AcademicsSupport CCS PillarsSupport CCS Values

Academic Excellence

Support CCS Admin September 15, 2024

At Support CCS, we’re committed to ensuring Carmel residents know exactly where our organization and its endorsed candidates stand. We want residents to vote confidently and share their enthusiasm about our candidates with their neighbors and friends.

Support CCS stands on six pillars–six values we believe will ensure the continued success and improvement of the Carmel Clay Schools:

Academic Excellence
School Safety
Global Preparedness
Parent Partnership
Supporting Teachers
Mental Well-Being

Over the next six weeks, we’ll be diving into these pillars one by one, showing:

Why they matter;
Why Jon and Kristina are the right candidates to uphold them; and
How YOU can help CCS thrive by promoting them.

What “Academic Excellence” means to us
It’s not just about standardized test scores. It’s about turning in excellent work, mastering skill sets, winning awards for robotics or poetry, gaining admission into the post-graduation institution of your dreams (whether it’s an Ivy-league college or a professional apprenticeship), or a variety of other things students strive for. Success can mean so many things to so many different students and families across Carmel Clay Schools. We believe school board members should balance traditional measurements of achievement with other metrics of excellence, and should work to ensure all students are supported in developing and fulfilling their unique goals for academic excellence. Every student in our district should be challenged to achieve their own individualized goals, and our Board, Administration, teachers and staff should be creating an environment for each student to thrive.

The Risks of Not Getting it Right
Though CCS continues to be one of the top 3 schools in the state for ILEARN (2nd in spring of 2024), we cannot define excellence by one metric alone. If we are solely focused on state-level testing, we lose sight of the individual students we are serving and what their needs are for building a strong academic foundation. Of course there is always room for improvement, but CCS is widely known and respected for meeting kids where they are to prepare them to achieve their goals and fulfill their potential, which means different things to different families.

A Board focused on the singular metric of standardized test scores forces our teachers to teach to the test rather than teach our students how to learn and challenge themselves to grow. It could also diminish the value of opportunities that our district offers to our students that are not part of test scores. Things like the Polytechnic program at the high school are phenomenal opportunities for our students to explore real-world opportunities and skill acquisition through a challenging curriculum that does not exist within the state-wide testing format.

Why are Jon and Kristina the right candidates to enhance Academic Excellence in CCS?

Jon Shapiro:

Decades of experience in youth-serving nonprofits connecting students with expanded academic opportunities
Currently working at a high school serving students who are struggling with substance use disorders, where students receive recovery therapy in parallel to their educational courses so that they can reach their academic goals
4 years as Program Director for Simon Youth Foundation – a national education foundation partnering with public schools to ensure all students received the support they needed, teachers received high quality professional development and graduates could qualify for post-secondary scholarships
“As the world continues to evolve, so do the skills needed for success after high school- whether that be a post-secondary pathway, workforce pathway or military pathway. CCS must remain nimble to not only meet the requirements dictated by the IDOE, but to ensure that diverse and varied needs & desires of its students are met.” – Jon Shapiro

Kristina Wheeler:

Years of experience with PTOs (Prairie Trace, Clay Middle, CHS) working to help meet students where they are–including locating speakers of 150+ languages for Clay Middle’s first Multi-Language Learner Night to ensure every Clay family could participate
Years of service to Carmel Education Foundation, guiding scholarships to give students more opportunities and to support teachers in innovations that lead to more students achieving excellence.
Personally navigated the accommodations process for her daughter so she could receive the resources she needed to reach academic excellence; committed to making the process “less lonely” for other parents.
“In the spirit of “making the best even better,” I believe CCS should expand its efforts to provide academic support services such as tutoring, study groups and academic workshops to help students succeed academically.” – Kristina Wheeler

“My family moved to Carmel in the summer of 2021 namely because of the great public schools. We have 2 children in CCS and have had outstanding experiences so far. One child is in high-ability classes and one has an IEP to focus on speech and language. Both our children have had the right resources to help them thrive at school. We have had great teachers and administrators who have helped our children grow and learn at the right level for them. Our kids have access to activities and clubs that enhance their learning and are preparing them to be great students and better members of the community”. –Mary Ajango (Mom of 2 in EL/MS/HS @ CCS)

There are LOTS of ways to help us make the case that Academic Excellence at CCS will best be served by electing Shapiro and Wheeler!

Stop misinformation when you see it or hear it!
- Ever since Unify Carmel began showing up in our mailboxes and at our school board meetings three years ago, detractors of our public schools have been spreading misinformation about our test scores as a way of eroding Carmel’s confidence in CCS and creating an atmosphere of fear. Get the real facts about our test scores here and here.
Share your enthusiasm for Jon and Kristina with your neighbors and friends by putting up Yard Signs
- Your neighbors KNOW that you care about Academic Excellence. So when you put up a “Shapiro” or “Wheeler” yard sign, that tells your neighbors you trust Jon and Kristina to build on the success your family has found at CCS.
Share your stories of Academic Excellence in CCS with us!
- We’re always looking for testimonials to share on our website! What does “Academic Excellence” mean to you? How have your children been able to achieve academic excellence in CCS? Share them here.

Support Carmel Clay Schools: Who We Are

Support CCS is a non-partisan political action committee working to support Carmel Clay Schools. We believe that public education is the foundation of a healthy democracy: accessible to all, it brings communities together across differences while respecting the individuality of all. We therefore seek to support the election of school board candidates who will fulfill the mission and guiding principles of Carmel Clay Schools.

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