FILE:  B-1

PHILOSOPHY, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES

The Central Community School Board is committed to providing educational opportunities for all students appropriate to individual abilities; to monitoring and improving the quality and performance of the school system; and to emphasizing continued involvement of the citizens of the school district.  Each school in the system shall be expected to develop a school philosophy which considers community needs and which incorporates the basic educational beliefs enumerated.

1. The School Board believes that every child has worth and should be treated with dignity.
   
   

2. The School Board believes that every child is a unique being and that each is endowed with unique abilities and disabilities.
   
   

3. The School Board believes that the three (3) major functions of schools are to:

1. 1. discover the abilities and disabilities of each child,
      
      

   2. minimize the effects of disabilities, and
      
      

   3. maximize the value of unique abilities.

4. The School Board believes that there is a need for each child to develop physically, academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually if he/she is expected to be a productive citizen.
   
   

5. The School Board believes that the proper development of children physically, academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually rests upon and depends upon the complementary efforts of schools, the family, and the church.
   
   

6. The School Board believes that teachers should be held accountable for teaching and that children should be held accountable for learning.
   
   

7. The School Board believes in the basic education of children, observing that a child cannot advance in knowledge without the fundamental skills of communication.  These are reading, writing, spelling, as well as other elements of effective oral and written expression.  Mathematical skills and scientific inquiry, including problem solving, should also be included.
   
   

8. The School Board believes that in schools, as in society, rules made for the “common good” are necessary and that every student should be held accountable for adherence to those rules.
   
   

9. The School Board believes that every student has a basic right to study in an atmosphere free from danger and disruption, and that all students and all educators shall be accountable for maintaining that atmosphere.
   
   

10. The School Board believes that every student should be held accountable for regular attendance in school.
    
    

11. The School Board believes that every student should be included in a guidance program beginning upon entry into school and continuing until post school interviews.
    
    

12. The School Board believes that schools and school officials should reasonably expect that each student would be supported by parents/guardians who care, and provide moral training and the development of a healthy self esteem.
    
    

13. The School Board believes that co-curricular activities should be developed and utilized to provide opportunities for students to apply classroom experiences and knowledge to problems in the outside world.
    
    

14. The School Board believes that extracurricular activity should be utilized to stress the development of specific traits not easily developed in the classroom settings.  It also believes that some of the most important of these are sacrifice, tenacity, competition, teamwork, and responsibility.
    
    

15. The School Board believes that both co-curricular and extracurricular activities can and should bear out time-honored beliefs such as:

1. 1. practice makes perfect
      
      

   2. rewards are the result of effort
      
      

   3. individuals working together can produce results which exceed the sum of the individual contributions
      
      

   4. leadership roles are earned by performance
      
      

   5. defeat or rejection can motivate one to greater effort
      
      

   6. ordinary is separated from extraordinary by limits of spirit more often than by physical or mental limitations

16. The School Board believes that every student should be given career choices which lead to an adequate income and a sense of contribution to society.
    
    

17. The School Board believes that vocational-technical education is a viable choice for many students and a choice which should result from surveying the student’s abilities and developing those abilities.
    
    

18. The School Board believes that there are no unworthy positions in society and reject the notion that unworthy persons should fill unworthy positions.
    
    

19. The School Board believes that the diversity of abilities in this country is complementary to the diversity of the needs as a people.
    
    

20. The School Board believes that good leaders can be developed and that before one can be a good leader he/she must be a good follower.
    
    

21. The School Board believes that no institution is more vital to the continuance of society than the family unit, and that the strengthening of that unit is a prominent goal of this school system.
    
    

22. The School Board believes that abuse in its many forms is a great threat to society and that the school system should work constantly for the reduction and eventual elimination of that problem.
    
    

23. The School Board believes that, in spite of its imperfections, the nation offers hope, freedom, and opportunity on a scale that sets the pace for the remainder of the world.  The School Board believes that every student should recognize the blessings related to being a citizen.

To achieve these objectives for every child, the public schools of the Central Community School System must provide:

1. attractive, safe, and stimulating environments for the learning experiences of the students;
   
   

2. an effective program of guidance and counseling in preparation for the world of work;
   
   

3. an appropriate balance in the educational program that will provide stimulation and development of the useful talents of all children; and
   
   

4. balanced courses in the social sciences to develop in the students a better appreciation of the advantages of a democratic way of life.

The Central Community School Board further recognizes and accepts the responsibility to cooperate with other appropriate institutions and agencies toward enriching the lives of its students and to meet the need for a continuing growth and development of its educational system to keep pace with the economic, social and moral implications resulting from modern advances in technology and science.

Central Community School Board