School Board Outlines 2003–04 District Goals

By Larissa Lytwyn

Unlike the atmosphere of many recent school board meetings, heavy with the tension of concerned parents and controversy-wearied board members, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Alice Jackson described a special meeting October 15 as “partylike.”

“It was very warm, very positive,” she said. “It was inspiring.”

Ms Jackson collaborated with school administration over the summer to create specific goals designed to maintain the town school system’s reputation as one of the strongest in the state.

 Ms Jackson helped conduct a comprehensive power point presentation based on four goals, most of which are ongoing, in accordance with the school system’s mission statement: “All children can and will learn well.”

 The first goal was to guarantee that students’ basic human needs were being met within the learning environment. Proposed was the formation of a representative committee to engage in strategies including the establishment of a format for communication/coordination among stakeholders including youth service agencies, youth officers, and schools. Presently, through activities such as mentoring, school personnel and youth organization representatives work together to implement programs benefiting students.

The proposed committee would also analyze substance abuse surveys, SASI discipline codes, and elementary discipline date to identify trends in problem behaviors.

Also examined was an elementary-aged antibullying program. This year, Hawley School in particular is engaging in the program with a slogan, “Hawley School is Bully Free!” Students will learn how to identify acts of bullying and share thoughts with each other on how bullying makes them feel. School administration was encouraged to develop a number of antibullying strategies, including a confidential reporting system, ensued by follow-up reports, and conducting assemblies to raise awareness and ensure that students understand bully-related school policy.

The second goal stated that students would learn and grow based on individual strengths and needs. Strategies to meet this goal included building a database to include as much data (including historical data) as possible. Another was to identify people to be leaders, offering clerical and social support in the interest of increasing school morale.

Each school’s principal is expected to provide Ms Jackson with the names of “teacher leaders” by November.

Another recommendation was to train staff to use available data to provide leadership training for administrators and teacher leaders. Ongoing professional development programs, aligned with performance needs as indicated by existing data, are currently addressing these issues.

The third goal stated that all students would learn well through engagement in a challenging, coordinated, and consistent K–12 curriculum.

“It’s important that there is a constant connection between each grade in terms of curriculum,” said Ms Jackson.

The Curriculum Leadership Committee met in August to develop a standard format and process for curriculum development and revision. Curriculum is updated annually. Updates are made according to recommendations from the Content-Specific Curriculum Committee. This committee, in part, works to develop strict timelines in which curriculum in need of review is thoroughly analyzed and, if need be, restructured to better meet student needs.

The fourth goal states that students will express, develop, and substantiate ideas and experience through writing. The Language Arts Committee, according to Ms Jackson, is dedicated to developing and publishing guiding principles for teaching and learning in the area of writing. The committee will create and publish a curriculum document prefaced with guiding principles and including K–12 objectives, reading/writing standards, and graduation requirements.

K–12 writing rubrics will be distributed to every school.

School board candidates George Caracciolo and Paul Mangiafico were specially invited to attend the meeting. “I was very, very impressed,” said Mr Mangiafico. “This is a great school system.”