School Overview

Dolby Elementary School

            The faculty and staff of Dolby Elementary are dedicated to providing each child a quality education based on academic excellence while striving to meet his or her individual needs. With implementation of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits and The Leader in Me, we are more dedicated than ever to provide a firm foundation of life skills and time honored principles to help all children reach their full potential both inside and outside of the classroom.  Close working relationships among teachers, parents, administration, and children are essential in providing the best possible instructional program.

            Dolby Elementary has used the Quality in Education processes, based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, since 1999.  The focus on academics and school procedures became the cornerstone for continuous improvement within our school and district.  But we felt something was missing - the focus on the “whole child.”  Now with the implementation of The Leader in Me, we feel we have come full circle and have the tools to begin Empowering Inspired Leaders as we continue our journey of Learning and Leading for Life.

            All classrooms create their own mission statements, set class goals, and track progress towards meeting the goals. Each child in PreKindergarten through fifth grade has their own data notebook in which they set individual goals and track progress, a key component in student achievement. A school wide focus on recognizing children for “living” the Seven Habits has improved student behavior and reduced office referrals. Students are often overheard using the Seven Habits language throughout the day in their learning and interactions with each other.

            Dolby Elementary is the only school in Calcasieu Parish that has twice received the SWLA Quality Award for Highest Achievement from the Chamber Southwest and was the first K-12 school in the state to receive the Performance Excellence Award from the Louisiana Quality Foundation. Our reputation for academic excellence is supported by state of the art technology. Dolby staff members have received over $1,000,000 in grants for school and classroom needs.  Every classroom has a projector, laptop, ActivBoard, ActivSlate, ActiVotes and/or ActivExpressions, numerous desktop and handheld computers as well as netbooks, iPADs, digital cameras, document cameras, webcams, MP3 players, and graphics tablets. Dolby also has a closed circuit television station in which students produce a daily news broadcast on KIDS TV.

            The staff of Dolby is continually involved in ongoing professional development activities. Our teachers and staff regularly attend and make presentations at numerous local, state, and national conferences. We conduct Professional Learning Community meetings weekly to analyze data, examine student work, improve instruction, align processes, and plan schoolwide events.  Strategic Planning is held every summer and all staff members are encouraged to attend.

            We have strong partnerships within the community. University classes are held after school on our campus. Our business partners include Home Furniture, Chase Bank, Saundra Bridges Real Estate, Walgreens, McDonalds, and the Chamber Southwest. Our international partnership with three schools in London, England has grown through our communication with technology.

            We are very proud of our high-performing students, hard-working teachers, and actively involved parents and partners. Through leadership, strategic planning, data analysis, and professional development we are striving for the continuous improvement of our learning environment. With the implementation of The Leader in Me we are now focused on what matters most – children as humans, not as test scores.