This document provides information about the NFUSSD 2016 conference being held in Huntington, West Virginia from October 9-11, 2016. The summary includes the keynote speakers, Brian Wiebe and Bill Haithcock; the conference agenda with general sessions, concurrent sessions, tours and networking events; and descriptions of some of the concurrent sessions on topics like career academies, year-round school, and organizational health. The document encourages attendees to register for the conference and lists contact information for additional details.

1. NFUSSD 2016
Inside
 Keynote Speakers
 Conference
Agenda
 Think Tank
Sessions
 Concurrent
Sessions
 School Tours
 Spouse Tour
 Hospitality Event
 Conference Center
Map (on back)
For additional
information regarding
the conference or
travel arrangements,
please contact
Ladonna Patterson
by calling (304) 528-
5043, or visit the
NFUSSD website at
www.nfussd.org.
Welcome to Huntington, West Virginia
and Cabell County Schools
National Federation of Urban & Suburban School Districts October 9-11, 2016
“Making the Most Impact for Students”
Cabell County Schools is proud to be serving as host for
the annual conference of the National Federation of
Urban and Suburban School Districts (NFUSSD).
Over the past few years, the teachers and support staff
of Cabell County have been in the process of recreating
ourselves and constructing a culture of achievement that
will equip our students for excellence in the 21st century.
Student success depends on a rigorous, competitive
curriculum, delivered with real-life experiences relevant
for our technology savvy students, tempered with teacher
-student relations that maximize student engagement.
When you visit our schools, you will see students
engaged in meaningful work. You will see teachers
participating in professional learning communities
focused on a team approach to ensure successful
learning for all students. You will also note teachers
taking on the role of instructional leaders, successfully
solving the classroom challenges to ensure our students
have the best learning environment possible. We are
empowering our students to meet their goals in order to
achieve their dreams.
On behalf of all of us at Cabell County Schools, we hope
you feel welcome and enjoy your stay in Huntington!
William A. Smith
Superintendent
Board of Education
Mary Neely, President
Skip Parsons, Vice
President
Karen Nance
Gordon Ramey II
Rhonda Smalley
2850 5th Avenue
Huntington, WV 25702
(304) 528-5000
www.cabellschools.com

2. “Making the Most Impact for Students”
NFUSSD 2016 Keynote Speakers
Brian Wiebe, Executive Director, Horizon Education Alliance
(HEA)
Brian has worked as an educator for 25 years in early childhood, middle
school, high school and higher education as teacher and administrator,
serving for 10 years as Executive Director of the Goshen College Music
Center. Prior to leadership at Goshen College, he taught at Central Christian
School in Kidron, Ohio and at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. At the
Music Center, he was responsible for all outreach community programming
that grew out of the Center’s first decade, also overseeing operations and
fundraising. He played a significant role in Elkhart County's strategic planning
process beginning in 2010 that led to the creation of the HEA in 2012, and
became HEA’s first executive director in October 2012. He has a master's
degree in music from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a
master’s in arts in Intercultural Leadership from Goshen College.
Bill Haithcock, Principal, Harborside Academy
Bill is a 1991 graduate of Kenosha’s Carthage College with a Bachelor’s
degree in elementary education and cognitive disabilities. He earned his
Master’s degree in 1996 from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with
an emphasis on emotional disturbances. Bill also earned a second Master’s
degree in Administration from Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL. Mr. Haith-
cock began his career with the Kenosha Unified School District in 1992 as a
teacher at Whittier Elementary School. He has also served as a site leader for
the school district’s Life & Leisure summer school program. He served as
teacher consultant with the Total Interagency Model of Education (T.I.M.E.)
Program located at Hillcrest School. His responsibilities in that job included
development and implementation of the school’s improvement plan, serving
as the program’s instructional leader, coordination of the program with the
community agencies involved, budget management, staff development,
student discipline, leadership of the program’s site council, and implementa-
tion and development of Hillcrest School’s summer school plan, among other
duties.
Mr. Haithcock is also a noted and sought-after speaker at the local, state,
regional, and national levels on such topics as student discipline, conflict
resolution, bullying prevention, school data analysis and inclusion to name
just a few. He was selected as the Kenosha Unified School District Special
Areas Teacher of the Year in 1997, was nominated for the prestigious Herb
Kohl Teacher Fellowship, and was named Wal-Mart Kenosha County Teacher
of the Year in 1998. He was named Kenosha Unified School District Adminis-
trator of the Year in 2007. Before the opening of Harborside Academy,
Mr. Haithcock served with distinction as principal of John Bullen Middle
School, championing the regular educational program as well as the school’s
anti-bullying theme. He holds a Wisconsin pre-kindergarten through twelfth
grade principal license.

3. Think Tank Session 1
“College and Career Readiness”
What is working in school districts and
what are the big rocks hindering
students achieving college and career
readiness for the 21st
century? This
session will generate discussion on
strategies which districts are
implementing to prepare students for
post-secondary education or for jobs
in an ever-changing global economy.
How are school districts meeting the
demand for a skilled workforce that
will prosper by creating innovations as
technology and knowledge grows
exponentially for the next decade?
Please bring some examples of
current strategies being implemented
in your district to share with the
attendees.
Think Tank Session 2
“Teacher Impact on Student
Learning: Visible Learning”
According to Rand Education
Research among school-related
factors, teachers matter most as a
teacher is estimated to have two to
three times the impact of any other
school factor, including services,
facilities, and even leadership.
With budget cuts and increasing
number of retirements, how are
districts addressing capacity in
building teacher effectiveness
throughout the school district in order
for every student to have a quality
teacher and learning experience?
How is critical knowledge loss through
attrition diminished by a district? Who
is accountable for developing the
effectiveness of teachers? What
support structures are in place for
struggling or new teachers?
Conference Agenda
Unless otherwise noted, events take place at the Big Sandy
Superstore Conference Center.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
12:00 – 2:00 PM
Registration (Conference Center Lobby)
2:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Opening General Session (Grand Ballroom)
 Entertainment - Cabell Midland High School Collegium
Musicum
 Posting the Colors - Huntington High School JROTC
 Introduction of NFUSSD President – Ron Duerring,
NFUSSD Executive Consultant
 Welcome - Sarah R. Meier, NFUSSD President
 Introduction of Guest Speaker – William Smith,
Superintendent, Cabell County Schools
 Guest speaker – Brian Wiebe, Executive Director, Horizon
Education Alliance
3:45 PM
Refreshments (Conference Center Lobby)
4:00 PM – 5:15 PM
Concurrent Sessions (Breakout Rooms)
 Think Tank Session 1 – “College and Career
Readiness” (Tech Room 1)
 Think Tank Session 2 – “Teacher Impact on Student
Learning: Visible Learning” (Tech Room 2)
 Roundtable for Board Members (Rhododendron Room)
 Roundtable for Superintendents (Dogwood Room)
5:30 PM
President’s Reception (Grand Ballroom)
 Entertainment – Kala DeHart and RiverTown
 Hors d'oeuvres
 Cash bar
 Greetings – Sarah Meier, NFUSSD President
6:30 PM
Dinner/Evening on your own
7:00 PM
Executive Committee Meeting/Dinner
(Marshall Hall of Fame Café)

4. Concurrent Sessions - Tuesday
“Year-Round School: Changing the
Conditions to Eliminate Summer
Regression” (North Kansas City
Schools) It is estimated that by fifth
grade a middle-income student is approxi-
mately 3 years ahead of a low-income peer.
While students can learn at the same rate
during the traditional nine months of school,
regression over the summer occurs for
many. Learn about the impact of year-round
school from North Kansas City (enrollment
19,131). Understand rationale for additional
days and use criteria to identify schools in
your own district that might benefit. Avoid
any pitfalls in communicating and
implementing this progressive concept.
“CTE Academies” (Cabell County
Schools) Career academies were
developed with the aim of restructuring
large high schools into small learning
communities and creating better pathways
from high school to further education and
the workplace. Operating as schools within
schools, career academies are organized
around such themes as health sciences,
law, business and finance, and engineering.
Academy students take classes together,
remain with the same group of teachers
over time, follow a curriculum that includes
rigorous academic courses as well as
career-oriented courses, and participate in
work-based learning activities. Learn about
how Cabell has implemented this initiative
as we walk you through our development
process and goals for the future.
“Thinking Functionally about
Behavior” (Granite School District)
Granite is addressing classroom behavior
and its relationship to academic learning
through behavior initiatives, supports and
training, and tools and resources imple-
mented in a three-tier model. Behavioral
Health Assistants, with a specific job
description and requisite training, have been
provided to all schools; Granite’s PBIS
model is being implemented through cohort
training K-12. An online behavior data
management system for recording minor
behavior incidents and office referrals has
been provided to all schools so that student
behavior data can be effectively tracked and
evaluated. A highly-trained Behavior
Response Support Team (BRST) has been
integrated into five at-risk pilot schools with
the expectation of their being a highly
mobile and expertly trained resource for all
schools in the future.
Monday, October 10, 2016
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration (Conference Center Lobby)
8:30 AM
Buses Depart for Spouse Tour
9:00 AM
Buses Depart for School Tours
9:30 AM – 11:00 AM
School Tours
 Tour 1 – “Impact on Student Learning”
Huntington East Middle School (CREW, VOMP/
Restorative Justice)
 Tour 2 - “Career Readiness”
Cabell Midland High School (Career Academies)
 Tour 3 – “EL Education”
Explorer Academy
11:30 AM – 12:45 AM
Luncheon and Networking Session
(Huntington High School, Room D144)
 Huntington High School JROTC to Greet Guests
 Scratch Cooking Demonstration - Rhonda McCoy and
Cabell County Schools Cooks
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
School Tours Continue
 Tour 1 – “Impact on Student Learning”
Explorer Academy (EL Education)
 Tour 2 - “Career Readiness”
Barboursville Middle School (Career Literacy)
 Tour 3 - “EL Education”
Highlawn Elementary
2:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Hospitality Event at Heritage Farm Museum & Village
 Farm Tours
 Entertainment – “Of the Dell” Beatles Tribute Band
 Hors d'oeuvres
6:30 PM
Buses Depart for Hotel
7:00 PM
Dinner/Evening on your own

5. Concurrent Sessions - Tuesday
(Continued)
“Performance-Based Grad-
ing” (Granite School District) Grades
are intended to communicate progress
toward mastery of articulated course
content standards to students and
parents. They are intended to indicate
what a student knows and is able to do
with respect to course objectives that
have been explicitly taught. They
encourage the student to act on feedback
and the teacher to adjust and
individualize instruction. Intent on moving
to proficiency-based grading system wide,
Granite is currently piloting PBG in
various elementary and secondary school
environments. Support of such an effort
requires attention to such issues as extra
credit, penalty for late work, multiple
opportunities for assessment, and
accountability for student behavior,
participation, punctuality and effort.
Granite will share four years’ worth of
research and decision-making that have
led to proficiency-based grading
becoming an expectation district wide and
bolstered the work of PLCs in the areas of
common formative and summative
assessments and scoring rubrics for
them.
“Organizational Health” (Cabell County
Schools) Assessing the Organizational
Health of key leadership teams through-
out an organization on an annual basis
provides an objective and reliable method
of focusing organizational energies on
continuous improvement for leaders and
members of their units. For the past nine
(9) years, Linda Alexander and
Dr. Marvin Fairman of Organizational
Health Diagnostic & Development
Corporation (OHDDC) have been working
alongside Cabell County Schools central
office administrators in providing
leadership training and development for
all principals and key faculty leaders.
As a result of their collective efforts, most
of the district’s principals have built the
leadership capacity of faculty leaders and
have systems in place so that faculty
members are able to function as
highly-effective, interdependent teams,
resulting in improved student perfor-
mance. During the course of Cabell’s
work with Organizational Health, the
American Association of School
Administrators (AASA) endorsed the com-
pany’s diagnostic and development
process.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Registration (Conference Ctr. Lobby)
8:30 AM
General Session (Grand Ballroom)
 Entertainment - Huntington High School Theater
performing selections from “Romeo & Juliet the Musical”
 Introduction of Guest Speaker – William Smith,
Superintendent, Cabell County Schools
 Guest speaker – Bill Haithcock, Principal of Harborside
Academy in Kenosha, WI
9:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Concurrent Sessions/Think Tanks (Breakout Rooms)
 Think Tank Session – College and Career Readiness
(Tech Room 1)
 Session 1 – “Year Round School”
North Kansas City Schools (Tech Room 2)
 Session 2 – “CTE Academies”
Cabell County Schools (Dogwood Room)
 Session 3 – “Organizational Health”
Cabell County Schools (Rhododendron Room)
10:45 AM Refreshments (Conference Ctr. Lobby)
11:00 AM – 12:15 AM
Concurrent Sessions/Think Tanks (Breakout Rooms)
 Think Tank Session – “Teacher Impact on Student
Learning” (Tech Room 1)
 Session 1 – “Thinking Functionally about Behavior”
Granite School District (Tech Room 2)
 Session 2 – “Performance-Based Grading”
Granite School District (Dogwood Room)
 Session 3 – “Organizational Health”
Cabell County Schools (Rhododendron Room)
12:30 PM
Luncheon (Grand Ballroom)
 Entertainment - Cabell Midland Jazz Knights
 Preview of 2017 NFUSSD Conference
1:15 PM
General Session (Grand Ballroom)
 Think Tank Session Reports
 Delegate Assembly Business Meeting
 Installation of 2017 NFUSSD President
 Closing of 2016 NFUSSD Conference
3:00 PM
Afternoon/evening on your own

6. Tour 1 – “Impact on Student Learning” (Explorer Academy and Huntington East Middle School)
EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) schools are models of comprehensive school reform
based on the educational ideas of German educator Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound. There
are more than 150 Expeditionary Learning Schools in 30 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. They
are exemplified by project-based learning expeditions, where students engage in interdisciplinary,
in-depth study of compelling topics, in groups and in their community, with assessment coming through
cumulative products, public presentations, and portfolios. Explorer Academy is the first EL Education
School in West Virginia, opening its doors in August 2015. The staff and administrators spent two years
training and implementing EL Education practices prior to opening the school.
Huntington East Middle School (HEMS) is the feeder middle school for Explorer Academy. The HEMS
staff embraced a professional services agreement with EL Education in August 2015 to incorporate the
culture practices and learning target protocol throughout the school, paving the way for a
smooth transition for Explorer Academy students entering the school as sixth graders in August 2016.
The school continues to explore additional aspects of EL Education as they grow in their understanding
of this school reform model.
Tour 2 - “Career Readiness” (Cabell Midland High School Career Academies and Barboursville
Middle School Career Literacy)
This tour will showcase how Cabell County is preparing its students for life after high school. Cabell Mid-
land High School is the largest school campus in the state of West Virginia and has been
implementing an academy model since 2010. The current academies include Health Sciences, Fine
Arts (both performing and visual), Childcare and Teaching, Law and Legal and Agri-Science. In addition
to these career academies, Cabell Midland High School focuses on transition to high school with a very
active ninth grade academy. In 2016, Barboursville Middle, a Cabell Midland High School feeder,
implemented Career Literacy to assist with the career readiness initiative. Participants will see how
literacy can be used to enhance a career-readiness initiative to prepare the workforce of the future.
School Tours

7. Tour 3 – “EL Education” (Highlawn Elementary and Explorer Academy)
Imagine a learning environment where children are encouraged to discover themselves as they face
challenges; learn and grow from defeat in a setting that embraces collaboration, discovery and
community; where nature and the arts are embraced and students learn to become stewards of the
earth. EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) embraces these values and core practices
while providing students with a rigorous curriculum that connects learning to real-world issues and
needs. Guests are invited to discover the world of EL Education in action by visiting two
EL Education Schools in Cabell County. Explorer Academy began their journey as a K-5
EL Education School in the 2014-15 school year. Both teachers and administrators have been
engaged in learning the core principles and curriculum for more than two years and take great pride in
putting their learning into practice. Highlawn Elementary began in the 2015-16 school year in grades
3-5. Both schools are on the same path, but at different points along the journey. Participants will
witness EL Education at its best with real life teachers and children interacting, discovering and
learning in two very diverse schools.
Spouse Tour (Concurrent with School Tours)
Enjoy a welcome dose of West Virginia “Wild & Wonderful” hospitality on a fun-filled tour of Cabell
County. After leaving the hotel, we will first travel to Milton, West Virginia. Along the way, you’ll be
entertained by a narrated history of Eastern Cabell County. A VIP tour of the Blenko Glass Company
and a live demonstration of West Virginia glass blowing at its finest await your arrival in Milton. This
part of the tour will also give you time to browse the Visitor’s Center and Glass Shop.
Our next stop will be Barboursville Park, a great spot to remind you of why West Virginia is often
called “Almost Heaven.” Lunch will be provided from nationally-renowned Stewart’s Original Hotdogs.
While enjoying the beautiful park setting, we have a special bit of home grown entertainment for our
tour group. After lunch, we head to Huntington’s Old Central City antique district to explore a number
of the Mountain State’s finest antique shops. We will conclude our tour with a short drive to Heritage
Farm Museum & Village to meet up with the rest of our conference group for an outstanding evening
event.

8. Wild, Wonderful West Virginia Hospitality Event
This year’s hospitality event will be
held at Heritage Farm Museum &
Village and is being sponsored by
ZMM, Organizational Health, and
Bowles Rice. Step back in time
with a guided adventure into days
gone by – a time of one-room
schoolhouses, blacksmith shops,
country stores and log
homes. Hors d’oeuvres will be
served in Heritage Hall and live
music will be performed by the
band “Of the Dell” from Huntington,
West Virginia. Visit their website to
learn more: www.heritagefarmmuseum.com
Big Sandy Superstore Conference Center Map