Help our Unique Students Develop is the continued mission for the Holbrook Unified School District (HUSD) as it looks forward to 2018.
Superintendent Dr. Robbie Koerperich said, “Our overarching goal is to help HUSD become a great school system.”
While the district currently has three schools rated as “C” schools through the Arizona State School Rating system, Hulet Elementary received a “B” rating. The district is aiming to attain A or B ratings at all their schools, because as Koerperich said, “We believe our students deserve to be among the best of the best schools in Arizona.”
Toward that end, HUSD is looking to raise the four year graduation rate to 90 percent with the five year graduation rate reaching 100 percent. Currently the district is teetering between 85 and 87 percent rate. “We know that a high school diploma is a lifeline to a better job, higher incomes and job security,” said Koerperich, “we not only want our students to attain a diploma, but we want that diploma to mean they are college and/or career ready at graduation day.”
Koerperich is aware that the students of today need to be ready to enter the work place not just as workers but as individuals who know how to think critically and implement math, language and science skills. “Kids now have the opportunity to build skills in high school and enter the job market at a higher level,” stated Koerperich. “They can be certified nursing assistants, cosmetologists, welders, builders, auto mechanics or they can be ready for college.”
The district aspires to become a leader in education at all levels, including local, state and national. “We want a world-class education for our students,” Koerperich noted. “And we want the schools in our district to be recognized for their hard work and successes.”
In addition to these goals, the district continues to recruit, develop and retain the highest quality of teachers. They are also looking to engage the parents in a “more authentic manner.”
Some programs that have been started include the new mentoring system implemented by the Holbrook Junior High School that promotes parental contact with a mentor. As Koerperich shared instead of the parents having to deal with seven teachers, through this program, they work with the mentor to understand what their child is doing. An underlying goal of the program is to engage more fathers and male role models in the education process.
“Right now approximately 80 percent of the parents or guardians that attend parent-teacher conferences are mothers, aunties and grandmothers,” said Koerperich. “We want to increase the percentage of males participating in the education process.”
Another focal area is to keep wellness an essential part of the school system by continuing to grow the Healthy Holbrook program, enhance food service, engage more kids in physical wellness while providing opportunities for staff wellness.
Finally, Koerperich wants to remind the district residents that HUSD will be seeking voter approval for the continuation of the Maintenance and Operations (M&O) override this coming November. “The current override has had 35 years of voter support,” said Koerperich. “We are very fortunate to serve communities that support education.”
There will be no changes to the override, which is at 10 percent and generates approximately $1.2 million for the district each year. The money is used to facilitate smaller class sizes, give teachers competitive salaries, and enable music and physical education to be a part of the school day as well as supporting extra-curricular activities and advanced college prep classes.
