by Gabrielle David

gdavid@torringtontelegram.com

TORRINGTON – Torrington High School’s (THS) new principal, Alan Van Tilburg, introduced himself and spoke to the Telegram about what is new for the school this year. 

He shared his process of deciding to become THS’s principal. He shared how his grandkids are in Gering, Nebraska and he found it nice to be near them. He thinks Torrington is a neat little town. He comes from Alliance, Nebraska. He and his wife lived there for 20 years. However, the year previous to this, they were in Bogotá, Columbia.

 He knew he wanted to come back to this area, but he wasn’t sure where. The principal job presented itself and he was not really considering it. He did not have a Wyoming Educator Certificate. But then he thought to himself, why not? He finds Torrington to be quite similar to Alliance and he seems to be enjoying it here. 

VanTilburg believes the year is off to a good start. He said his staff is working hard to improve things for the students such as instruction and classroom management. He visits the classes in the school about once a week. He gives the teachers feedback on these things and the staff have responded in a positive way. 

As for the students, they are winding down on homecoming events. He said he believed it was a positive experience. They had a lot of involvement at their events and the pep rally went really well. 

“The big celebration in the gym yesterday, they took about an hour and a half, and the elementary came over, the middle school came over, and it was just it was really good, you know, it was a lot of fun to watch them. Packed house in there and it was loud and crazy and all of that,” Van Tilburg shared. 

Van Tilburg said when there is a new principal, there are a lot of questions surrounding them. He said he has not brought a lot of change to the school, mostly just in the area of instruction and how they’re handling discipline in the school. He thinks one of the biggest issues the school was facing was an inconsistent principal. The school needs consistency. It helps everyone involved feel more secure in what is taking place. 

“I think that’s probably the biggest hurdle that really faces this school, is to have someone sit in this chair consistently for a period of time. And then, Mr. Kramer has said that to me multiple times and I think he’s spot on, you know, that THS needs consistency at the top, you know, and with that comes, I think for both staff and students, a sense of security because they know what to expect. And when it changes all the time, then it’s kind of like, you know, what’s going on, you know, and there’s confusion and I’ve seen some of that early on. I think we’re past that stage. I think people now are getting used to me and how I’m going to do things, both staff and students and so, you know, I again, I feel very blessed to be here. I enjoy it,” Van Tilburg said. 

Another thing he shared was how they, of course, are participating in the district initiatives. He knows the schools have had bits and pieces of these things implemented previously, but now the schools have some autonomy and certain expectations from the district. 

They are reviewing the previous year’s testing data and using a program called Branching Minds to house the data. They just took their fall WYTOPP, and it will go through this program to be reviewed. 

The school is also working on interventions and strategies to help struggling students. 

There are a lot of things going into their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Something interesting he shared was how Torrington Middle School teacher, Josh Jackson, created a new document the staff will be learning how to use for their Green Fridays. This document invites students to Green Fridays. 

Green Fridays are an opportunity for students to do enrichment activities or fun activities not done in class. It is also a chance for students to retake or make up tests. The document helps staff invite these students more clearly and it also emails their parents to make them aware and helps encourage students to attend. The staff are training to learn to use it successfully. 

Van Tilburg also reported how Green Fridays have been really successful. The first on they had on September 23, they had 114 students in attendance, or a third of their students. They are hoping for 50% of the students to be in attendance. He finds this to be an example of improvement from their PLCs. 

He said he is seeing staff doing a fantastic job of doing what they need to do and using the things they need to. They are loving the new document and are doing a great job using branching minds. Their data discussions have been really helpful too. It gives them a better idea of what kids are struggling where and how to help them. 

He can’t report anything quantitative, but he is seeing in person and in real-time, the benefits of these new implementations. 

Van Tilburg said the awareness of the staff is heightened and they are clearer in the direction in which they are wanting to take learning.

The kids are also doing well in these programs. The differentiated instruction has been beneficial. 

“There are other initiatives that the district is bringing in, like the MTSS process. Which is the multi-tiered system of support. That’s tied to the branching minds platform. They kind of go hand in hand with what the idea there is, we have 3 tiers,” Van Tilburg explains. “Tier 1 is about 80% of our kids. So, they go into the classroom and receive the normal day-to-day instruction, and they are successful with that. They don’t really need any interventions or support. Tier 2 is, you know, I think it’s somewhere around the 10-15% of those kids who they, you know, they struggle a little bit. It’s not a lot, but a little, so they need some interventions and support outside of the normal tier 1 instruction. And then, tier 3 are those students that are really struggling, you know, that need a lot of, not only help in the regular classroom but other supports outside of the classroom. And not just interventions but help one-on-one with other people or in small group learning. So again, those tie together we’re working on that.”

They receive a lot of support from the district to help build it into something successful.

The final initiative Van Tilburg spoke of was student success teams. This includes the counselors, the principal, the dean of students and sometimes teachers. They identify who needs help and make an intervention plan. 

The staff are doing a great job picking this all up and putting it into action. 

“The thing I’ve learned about our staff is a couple of things,” Van Tilburg continued. “The teachers in our building, they’re all here to do right by kids. There isn’t anybody here that’s, you know, just showing up and punching the clock, so to speak, and not doing much. The other thing I’ve noticed, is we have a lot of teacher talent and a lot of teacher creativity. We have a lot in this building and really proud of the work that they do. The teachers are using those. They’re trying to get better and improve and I see it every week. So we have the talent, but the creativity, you know. I don’t tell them how these strategies need to be delivered necessarily and some of the creativity that I’ve seen from our teachers while using these strategies is like, it just blows my mind. We have more teacher creativity here than I’ve had, you know, any other place I’ve been. That’s with using the instructional strategy. It’s been really good.

He is enjoying the year. He is fascinated by the culture of the school. He has seen a variety, and he finds THS to be unique. He believes the school is “prime to take off”. The staff are doing the right things. They are working to do as much as they can right to make sure the kids get the best education, activities, and experiences they can. He just wants to stay consistent and collective in their work. He knows they will see positive movement.