Fair Play R-II is pleased to share our Portrait of a Learner, a collaboration of the school and community to focus the efforts of learning on the qualities we value most in the education experience of our students. The final product was a result of much input collected in the fall of 2022.
On October 24th, we held our first Community Table Meeting to begin working on this project. At that meeting, we had a panel of business and industry leaders along with parents, community members, teachers, students, and school board members.
On October 31st, we brought the initial ideas from the first meeting to the Fair Play R-II staff to add their thoughts and ideas. The staff members even created a few prototypes of the design. And the results of that work greatly influenced the final version shared here.
The final Community Table Meeting was held November 7th to finalize the Portrait of a Learner. The stakeholders who were present at that meeting were able to vote for their top choices and we narrowed the characteristics and qualities once again.
This entire process served two really important purposes. First, it engaged our community and staff in thinking about our future and what we value most for our students. For another, it resulted in a product that can serve as a "North Star" for our work and decision-making. Everything we do should seek to create stronger leaders and stronger learners around these six qualities of the portrait.
We will soon have large framed wall hangings of our Portrait of a Learner in each school building. And it will also be displayed in classrooms and of course on our school website.
The Portrait of a Learner was a first step in the development of the district's CSIP (Comprehensive School Improvement Plan). That work will continue in the coming months and will be completed by October, when the final plan is due to be submitted to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).