It’s difficult to believe that summer break is half over and that staff will be returning to work on August 27 with students returning to school on August 31. Almost a month into the fiscal year, the district is still working on a town-approved budget and much of the success of that process hinges on the state providing mitigation funding related to Worthington’s planned withdrawal from the district. As if the summer speeding by and a lack of a final budget wasn’t enough, the litigation surrounding Worthington’s withdrawal continues its glacial crawl through the legal system.
Despite all of these challenges, it’s great to be reminded that after all is said and done, the reason we’re here is to serve children. I see this consistently as I see the children enrolled in the summer program participate in a wide variety of activities, as I see the preparations for the return of students, and as I see our staff going the extra mile to ensure that our students have the opportunities to reach their potential.
I’m also reminded of our staff’s commitment to teaching the ‘whole child’ as I complete various reports for the state related to our new teacher supervision and evaluation process, particularly in the many ways our teachers are planning to measure student growth over time. Rather than concentrate solely on the standardized testing results of MCAS and PARCC (which seem to be facing, along with the Common Core Curriculum, a significant push back across the country), these measures value a wide range of student activities, classroom activities, and measures of student performance that generally go far beyond check boxes and short answer responses.
As we finish our first full year under the new supervision and evaluation process and prepare for the next cycle, I see the immense amount of time and effort on the part of both those being evaluated, and those doing the evaluating; the amount of data being collected from the state in so many areas; and the need to streamline the process while ensuring that the positives remain and grow stronger (the reflective nature of the process as it impacts what happens in the classroom). As with so many other positives at Gateway, the whole process of collaboratively designing, implementing, and modifying the state’s process for supervision and evaluation to meet Gateway’s needs with our teaching and administrative staffs demonstrates the level of commitment to professionalism, collegiality, a positive culture, and putting the needs of students first while protecting staff rights.
As always, it has been a busy summer for administrative, secretarial, and maintenance/custodial staff as we prepare for the upcoming school year, complete the various state and federal reporting requirements, and plan for the ‘Gateway 2025’ visioning process. Despite the time constraints and concerns always edging to the forefront as the summer slips by, I’m sure that we’ll be ready to start the school year when the end of August arrives. I hope that our students, families, staff and community members all get to enjoy these last few weeks of summer break.
