Board of Education (BOE) members held a Celebration of Excellence for Reed Intermediate School's Podcasting Club, and also listened to an overview on the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), at their Tuesday, April 21 meeting.

Reed Library and Media Specialist Sara Wasley led the presentation on the relatively new school club. Reed's Podcasting Club has students work individually or in pairs to record and release their own podcast.

Reed student Logan Eide, one of several Reed students who spoke on the program at the meeting, said students will research, take notes, and write scripts for their podcasts. Students also learn how to use editing software and video technology to make their podcast a reality.

Producing a podcast is easier said than done. Reed students Lucy Prud'homme and London Sanchez said students have to brainstorm possible topics, come up with a big question, and do a lot of research before even using Google Video.

Editing for podcasts can also be time consuming, since they have to edit out unnecessary segments, or distracting noises like breathing or someone accidentally bumping the microphone. Students also had to add in advertisements for their peers' podcasts, which helped people learn what other podcasts were covering.

Reed student Gracie Solt talked about everything needed to make Podcasting Club. She said they used their school’s Chromebooks in order to use the Google Video application, microphones provided by Reed PTA, and a proper recording space.

Solt said the library made for a perfect recording space since they had a lot of small offices, where the microphones could pick up their voices and there would be little miscellaneous noise from other students or classes.

Wasley was the one who wrote a proposal for Podcasting Club to Reed Principal Dr Matt Correia, who accepted the proposal. After getting his approval, Wasley said they could go all in on preparing for the club. Wasley said they made sure they had compatible technology, which worked out since it was already available in their Google Suite.

They also sent home permission slips for the club, with a caveat that they might use recordings in different locations. Reed's PTA also got wind of the Podcasting Club and set aside funds to get a podcasting microphone and shield. The new equipment was so popular, Wasley said, that the PTA eventually purchased five more microphones for students to use.

Then every student got a chance to share their podcasts.

Eide used his love of learning to make his podcast, The Big Wow, which covered fun facts about the world that he wanted to share with other students. These facts range from the letter A hardly being used when spelling numbers to the similarities between gorillas and humans.

Solt's podcast, Secrets of Life, is for anybody who loves horror and horror-themed fun facts, such as scary clowns and why people are scared of the number 13.

Reed student Chase Ibbitson's Ball Boy Fantasy podcast aims to get to the bottom of what fantasy football is and how to best participate. He said the podcast is mostly for beginners, with his first episode covering fantasy football basics and doing a quick deep dive into why the draft is so important.

Prud'homme and Sanchez's podcast, Cozy Corner, is a comedy podcast where they entertain listeners and even interview special guests. Their example episode featured their interview with Reed teachers English language arts (ELA)/social studies teacher Stephanie Finik and math/science teacher Elvina Rugovac.

When the girls asked Finik and Rugovac if ELA and math tests should be open-noted, they were quickly met with a, "No," which got a laugh from the BOE meeting audience.

NEASC Overview

NEASC is the accrediting body for public, independent, and international schools and was founded in 1885. It focuses on pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade and aims to co-create the future of education through purposeful accreditation focused on high-quality learning for all students, according the organization's website.

The presentation on earning NEASC accreditation was delivered by Newtown High School (NHS) Principal Kimberly Longobucco.

"I would say almost everybody does it," Longobucco explained. "They say that you opt into it, but if you live in the high school world, certainly in public education in New England, almost everybody is accredited by NEASC."

This accreditation can be seen on schools' website, district mailings, protocols, and other material. This is something Longobucco said they who live at the secondary level are very familiar with since the secondary level is actually the school that gets accredited.

As such, Longobucco said NEASC is a main focus at NHS, adding that some BOE members may be familiar with it already. However, she said many of them might not be familiar with it since the last time the process occurred was in 2015; a part of earning NEASC accreditation involves a Decennial Accreditation Visit.

While Longobucco noted she was not there for the visit in 2015, she was lucky enough to pick up the two- and five-year report after arriving in 2016.

Longobucco said NEASC did not do in person visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it was supposed to visit NHS in 2026, it got pushed back because of a backlog of visits from 2020 and 2021.

"And so now we are up and starting our cycle again," Longobucco said.

The process for NEASC changed significantly in 2020, when it rolled out its new accreditation system, according to Longobucco. The old process, which she went through in her previous district, consisted of collecting "bins and bins" of evidence on everything the school was doing.

It also included a Sunday welcome with a big meal and other tasks schools had to do for a group of NEASC representatives.

NEASC changed the process to something that Longobucco said is "far more beneficial and a lot more ongoing."

"[It's] a lot more about feedback and a lot less about one visit and a big hoopla on how well you plan a party versus how well you're actually running your school and educating the students," Longobucco explained.

The Accreditation Cycle

The key components of the accreditation cycle include:

*A self-reflection completed by the school.

*A collaborative conference held with a small team of peer educators.

*The development and implementation of a school growth plan.

*A reflective summary report completed by the school.

*A personalized Decennial Accreditation Visit.

Longobucco said NHS is currently in the self-reflection stage. This step changed from literally collecting evidence and putting it into bins to an online platform broken down by the standards schools are required to speak on.

Schools come out with five to seven goals and then write a self-report that is around 75 pages; Longobucco said they used to have to write "hundreds and hundreds" of pages for a NEASC report.

The collaborative conference will be held on October 20 and 21 later this year.

"And what comes out of [the conference] is a report from that visiting team, and collaborative goals that come from that; goals that we present that they either accept or make some recommendations for us to adjust," Longobucco said.

She added that they will then have two years to work on these goals, and then a group of people — ideally the same as those from the collaborative visit — come back for the decennial visit.

The Decennial Accreditation Visit, Longobucco said, is essentially their "checkup." It gauges how well they did based on what they wrote in the self-report on what their weaknesses are and how they can improve.

Longobucco said the visiting team consists of six to eight individuals from other schools who are either in the accreditation process or have been accredited before. This means they can get anybody from a new-ish teacher to a veteran administrator, superintendent, or central office staff.

NEASC tries to make the visiting team as varied as possible so there is a mix of different people looking through different lenses, according to Longobucco.

After that is a summary report, followed by a five-year gap where they are "not on a cycle." It is at this point they are appointed a NEASC representative who checks in and makes sure everything is improving and moving in the right direction.

"And then ultimately, you start that prep work again for the visit to come back. And so really, the whole thing is supposed to be done in a ten-year window, with the work happening in the final four to prepare for that next visit," Longobucco said.

Standards, Current Status

There are five standards that visiting teams look for when they visit:

*Learning culture.

*Student learning.

*Professional practices, which is for teachers and professional staff.

*Learning support; what they offer students, including special education and English Learning (EL) support.

*Learning resources, which includes all of their funding; essentially, "How are you getting what you do," according to Longobucco.

She added, "What we are doing now is our whole school is broken into these five indicators to dig into where we need to be to get our report off the ground."

While their visit is not until October, Longobucco said she believes NEASC does all of its reviews in May. While they will receive a report and know if their visit was well-accepted, Longobucco said they will not have the final accreditation quite yet.

"They do it [once] a year ... where [NEASC's Board of Trustees] comes together and reads everybody's report and decides on a final accreditation," Longobucco explained.

She emphasized that this is reviewed by peers and their intent is not to "catch people" or "not accredit schools." Instead, Longobucco said their goal is to help schools. For schools that are underfunded, she said NEASC might try to help them get funding.

"And really NEASC wants to work with you on supporting your school in the best way it can," Longobucco said.

She continued by saying NHS started preparing for NEASC accreditation this past October and formed a Steering Committee, which includes Longobucco, NHS Assistant Principal Paul Ribeiro, and five teachers, the following month.

They then sent a survey to NHS staff on NEASC's five standards and asked them to rank the top three areas where they wanted to work.

"We needed everybody to do work on this," Longobucco said. "And we wanted them to be happy in places where they were doing work."

From there, she said they took 127 certified staff, and divided them up amongst the five standards that they need to work. One person from the Steering Committee was assigned to each standard as a "subcommittee leader." Longobucco took her department chairs, along with two other department chairs, and split them into all five of the standards.

These "Standard Committees" started meeting in January, and led the Steering Committee to develop a detailed timeline for what they were going to do.

Longobucco said this is a tremendous amount of work for staff, and that she got her leadership on board on backing off of some of their department meetings and repurposing them for the accreditation process.

If they do that and follow the timeline, Longobucco said they will be able to get the report done by September 20, the last day it can be turned in.

Questions & Comments

Afterwards, the floor was open for the BOE to ask questions or make comments.

BOE member Doria Linnetz said it sounded like the school and district gain valuable information through the new accreditation process. She asked if there are other benefits to being NEASC accredited or if it is just an expectation of all public schools in the state of Connecticut.

Longobucco said it is largely an expectation to be accredited, not just in Connecticut, but in all of New England.

"I don't really know enough about the history, about when that started and how that came to be, but it is the general expectation," Longobucco said. "I don't know of any schools in Connecticut that are not."

Linnetz asked if NEASC has to coordinate with the Connecticut state Department of Education, to which Longobucco said that the majority of state-issued mandates are "not really a part of the NEASC process."

She added that visiting teams are coming in and looking at aspects such as student learning and school climate.

"Things are different in so many different states and, because they do schools internationally and private schools, they stay away from the policies and state statutes that guide what we need to do," Longobucco said.

She said that the process is a lot of work, adding the nature of being a high school teacher is knowing that NEASC happens. To that end, Longobucco thinks her staff is great, understands the work that needs to be done and, if they work really hard, can achieve what is best as possible for them and their students.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.