Boyne City unveils "Portrait of a Rambler" plan to teach six core competencies

Boyne City Public Schools on March 9 presented a districtwide plan called the "Portrait of a Rambler," a competency-based framework that asks each school to focus on one or two of six traits this year and to collect evidence showing student progress.

A recorded explainer played for the board describing the six competencies and examples for each grade band. The video said the initiative is "way more than just a catchy slogan" and called the competencies "the absolute must haves for students to succeed." After the video, district staff told the board that principals will produce tangible artifacts—student work, data reports or short videos—to document progress. "It's what are the actions? What are the artifacts?" a district presenter said, describing the district's plan to pair actions with evidentiary examples.

Principals described how they are translating the framework at each level. The elementary plan centers on cultivating compassion with grade-level service projects and classroom routines; middle school work emphasizes responsibility and collaboration with tracked daily habits; and the high school intends to scale compassion into community service and cross-department projects. "For the high school, we settled in on compassion being our focus," the high school principal said, adding departments have appointed staff to plan yearlong service projects and a student self-assessment is already in use.

The board and staff said this is an early chapter and set a follow-up at the May professional-development day for a formal check-in and self-assessment results. District staff noted the pilot approach—focusing on one or two competencies per building—was intended to keep the work practical and trackable.