Evans Elementary School serves students from a multitude of ethnicities and across the economic spectrum. To best meet the needs of our students and to fully implement our educational program, we require the flexibility to hire and retain individuals that can best meet the needs of our diverse population. This may mean hiring individuals who have an appropriate background and experience in a given area on a part-time or temporary basis. To create and maintain an outstanding school, we assembled a faculty and staff who work together to improve achievement for every student and maintain a commitment to the school and students.

Occasionally, recommendations are made by the district to implement a program, adopt a textbook, use an assessment or modify the scope and sequence of curricular content in a way that does not match our educational program or meet the needs of our students. We have the liberty to make curricular and instructional decisions that are in alignment with our educational plan, with state standards, that support the programs and goals of our school, and allow us to provide rigorous, appropriate grade level instruction.

We have the flexibility to make modifications to teacher planning time as necessary so that we can continue to offer great program components to our students. We adopted a master schedule that gives each teacher a minimum of 40 minutes of planning time per day. Occasionally planning time needs to be adjusted due to the needs of the school; assemblies, late starts, early release, or special programs This adjustment may mean the reduction of planning time on days that are affected. They may need time for individual planning, grade level collaborative planning, or team meetings that include building administrators and instructional coaches that center on instruction, assessment and student learning. Our master schedule is designed to adjust teacher planning time one day a week to incorporate sufficient time for enrichment activities and collaborative grade level planning.

All members of the Evans Elementary School staff work with strong instructional leaders to share the decision-making responsibility to provide professional leadership and expertise needed to ensure high student achievement. Although the principal remains accountable as the final decision-maker, there is a commitment to participatory leadership, by the staff, in all aspects of school operations, especially instruction.