Cory Elementary and Merrill Middle School submitted a joint School Innovation Planning Grant proposal on October 1, 2007, to create a high performing school model on the entire Cory Merrill Campus. The planning process expanded to include community members from all the feeder elementary schools (Cory, Ellis, Steele, and University Park), Merrill Middle School, and South High Schoool. On August 23, 2008, the community met to redefine the project as the Merrill Community Campus Coalition to reflect the expanded vision for the grant.
The goal of this planning process is create a submit a School Innovation/Beacon Grant to DPS on October 21, 2008. The grant will support plans for a unified effort amongst all partner schools to create a culture of excellence that helps build a new vision for the Merrill Community Campus:
The Merrill Community Campus is a learning community that
promotes a culture of excellence through rigorous academics and a strong
emphasis on responsibility, caring, and respect. We prepare students for their roles as
citizens, workers, and lifelong learners in the 21st Century.
If the grant is approved, the new campus-wide model that would begin implementation beginning in August
2009.
Core Values and Principles
The planning process for this new model actually began several years ago through the leadership of parents and in partnership with the schools and DPS administration. Focus groups and community forums generated a list of core values and principles for creating the new model, and a list of questions to be decided during the planning process.
Core Values and Principles
We want a neighborhood/community school focus
We expect our school to be academically rigorous for all learners
We plan to meet needs of diverse learners
There should be a seamless integration of programs between schools on the same campus
Arts infusion/integration will strengthen our program
HGT, GT, and/or Honors strands will run throughout all grade levels
We will place a strong emphasis on culture and character: responsibility, caring, respect
We want to explore a thematic approach to learning
The planning process has been facilitated and coordinated by a Coordinating Committee comprising 24 members that reflect the diversity of parents, teachers, neighbors and businesses in the community. The Coordinating Committee will seek input from all stakeholder groups as it moves throughout the final process, and use that input to propose options to the broader Coalition for final decisions about the model to be submitted in the October 2008 SIG/Beacon Proposal to the district.
The planning process will move through 3 phases: community conversations, focused inquiry, shared decisions. The community conversations begin with broadly shared values of the plan, move toward common understandings of those ideas and how they impact the possible design of the campus model. Based on these first steps, the Coordinating Committee will help lead a focused inquiry into the best models available to meet the community's goals, and then make shared decisions about the blueprint for designing the best possible campus model. This process will begin in December 2007 and be completed in the fall of 2008.
Click on the "Planning Process" link above to download a process map.
