• Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: 2 - 4
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 4,206
    Student Enrollment: 385
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 1.4%
    White/Caucasian: 88%
    Hispanic: 5%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0.3%
    Native American: 2.2%
    Other: 3.1%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 49.5%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1962
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Mike Haverdink
  • CONTACT:
    435 E. Superior Street
    Wayland, MI 49348
    269-792-2281
    haverdinkm@waylandunion.org
R.J. Steeby School
Wayland, MI
“Student’s won’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Each student is an individual and comes from different circumstances.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Steeby’s parent group, WEPA(Wayland Education Parent Association), in cooperation with staff at Steeby, puts on a Spring Carnival every year that is attended by most of the students and parents of our building. This is a great opportunity to get parents in the building.

We also host a themed Literacy Night every year during the month of March, Reading Month. The activities during this night are all related to literacy, specifically reading. Each student in attendance receives at least one free book to take home.

Steeby also hosts a Math Night and Science Night on an alternating basis. We supply a dinner and dessert, and then students and parents are able to go to different rooms and participate in different Math and Science activities.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
We at Steeby have created a specific mission statement that we try to live by; creating a collaborative culture for the achievement of all students. We feel ALL means ALL, and take to heart this idea creating teaching and learning opportunities to meet each need of each student in our building. We are not perfect, but continue to strive towards this. A big component of this is building positive relationships with the students. “Student’s won’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”. This quote(everyone from Teddy Roosevelt to John C. Maxwell has been attributed to coining it) serves as a great reminder that each student is an individual and comes from different circumstances. We as educators need to aware of that so we can meet each need and make each student feel loved and cared for.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Continue to refine and “tweak” the PLC process at our building to ensure that ALL learners are achieving.
Higher student achievement for ALL students. We want growth with our struggling learners, but also to enrich our top learners experiences as well, through purposeful and intentional differentiated instruction.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Being kind and respectful to one another and their personal space and belongings. Knowing this builds trust among students and staff. These factors build positive staff to student relationships and staff to staff relationships.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Our building and is committed to acting as a Professional Learning Community. Each grade-level teacher, along with specials teachers, meet frequently to continuously assess where our students are at. Essential standards are created and formatively assessed. As stated previously, data is analyzed to determine the interventions needed for all of our students.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funds are used to hire a Title I teacher, three very important Title I aides, materials and resources, and provide for some professional development for our staff.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
Learning Labs. In the Fall and Spring of each year Steeby runs Learning Labs. This is a process whereby substitutes are secured for the day and we have a host teacher teach a specific lesson, for example writers workshop. Other staff members meet with this host teacher prior to the observation. The staff members then go to watch the lesson taught. Afterwards the host teacher and staff members that watched the lesson meet to debrief. During the pre and post briefing meeting teachers ask questions for clarity and understanding. There is an AM and PM session, with different staff participating in each session.

Another valuable PD activity provided by the district takes place at the beginning of the year during one of the first two days to start a school year. The staff are provided a large amount of specific pd sessions to choose from and attend those, very similar to attending a conference, whereby staff are given options of pd to meet their specific needs.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Through our PLC process, the staff at Steeby utilize both local(NWEA) and state(M-Step) data to make regular and purposeful checks of student progress. We determine which students need additional intervention, as well as which students are performing at high levels, provide appropriate interventions through a focus on differentiation, as well as our ELA and Math WIN(What I Need) times.
Time is given throughout the year for teaching staff to meet. They meet on five half days for three hours each, plus twelve additional one hour meetings on their own time, and they have at least two days of the week where they can meet during the school day on their own planning time. Both of Steeby's 2nd and 4th grades have all of their teachers on the same plan time Monday through Friday.
Grade level teaching staff determine the essential standards and what common formative assessments will be used. They teach the material, assess, and then determine which students need additional interventions.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Steeby's school culture is alive and energetic! We practice and demonstrate what it means to be positive and approach things with a "go get em attitude". Positivity breeds positivity!
1) Our PBIS Team has incorporated a variety of rewards for our students for demonstrating positive behavior expectations. Our motto is "Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible." We understand that these characteristics need to be taught to some students more than others, but all 2nd-4th grade students are well served with demonstrations of these.
2) We have made a commitment to building positive relationships with our students.
3) We cater to the needs of each student through a vast array of educational programs with targeted interventions for each and every learner.
4) We make regular and consistent efforts to openly communicate within the building, as well as with our community.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: 2 - 4
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 4,206
    Student Enrollment: 385
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 1.4%
    White/Caucasian: 88%
    Hispanic: 5%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0.3%
    Native American: 2.2%
    Other: 3.1%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:22
    % Reduced Lunch: 49.5%
    % ELL Learners: 1%
    Founded: 1962
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Mike Haverdink
  • CONTACT:
    435 E. Superior Street
    Wayland, MI 49348
    269-792-2281
    haverdinkm@waylandunion.org