Crete Public Schools want your voice to be heard.
Thrive at Crete High will provide a place for teacher voices, community voices, parent voices and student voices, CPS Superintendent Joshua McDowell said.
Crete High School thrives to provide a world-class experience for its students, faculty and staff.
When McDowell became superintendent of Crete Public Schools in 2019, he said the first thing he did was sit back and listen. He tried to gain a better understanding of where the district and each building were.
One of the first things he noticed was that the high school was interested in providing a world-class experience for the kids.
“We are going to clearly define what it means to graduate from Crete High,” McDowell said.
One of the parents sent McDowell an email with contact of the CEO and founder, Bill Eckstom of the EcSell Institute. EcSell Institute is a business management consultant that helps develop stronger leaders and effective managers. McDowell met with Eckstrom to share his vision of this project.
“We decided that we can do this, and we can do this together,” McDowell said.
Thrive at Crete High will be somewhat of a strategic plan for the high school, McDowell said.
This will be the first time that Crete Public Schools will work on the three areas of academics, athletics and activities at the same time.
Each area will be shaped by teacher, community, student and parent feedback.
Focus groups – one for each area – will consist of teachers, parents, community members and students.
McDowell and the High School Leadership team met recently to discuss the timeline and start to brainstorm who to reach out to fill the focus groups.
After each focus group is engaged and data is collected, the school district will have a good idea of the direction the school should go. The results will be shared with the community.
The roll-out to the community will be on Aug. 7. The whole staff and community will be addressed with the initial launch of Thrive at Crete High.
McDowell estimated that all the focus groups may not be done by the roll-out. Once the other groups have completed, then another community meeting will be planned to share results.
“Another part of the plan is open, transparent communication with anybody who wants to be a part of this,” McDowell said.
As feedback is collected, the information will shape the classes offered, what instruction looks like and if there are other changes that need to be made.
“Through the eyes of students, Crete High School builds positive relationships and creates individualized challenging experiences in a safe environment which leads to personal growth,” McDowell said in the student experience statement.
The student experience statement will be referenced to make sure changes are up to expectations. Changes will be measured and monitored constantly.
“There will be plenty of opportunities for the public to engage in this process,” McDowell said. “It’s Crete’s high school, and so this is an opportunity for us to shape it to the culture, the traditions and the values that make Crete what is it, but also look towards the future.”
