State of the Schools: The next step

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CIC-State-of-the-Schools-11.19

By Pete Smith

New Carmel Schools Superintendent Nicholas Wahl said that the formula for the district’s unparalleled success predates his arrival in Carmel.

“That formula has been our families and schools supporting our students,” Wahl said before a crowd of Carmel business leaders while delivering his State of the Schools speech at the Bridgewater Club in Westfield on Nov. 13.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve had good stewards,” he said, “so that we can deliver the high-quality programs we’ve grown accustomed to.”

But Wahl does see room for improvement – that’s why he has been working diligently with the school board to craft a new set of “student-centered” goals for the district.

“Don’t mistake me, nothing’s broken in Carmel Clay schools,” he said. “Drive around Carmel and (see) this is a quality place to raise your kids.”

But he does expect teachers and administrators to stress continuous improvement. And he said his job is to determine how that is measured.

His recommendation comes in the form of five goals:

● Make all district goals student-centered

● Stress communication and update the comprehensive communication plan

● Monitor finances and work with state legislators to represent Carmel’s interests

● Improve facilities and plan for the future

● Maintain high-quality faculty and staff

With continued growth in Carmel a constant, the most attention might be devoted to the buildings that make education possible.

“We’ve done a good job of making our facilities some of the best in the state,” Wahl said.

Still, he said he plans to have an updated building capacity study completed by the end of the school year to plan for contingencies.

And given the ground-breaking struggles between the teachers union and the administration to agree on contracts for the past two school years, the fifth goal could also prove crucial.

Wahl said he hopes to conduct an administrative organizational study this school year and hopefully have preliminary results in the spring.

But given the fact that the speech was delivered during a Carmel Chamber of Commerce luncheon, much of the speech focused on creating a future workforce.

“The leaders of tomorrow are in our classrooms today,” Wahl said, noting that strong schools equate to strong business.

He also emphasized that Carmel schools’ benchmarks for success conformed not only to state standards, but national and international benchmarks, too.

“Our kids are moving into an international marketplace,” Wahl said.

One of his hopes to address this issue is having students become more involved with Carmel’s Sister Cities in China and Japan.

He said he hopes they can find common ground by engaging in environmental challenges that everyone faces.


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