One friendly greeting in Spanish went to her cousin, whose grandchild attends Clemente. But the banter and answers were equally welcoming and sincere to those she doesn’t know because Villarreal believes in creating a welcoming culture and climate with everyone in her school with the end goal of having everyone – parents, students and staff – collaboratively working on student achievement and student support. She uses a technique called the “ladder of communication,” and she is always striving to get to the top rung – student excellence. The initial rungs of the ladder include asking the parent what they believe the child needs for support and surveying the teachers/professionals who are directly impacting the student to find out what sup-port they need. “Then my job – with the assistant principal – is to make sure the training, materials and opportunities become realities for the teachers who are going to bring the services to our children,” she said.
At Clemente, that translates to providing parents and her staff with many desired services and sup-ports to help students excel. In addition to offering the core content subjects, Clemente has a school nurse, music teacher, reading specialist, librarian, computer specialist, physical education instructor, math specialist, school psychologist, school social worker, special education coordinator, speech and language therapist, and an English language learner coordinator.
The deep understanding of needs and constant collaboration and communication with the families and staff of her Pre-K-5 school located in a majority Latino neighborhood in Southwest Detroit is a natural for Villarreal. After all, she grew up near there and attended nearby Maybury Elementary, where she held her first Detroit Public Schools teaching position. Villarreal and her staff’s efforts have also helped Clemente to be recognized again and again by local and state organizations.
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A quote from a parent on the Excellent Schools Detroit scorecard, which ranked Clemente as one of the top schools in Detroit, also exemplifies Clem-ente’s collaborative spirit: “Clemente works because of Principal Melissa (Villarreal) and her staff… At Clemente, children and parents are valued; there’s an open door policy, and the team here is a part of the community.” The Excellent Schools Detroit visit, which is al-ways a surprise unscheduled visit to schools, came on the day of the Clemente’s winter holiday performance, a very hectic day, teeming with activity. Villarreal, who isn’t easily flappable, took a deep breath and said, “Okay, the show must go on!” “(The Excellent Schools Detroit evaluation team) was very, very excited with the amount of our parent involvement,” Villarreal said. “If you ask our parents to attend any event where their child is participating, they come.
We have that same response to parent teacher conferences and any event.” Why is that important? Because as Villarreal ex-plains, there is a constant reciprocal plan to improve student achievement, with parents expressing their academic concerns and observations about their children to her and teachers, and Clemente’s educa-tors constantly doing the same to parents. Villarreal has also listened closely to parents’ needs for a safe school environment, which is not always common in an urban school that houses a large student enrollment like Clemente.
However, disciplinary infractions are uncommon at the 770-student building. The school has been recognized by the Michigan Department of Education for its use of Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS), which is defined as an integrated, multi-tiered system of instruction, assessment, and intervention designed to meet the achievement and behavioral health needs of ALL learners.
The school is constantly analyzing student data to target intervention, provide support and recognize positive behavior. As Villarreal explains, the student achievement data, particularly reading data, is important to analyze when studying discipline because oftentimes a student who is acting out, is simply doing so to hide the embarrassment of poor academic achievement. “We have three guidelines that we follow – to be safe, to be respectful and to be responsible,” said fifth grade teacher Sarah McCasey. “The students have been taught to be very respectful and their parents really respect education, and that makes our job so much easier.” Fifth-grader Angel Murillo-Hernandez is the perfect example of a student who has excelled because of the support system offered to him. “All you have to do is tell a teacher, and they help you in the subject,” Angel said, recalling how his third-grade teacher inspired him to excel. “All be-cause of him, I am in an eighth-grade math level. He encouraged everyone in the class to set a goal. And after we beat that goal to set another goal.”
And that is music to Villarreal’s ears because it shows her ladder of communication – starting with the student talking to his teacher and a teacher listening intently to a child’s needs – is working!
Roberto Clemente Academy
1551 Beard, Detroit MI, 48209-2073
Phone: (313) 849-3489
Principal: Melissa Villarreal