SK Nominees for Teacher of the Year

South Kingstown is selecting its Teacher of the Year and is beginning with identifying our nominees. Our schools are full of high quality teachers and we are glad to take this opportunity to recognize their excellence through the selection of a representative. It would be impossible to choose one best teacher and that is not the purpose. The purpose is to choose one teacher who represents the excellent teaching in the district. The selected delegate will be chosen by a committee that includes this years Teacher-of-the-Year Elizabeth Ferguson and celebrated in September.

According to the national selection criteria, the candidate should

! Be an exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable, and skilled teacher;

! Inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn;

! Have the respect and admiration of students, parents, and colleagues;

! Play an active and useful role in the community as well as in the school; and

! Be poised, articulate, and possess the energy to withstand a taxing schedule.

Congratulations and thanks to our South Kingstown Teacher of the Year nominees:

Anna Burke

James Buxton

Denise Colombino

Lynn Dougherty

MaryBeth Florenz

Anne Hathaway

Deborah Hopkins

Muriel Mueller

Margaret Noble

John O'Malley

Kevin Poirier

Gail Saborio

Donald Waterous

Ashley Weeks

Robin Wildman

This year, South Kingstown High School revised its schedule to provide a weekly time for teacher departmental planning. As a result of the success of that effort, “common planning time” (CPT, for short) will be expanded to the elementary grades September.

CPT is a major part of the Rhode Island Department of Education’s high school reform effort. SKHS met its regulatory obligation for CPT through in-school teacher planning blocks that replaced study halls this past year. However, the high school faculty wanted to expand that capacity and provide an additional, departmental planning time beyond the minimum required. This was accomplished by a slight lengthening of the school day, and combining that extra time on Wednesday mornings when students are permitted to arrive at school 40 minutes later than the typical starting time.

In September, CPT will be added to the elementary schedule. The elementary school day will be eight minutes longer, starting at 8:40 and ending at 3:08. On Monday afternoons instruction will end at 2:28 at which time the CPT block for teachers will begin. Students will have supervised activities during the 2:28 to 3:08 time period, and dismissal will be at the usual time. In May a planning session with parents, teachers, teaching assistants, and administrators organized a structure for student supervision. This is also seen as a good time for enrichment activities that, in the past, have used instructional time. Parents can also pick up students for appointments or other reasons.

Capital Projects Underway

This summer several capital projects are underway in the district. The projects are part of the schools’ six-year capital plan that is reviewed and approved each year by the Town Council. Some of the projects are funded through issuing bonds, typically larger ones with lives of 20 years or more, and others paid from the operations budget or other sources.

Renovations to the high school auditorium are underway. Although costs did not permit as broad a renovation as hoped, upgrades to the sound and light infrastructure and cosmetic improvements are included.

Bids were awarded for flooring projects at Wakefield and Peace Dale as well as exterior painting of the Hazard School.

Two parking lots will be repaved, with Wakefield funded through surplus funds and South Road paid exclusively by rent receipts.

Three Years of NECAP Results Show Overall and Subgroup Gains

With this October’s state testing (the New England Common Assessment Program, or NECAP) we now have three years of data in grades three through eight. The high school took the NECAP for the first time this year, so does not yet have trend data. South Kingstown tracks not only overall achievement, but also in critical subgroups whose performance has lagged, specifically, free and reduced lunch students (FRL) and special needs students (IEP). We also compare ourselves against a group of communities with similar demographics (North Kingstown, Chariho, and Cumberland). The results show consistent progress and our subgroups “closed the gap” with growth that exceeded that of students overall. The table below shows our index scores for the past three years. Comprehensive data on school progress is available in the District balanced Report card available at skschools.net.

*Objective*	*05-06*	*06-07*	*07-08*
Elementary Reading - All	90.3	90.8	93.5
Elementary Reading - IEP	73.6	73.7	77.7
Elementary Reading - FRL	76.9	78.9	86.4
Elementary Math - All	88	90.3	92.1
Elementary Math - IEP	71.6	73.6	75.5
Elementary Math - FRL	74.3	76.5	81.3
Middle Reading - All	91.4	91.9	94
Middle Reading - IEP	71.4	73.4	76.9
Middle Reading - FRL	77.5	80.6	87.2
Middle Math - All	88.9	89.2	90.8
Middle Math - IEP	64.1	64.6	66.2
Middle Math - FRL	72.1	74.8	76.5

Policy Updates

The School Committee addressed two important policy issues this past year, one that arose out of a controversy and one that came from the committee’s own goals. The complete policy documents are available at the district web site (skschools.net) under the Administration/School Committee section.

Improving communication with the community has been a goal of the School Committee for several years. When the district strategic plan was updated (also at skschools.net) in 2006 one of the action steps was the creation of a policy that would outline community expectations and standards for communication. To accomplish this, public forums were held this fall with the results generating a policy draft. That draft was distributed to the community and extensive feedback received. From that feedback the final document emerged. It includes what the community and district staff look for in quality communication, the expectations on the district and its employees, and who is responsible. The Accountability Subcommittee is developing a communication indicator to include in the District Report Card.

When a controversial speaker spoke to students at the high school earlier this year it caused the School Committee to revisit related policy issues. The result was an updating of our policy on teaching controversial issues and the development of a new policy on guest speakers. The teaching of controversial issues policy (7110) reaffirms the importance of students studying issues that are controversial. It calls for the “dispassionate, unprejudiced and scientific study of controversial issues in order that the pupils may have an opportunity to study such issues in an atmosphere void of partisanship and bias.” The new policy on guest speakers (7130) calls for approval of speakers by the principal and provides for controversial speakers while requiring teachers to place their position in the context of an objective analysis of the issue. Both of these policies were extensively debated at committee meetings and drafts distributed for comment.

Middle School Universal Free Breakfast Pilot Ended

During the now ending school year the district piloted a universal free breakfast program in the middle schools. The pilot was initiated as a result of data showing that as students moved from elementary to middle schools there was a large increase in the number coming to school without breakfast.

During the year it was evident that the pilot was successful in increasing breakfast participation but was costing more than anticipated. Adjustments brought the cost down, but not to anticipated levels. Based on current costs, the program would cost approximately $5,000 a year to continue.

Before making a final decision on the program’s continuance, the School Committee waited for data on its effectiveness in addressing the core issue - students coming to school without breakfast.

When the results of SALT surveys were received and analyzed, it became evident that the pilot program’s impact was limited. There was a slight decrease in the percentage of students coming to school without breakfast who qualify for free and reduced lunch, but the percentage of students who have breakfast regularly did not increase.

While the identified need is real and still exists, the universal free breakfast did not prove cost-effective in addressing it and is consequently being ended with the close of school. A copy of the final report is available in materials for the June 10 School Committee meeting at skschools.net.