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Dr. David Hopson |
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August 27 , 2007 Staff and students will come back to Gateway schools this coming week, and many families have already sent their college students off to school. As with each school year, there are a number of changes that will be evident as we begin the new school year. Foremost among these are new staff members throughout the district. This type of change will continue to accelerate over the next few years with the anticipated retirement of our long-time and experienced staff. Other readily evident changes are a new core-reading program in kindergarten through 6th grade, a separate behavioral classroom and program in the middle school, and a five-period day with one lunch in the high school. These evolutionary changes have grown out of prior successful programs and a study of student and school needs. Given the desire of school staff and the school committee to provide the best education for Gateway’s students, the school committee has decided to set aside the first ½ hour of each meeting over the next several months to discuss, gather input, and begin a process of deciding where the district should be over the next 3 to 5 years. This should prove to be a wide-ranging set of discussions focused on long-term goals and the intermediary steps necessary to help the district achieve these goals. Based on prior information gathered through a variety of methods, we know that some of the major goals are to provide a well-rounded education to all students within the confines of limited funding. Additional questions to be tackled include: how do we have every employee, as well as parents and community members, participate in the education of children; how do we expand opportunities to meet student needs; how do we assess student growth accurately and in a timely manner; and, based on state and federal requirements, how do we meet the benchmarks of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)? These issues are all interrelated and, over the long-term, tied into questions about staffing, supplies, grade and school configuration, grant applications, programming and many aspects of public education. These ‘planning’ sessions are being deliberately placed at the beginning of each school committee meeting to encourage routine and sustained involvement from parents and community members. Related to planning is the district’s research into expanded learning time as funded by a state planning grant. This summer’s parent survey showed that 62% of respondents were willing to implement or continue to research expanded learning time at Gateway (full survey results can be found at www.grsd.org). While this doesn’t provide a ‘full steam ahead’ approach to implementing expanded learning time, it does indicate support for moving ahead cautiously and continuing to refine what this would look like in the district. We will continue to work with the Department of Education to explore our possible future as an expanded learning time district. I appreciate all of the parents who took the time to respond (currently approaching 30%--the highest response rate in recent history). Whether we eventually adopt or reject expanded time, the surveys provided a great deal of information and insight into changes that parents think would make our district more responsive to student needs. I anticipate that the leadership team will be looking at the results to see what can be implemented immediately and that the school committee will be reviewing the results in terms of their five-year planning. As students return to school, I urge parents and community members to consider volunteering in the schools. There are a variety of ways that individuals can become involved that require as little as volunteering once to present information or chaperone a field trip, or that can expand to daily interaction with the schools in classrooms or libraries, or any combination of time and effort between these two. Please consider contacting a teacher or principal to volunteer your services to help our children succeed. Even more importantly, support your child’s educational success from home by providing space, time and materials to complete homework; ensuring that students are eating right and getting a good night’s sleep; and generally knowing where your children are and who they are with at all times. ### |
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