Alignment across the Old Rochester Regional School District, it was agreed by the Mattapoisett School Committee, is essential to strengthening learning at the most local level.
The committee met on December 7 to review and vote to approve the 2023-24 School Improvement Plan, which was presented by local elementary school principals Dr. Linda Ashley and Kevin Tavares within the context of the Old Rochester Regional School District’s Vision 2028 strategic plan.
Local schools will have a one-year improvement plan, then go back to two-year models, to be in synch with ORR’s five-year plan.
Mission, Vision and Core Values are the same across the district, especially in terms of literacy and curriculum.
Ashley, the principal at Center School, discussed the draft plan, meeting with other district principals, and arriving at action steps that include implementation of the district-wide, core literacy program, Into Reading and the Science of Reading, in collaboration with The Hill for Literacy and the effort to provide teachers with Into Reading resources and professional development.
“The big, overarching district goal,” Ashley stated, is to establish common assessment practices across grade levels with horizontal and vertical alignment. A common assessment plan and schedule will be established across the district.
“We are literally tying all the building-level work to our strategic plan,” said ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson, who reminded the committee that while the district-wide Vision 2028 included five initiatives under each facet of the strategic plan, not every initiative would be tackled in Year 1. “So what you’re seeing is that the initiatives in each objective that are scheduled to start in Year 1 of the Strategic Plan, now are having goals presented at the building level in terms of what Year 1 work needs to be done in each of the schools either individually or collectively.”
Ashley said that the District Instructional Council members and select staff from Center and Old Hammondtown schools will review and update the curriculum content.
The overarching goal in the second part of the School Improvement Plan is related to Teaching and Learning and begins by defining and revising the process of professional development so as to support equitable teaching and learning with consistent and dedicated time.
Tavares, principal at Old Hammondtown School, introduced Strategic Initiative Number 3 related to the strengthening of support systems.
Action steps include weekly meetings of “response to intervention” (RTI) teams, ensuring that students needing those steps are addressed. FLEX intervention blocks in the weekly schedule will be used for this work.
“I think it’s been a goal of the superintendent, where we feed into the junior high, to have all three towns, so you’ll see the words ‘district-wide systems’ throughout this (presentation),” said Tavares.
Climate and culture are at the core of Strategic Initiative Number 4. Principals, teachers and adjustment counselors will collaborate to promote strong social as well as academic skills.
The “responsive classroom” is based on meetings to establish classroom rules, behavioral supports and restorative practices to apply social-emotional learning. The outcome hoped for is discipline.
Communication with families and engaging students in leadership roles, including Project 351.
Safe schooling is a goal, including cybersecurity training, ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) training and fire drills.
Inventory and meetings with Facilities Director Gene Jones and Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber will be part of the teachers’ follow-up on classroom needs.
The committee voted 4-0 to approve the School Improvement Plan.
In her Chairperson’s Report, Carly Lavin reported having received information for a potential policy from a member of the community and has referred that information to the district police-review process. Member Cristin Cowles will report back to the committee.
“For me there is no doubt the focus this year has been on our new literacy curriculum,” said Lavin, calling it “something the committee is really proud of.” She said she is thankful for the hard work by everyone involved. Lavin also noted that the impact has extended beyond the classrooms into family life, as many students are learning literacy in a new way.
“Change, while challenging, is the catalyst that propels us toward new heights, and we’ve really just started to imagine what that could be for our students and our children,” said Lavin.
With that, Lavin recognized the many people who are working toward helping the schools go through the change.
Given the floor, Nelson spoke on behalf of administration and talked about some recent extracurricular activities, including the Unified Basketball Team’s fundraising game against tri-town Police and Fire personnel.
He noted the impending retirement of Tavares and indicated that the search process will soon commence.
In the absence of Barber, Nelson reported that the Mattapoisett School District operating budget has an unencumbered $747,911 at its disposal. Obligations to Bristol County Agricultural School will not affect those funds, according to Barber, said Nelson.
The Facilities Report included quotes to paint the Center School clock tower. Breakfast and lunch counts continue to be strong at both Center and Old Hammondtown schools, and the Thanksgiving banquet that had not been held since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was a major success.
At the recommendation of the administration, the committee voted to approve the admittance of the Brockton Public Schools and Whitman-Hanson Regional School districts as new READS Collaborative member districts effective July 1, 2024.
Sarah Leahy has been brought aboard as the music/chorus teacher and Luis Rivera as a cook.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 11, 2024, at 6:30 pm, and the next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 18, 2024, at 6:30 pm.
Mattapoisett School Committee
By Mick Colageo