Superintendent’s Chat

Richard McClements, Shonto Preparatory School

This article features some of my thoughts on what Shonto will look like in ten years as we implement the concepts of the award winning school district, Chugach Schools. I understand that some of these thoughts are dreams, but then….

• We will have a student enrollment approaching 2,000 students.
• We will need a new high school that will house 400 students and a new middle school for 400 students.
• The Chugach model will be fully implemented.
• Student average daily attendance will be 98%.
• We will be visited constantly by other districts from around our country.
• Parents will be heavily involved in the education of their children.
• We will have our pick of the very finest in all personnel areas.
• Our schools will provide a quality adult education program.
• We will have in place a program to help children, beginning at age two, to enter kindergarten with preparation in literacy, math and social skills.
• We will have to build twice the number of housing units to accommodate the increased size of our staff.
• We will need to build another cafeteria.
• Shonto will pay its staff premium salaries.
• Shonto will be a gentle place with happy students and contented staff.
• The administrative staff will not expand beyond the current level,
• We will run a daily helicopter shuttle to Flagstaff as part of our career education program.
• 75% of our high school graduates will complete college.
• Cultural enrichments will be a source of considerable pride as our students specialize in the performing arts.
• Every student will have a laptop computer.
• We will have a covered swimming pool on campus.
• We will admit 50 students per year from foreign nations and charge a tuition rate of $20,000 each.
• Our students will exhibit healthy life styles and they will abandon destructive behaviors.
• We will have an aggressive program in place to advance all employees at least one academic level.
• The Navajo Nation and its people, regardless of their location, will look upon this district as a source of great pride.
• The student, not the teacher, will be primarily responsible for mastery learning.
• Every student will contribute to improving the quality of life on campus, in his chapter, and throughout the Navajo Nation.
• Our use of technology to deliver education will be state of the art.
• Our dorms will be filled to capacity. The current high school will be reclaimed for this purpose.
• One third of our middle and high school students will remain after school and take a late bus home.
• Shonto will once again become an athletic powerhouse.
• We will have to triple our bus fleet and build a garage to service the fleet.
• The population of the Greater Shonto area will expand considerably and new business and shopping will develop as a consequence.
• More and more Shonto graduates will specialize in computer web based services that operate out of their homes and provide them with a comfortable income.
• We will offer all students the opportunity to earn an Associate’s Degree while still in high school.
• We will have a radio/broadcasting station on campus to tape classroom lessons, enhance staff professional development, cover athletic events, and display student exhibitions.
• Our high school graduates will enter any university or college of their choice and 50% will do so as college sophomores.
• Our housing units will be upgraded.
• There will be many more social opportunities on campus for staff and students.
• The Navajo Nation will mandate that all schools on the Reservation model our educational program.
• The President of the United States will have visited Shonto.
• Every lesson for every learning standard will be video-taped and available to any student or parent as a learning/refresher tool.
• Students who traditionally have attended neighboring districts will enroll here and stay in our dorms.
• We will operate a Saturday shuttle bus to Flagstaff for students and staff who wish to go shopping.
• There will be few disciplinary problems because far more students will find success in school.
• We will have achieved our goal of becoming the finest school district in Arizona.
• People everywhere will know that Navajo students can compete with any student anywhere in the country or in the world.