Superintendent's Letter

Welcome to the Milford School District!!! I hope the information on our web site will be useful to you and help you gain a better understanding of our school district.

It is the mission of the Milford School District to insure that all students receive a comprehensive, personalized, quality education in a safe, supportive learning environment where students can gain the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that will enable each of them to achieve success in their life pursuits. While a major portion of schooling in the district is devoted to developing excellence in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies, we remain committed to the arts, world languages, vocational studies, athletics, and values education as we strive to provide our students with a well rounded educational experience.

In order to maximize the achievement of all students, we have adopted the Baldrige Quality Criteria as a framework for continual school improvement. We utilize these criteria and processes to validate improvement needs, clarify organizational purpose, goals, and measures, adopt and deploy an organization-wide approach to improvement, translate the approach to ‘aligned action’ at every level, analyze results and make improvements, and repeat this cycle. The Milford School District has realized six consecutive years of improvement in student achievement utilizing these practices.

Because of our unrelenting dedication to excellence, our students and schools are consistently among the state’s top performers on the Delaware State Testing Protocol (DSTP). Highlights for the 2003-2004 school year include having over 90 % of students in grades 3 and 5 meet or exceed standards in reading, having 97% of students in grade 4 meet or exceed standards in science, achieving a mean national percentile rank of 65% in reading for all district students, achieving a mean national percentile rank of 77% in mathematics for all district students, and having 3 of the district’s 5 schools rated Superior for their testing performance. On the 2004 DSTP, Milford achieved it best ever performance in 11 of 12 areas rated on that assessment, besting 10 historic highs for the district set in 2003.

Milford is a progressive, innovative, and child centered district where everyone works together for the success of our students. Our collaborative approach to problem solving has gained the district national recognition as a model of excellence in public education. Working in partnership with parents and members of the community, we look forward to assuring a positive and rewarding school experience for all of our students in the 2004-2005 school year.

The Milford School District is located in the geographic center of the State of Delaware and has the Delaware Bay as its eastern boundary. The school district encompasses 166 square miles of flatland, with numerous freshwater lakes dotting the area. Most of the land is utilized in various agribusiness enterprises. Total population for the Milford School District is approximately 20,000 with a student population of approximately 3800 for grades K-12.

Robert D. Smith, Ed.D.
Superintendent
August 2004