by Frank Schroth

At last Wednesday’s meeting of the School Committee their discussions and decisions included but were not limited to: listening to and commenting on a presentation from The Pierce Site Council, reeiving an update on the techbology plan and deferring a vote on it, congratulating the boys soccer and girls volleyball teams on their recent achievements and school security.

The Pierce Site Council gave a presentation that impressed that even impressed SC member Leroy Walker.

“I am quite impressed .  .  .  what do you need?”
— Leroy Walker

It was quite a cast. In addition to Principal Dr. Spaulding, there were teachers James Moonan, Jeff Stoodt, and Melissa Webber, and parents Lis Viola, Amy Flanagan, Marc Check, and Gillian Najarian. And they all had a part to play. Each spoke to some component of the Pierce School improvement plan which included a review and analysis of data, identification of achievements and areas to be addressed, strategies for tackling issues, and events and developments that enrich the overall culture of the school.

The presentation, which can be viewed here, covered the following:

• Highlights from the data — Pierce students substantially outperformed the state in Math and ELA with 30% of all students scoring in the advanced category
• Performance for spec ed subgroups and African American students has improved. But it was acknowledged that especially for African American and low income subgroups there is still an achievement gap that needs to be addressed. Dr. Spaulding called out the “startling” number of zeros that the African American subgroup earned in Math and Science as evidence of need to focus curriculum efforts in those areas for that group.
• The site council identified realigning the curriculum, articulating a clear progression for science learning standards, reworking assessments, and providing targeted instruction to support struggling students, and adoption of project based learning as strategies for addressing the issues. Dr. Spaulding cited creation of a spreadsheet that captures struggling students for purpose of ensuring that they are receiving support, that all teachers know who they are, and are assigned a mentor teacher.
• Two recent initiatives have been extremely successful: introduction of sports (basketball) and ISSTEM, an enrichment class in science, technology and engineering for students with advanced skills and a keen interest in those subject areas.

When asked by Mr. Walker what she needed, Dr. Spaulding responded, “curriculum materials.”
“I cannot say enough about what it has done for the entire school community”
— Dr. Spaulding on sports

Bob Pattison reviewed the technology plan with the committee. The plan is fairly extensive and Mr. Walker asked that the vote be deferred to give them more time to review it. A couple of specific items discussed were the adoption of tablets and the use of smartboards. Pattison explained that they were evaluating a number of tablets iPads, Chrome books etc. They are assessed for what the kids can do with them, the value relative to price and other criteria. Pattison recounted on application students had developed that could determine if the unit was in motion (i.e. in a moving car) if is so would ask a caller to call back. Pattison did not want to commit to a wide adoption of any specific device until there was clear understanding of capabilities and benefits of a variety of devices. Smartboards were discussed and some teachers are using them to excellent effect. However, member Kelly asked if it was the case that there were teachers who had received smart boards and training but were not using them. Mr. Walker shared her concern and returned to the question. He pressed the administration to address how they know that the boards are in fact being used. Asst Superintendent Phelan explained that they there use (or lack thereof) would be identified in the teacher evaluation process. A related concern was whether teachers were using Edline, the online system for parents and guardians to stay up to date with classroom assignments etc. Ms. Kelly stated, “We don’t have 100% compliance and we know that. Why not?” The discussion of the technology plan will resume at a future session.

During the Chairman’s report Mr Pavlicek brought up the issue of school security. He said a nymber of inquiries had come in but that as a matter of policy the school does not discuss technical detais but did say that the schools were in routine communication with the Police Department. Mr. Walker brought up the issue that there may be a some teachers who were not giving the drills run at the school the proper level of attention and seriousness. He said, “I will make it my mission to see there are consequences” for those not taking the drills seriously.