The principal at Ypsilanti's Holmes Elementary School says they're making progress toward climbing out of the bottom 5 percent in the state's top-to-bottom rankings of schools.
The Ypsilanti Community Schools Board of Education got an update from Charles Raski and other school staffers at Monday night's meeting.
Raski says the building's school improvement plan focused on planning last year, with implementation taking place this year.
"This year we are putting in place some different instructional strategies," Raski says. "A lot of collaboration amongst staff, a lot of time in the schedule for the day where teachers can meet with each other and look at data."
Raski says moving to a balanced calendar is actually helping them get an earlier start at building a sense of community among the 310 pupils at Holmes and the school's teachers and staff.
He says a two-week break in October called "intercession" will see some pupils getting time off, while others will receive additional instruction.
