School Improvement funds are provided to school district buildings through a competitive process in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $2,000,000 per year for three years for implementing a school improvement plan that is focused on the specific reasons that caused the building to be identified for school improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act. Districts and buildings must use the Ohio Improvement Process as approved in the Differentiated Accountability proposal approved by the U.S. Department of Education

DLT= District Leadership Team- a group made up of Community members, School Board members, Administrators and Teachers, who work together to determine the goals for the district and evaluate the data to make sure we are on track to meet the goals.

 BLT= Building Leadership Team- a group of teachers and administrators in each building who make the DLT goals work in the individual building. The Jr./Sr. High School BLT over sees the SIG.

 LEA= Local Education Agency (the school)

  ODE= Ohio Department of Education

Southern Local Jr./Sr. High School is following the Transformation Model. The criteria in this model are:

1.       Replace the Principal

2.       Put into place a new Principal and Teacher evaluation system that uses student growth as a significant factor

3.       Identify and reward staff for increasing student outcomes

4.       Recruit, Place and Train Staff

5.       Have in place an Instructional Model based on Student needs

6.       Job Embedded Professional Development

7.       Continuous use of Data to Differentiate Instruction

8.       Increase Learning time by 300 hours

9.       Have an Ongoing Mechanism for Community and Family Engagement

10.   Provide appropriate Social-Emotional and Community Oriented Services

Have in place a new Governance Structure

Who is eligible for a SIG?

A: School Improvement Grants, authorized under section 1003(g) of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Title I or ESEA), are grants, through State educational agencies (SEAs), to local educational agencies (LEAs) for use in Title I schools identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring that demonstrate the greatest need for the funds and the strongest commitment to use the funds to provide adequate resources in order to raise substantially the achievement of their students so as to enable the schools to make adequate yearly progress and exit improvement status. 

Under the final requirements published in the Federal Register in December 2009, school improvement funds are to be focused on Ohio’s persistently lowest-achieving Title I schools in improvement, corrective action, or restructuring (“Tier I schools”) and, at an LEA’s option, persistently-lowest achieving secondary schools that are eligible for, but do not receive, Title I, Part A funds (“Tier II schools”).  An LEA may also use school improvement funds in Title I schools in improvement, corrective action, or restructuring that are not identified as persistently lowest-achieving schools (“Tier III schools”).  In the Tier I and Tier II schools an LEA chooses to serve, the LEA must implement one of four school intervention models:  turnaround model, restart model, school closure, or transformation model. 

Southern Local Jr./Sr. High School was designated a Tier 1 school in December 2010. This designation was the result of scoring in the bottom 5% of the high schools in Ohio. The criteria used for this designation can be found on the school report card.

Any community member, parent or staff member is welcome to become involved in the District Leadership Team, mentoring or helping at the building level. Call the office at the school or contact Mrs. Vollnogle at 330.679.2343 ext 409.