Supt. Gunn has high hopes for local schools in 2023
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School district has impressive goals to help students and staff
Photo by Eugenia Jones Dr. John Gunn is pictured, above, greeting McCreary Countians, during a Meet and Greet event held last summer when he began his superintendency in the McCreary County School District.
“This is a brief life, but in its brevity, it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures,” Rudyard Kipling once wrote, and as a fan of Kipling’s writings, McCreary County School District Superintendent John Gunn looks forward to 2023 being a year of meaningful adventure filled with splendid moments of learning and growth for students and staff throughout the school district.
Superintendent Gunn envisions 2023 as a year of constant teamwork with the current “great Board of Education,” as they toil together to meet student needs. Superintendent Gunn identified several specific goals he hopes, with support from current members of the Board of Education, to accomplish in 2023. Several of the goals are as follows.
This month, the District began an “Aspiring Administrators’ Academy.” The purpose of the academy is to train teachers who may be interested in transitioning from the classroom to administration at some point in their careers. By building capacity early on, the District will have a local pool of applicants readily available as administrative positions open up at the school or district level. To join the Administrators’ Academy, teachers who are interested in administration go through an application process and then attend (after school) seminars focusing on topics of interest to administrators. Seminars focus around topics such as developing curriculum, planning, school law, professional development, etc. Currently, thirteen teachers have joined the program.
In addition to the District’s Administrator Academy, Superintendent Gunn noted the District will also continue implementation of the Elgin Foundation’s principal development program. Recognizing the role school-level leadership plays in the success of school programs, the Elgin Foundation provides monthly training to principals.
Attendance is another priority for 2023.
“We have awesome school counselors who are working to increase student attendance,” Superintendent Gunn noted. “An additional 2023 goal is to increase staff attendance via our Staff Attendance Committee.”
Superintendent Gunn also plans to work with the Board to seek cost-savings to free up more funds to directly assist students.
“Seeking out grant funding to provide our students and staff with additional learning opportunities is a priority,” Dr. Gunn observed.
Making McCreary County’s gifted and talented program the best in the Commonwealth is just one example of a district goal to directly assist students and refine, create, and streamline processes to maximize student learning.
Thanks to a generous donation from JC Egnew, 2023 may well be the year that McCreary County fulfills its goal for the gifted/talented program to be the best in the Commonwealth.
Using Egnew’s generous donation, McCreary County’s gifted/talented program will be revamped this year to provide better services to those students. Plans for the program include making the gifted/talented program more personal by meeting with the parents of those students, and increasing the number and quality of field trips, guest speakers, hands-on activities, camps, and seminars.
Superintendent Gunn said the District will continue improvements at the Transportation Department.
“We want to continue making our Transportation Department the best in the state!” Gunn exclaimed.
Additional goals of the District in 2023 are to strengthen the district’s working relationship with Outdoor Venture Corporation, ensure all students are college and/or career ready, focus on the achievement and social-emotional needs of students, and reduce gaps in learning.
With so many impressive goals to fulfill, 2023 will be a very busy year for the Superintendent and Board of Education. However, if Superintendent Gunn and the Board of Education fulfill all their goals for 2023, Kipling may well have described this coming year in the McCreary County School District by writing, “We are the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities.”
