Due to the State s Class Size Reduction Program, many school districts, in order to fill the need for new teachers, hired several of the available substitutes. This has impacted the pool of substitutes and has created a shortage of substitutes, especially on days where there are multiple districts conducting staff development activities or if there is a major conference in the State. These students, under the supervision of Mrs. Teresa Spencer, were responsible for winning, for Mary Buren, for the Month of April, the Santa Maria Valley Clean Campus Award. Besides the school flying the SMV Clean Campus Flag on our flag pole, the school also received a live tree to plant onour campus, a framed certificate, and a certificate for free pizzas. Mary Buren School Principal and staff work collaboratively with the District s Director of Maintenance, Operations and Transportation and his staff in order to not only maintain a clean campus, but also to take care of safety issues that may arise.
Tenured teachers are, for the most part, evaluated every other year.
Non-tenured teachers are evaluated every year. One of the very exciting things taking place at Mary Buren is a collaborative effort between the Teachers Association and the District and its Management whose focus is to restructure the manner in which teachers are evaluated. The new evaluation process would incorporate the newly developed California Standards for the Teaching Profession and some of the strategies and methods utilized currently by the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program, which is currently being implemented statewide. The program s purpose is to teach students basic positive character development skills which will help them succeed in life. Each month a different grade level is responsible for introducing a new theme for the month at a school assembly.