worker conduct “Home Excursions” to visit the homes of students who are struggling or families who have a hard time getting to schools for parent involvement activities.

12.  A variety of programs are provided through grants for students with disabilities and Homeless, Migrant, ESOL, and Gifted  students throughout the school year and over the summer to provide parent workshops and involvement activities,  tutoring, enrichment, school supplies, clothing, food, and eyecare and dental visits for those students who qualify. 

In addition to the above programs and initiatives, a combination of local, state and federal funds is utilized to maintain critical positions to meet the various needs of all students:

1.    School Nurses and Counselors are located at each school to meet the health and social/emotional needs of students. 

2.    System hospital/homebound teacher to serve students who are unable to come to school.

3.    Licensed School Psychologists provide group counseling for students recommended by their teachers or through the RTI process. 

4.    Adaptive PE teacher at the middle school to meet the specific needs of students with disabilities

5.    A system-wide teacher of deaf/hard of hearing and vision impaired students.

6.    Occupational, physical, and speech pathologists, both full-time and contract services.

7.    System Social Worker who coordinates homeless and migrant programs and is the truancy, juvenile court, and behavioral treatment liaison. 

8.    Two special education facilitators/parent mentors who support students with disabilities by collaborating with teachers, administration, and families to coordinate and monitor both in and out of school interventions. 

9.    Federal funding to provide for additional special education teachers and paraprofessionals. 

10.  Federal funding of academic coaches. 

11.  Paraprofessional to work with students and families who qualify for migrant programs. 

12.  Lead bus drivers who monitor and ensure the safety and security of system bus transportation.

13.  Two technology specialists to train and support teachers and the system in various media and technology initiatives and programs.

14.  School resource officers at the middle and high school.

15.  The system monitors these initiatives and partnerships by ensuring that school employees serve on committees and provide reports on progress at leadership and program team meetings and at school board meetings.   

Overall Assessment:

Operational: The school district has human, material, and fiscal resources to implement a curriculum that enables students to achieve expectations for student learning, to meet special needs, and to comply with applicable regulations.  The district employs and allocates staff members who are well qualified for their assignments.  The district provides ongoing learning opportunities for all staff to improve their effectiveness, including both professional and support staff.  The district ensures compliance with applicable local, state, and federal regulations.