Superintendent’s Corner

National Family Literacy Month in West Bridgewater began with the first of three Reading is Fundamental (RIF) book distributions for students in grades 1-5. The inspiration for the first book distribution’s motivational activity was the delightful book The Mouse Who Lived in Fenway Park written by Bradford James Nolan when he was in fourth grade at the Howard School. 

The Nolan Family has generously donated three copies of the book to the Rose L. MacDonald School to inspire the children to write, as well as, read.  One book will be raffled off to a student in each grade.  Between Tuesday, October 27 and Friday, November 13, the children had the opportunity to increase their chances of winning the book by reading.  For each book a child read, he or she received a chance shaped like a baseball to decorate and write the title of the book, his or her name and grade.  These baseballs will be displayed on the walls of the Rose L. MacDonald School during the upcoming parent/teacher conferences.  After which, the books will be raffled and the winners announced.

Each fourth and fifth grade student received a bookmark inspired by The Mouse Who Lived in Fenway Park, which again was generously donated by the Nolan Family.  Also, drawing on our desire to conserve and recycle, the Children’s Librarian Nannette Ryan spoke to the students about sharing their books with their classmates, in the form of a book swap and ultimately donating the much read book to the book shelves manned at the Library by the Friends of the Library.  The Friends of the Library sell the books and the funds received are used for more programs such as RIF.

Although the RIF Program in West Bridgewater is no longer receiving Federal or State funding, it is able to sustain itself based on the continued support of corporate donors including Harvard/Pilgrim Health Care, Trucchi’s Supermarkets, the Snelgrove Foundation, the Howard Trustees, the Friends of the West Bridgewater Public Library and the West Bridgewater PTO, as well as, individual support from the recent Shop for a Cause Program sponsored by Macy’s.

As we continue to celebrate National Family Literacy Month, I would like to take this opportunity to give many thanks to all of the coordinators, volunteers, and contributors of this wonderful program.

Welcome Back to the 2009-2010 School Year. I am very excited to start the new school year and am looking forward to working with the children and parents of West Bridgewater for another exciting year. It is my sincere hope that everyone had some time to relax and rejuvenate over the summer months and is ready to face another year with enthusiasm, high expectations, and encouragement.

I would like to share the opening day message that I gave to staff members on August 31^st, so that everyone in the school community has an understanding of the vision for the West Bridgewater Public Schools:

As we begin the 2009-2010 school year we do so with a newly revised Mission Statement that will help to guide our efforts throughout the next generation of our students. Often times people look at a mission statement over and over and they just see words, but these words come from a very thoughtful process that has taken place, and these words have strong meaning to all involved. Many times, hours of revisions, discussions, and debates over the smallest word or words takes place in reaching consensus on a mission statement for any organization. This process is similar to the one that we followed over the course of last year with our strategic planning committee, as we revised the mission statement for the West Bridgewater Public Schools.

In order to really gain an understanding and appreciation for our new mission and, why we needed to create a new and improved one, you have to put the former mission statement into context. What needs to be clear is that our former mission was created in the eighties and revisited in the early nineties. Now keep in mind that this was before the implementation of the Education Reform Act, that completely changed curriculum and assessment in Massachusetts, it was before Columbine, before the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, and before our world got smaller on 9/11.

All of these events  changed the way we educate our students however, our Mission Statement didn’t change. Now don’t get me wrong, many aspects of our work had changed, but we no longer had a shared mission that was guiding our efforts.

So during the strategic planning process last year, teachers, administrators, parents, and community members brainstormed the most important knowledge and skills we believed that WB students should know, understand, and be able to do in order to be college and career ready. It was a thoughtful process with spirited discussion and debate, and in the end, consensus was reached on our new Mission Statement.

I don’t think you can really recognize how outdated our former mission statement was until you compare each mission statement side by side.  Then it becomes apparent that our new mission is much more reflective of the times and challenges of today. At first glance you may not think the differences are that significant but they really are…

OLD MISSION

The Mission of the West Bridgewater Public Schools is to work in a collaborative effort to provide students an opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills, values, and personal growth to reach their individual potential.

NEW MISSION

The mission of the West Bridgewater Schools is to work together with home and community to provide our students a safe environment in which to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values needed for success in a diverse and global society of the 21^st century.

There are 3 significant differences:

1. To work in a collaborative effort… versus …To work together with Home and Community

• The new statement has stronger, clearer, language reflecting a true bond with the parents and community members versus just an effort of collaboration within the schools.
• This language specifically outlines a real partnership involving parents and community members. Today there are many  expected community partnerships with police, fire, day cares, early intervention, organizations for internships,  regional collaboratives etc…

         2.      To provide our students with a safe environment

• Twenty years ago we just assumed that all schools were a safe place for kids to learn and we took that for granted.  Columbine changed that assumption and was the impetus behind safe school committees, safe school plans, flip charts, Lock down drills, safety simulations, evacuation plans etc.. Today providing a safe environment for our students to learn is a number one priority for schools.

But the biggest difference is with the knowledge, skills, and values piece:

           3.       …The skills, knowledge, and values acquired to reach Individual Potential        versus       …The skills, knowledge, and values to reach success in a diverse and global society of the 21^st Century

• Before the Education Reform Act and No Child Left Behind Act, the skills needed for kids to reach their individual potential were not well defined and may have been defined differently for each individual.
• Also, at that time, schools often decided what the student’s individual  potential was, and placed them in tracks based on what WE thought they could achieve or not achieve. For many students the bar was never raised, especially those with disabilities, racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic differences.

• In contrast, with the onset of Education Reform and No Child Left Behind Act the skills and knowledge that are needed for students to achieve success in the 21^st century are defined, and equitable so that ALL students can succeed.
• Due to the rapidly changing, global, technology rich society that we are living in, ALL students, no matter what subgroup they belong to, need to be taught specific content knowledge and skills for success.

The skills that our new mission is referring to are defined by the Partnership on 21^st Century Skills and have been adopted by the MADESE:

The 21^st Century Skills needed to succeed due to changes in globalization, demographics, societal values, and technological advances are as follows: Critical thinking, creativity, application, communication, collaboration, problem solving, information/technology literacy, cultural and global awareness and personal and social responsibility.  

At the state level, the work for the next several years will be in aligning the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and the MCAS with these skills. It will be expected of districts to embed these skills into instruction and to use the content areas and technology as a vehicle to teach these skills.

Embedding these skills into our curriculum, instruction, and assessment will lead to a rigorous and relevant educational experience for all of our students. Our new Mission will help to guide our efforts to do this work.   I am committed to making this mission statement something more than just words. A rigorous and relevant educational experience will motivate our students to learn, and will provide them the opportunity to achieve success in the 21^st Century.

Please view the video by clicking the link below. Some or many of you may have seen it on U Tube or from other sources, but I think in light of my discussion today it is worth taking another look at. This is the newest version of the video…

http://www.schooltube.com/video/25514/Did-You-Know-30

So What Does It All Mean?

 I believe that that what it means for the West Bridgewater Public Schools, I can answer in the words of Daniel Pink,  “We must prepare our kids for their future not our past”

We don’t know what the future will look like, but what got us to where we are today in education, will not get us to where we need to be tomorrow.

We need to continue to make improvements to our curriculum, instruction, and assessment. We can achieve this by using our new mission to guide our efforts through the next generation of students. In doing so we will continue to engage and motivate our students, and make a great school system an even better one!

Remember, each and every one of us can make a difference in a child’s life. By motivating, inspiring, and encouraging a child in the classroom we can have a positive effect on tomorrow!

Bradford Nolan, a 5^th grade student at the Howard School published his first book in March of this year. “The Mouse Who Lived in Fenway Park” was created during an annual 4^th grade writing project at the Howard School. Brad’s teacher Mrs. Sally Romano loved the story so much that she strongly encouraged his mom Colleen to pursue publication.

The book describes the adventures of Ace, a mischievous mouse, and his friend Stitch, a baseball, as they explore and live in Fenway Park. The book has another West Bridgewater connection, as it is illustrated by Jim Connelly a 1982 graduate of West Bridgewater High School. Jim is currently an artist living in Boston.

I was fortunate to meet with Brad last week as he signed my personal copy of the book. Brad told me that the idea for the book came from his pet hamsters and a tour that he took of Fenway Park. When asked, what is next for a 9 year old author? he replied, “Maybe the Mouse will go to the Garden!!”

You can purchase “The Mouse Who Lived in Fenway Park” on Amazon.com. If you would like to meet Brad, he will be at the West Bridgewater Public Library on June 16^th at 5:30 for his first official book signing.

Brad, Congratulations on this impressive accomplishment.

In his 24th season at the helm of wildcat baseball, Cully Ohlson achieved a milestone 300 wins defeating Blue Hills 6-4 on  May 7th. Cully started coaching baseball in West Bridgewater in 1986 and has led his teams to 17 post season appearances and 5 league titles.

Chuckie and Christine Tartaglia whose son Ryan is a senior on the team this year said of the coach, “It’s an honor to be associated with a man with such passion for the game of baseball. We are proud to be able to celebrate his 300th win this year”.  Another senior player Tommy Reed’s parents Tom and Christine remarked, “Cully is one of those coaches that no matter what the player’s capability is, he always seems somehow to get each player some playing time. Congratulations go out to Cully and his family on this milestone”.

Cully and the wildcats finished the 2009 regular season at 14-6 and will be playing Nantucket in the first round of the state tournament on Saturday May 30th at 2:00pm in West Bridgewater.

On behalf of the West Bridgewater school community, congratulations Cully!

Under the direction of Mrs. Sandra Walsh, the half day kindergarten students took part in an embryology project which culminated in the hatching of 14 chicks.  During the 21 day project, students learned various skills and concepts in math, science, and literacy while awaiting the chicks’ arrival.

In math, students sharpened their backwards counting skills during the daily “countdown to hatch”, and tallying skills were used in describing the various eggs and chicks.  Prior to the hatching, students learned the embronic stages of development by observing pictures and sketches on a daily chart. In addition, students read books about chicks and eggs.

Exactly 21 days after the start of the project the chicks began to hatch and 14 chicks arrived after only a few days. The project was quite an adventure and a great example of integrated learning.

Under the direction of Social Studies Chair John Nenopolous and Contemporary American Issues teacher Elaine Peckham, high school students engaged in the schools second annual “Save Darfur Night”. It was a successful event where students increased awareness and resolved to be proactive in terms of the human suffering occurring in Africa, particularly related to displaced persons.

Student Matt Sylva organized the evening and presented a passionate poem that he wrote for the event. Other student contributors included Sam Asker, Nancy Kwan, Meagan McNally, Kayla Tuohy, Chris Perkins, and Rachael Cobb.

In addition to various student performances, students sold T-shirts and wrote a letter which included a challenge to political leaders to take greater action in resolving these issues. The letter will be enlarged to poster size allowing the entire school community to sign it and it will be sent to legislators to show the students’ commitment to this cause.

A special thank you goes to Jake McCabe who filmed the event, and to John Collins who helped with the sound and played the piano during the student performances.

At an awards banquet held on Tuesday, April 28^th , West Bridgewater’s own 8^th grade science teacher Laura Black was presented with an “Excellence in Teaching Award”. The award was given through a new program sponsored by the Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School, in which freshmen students wrote an essay nominating a teacher who had an impact on their educational life.

Ms. Black was nominated by freshmen Shawn Erickson who had attended the West Bridgewater Public Schools through grade 8. In an excerpt from his letter he wrote,

“Most teachers only care about teaching the subject; she wanted to make it fun so that we wanted to learn. Her class was the one that I looked forward to everyday; it was a fun place to learn. She was there to help anyone who was having a hard time. She would stay late after school, if you needed help. She would also make extra credit work to help kids get a better grade.”

Freshmen guidance counselor Sue Phillips initially contacted the MSHS regarding the award and stated that, “It was hard to choose because there were so many good letters but Ms. Black definitely stood out.”

The West Bridgewater Public Schools are very pleased to have such an extraordinary teacher as Ms. Black in our district. Congratulations!

Each year the West Bridgewater RIF program distributes high quality books to all students’ grades 1-5, three times a year. The 2008-2009 school year was no exception, as over 1500 books were distributed to West Bridgewater students.

Local businesses, town employees, parents, and school personnel contribute to make this program a success year after year. This year Shaw’s Supermarkets, Harvard/Pilgrim Health Care, Trucchi’s Supermarkets, the Snelgrove Foundation, the Howard Trustees, and the Friends of the West Bridgewater Public Library donated to the program.  Without their continued support, the RIF Program would not be the success it has come to be.

At the Rose L. MacDonald School this year parents dressed up as characters from their child’s favorite literature, including Debbie Polcari as Pippi Longstocking, Collette Braga as Princess Leah, Marie Kelguard as Ms. Frizzle and Christy Berkowitz as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  Also, local town’s people lent a hand by reading books to the students, including Janice Fox from Harvard/Pilgrim Health Care; Nancy Morrison, West Bridgewater’s Town Clerk; Mark Bodwell, West Bridgewater’s Howard School Principal; Anne Iannitelli, West Bridgewater School Committee Member; Amy Diman of The Snelgrove Foundation; Officer Ken Thaxter, West Bridgewater DARE Officer and Diane and Rick Snelgrove of The Snelgrove Foundation.

At the Howard School, activities were planned and administered by Nannette Ryan and Michelle Sheehan, West Bridgewater Children’s Librarians and Sandra Churchill, Local Book Author.  Also, Nancy Varros, RIF Volunteer and Evelyn Bandlow, Former Teacher presented a funny Mad Lib entitled A Crazy Night at the Library.  A good time was had by all.

On behalf of the West Bridgewater Public Schools I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the coordinators, volunteers, and contributors of the RIF Program.