Last night was the first community meeting and I had a great time. The discussions were very informative and I had a chance to meet people that I did not have a chance to meet before. Overall, there were 26 people in attendance. The meeting was broken down into three parts. First I gave a little presentation about myself. We then broke the people into groups and they listed the strengths and weaknesses of the school district (on flip chart paper) and answered the question “what does it mean to be educated”. Finally, we ended the night with a question and answer period. I really had a blast. It was great hearing from the people as they worked through the group project and the questions at the end were a great opportunity to learn about the community but also a chance to inform people about the school district.
I will simply list some of the themes that emerged as a result of people answering the questions last night. I will not comment or defend anything and just give you the uncensored facts. For school district strengths, the technology available to the students was an overwhelming choice. People felt that our students had the opportunity to learn using up to date technology. There was also a lot of support for the fact that were many curricular choices for students. Finally, most of the groups mentioned that there was a focus across the school district on student learning. The last one is something that should not be overlooked and is one that contributes the great academic reputation that PT has in the State.
On weaknesses (or areas that may need improvement) of the school district, there were three themes. First, there was a concern that there is too much concentration on “teaching to the test”. In this case, the “test” being the State PSSA test. Another concern centered on the wish to have a more individualized plan of education for all students. Finally, in the question and answer time there was a strong feeling that the school needs to do a better job of communicating student schedules with parents at the high school level and let parents now earlier what teachers their children have in the elementary school.
Finally, we had some great answers to the question “What does it mean to be educated”. I feel this question is important because it can help us develop a baseline for what the school district needs to do for our students. Overwhelming, people mentioned that life-long learning is important. Digging deeper into what “life-ling learning” means you will find that people consider critical thinking skills important. People also believe that problem solving in academic and social situations on a daily basis is important and reflects an educated person. Life-long learning also implies that an educated person “learns how to learn” and can adapt their learning to all situations and contexts. Finally, the discussion also mentioned the fact that an educated person is a productive member of society. I think that if an educated person has critical thinking skills, can problem solve in all types of situations and takes an interest in their community then they are a productive citizen.
I have posted all of the flip chart paper with these answers in the conference room that the school district uses for our leadership meetings. I believe it is important for school leaders to be reminded of the answers that the community gave to these questions. It will be a continual reminder of what is important as educational decisions are made.
Dr. Butler,
ReplyDeleteI was unable to attend the meeting this past Thursday, but I wanted to make sure that my question found its way to you. I am a big advocate for the arts (art, music, drama, etc.), and even though I am quite a few years removed from high school I have felt as though our district has GREATLY fallen behind adjacent districts in the amount of time students spend in art and music. In the past two years, we have seen our children lose one nine weeks worth of time in the general music classroom at the middle school level. Our elementary students also get ONLY 30 minutes of gym, art, and music each week! To put that into perspective, a number of our neighboring districts have specials for 40 + minutes TWICE every 6 days. My question is, if we are to educate to promote the well-rounded student, how can we do so with so little time in art and music? Thank you for your time.
Dr. Butler;
ReplyDeleteThank you for this opportunity to contact you and also for the Meet and Greet at Penn middle the other night.
As you mentioned and was evident by the lists produced, communication is obviously a problem. I have a couple of suggestions that should be fairly easy to implement. First, I would like to ask that any communication from the schools be signed by the author and also include contact (email and/or phone)information at the bottom of the sheet. I want to see this on each and every piece correspondence from the school. I have received papers from the school saying 'if you have questions, please contact me' but it does not include the contact information. I know I can go to the website or hunt it down but as a working parent who sometimes takes the papers to work, it would make it so much easier to have them on hand.
Second; The website. I see some improvements this year but it needs a lot of work to be more user friendly and easier to navigate. An online directory would be nice with email links. Even the administration page does not have email links or a contact number. For the lesson plans of TMS, there is no format so each teacher does it their own way and the information has to be searched to find what you are looing for.
I hope to see improvements in these areas and would be happy to clarify if needed. Contact me anytime. Thanks very much.
Judy Gross
judy.gross@comcast.net