Gateway Middle School and High School Principal Jason Finnie. (WNG File Photo)
HUNTINGTON –The Gateway Regional School Committee met on Wednesday, one week before the first day of school begins on August 29. Following Labor Day weekend, school will resume on Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Jason Finnie, Middle/High School Principal spoke to the School Committee about the upcoming New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation visit to the high school later this fall, and asked members to make themselves available on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 28 to speak with team members. “It would be great to have all of you there,” he said, acknowledging that Sundays aren’t convenient.
Finnie said he participated in a NEASC visit to a school a year ago. He said every ten years they go through a school, although it’s been a little longer since they visited Gateway. “Ideally, it’s meant to be a reflective process,” he said, one that offers “another set of eyes on the good we’re doing, and where we may be lacking.”
Finnie said the group is made up of all volunteers and a chairperson who is usually a retired school administrator, adding that this chairperson will be the one he worked with when he participated in the NEASC visit. He said on Monday and Tuesday of that week, they will go into all of the classes, and meet with teachers, paras and student groups. They will also be assigned student shadows, who will guide them around the school.
The team will write up their reports and observations during the evening, and present their findings to each other, before voting and ranking the school on standards such as infrastructure, curriculum, instruction, school and community resources for learning, and core values and beliefs. On Wednesday, they will present highlights of their visit to Gateway staff at the end of the school day.
Finnie said the NEASC team will come up with a full report listing the strengths and needs at the school. He said the school would then have to come up with a two-year action plan on identified needs.
“Any warning status is leverage for you to start advocating for what you need,” Finnie said.
Finnie also said in preparation, Gateway high school spent the last year forming the faculty and staff into teams on each standard for a self-review.
Huntington School Committee member Darlene McVeigh asked if there are any areas of focus where the school is at risk. “Any needs they’re going to identify, we’ve already identified,” Finnie said, adding that is one reason for the current district-wide literacy initiative launched this year.
“We have a beautiful facility, and our teachers have been working hard on self-reflection,” Finnie added.
In other business, the School Committee voted to eliminate the $25 parking fee for students. Gateway Superintendent David B. Hopson said the fee doesn’t come close to paying for a staff person to collect the fees from students.
Business manager Stephanie Fisk said 48 students had parking passes last year. She said since they are down a person in the office, it makes more sense to give out the passes. “Security wise, they’ll still have their passes, so we’ll still know who’s in the parking lot,” Fisk said.
A few years ago, students were charged $180 for the passes, but received merit-based reductions for grades, no tardiness, and other incentives, reducing the fee on average to $50. “Accounting-wise, it was a nightmare,” Fisk said.
