School Committee Votes in Calendar and Policy Manual, Discusses District Goals

The Westwood School Committee unanimously voted this week in the updated policy manual, as well deciding to make no changes to the school year calendar.

“There are no major changes, but there are a couple things that are not set in stone,” Superintendent John Antonucci explained about the school year calendar. “The first thing that is not set in stone is Yom Kippur.”

Antonucci explained that he would be talking to the local rabbi about his preference of which holiday to mark for a day off, choosing between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Otherwise, he said that the calendar would remain relatively the same with classes starting after Labor Day.

One may think that the calendar would not be a major topic of discussion, but when a survey was put out the Westwood School District received 1,100 responses.

The survey was one question and simply asked for preference of whether people would like school to begin before or after Labor Day. Antonucci noted that there were passionate responses from both sides, but said that 58 percent said that they would like the calendar to remain the same and have students start classes after Labor Day.

Antonucci said that he felt that if they currently started before Labor Day, they may have received 58 percent from the other side of the argument.

“If we currently started before labor day, I think we would get the same majority response,” said Antonucci. “This is about change partly, but you never know.”

The survey was sent through email to people on Listservs and was filled out using a Google Form. Many people left responses. Major themes for starting after Labor Day included: "It’s tradition," "Summer is too short already," and "Don’t want to return from summer home, vacation, etc."

Those who preferred starting before Labor Day also left remarks that included: "Better for summer childcare coverage (i.e. many camps do not run during the last week of August)"

Antonucci was pleased that so many people took the time to voice their opinion in what has actually been a widely talked about subject over the course of the past few years. He noted that last year the district had four snow days, and that many were worried about what would happen if there were more. The snow days came relatively early in the winter months.

In the surveys, many residents offered ideas for alternative solutions in this type of scenario which included elimination of certain holidays and reworking of the vacation schedule.

“I think what we need to do is keep our current process,” said Antonucci.

2011-2012 District Goals and Transitioning to the Common Core

Central Office Administrators also gave a rundown of the school district’s goals for the school year. Assistant Superintendent Emily Parks, as well as Director of Student Services Abby Hanscom, Technology Director Steve Ouellette, Business and Finance Director Heath Petracca and John Antonucci, gave presentations highlighting goals set in various aspects of schooling.

These goals specifically pertained to staff, curriculum, special education, technology and the business aspects of running the district. Main points involved recruiting and retaining a high quality staff, curriculum review and development, implementing an anti-bullying plan, reviewing internal personnel, recruiting and training high quality special education teachers and assessing the current technology and how it relates to the district’s curriculum.

Parks also spent time talking about transitioning to the Common Core State Standards. According to Parks, by 2013-2014, all schools in Massachusetts will be aligning their curriculum to the new Curriculum Frameworks in ELA and Literacy and in Mathematics.

The new frameworks incorporate Common Core State Standards as well as including some additional standards unique to Massachusetts. 45 states and Washington DC have signed onto Common Core.

Parks said that the primary intent is to ensure that students are college and career ready by the end of high school. Much of this will directly affect MCAS standards. She noted that “old” frameworks will be assessed throughout the next two years and that the “new” frameworks will be assessed in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.

Parks noted that the new assessments will be designed to ensure students knowing if they are on track to graduate and be ready for college and careers. She also said that it will help grade 3-12 teachers have regular results to guide instruction and provide student support. Parents will also have clear and timely information about the progress of their children. States involved will have valid results comparable across member states.

Westwood has been preparing for the new standards, with committees of teachers planning for the transition and vertical teams of district leaders in ELA and math forming to ensure communication across grade levels. She said that much of Westwood’s curriculum work over the last few years was based on drafts of the new frameworks.

Parks admits that there is a lot of work to do, but she has confident in the Westwood School District.

“I think we are prepared for it,” Parks said.