Dupage Policy Journal

Wheaton Community Unit School District 200 Assistant Superintendent Melissa Murphy recently updated members on the board’s Vision 2026 plan, assuring them that the panel is well on its way to reaching its goal of creating a more professional learning program and support system as a way of improving development.

At an Oct. 12 Board of Education meeting posted to YouTube, Murphy highlighted the three main pillars she outlined as needed to fully support a teacher being able to implement an instructional program. Pointing to training, planning and coaching, Murphy noted that the board has tried several methods and taken advantage of various opportunities to train each staff member in the curriculums used in the district. She later added that the district has created designated times for both group and individual planning sessions for teachers. She shared how they have trained and designated specific teachers as coaches for each subject and curriculum in every building.

“One of the things that is important is to bring the staff that you have together and talk to them about how they are doing in our district,” Dr. Charlie Kirk, Human Resources head, said in the meeting. “What are some things that we could do to help make it a better fit for them? And then a great asset to all of our diverse teachers is to also utilize our diverse teachers to go find other diverse teachers to come to our school district. So we're working on that right now. You know, we're not going to stop trying to find diverse candidates. But what I would share with everybody is you always said high quality.”

Through the lens of the Vision 2026 plan, Kirk later presented the annual report on human resources. With district members remaining dedicated to bringing in a field of diverse and quality candidates as part of their plan, Kirk noted that he discussed a new policy in the interview and application process that helped streamline the process.