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Superintendent's Journal
Year 4: 2011-2012Tuesday, May 15, 2012: Staff and Program for 2012-2013
At this time of year, I spend as much time as possible discussing staffing and program for next year. I have to look at the entire school system PreK through 12th grade through different lenses and then fit the details and impressions together.
For example, one lens to look through is the lens of enrollment—what are our numbers for next year, as best as we can estimate? I hear students are going to continue to slowly return. Students who return for grade 6 this year, for example, will be in the new high school for the 8th Grade Academy. It’s an exciting time to start in Greenfield. Even in the high school grades, students will be in new classes after one year of construction—and the whole current school stays until the new school is built.
The next lens if the lens of facilities—which grades and programs go where? You can only figure out facility location when you have a sense of enrollment and the number of classes needed for each grade and subject. We are making a few revisions. For example, the first floor on Federal Street North will be rooms used by all the children in the school—library, computer lab, science and discovery room, and learning center. Nancy and I think the 2nd floor of the south building would be a good location for the arts rooms—music, art, and movement. They have yoga classes every morning at Federal Street and I suspect movement activities will grow in importance as we continue to focus on fitness and exercise. A colleague sent me pages of articles about yoga with children and how it calms them before academics. One of our Federal Street staff started a brief morning yoga program with students; improvements were indeed noted by the teachers.
Then you need to look through the lens of program—how does grade3 fit with 4? How do two years at the Math & Science Academy fit in with grades 8-10? This afternoon a group met to work out the course plan for Math & Science Academy students (and other advanced students) as they move through grades 8 to 12. This is our first incoming grade 8 class that will have the option of two science classes in grade 8, including an advanced physics 9 course. With the program we worked out today, our entering grade 8 class will have really unique options in high school.
Then you have to look at 2012-2013 through a lens that studies personnel—do we have the right faculty for the program? Do we have too many teachers in one building or grade and not enough in another? Administrators and I have been reviewing staffing for several months, figuring out which positions are needed where.
Finally, there is the lens of budget and grants. Now to figure out how the revisions needed can be funded. Sometimes it works out—one less grade 4 teacher; one more grade 8 teacher. It’s movement but no change in budget. Other times, we struggle to fit all the funding puzzle pieces together. With more students, our Expanded Learning Time grant will be $40,000 more in 2012-2013. At the same time, more students (all the grade 4-7 students) will participate. One grant is increased; another is cut. We gained $40l000 here and lost 1.2 million there. Lots of moving targets to consider.
From what I can tell, all the people on our administrative team like working on puzzles. More or less, that is what this is---a big education planning puzzle that involves people, facilities, program coherence, goal attainment, union contracts, grants and funding.
Our schools will be great next year. I’m quite proud that we figured out a new high school path for students accelerating in math and science. It’s all coming together.
Friday, May 11, 2012: Composting; Thinking about Grading
Composting
Today I met with four women whose interests are helping Greenfield schools begin composting our food waste. They located a two-year grant for environmental projects. The topic that will be the subject of this grant request is source separation of food waste and organic diversion projects.We talked about how to bring in this new project so that the outcome is a changed school culture. Our thinking is to start small, offering training, and gradually building the program. My thought: start with one elementary school, perhaps the Math & Science Academy for middle grades, and perhaps developing a full-year or half-year high school course about trash, soil, composting, and all related environmental topics. Someone found a high school course titled: Let’s Talk Trash. The topics involve composting, waste management, the cost savings and environmental benefits of less trash and healthier compost for gardens. We’ve (at GHS) been thinking about a few courses the provide a career cluster in small farming. Perhaps this grant could create one such course on the chemistry of soil and soil management, and include composting.
What a lovely way to volunteer—finding grant money and working to initiate an important program that educates students and also saves the school system money. Of course, we spent the first few minutes talking about the high school vote.
Until today, my vision of the future environmental science research lab at GHS was mostly fish tanks for water and aquaponic research. After our composting discussion today, I also could see glass-sided bins for worm farming and soil research.
Thinking About Grading
We grade lots of things—eggs, air quality, bed springs, light in rooms, stocks and bonds, and, of course, student learning. We assume there is always a standard for grading. In education, though, grading can be a subjective and inexact science. From time to time it’s important to step back and think about this. It’s quite important there be no confusion about what our grades mean.To consider grading practices, educators need to ask themselves: for whom is the grade intended? And what is the point? And what does the “B” or “3” really mean? What is the school philosophy about grading? It’s an important discussion to have.
Lots of people think a grade inspires students. If a particular student is motivated to be an A or B student, a C or D grade will inspire positive study action, to pull up the grade to an A or B. If someone is not an A or B student, however, a regular diet of D and F grades is not inspirational for generating anything positive. According to research, a student can take on the persona of a D or F person, with low self-esteem and low energy for trying to do better in school. So how do you reconcile inspiring all students to do their best and also have a grading system that recognizes proficient and outstanding students? I’m not sure anyone knows the answer, but there are alternatives to the strict A-F system. And no matter what the system used, there are always ways to be more sensitive about what one’s grading practices and grade report comments mean to students and parents receiving them. Each educator should ponder this.
A few experiences in my career as student and administrator have influenced my thinking about grading. I remember 20+ years ago talking to a kindergarten child who was crying with a paper from school in her hand. “What is the matter?” The child sobbed that her teacher thought she was stupid and didn’t like her. “Why do you think this?” The child showed me the paper from school--a worksheet and all the little questions were answered correctly. The child was crying because the teacher had taken a red pen and written a big C across the whole paper. The C meant “Correct.” But the child didn’t know this. The child sobbed “the teacher doesn’t like me because she scribbled all over my paper.” I still don’t understand why a kindergarten teacher didn’t understand that the “C” for “correct” would not be understood by such young children. Was it important to put a grade on a kindergarten paper?
I also remember a teacher who always wrote the number of right answers at the top of the page when giving a grade. She would write “6 Right!” and not “4 Wrong.” Seems like a small detail but I remember her saying to her students –“let’s find out how to answer the other questions.” When the child then correctly answered the other questions, the teacher would change the grade notation of “6 Right” and to “100%.” Her goal was not so much grading for the sake of grading but assuring students knew how to do the work assigned. Her students were mostly challenged students and they always seemed happy taking home classwork marked 100% and working diligently on their school work, as I recall.
At the middle and high levels, grading is more complex because you have rank issues and scholarships based on class rank. The grading guidelines are more difficult to make consistent within a school, such as: What happens if the student is late to class—is the grade reduced? If homework isn’t turned in, but the student receives a 100% on the final exam, how is this handled? Is there a system for reviewing test questions, to assure they represent the course, the points assigned for the question are reasonable, and the wording is not confusing? What about extra credit or retaking tests—can students raise their grade once given? What is the goal of the grading system—that is the first question for each school to clarify.
A grading experience I had in college that I still remember as unfair to students was a history final exam with one question worth 16 points. The question—What is this?—was a symbol in the shape similar the letter “C” with some dots and dashes around it. If you did not recall this symbol, you could barely pass the exam. What was the point? How could that one symbol be worth 16 points on a college final exam? My point is that even brilliant professors can have grading systems that someone should review.
I believe the most important questions about grading, particularly at K-7 levels are: what is the philosophy of grading, who is the grade for, and what do the grading symbols mean to teachers, students, and families. This summer, one of our study groups for teachers will be grading and report cards. We have collected perhaps 50 sample report cards from across the state to see what other schools use.
I look forward to hearing from people who have thoughts about this.
Thursday, May 10, 2012: Two Goals—Volunteerism and Elementary Libraries
Today I met with Nancee Bershoff, a retired physician active in the community and very actively helping our schools. Since the untimely death of Rahima Wade, Nancee has stepped in to assist with managing the volunteer program, the grade 6 pen pal project (now with over 100 adult volunteers), and our elementary library project. She is the ultimate community helper. Two other adults in the community are assisting with Nancee.
Volunteerism in our Schools—next year’s goals.
Since the rebirth of our school volunteer program two years ago, we have grown from 5 or 10 volunteers to nearly 150 community volunteers. One person volunteers and if it is fun, they tell a friend or neighbor. The pen pal project is lots of fun for adults—everyone involved reads the same book (grade 6 students and adult pen pal volunteers). Then the anonymous adult pen pal writes back and forth to the 6th-grade student pen pal. They share ideas about the book and life. Meanwhile, back in the classroom, the children have writing practice, including practicing handwriting, grammar, and even addressing the envelope. Many children do not receive mail, so receiving letters is a real treat for them. At the end of the program, the adult and 6-grade pen pals meet each other. We have approximately 120 grade 6 students, with 18 at the Math & Science Academy, and we have an adult volunteer for almost every student.Our volunteerism goals for next year are to increase our volunteers and to improve our system for teachers to request a volunteer. Instead of one person going from school to school and receiving requests, we think one contact person in each school—someone to whom teachers can funnel their requests--would make requests easier and quicker to process. June 7th is our volunteer recognition breakfast. We recognize the volunteers from each school (so we hope many people will attend).
Elementary Libraries
With support from the Greenfield Education Foundation, Greenfield Schools are automating all the libraries. Using the most current software, students and parents will be able to check the entire school system collection from school or home. Of course, in order to check the collect we have to have a collection and every single book (at the elementary schools) has to be entered into the database and be barcoded, if I can invent a verb.Our hope is to find volunteers to help us finish off this project before September. A really fast person can barcode about 20-30 books an hour. It is a little bit tedious but, like washing dishes, it can also be relaxing and then it’s done.
Nancee and I talked about the idea of actually offering training to the many adults who would like to volunteer in our libraries—a few hours to explain how libraries work and then perhaps give a certificate as a CLA (certified library assistant). Perhaps it will help people feel more comfortable volunteering if we can offer a little program to explain our elementary libraries first.
It makes sense to have one staff member in each school keeping track of the type of books teachers would like for the units they teach. That will help us build a meaningful collection for students.
I have so many notes from our discussion—at the volunteer awards ceremony there is going to be a Rahima Wade award. That is a lovely idea.
Monday, May 7, 2012: String Festival and Newton Fling
We have a goal throughout the system of building community—reaching out to families and other adults. Great events are taking place in each of our schools, now. We refer to these as signature outings and family events. I want to mention two events this weekend.
Newton Fling
I was invited to Newton Elementary School where Friday night was a family Spring Dance. When I arrived, the disc jockey was in the gym. I couldn’t tell how many people were in attendance—at least 100 dancing all around. People seemed to be having a great time.In the cafeteria down the hall, tables were all set up and children were going in and out, making teacher appreciation cards, signing their names on these jumbo pieces of folded paper in all different colors. There were people in the lobby and in the halls and maybe there were 150 people in all. It was a happy and spirited event with many families from what I could tell. Dads and moms. Associate Principal Maureen Ryan was line-dancing with everyone else and kicking up her heels. And the lobby looked so perky, having benefitted from some new paint.
String Festival
Through ArtSpace, Greenfield Schools have been contracting for string lessons for our students, grades 3, 4, and 5. Greenfield’s Education Foundation has helped us purchase the little violins and violas. Now in our 4th year, we have students learning the cello, too.Saturday was the first annual Student String Festival. I am sure 350 people were present and at least 60-75 string players were on stage. It seemed that many, including the string orchestra from Bement—a private school nearby.
Violin, viola, and cello (the string family of instruments) are not easy to play because you have to hear the right sound and move your finger to make sure you create that in-tune note. If a piano is in tune, you just hit the piano key you want and a little hammer hits the correct string, making the correct sound. But not with violin or an instrument like the trombone, the player has to hear and find just the right sound through careful listening and finger and arm position. Violin is not an easy instrument to learn because it squeaks if you do not find the right sound. On stage were many, many young students learning these string instruments.
A senior citizen was walking in as I was walking inside. I struck up a conversation and she said that she had started playing violin in the 5th grade, then she studied all through high school, and eventually she played in an orchestra. She said when she read the advertisement about the Greenfield student String Festival, she just had to attend. And she seemed delighted at the idea of so many young students learning a classical instrument.
I think it is quite common for adults to value the importance of passing on our cultural legacy to our children. If they do not know about art and music, how can they pass on our culture to their own children? Mary Kay Hoffman has coordinated the Strings 4 Kids program in Greenfield Schools and many Greenfield students are learning string instruments. And it is free—we do not charge for the lessons or the instruments.
I have an idea that we should have a goal of a Franklin Co. student orchestra. I’ve mentioned this to many people and all the other Franklin Co. superintendents. In time, students from all towns and private schools should be able to audition and participate.
At the First Annual String Festival, two of the violin teachers conducted a piece as well as the assistant conductor of Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the pieces where all players played together. He was wonderful and the children were paying attention. He seemed to have just the right style and temperament for youth—with a very clear downbeat for the students to follow.
It was an interesting weekend with two great student events. Actually, I would not be surprised if there were move events than two—I cannot keep up with them all and I think it’s wonderful. Each year we should have a goal of more and more families participating in fun events with their children.
Friday, May 4, 2012: Finishing High School—the End Goal
From the minute a child is enrolled in kindergarten, the end goal of the K-12 public education program is completion of high school with a plan for that next step into the future. If you leave school without either—a diploma or next-step plan for the future—the chances for success as an independent, self-sufficient adult are limited.
For the majority of teenagers (education requirements aside), the high school institution is a fabulous place for socializing every day with like-aged and like-minded peers. There are so many different kinds of personalities and opportunities, almost every high school student can find someone to befriend or share some type of interest. So almost all high school students find high school a fairly fun place to be. Just not everyone.
In terms of academic program, for the majority of students the learning experience in high school is purposeful and fairly interesting, too. We have courses to prepare students for all levels of continuing education, even rocket science. Completing high school is most students’ personal goal, connected to some later plan.
High schools still, though, have students who leave before finishing. They don’t feel successful or connected. They don’t have the resilience or support to stick it out. The end goal doesn’t seem important enough to overcome the forces generating the “I’m done” response. With fewer than 100 seniors each year, one student dropping out gives Greenfield a 1+% drop-out rate. More important, that one student is throwing away the key to so many doors leading to the future. These students are most apt to live in this community for the next 40 years and…and do what? What can someone do these days without at least a high school diploma?
Can schools identify ways to prevent students from dropping out? Large schools are institutions, after all. The structure is large groups of students working in square rooms with teachers. The structure generally includes a set curriculum, attendance taken at intervals and regular quizzes, tests, and grades. Students in schools must to adhere to a schedule, change classes and classmates on cue, use the bathroom at the right time, read at the level provided, pass in hallways with dozens of other people, and manage to arrive just at the right moment for 180 days/year.
Most students learn to function successfully with institutional school routines. The routine is also part of getting ready for adult life where we also have rules to follow at every turn—driving the speed limit, waiting your turn at the bank, being on time for work.
This small percentage of students interests me—those few who find the routine difficult. They start to sink at some point, like a swimmer with a rock tied to feet. For these few students resilience isn’t there to rebound from the seldom heard discouraging word. A comment most teens would shrug off (like—“what do you mean you couldn’t find your homework?”) adds just enough weight to the swimming stone to increase the trend toward sinking. At some point quitting becomes the de facto end goal.
I personally interview students who are planning to drop out of school. They generally bring their parents to meet with me. I do this because maybe there is something I can do to inspire a different outcome. I don’t find these students a particularly light-hearted, energetic group. They generally seem tired of dragging those stones on their feet. I try to figure out where resilience and confidence started to wane and listen to the story from the game’s-over view of the person we are losing.
Mostly families and students tell me their story--where school started to not be successful, where the problems with a particular subject or relationship started, where the student started to be discouraged beyond repair, which teachers were wonderful and which teacher wasn’t helpful, which parent requests were answered and which were not.
The few students I meet who want to drop out of school generally want to work with their hands—learn how to take apart and fix small engines or work with wood or food or do crafts with children. Sometimes they applied to the vocational school but were not accepted. Sometimes the student will say GHS had the one course the student wanted but it was the last course to fit into the schedule, not the first, and it couldn’t be worked in.
The end goal of a high school diploma or GED is the key to each youth’s future. That’s no joke—there is almost nothing an adult can do these days without at least earning a high school diploma. We can’t lose sight, then, as students move through the system, that the end goal is not grades on tests, the precise time someone arrives at class, or how often we advise the child or family of his ADHD. The priority messages that students need to hear and remember from day to day need to include “glad to see you in school today” and “your education is your future—let’s make sure you complete high school. You can do it.”
Thursday, May 4, 2012: Recouping; Child MissingRecouping
How is everyone who worked on the high school project? There’s a lot of flu or bugs or something going around. I think they are visiting me. Or is it just the body trying to absorb so much stress? You never know really. I had to stop over to see Tim Farrell for one second today and he looked like about as healthy as I feel.A few days to recoup is what’s needed after such a big project that builds for several years and has a deadline. I will try to wait a bit before thinking of the year ahead.
Child Missing
Nothing is worse than a missing child. It is complete panic, fear, rage, horror, all of the above. It is an emotional experience many parents have, even if just for a moment when you turn around in a store and the child has wandered a few feet away or when you lose sight or hands in a crowd. It’s a terrifying experience.A parent came to our office late this afternoon, as upset as a parent could be. It was even difficult to understand the situation at first. A young child was missing and did not return from school. Late in the afternoon, we do not have a lot of staff in our office so Becky and Phyllis tried to help the upset mother at the front desk, quickly listening for details to understand the situation, the child, the school, the bus, and the driver.
The school bus driver was quickly located and the story took a turn. The driver said he absolutely waited for the child to go inside before pulling away. He was sure the child went inside and shut the door. But the parent said another family adult was waiting for the child and the child wasn’t at home. It sounded like there might have been several apartment units inside the front door. Was that it? The child was missing. Missing! Is there anything more frightening?
As I learned of the situation and that the driver was located and was sure the child went into the home and shut the door, I was picking up the phone to call the police, when Becky walked into my office and said “never mind.” Never mind? “It’s okay.” It’s okay?
The child had walked into the house, walked into the bedroom, shut the door, and climbed into bed to rest. Safe and sound.
Ohhhhhh. That surely gave the blood pressure a jolt. They say all’s well that end’s well. The child was found safe and sound at home, wrapped up in a quilt, quietly resting. It happens.
Wednesday, May 3, 2012: Feedback; Morning at North Parish; E-Team Discussions
Feedback
Davis Street administrative building buzzed this morning. People could not believe the vote of support for the state’s Greenfield High School proposal. Approx. 27% of voters turned out, even on a rainy, dreary day. I bought balloons and a cake to give our antique building a festive feeling. Something very important happened yesterday. It will take a while for the vote to sink in. I am still wondering if it could be true—support for the new high school proposal 5:1.My first three messages this morning were short and to the point.
CONGRATULATIONS!
WHOO WHOO!!!! and
YAY!!!!!this comment shared everyone’s surprise:
Hi Susan
Oh, my goodness, I never would have believe that this would have happened in Greenfield on the first vote.YEAH!
People wrote in who don’t even live in Greenfield:
Susan,
I know how hard everyone worked for this. We are delighted.
(from a neighboring town)People wrote in from other states!
From Florida: Fantastic news!
From Montana: Bravo!Everyone was feeling very appreciative of everyone else’s efforts bringing this project forward. Slowly stories were shared of what happened. One person knew someone who drove a van full of senior neighbors to the polls. Someone’s husband was in a donut shop, talking to others having coffee and giving rides over to the polls. Someone else’s GHS-grade brother in another state emailed all his still-resident classmates to be sure to vote. Someone else knocked on doors on her block, asking people to remember to vote. Someone else stood on a street corner, holding a sign and reminding people to vote. Someone urged a family member to drive up from Springfield to vote. A father told his adult son it was time he started to vote (and the son voted for his first time).
I heard stories all day long. It seemed like everyone who voted encouraged someone else to vote.
Morning at North Parish
I’m not keen on very early meetings but at 8:00 a.m. we met at our preschool with a state rep. I’d like to say I remember the meeting but it was pretty early for serious listening to state guidelines. We did talk about new state initiatives, more regulatory requirements for MA preschools (agghhh!—we just finished NAEYC accreditation), and we talked about our library book van idea. We have this idea of fixing up an off-the-road but safe van to have a story hour and book program as an early literacy initiative for our children who cannot get to preschool and have no money for books their parents can read to them. We imagine a speaker telling children it’s book time and then having story hour and giving out the book. We’d like to connect with more children in public housing units or locations where we have homeless children. I could imagine our high school art students painting this preschool book wagon. It was much more interesting to talk about this van/book/little children idea than more state requirements.E-Team Discussions
There is so much to do, now. We have to estimate how many students will be in each grade, how many classes we need, how many staff, which classes will be located where, and what, if anything should move. Each year we pilot or try a new idea to see if it improves our situation and if it does—great. If it doesn’t, we don’t pursue this again.This is the week to review transfer requests and consider if transfers from the prior year worked out. Will we need more teachers? Fewer teachers? It sounds easy but it isn’t easy. By the end of today’s discussions I had 52 new tasks like checking a situation, or posting a position.
And at the very end of the day, the architect for the high school sent a list of things needing attention and asking for the next series of building meetings to be scheduled. I think that was less than 24 hours from the vote, he is back on task, moving forward.
I am going to let the vote sink in a little. It is unbelievable and will take time to fully digest. Greenfield’s whole education system is back. It happened yesterday.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012: The GHS Vote—A Resounding YES!
I didn’t speak to any voters to know why anyone voted yes or no. But when the votes were tallied, every precinct in Greenfield had a 4 to1, 5 to1, 6 to1, and even 10 to 1 vote in favor of borrowing the 1/3 total cost to have a new Greenfield High School.
As with all elections, voters have to decide whom to believe. This is why the schools had tours and meetings with architects every Tuesday and Saturday for a month or more—so people could see for themselves the state of the high school and have all their questions answered. The GHS lobby is so attractive you do not see how the building is falling apart unless you take the time to go look. So we gave tours. And at every tour and information session there were a few people—but this added up, session by session. I’m sure people spoke to other people about what they saw. And many people who recently attended GHS or had children attend GHS knew the building’s condition.
And then there are fairly conservative elected officials who were involved in the 3.5-year process saying “this is a good deal for the town. Interest rates could not be better and the state is giving 40+ million—we should act now to take care of the high school.” People listened. And there are other leaders in the community who have nothing to gain for themselves who studied the high school situation and concluded the MSBA offer was the right move.
While architects start working on design completion, I want to pursue my interest in keeping the costs down for residents. My parents were not wealthy and I appreciate the importance of trying to keep costs down. The first issue to tackle is clarifying where philanthropy can be pursued. I asked this question at an MSBA meeting, and the answer was that philanthropy could support the excluded items in the overall project. Basically, we can raise money for the track (1.3 million) because the state does not give any contribution these days for a track. And we can raise money for the portion of the auditorium renovation that is not cost-shared. I want to work on this to see if there is any way I can help bring the community borrowing portion to under 20 million. We shall see.
For the first time in months, I can spend less time on facilities. Well, the school facilities in Greenfield really did need attention, every single building, so it is a good feeling to know that in another couple years all the school buildings in Greenfield will be in good condition once again and for the future.
Imagine what it will be like with 66 million dollars worth of building taking place here over 2 years. There will be companies of every type coming into town, probably 60-70 workers here needing meals and places to stay, gas, coffee, etc.. Since I like memorabilia, if I were to start a business it would probably be figuring out how to dismantle the old high school so that everyone who went there could have a brick as a remembrance. I’d take the marble bathroom doors and make kitchen carts or something. Souvenirs.
Fortunately, I only have to focus on running the school system, and that is enough. This certainly is a good time, though, for people to be thinking about entrepreneurial business opportunities. Greenfield will be a boom town for a few years, I would think. This is probably a very good time to buy a home in Greenfield. The community has voted overwhelmingly to have a quality high school here for the future.
Page last updated: May 16, 2012
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