NEWS

ORTING SCHOOLS CHANGE LEADERSHIP

By: Barbara Hansen June 13, 2009

Michele Curry, who signed her contract Thursday, May 7, promises to listen to parents, teachers and students before making any major changes as Orting’s new school superintendent.

Curry takes over the helm of the Orting School District July 1. Current superintendent Jeff Davis resigned the post to take over the leadership of the Florence School District on the Oregon coast.

Dubbing herself the leader who has come “from the chalk board to the school board,” Curry started out as a teacher and has worked in education for 22 years. Her last position was as an Assistant Superintendent in the Seattle schools overseeing Special Education.

Curry is the mother of four children. Each has had individual needs and Curry said she brings that insight to her role as an educator. Curry believes in partnering with parents and giving them real tools they can use to help their children succeed in school.

One tool Curry hopes to establish soon is providing mini-universities so parents can understand what their kids are studying. Along with Skyward, a program the Orting School District uses now that allows parents to check their children’s grades on-line, Curry said she would like to enable parents to look up classroom lessons, too, so they can provide homework help.

Curry vowed to support teachers first by really listening, then making a commitment to provide professional development opportunities and classroom needs. She will be a “walk around” superintendent present in the halls. She will promote open doors to classrooms so that what is going on in the classroom is not a mystery to parents or the community.

“Teaching is not about jobs; it’s about being responsible for the academic success of our students,” Curry said. “I will never fight for failure.”
She admitted she is not a fan of the WASL.

She is a fan of research. One thing that wowed the interviewers was not only that Curry had researched the statistics about Orting students, but that she used the data to chart a course for the district in addressing Orting’s particular needs.
To be successful, students need to begin in a solid pre-Kindergarten program and move seamlessly through the different levels of elementary, middle school and high school. Curry said she will work to align curriculum so it makes sense to students from school to school.

Describing special education as “a service, not a place,” Curry acknowledged there are real gaps in the educational system overall and she is not afraid to face them. She believes in providing what Curry calls differentiated instruction that utilizes Web resources, before and after school programs and opportunities for students to “double-dip” in areas they may struggle, such as math.

While Curry focuses on curricula and assessment, Jeff Davis leaves a legacy of facility improvements. Under his tenure, Orting passed a bond measure (on the second try in 2006) to build a new middle school, wired for technology upgrades throughout the building, that students moved into September 2008. He also leaves an improved high school with a performing arts center, expanded locker rooms and gym. Also penciled in is the building a new sports stadium.

Those softball fields just southeast of the new middle school at the northwest end of Eldredge Avenue are the result of a Conservation Futures grant negotiated between Pierce County, the City of Orting and Orting School District under Davis.

In a savvy move that saved taxpayers thousands of dollars, soil near just southwest of the Whitehawk Development was excavated to create a stormwater facility serving Whitehawk and parts of another development, then used to raise the level of the new Orting Middle School to meet state and county requirements. The left-over land was made into an athletic park.

Photo by Rhonda Madison