forest hills central middle school - Forest Hills Public Schools

FOREST HILLS
CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOL
5810 Ada Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301 616-493-8750,OFFICE FAX 616-493-8764
616-493-8762 24-HR ATTENDANCE LINE
Glenn Mitcham, Principal Charlie Vonk, Assistant Principal
August 15, 2011
Dear Families and Community Members:
We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER), which provides key
information on the 2010-2011 educational progress for Central Middle School. The AER
addresses the complex reporting information required by federal and state laws. The school’s
report contains information about student assessment, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and
teacher quality. If you have any questions about the AER, please contact myself, Glenn
Mitcham at 616-493-8750 or gmitcham@fhps.us for assistance.
For 2010-2011, Central Middle School made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in English
language arts and mathematics. While we are pleased to have reached this important goal,
we are continuously working to improve. We appreciate the continued support of our families,
staff, and our community in this effort.
State law requires that we also report this additional information:
CM
1. Process for assigning pupils to the school
Students are assigned to the school in their attendance area where they live. As part of
state law, the district participates in the Schools of Choice (SOC) program for non-resident
families. Students admitted to the district through SOC are assigned to various schools on a
space-available basis.
2. The status of the 3-5 year school improvement plan
Central Middle School continues to use the school improvement process to re-evaluate
current goals, establish new goals, and collaboratively work together to improve the schools’
performance.
3. A brief description of each specialized school
Forest Hills Public Schools offers K-4; K-6; 5-6; 7-8; and 9-12 buildings.
We have two specialized schools:
Ada Vista Spanish Immersion School (K-4) - Ada Vista is a Spanish immersion school
in which all students are taught the Forest Hills’ curriculum using Spanish as the medium
for instruction. It is amazing the way the students learn to read, write, and speak in both
Spanish and English. In kindergarten and first grade children are spoken to only in
Spanish and are taught to read and write in Spanish too. In January of the first grade
year the students begin to speak only in Spanish during class time. In second grade
students begin English language arts for 30 minutes and each year thereafter that time
is increased by 15 minutes. Our fifth grade students continue their immersion
experience at Northern Trails.
Goodwillie Environmental 5/6 School – We are in our twelfth year of offering to fifth
and sixth grade students a model educational program that is based primarily on

learning in the “living classroom,” the great outdoors. While this sounds easy on the
surface, it is extremely difficult to adapt a challenging state mandated curriculum to
meaningful and engaging lessons in nature. The awareness, dependency, and flexibility
upon the weather are critical for weekly/daily planning. Phonology, Magic Spots,
journaling, sketching, observing, writing, understanding, and of course just enjoying
nature is a special gift that these teachers are happy to share with their students.
4. Identify how to access a copy of the core curriculum, a description of its
implementation, and an explanation of the variances from the state’s model
The Core Curriculum for our district is located within our Instruction Office. Copies of each
content standard, essential questions, enduring understandings, and sequence of the
course is available electronically or on paper. Committees, consistently of administrators
and teachers, are developed and rotated yearly to update and modify the content as
needed. This ensures our district remains vigilant in meeting the state's expectations for
each grade level and course.
5. The aggregate student achievement results for any local competency tests or
nationally normed achievement tests
Please click http://fhps.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/CMS-Data-Profile.pdf for the 2009-
10 and 2010-11 data profile of Central Middle School.
6. Identify the number and percent of students represented by parents at parent-teacher
conferences
Number & Percentage Parents/Guardians
Fall Spring
2009-2010 485 73% 572 86%
2010-2011 524 82% 541 85%
Thank you for taking the time to review our Annual Education Report. Central Middle School is a
special place because of its quality students, committed teachers and staff, and evolved parents.
Although we continue to work hard to improve we are fortunate to be apart of an education community
in which student learning is not only a priority but also realty. Please do not hesitate to contact me at
any time with questions or concerns. I would be happy to discuss Central Middle School further!
Sincerely,
Glenn Mitcham
Principal
Forest Hills Public Schools
Daniel Behm, Superintendent
6590 Cascade Road SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 Phone 616-493-8800 www.fhps.us