Editor's Note: The following is a news release from Michael Gallina, superintendent of the North Canton City School District.

Our Unified Elementary Design for the North Canton City Schools

As we enter the second semester of the 2011-2012 school year, we marvel at how quickly we have arrived at this point in the school year! Our students, staff, and families have been working hard with all of the academic, athletic, and art-related activities in their schedules. This hard work is appreciated and noticed!

Speaking of hard work, there has been MUCH hard work taking place relative to next year’s elementary design. Mrs. Savage, our Director of Curriculum, has been working with our elementary staff and principals on the many activities and plans for the transition. Our core subject elementary teachers know what grade level they will teach and what building they will be assigned to. Our specialists (art, music, special education, and physical education) will be assigned very soon. On February 17, our staff will meet as “new teams” to begin their planning for next year. We are very excited about this new opportunity to make our instructional design stronger as we ready for the new state curriculum standards! A very important fact that everyone should know is that these new Ohio Department of Education Curriculum Standards at the elementary levels are grouped into the grade levels of Kindergarten to Grade 2 and from Grade 3 to Grade 5. We are actually ahead of the curve with our planning as we engage this new design! North Canton has always been a leader in the design of curriculum delivery. This new design is one more example of this leadership!

While Mrs. Savage has been working with the internal staff, Mr. Gallina has been working with a great group of parents who represent each of the elementary school areas. This “parental transition team” has been providing feedback on the key needs that parents will have as we transition into the new design. This group has met several times during the first semester and has provided key topics for planning. During this second semester, be ready for some focused, timely, and informational material that will be found in a variety of sources (web, print, all-call, Mike’s Minutes). One of the key topics in the parent meetings has been the topic of transportation arrangements in the new design. Below are several key items that are being addressed on the topic of transportation: 

• Length of bus routes                                                
• Consistent rules for setting up bus stops
• Building start and end times so that parents can coordinate their connections           
• Safe drop-off zones for our young students 
• Traffic patterns at each building for car traffic to be separate from bus traffic           
• Age appropriate rider groups
• Coordination with after-school programs
• Safety throughout the process
• Special needs riders

In addition to the topic of transportation, you will be learning more about such topics as after school enrichment, gifted services, multi-age services, open houses and parent nights, student transition activities for this school year, technology provisions in each building, lunch time procedures, school mascots and colors, and kindergarten registration, just to name a few! We are well on our way to making our unified elementary design efficient and effective!