Superintendent frames district progress around "Portrait of a Graduate," highlights student achievements

Superintendent Beyer and district leaders used the board meeting to outline early work on the district's Portrait of a Graduate framework and to highlight recent student and staff accomplishments across the Green Bay Area Public School District.

Beyer said the district would increasingly frame updates around the Portrait of a Graduate and highlighted Ambassador Academy, instructional-technology presentations and ongoing strategic planning, community engagement and equitable-instruction efforts. "We wanted to begin incorporating some of the language from Portrait of a Graduate into this part," Beyer said.

District administrator David (identified in the meeting as a cabinet member working with principals) described how the portrait is being used as an organizing tool to design ninth-grade experiences and other structural decisions. "This is a way that the portrait... is represented as an organizing tool for a lot of important structural decisions that can and should be made to change the experience for our students," the administrator said.

Board and staff highlighted a range of recent achievements: West High School placed third in the regional Academic Decathlon; Preble High School raised $1,313 for St. Vincent's Cancer Center through a "Sting Cancer" fundraiser; Preble's renovated auditorium hosted its first performance; students from Jackson Elementary received a Program of Promise recognition for behavior-referral reduction work; and students from West presented research with university partners. Leaders also noted students accepted into state ensembles and teachers nominated for Golden Apple awards.

The superintendent and cabinet framed these items under five Portrait-of-a-Graduate attributes — examples included "academic achievers," "communicators and connectors," "personal architects," "leaders and teammates," and "empowered navigators."