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External visitation commends Crete Public Schools' programs, urges focus on leadership development and curriculum alignment
Summary
An external review team visited Crete Public Schools and reported commendations for curriculum adoption, school culture and wraparound family services while recommending attention to leadership development, sustained professional development for new curriculum and continued vertical alignment between grade spans.
Crete — A five-member external review team completed a district visitation last week and provided Crete Public Schools with an exit presentation at the board’s February meeting that included building-level commendations and recommendations and a forthcoming written exit report.
The review was conducted under the district’s school improvement process (Rule 10) and is a periodic, external check on progress; the district said the team will deliver a written exit report in the coming weeks. District staff told the board the team visited classrooms across all grade levels and conducted focus conversations with students, staff and community stakeholders.
Why it matters: the external review informed the district’s new strategic plan and continuous-improvement work; its recommendations are intended to guide professional development, leadership capacity building and long-range facility planning.
What the visitors reported
The chief academic officer told the board the external team included specialists from nearby districts and higher-level district offices: Dr. Heidi Pankey (Miller Public Schools), Dr. Josh Fields (superintendent, Seward), Delaney McMillan (student services director, Waverly), Dr. Melissa Polancic (superintendent, DC West) and Dr. Josh Snyder (curriculum director, Wahoo Public Schools). The district said the team visited 11 elementary, 12 intermediate, 14 middle and 28 high-school classrooms during their visit.
Commendations cited by the reviewers included:
- Elementary: dedicated staff focused on student learning, implementation of high-quality curriculum materials and coordinated student services (special education, English-language support and extended-day programming).
- Intermediate: a positive, collaborative building culture, strong PLCs and implementation of continuous-improvement processes and screening tools (district presentation cited DIBELS usage).
- Middle school: staff described a family-like culture, existing structures for PLC collaboration, and focused strategies to address attendance and missing assignments.
- High school: the development of academies and a broad selection of class offerings; reviewers noted a successful revamp of the PLC structure and high staff and student engagement.
Districtwide recommendations recorded in the presentation included: prioritizing leadership development, explicitly adding academic-focused goals into building improvement plans, continuing vertical alignment across grade transitions (for example second-to-third and fifth-to-sixth grade), and ensuring sufficient time and professional development to implement new curriculum materials.
The presentation also highlighted district strengths beyond academics, including adult education, summer and wraparound services and community partnerships. The visiting team summarized perceptions of the district in a single-word exercise with terms such as “welcoming,” “family,” “inclusive” and “opportunities.”
What happens next
Administrators told the board they will receive the written exit report in a few weeks and will use it in staff meetings, PLCs and continuous-improvement planning. The board was told the district is building out a public progress tracker for the strategic plan that lists priorities, strategies and specific tasks; administrators said two strategies are already active and the district will monitor completion of 168 tasks identified in the plan.
Ending: Board members were invited to review the forthcoming written exit report and the district’s strategic-plan progress tracker once both are published.
