The other day an intrepid group of my neighbors went off to begin “work” at the largest “firm” in town. Of course there was some anxiety but also great excitement. . . isn’t that always true of the first day of Kindergarten?
We met last week with the CEO of this firm, Mary Gormley, Superintendent of the Milton Public Schools, a district that serves close to 4,000 students and employs 500 staff. Following are highlights of that conversation.
The morning we met Ms. Gormley had conducted a kick off to the school year with her staff. She is excited for the school year, sought to instill that excitement with her staff, and was still fired up with enthusiasm when I arrived. She spoke about opportunities and responsibilities. They are many. We focused on a select few. One was enforcement of the new bullying legislation. Paige Tobin, the school’s attorney made a presentation to the staff and Gormley made it clear that “Everybody is in.” That is, all staff from custodians and office and lunch personnel to teachers and coaches are responsible for watching and reporting any incidents. The state passed legislation last year regarding bullying and this year it needs to be enforced. The Milton Schools have put a lot of energy and time into development and training of staff. Alan Cron, the assistant principal at Milton High, led a group that developed a comprehensive anti-bullying program that is compliance with state legislation. You can find a complete set of information of this topic here. There is an online form available to report bullying incidents here. A final note on this – Boston.com has a story (today 9/8) on this topic: Schools seeing shift on bullying.
MCAS test results are always an issue and of interest. Gormley reviewed the results from the spring 2011 MCAS test with us. The results are positive and trending in the right direction. That is about as much detail as we can provide at the moment. Gormley, naturally, wants to present the results to the school committee before making widely available. All the schools elementary through high school are increasingly working towards improving student progress through data driven models. MCAS is not the sole measuring stick used to gauge progress, identify student needs and address them. These include such tools as Study Island in the elementary schools. The schools are hosting open houses beginning next week. Go. Ask questions. You can find the dates for all the schools on the district calendar here.
A major event of the fall which will hopefully be a non-event is bringing closure to renewing the high school’s accreditation by NEASC. The committee from NEASC will arrive in November and interview staff, parents, and students. This will be the culmination of a process that has been going on for 2 years. In preparation for the visit the school has been composing a self-study of practices etc. It is thorough and exhaustive and done in consultation with NEASC. It is an event that will be a non-event.The school was put on probation during a previous review. Issues cited were inadequate curriculum frameworks, poor infrastructure (the condition of the building) and insufficient funds allocated to curriculum materials. The administration addressed all of those issues. The school was taken off probation. It has been ten years since NEASC has paid a visit and if all goes well it will be another ten years before they come back. It requires a tremendous effort on the part of the school administration and staff but Gormley and this will be the first review since that time and Gormley said, “There’s no panic. I am confident.”
The start of the school year will also bring significant change to the mathematics curriculum for middle and high school students. The primary change is to introduce Algebra and Geometry beginning in the 6th grade and continue through the high school years. The change will integrate the two areas rather than have them presented as completely separate courses of study. This will address a timing issue that exists with standardized testing. The goal is to improve overall testing results. At the time the curriculum revision was presented to the school committee by Michele Kreuzer, the head of mathematics and technology curriculum, committee member Pavlicek noted that this type of approach is used in many parts of the world.
The purpose of this is to improve. Asked what the goals are, Gormley does not mention any one or two things. Instead, she responds, “We can always do better.” It is always about “raising the bar for all students.”
Lastly, the schools welcomed a number of new teachers this year. Welcome all:
COLLICOT / CUNNINGHAM
- Adjustment Counselor / Jay Campbell
COLLICOT
- Grade 1 – French / Susan Bonner
- Grade 5 / Anna Higgins
- Nurse / Jeanne Sgroi
CUNNINGHAM
- Grade 2 – French / Frankie DuBois
- Special Education LEAP 3-5 / Kelly Herbert
- Grade 4 French (English Portion) / Emily Hyde
ELEMENTARY
- Visual Arts / Caitlin Clavette
GLOVER
- Visual Arts / Angela Lathwell
- Occupational Therapist / Caroline Mannion
- Grade 5 – French / Christina Reynolds
- Grade 2 – French / Kevin Fender
MILTON HIGH
- Spanish / Sara Anorve
- Mathematics / Fred Palascak
- Science / Linda Stefanick
MHS & ELEM
- Spanish & FLES / Pamela Billings
PIERCE MIDDLE SCHOOL
- Music / David Adams
- Guidance / Erin MacCurtain
- PE/Health / Christopher Maine
- Mathematics / Nadine O’Garro
- Library / Jessica Royster
- Mathematics / Robyn Zaremby
- Mathematics / John Zitz
TUCKER
- Grade 4 / Jaimee Banks
- Grade 3 Co-Taught SPED / Bridget Butler
- Adjustment Counselor / Ramsay Cadet
- Grade 3 / Catherine DesRoche
- Grade 2 – French / Diane Wood