BUCHANAN — On Tuesday, Oct. 29, Buchanan Middle School released a set of promises meant to ensure its herd of Bucks receives a fair, just, individualized and caring educational experience. Promises are only good if they are kept, and Buchanan Middle School has every intention of keeping theirs, said principal Shelby Beasley.

The commitments are part of a larger effort to bring the school, and its district, into a professional learning community. It is a model of teaching that focuses on ensuring that all students are learning by being results-oriented and by creating collaboration between educators, according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

“This is a way to do the amazing things you’re already doing in a fine-tuned, organized process so we can ensure that we have student achievement for all students,” Shelby Beasley, the middle school’s new principal, said.

On Beasley’s office whiteboard are dates and times for upcoming classroom visits, where she will see how teachers manage their educational workload, its impact on students and classroom atmosphere.

Around Beasley’s office, and the school, is its mission statement, “Committed to caring, striving for excellence.”

If Buchanan’s mission is the foundation for what the school stands for, Beasley said, its Collective Commitments are the actions staff will take to ensure that mission is met.

Those commitments include providing a developmentally appropriate curriculum that addresses individual needs; supporting challenges, successes and ideas; and maintaining open and consistent communication among all of the school’s community members.

Staff collaborated to come up with these commitments, Beasley said, and now staff are collaborating to see these commitments through.

“What parents can expect is a lot of communication from me and from our teaching staff to be as upfront and as open about expectations as far as discipline, processes involving restorative justice that might be happening to maintain that communication, modeling kindness, and remaining consistent and fair,” she said.

The most important commitments for the school are being consistent and fair when it comes to school rules. Beasley said pre-teenager and teenaged students are the most likely to press them.

So, too, is modeling kindness, integrity and respect, she said. Middle school grade levels are known for bullying levels.

These Collective Commitments are a step in transitioning the school into following a professional learning community model.

This model places focus on ensuring all students are developing accordingly and that they are prepared for the grade above by the end of the school year.

That could mean that a sixth-grade teacher would speak to seventh-grade teachers about what they need children to know. Then, that sixth-grade teacher would speak to a fifth-grade teacher about what their children should know. 

This would help schools create essential standards, or the topics that students should have mastered before moving up a grade. Beasley said essential standards provide a way to achieving some of the Collective Commitment’s goals.

“You narrow down to the absolute need-to-knows, must-knows, have-to-knows,” Beasley said. “We are going to guarantee that when this kid leaves fifth grade, he’s going to know x, y and z. It’s the ones that they feel important to get to the next grade level.”

The entire process will take a few years of collective staff effort and training, Beasley said, but incremental change is natural.

“In education, things ebb and flow, and come and go and go full circle a lot of times with different initiatives,” she said. “With something like a professional learning community, you can’t rush it, because then you’re not doing it with fidelity.”

For now, middle school staff will work to ensure their Buchanan Buck herd is committed to caring and excellence.

To view a full list of Buchanan Middle School’s Collective Commitments, visit buchananschools.com/Buchanan-middle-school.