By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
[Originally published on: Saturday, October 04, 2008]
GREENFIELD -- The public schools and the YMCA are moving forward to offer more daytime child care options at the public preschool in the former North Parish School.
Right now, the public Academy of Early Learning preschool offers a full day of preschool from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday. But by collaborating with the YMCA at the school, children will be able to be at the building from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., five days a week.
The preschool also has half-day programs, with the morning shift from 8:30 to 11:15 a.m. and an afternoon shift from 12:15 to 3 p.m.
Joan Schell, principal of the preschool and the two elementary schools, said the preschool currently has 68 students and has eight to 10 openings during the afternoon shift.
Schell said the collaboration will allow people to build full days of preschool and day care for parents who work day shifts.
Parents would pay the YMCA directly for the additional time the children are at the preschool, in addition to the fees that are paid to the public schools. The preschool fee is currently $28.35 each day, but the school board voted last month to raise the daily rate to $32.
New people would pay the new rate, said Schell.
''It is a really nice partnership,'' she said. ''We just wanted to offer the most and the best we could at this time.''
Schell said the public schools' preschool and YMCA staff would be collaborating on curriculum.
''We are looking into partnering with as many people as possible who are interested in early childhood because we want to utilize the building to make it as efficient as possible,'' she added.
YMCA Executive Director Bob Sunderland said that he signed a contract on Thursday that interim Superintendent Susan D. Hollins drew up.
For now, the YMCA will not be paying rent to the public schools. But, Sunderland said, there would be further discussions about rent or room reimbursement if the individual time slots started having higher enrollment numbers.
A schedule and fees have been worked out for the YMCA's enrichment care program, but a minimum of three children in each slot are required, Sunderland said.
''Hopefully, this partnership will attract more children to the academy and the YMCA's enrichment care,'' said Sunderland.
The YMCA's options would include one-hour, four-hour, six-hour, afternoon and full-day programs.
Two one-hour options would be available Monday through Thursday if there were enough children enrolled from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. This would cost $80 each month.
The four-hour options are Monday through Thursday: 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and 11:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., costing $272 each month.
The six-hour option is Monday through Thursday 11:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., which would cost $352 each month.
The afternoon option is 3 to 5:30 p.m., costing $180 each month.
The public preschool is not open on Fridays, so the YMCA would offer two full-day options: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., which would cost $148 each month; and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., $128 each month.
Interested people can pick up enrollment packets at the Academy of Early Learning. Anyone with questions should call (413) 772-1390.
BY MACKENZIE ISSLER RECORDER STAFF
[Originally published on: Thursday, October 02, 2008]
GREENFIELD -- Eighteen-year-old MC rushed to a table in the high school lobby Wednesday afternoon to register to vote for the first time.
'I'm excited,' said MC. 'It is going to be a big election.'
She is a senior at Greenfield High School and said the two big issues that she's concerned about are health care and the war in Iraq. Other issues that students were interested in were the economy and abortion.
For the 12th year, Gail Steinbring's history classes held a student voter registration day at the high school. Students who were U.S. citizens, Massachusetts residents and will be 18 on or before Nov. 4, the day of the general election, were able to register on Wednesday during lunches at the high school.
Steinbring said she has her students run the registration because 'it is really important to get students involved in the process itself.'
'The students feel more comfortable with their peers and they see how easy and uncomplicated it is,' she said. 'It sets a standard for long-term participation (in voting).'
During the lunch period, BC filled out an application and said she was registering because she 'thinks it is important for young people to have a voice.'
'I am pro-choice and I want someone who is pro-choice in the White House,' said BC.
She said she is also for stem cell research and that she feels that many important decisions will be made in the next few years.
'Voting is putting in your say,' she said.
MW, 18, also registered to vote on Tuesday and said it is important 'because it's something you should do because every vote counts.'
There was a steady stream of students at the table filling out registration forms.
'If I have to sit here and deal with everything going on, I want to have a say in what I want,' is KF's reasoning for registering to vote.
When asked what she would say to her peers who aren't going to register to vote, KF said she would ask them: 'If you know who you want to be president, why wouldn't you want to vote?'
By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
Originally published on: Friday, September 05, 2008
GREENFIELD -- Nine-year-old A.S. couldn't fall asleep the night before his first day of school at the middle school because he was so nervous.
''I stayed up all night,'' said the fourth grader, as he took a break from his assignment Thursday morning in Ann Dudley's class.
He said his biggest fear was getting lost in the bigger school.
But, now with a day of fourth grade under his belt, A's anxiety had been transformed into excitement and happiness.
''I think it is awesome here and I love the lunches here because you get a lot of different choices,'' he said with a huge smile on his face.
''I was very excited because I wanted to come to school,'' he added.
The fourth grade has been split between the middle and Federal Street schools as part of the reconfiguration of the public schools. Last year, fourth graders were taught in the three elementary schools, Federal Street, Four Corners and Newton schools.
A. asked his mother to go to the middle school this year. He had gone to Four Corners and Federal Street schools previously.
The Greenfield teachers and students started their new school year Wednesday, after a year that was plagued by financial chaos, teacher layoffs and closure of Four Corners.
Nine-year-old G.K. shared her classmate's enthusiasm about being at the bigger middle school with the older students.
G. found out a week before school started that she would be at the middle school.
''I was really excited that I got to go to a bigger school,'' she said.
She said some differences from her previous school, Four Corners, are that there are lockers and bigger classrooms.
She said she isn't bothered at all about being with the fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. A. agreed, saying that he rides the school bus with the older students and hasn't been nervous about being in school and on the bus with them.
The students at the middle school also have an extended day because the school is one of two that has been awarded the Expanded Learning Time grant.
''At first I didn't want to do it,'' said G. ''But then it really wasn't so bad.''
Fellow fourth-grader N.R. lives in Holyoke and is driven to school each day by his mother. He said that he wanted to go to the middle school and likes being there, especially studying science.
The final configuration was not determined by the school board until August, as there was much discussion and debate about how the schools should look next year. After several votes and different decisions, the final configuration is preschool at the North Parish School, kindergarten through third grade at Newton and Federal Street schools, fourth grade at Federal Street and the middle school, grades 5 to 8 at the middle school, 9 to 12 at the high school, and the Poet Seat School for teens with behavioral problems at the Green River School.
Four Corners School teachers who weren't laid off or left on their own have been shifted to other schools.
Currently, the schools' administrators are Joan Schell, serving as the principal of the two elementary schools and the preschool Academy of Early Learning; Gary Tashjian as acting middle school principal, and Donna Woodcock as the acting high school principal. At the moment, they have no assistant principals. Tashjian and Woodcock were the assistant principals at the middle and high schools last year.
Recorder Staff
Originally published on: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
GREENFIELD -- Despite budget cuts, Greenfield High School hopes to offer seminars in culinary arts/food tasting and criminal justice this year -- to be taught by people already in the schools who don't normally teach: the food service staff and a police officer.
It's an example of how interim School Superintendent Susan D. Hollins is hoping that even on a shoestring budget, ''At every level, the schools will be a little more interesting in some ways'' as they open after a turbulent year of budget deficits and spending cuts.
Hollins said the school system is restructuring some of its programs even as the school year begins and that there are three particular areas of ''meaningful changes.'' She said in general from K-12 to college, the school system is ''really trying to stimulate more opportunities in science, math technology and research.''
At the kindergarten and first-grade level, a parent group, the Parent Academy, is being created. Hollins said it is a program that will help parents meet each other and will offer parents ideas on how to work with the students, especially in literacy. There is also a plan to make a parent/community center at Newton School, where people can meet and plan activities for children.
Hollins said there will be general emphasis on accelerated learning in grades 4 and 5, but that it is something that will be introduced schoolwide as well, and there will be one teacher in those grades who will be specializing in the advancement. There are four fourth-grade and four fifth-grade classes at the middle school and the plan is to have an additional classroom that will be a combined fourth-/fifth-grade class for the accelerated students.
The areas that will be focused on are math, science and research.
Hollins said she thinks it would be ''great'' to be able to offer algebra in Grade 7, while it is usually offered now in Grade 9 -- and that from talking to people from other countries, it is a subject usually taught in Grade 7.
She said the new acceleration program is not to pressure anyone but to allow advancement for some who are moving more quickly. She said acceleration allows students to get to high levels of math, in particular, in high school, making them more competitive for college.
She said that at first it will be a student's or parent's choice, in conjunction with a teacher recommendation, to work at an accelerated pace.
The high school curriculum is also being revamped by adding more electives, courses and seminars. She said that her last meeting with Greenfield Community College resulted in an agreement to try two or three college courses to be taught at the high school.
Specials
Special courses, like art, music and physical education, especially in the elementary schools, are being changed and revamped because of the cuts in specialists positions in June.
Hollins said that the school department had to prioritize and that it decided to put physical education and exercise as its number one priority.
Hollins said there is no elementary music teacher in grades K-3, but that it's hoped that students will still be exposed to music and instruments. She talked about the elementary schools having chorus and, through a grant, students in Grade 3 having instrument lessons for strings as well as wind instrument lessons in Grade 4.
''Actually, it is a wonderful program … (it is) just not going to be the same.''
The middle school has an Expanded Learning Time grant, which might allow time for a middle school drum band which is currently being discussed. She said that she thinks there will be a full instrumental band at the middle school and there will be the band and chorus at the high school.
She said the art program is still in the works and that art teachers were part of the cuts in June. She said there is an art teacher at the middle school and money available for enrichment at Newton School through the Expanded Learning Time grant.
By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
Originally published on: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
GREENFIELD -- All that Greenfield's interim school superintendent had for a budget when she began work in July was a purple sticky note with a number scrawled in black pen: $14,639,800 -- the town's allocation for schools.
An exodus of key staffers had left one principal, no business manager, no curriculum and grants coordinator, and the special education administrator was leaving in a few days. Sixty-one teachers had been pink-slipped and two schools were slated to be closed.
'The entire configuration of the school district had changed, with grades moving here and there, decisions made quickly with good intentions to try to accommodate the city's limited financial allocation for the next year,' interim Superintendent Susan D. Hollins recalled this week as she prepared for the new school year that begins next Wednesday.
Hollins came on board this summer with just eight weeks to reorganize and revitalize a school department wracked last year by deficit-induced budget cuts, a School Choice flight of students, teacher layoffs and administrator resignations.
She said that there was also no approved line-item budget -- 'just a sum of money to run the schools that following year but no plan how this would work with $2 million to $3 million less than the out-going (interim) superintendent had requested.'
Now, Hollins said, 'We are almost back together & with innovation & as was the goal.'
The final configuration was not determined by the school board until August, as there was much discussion and debate about how the schools should look next year. After several votes and different decisions, the final configuration is preschool at the North Parish School, kindergarten through third grade at Newton and Federal Street schools, fourth grade at Federal Street and the middle school, grades 5 to 8 at the middle school, 9 to 12 at the high school, and the Poet Seat School for teens with behavioral problems at the Green River School.
Four Corners School has been closed and its remaining teachers have been shifted to other schools.
Currently, the schools' administrators are Joan Schell, serving as the principal of the two elementary schools and the preschool Academy of Early Learning; Gary Tashjian as acting middle school principal, and Donna Woodcock as the acting high school principal. At the moment, they have no assistant principals. Tashjian and Woodcock were the assistant principals at the middle and high schools last year.
Out of the 61 pink-slipped, Hollins said she has called back 18 teachers. She said there are a couple of positions that will likely start the year with substitutes as she continues her search.
She still needs more teachers, only some for whom she has money left in the budget. She said, for example, she needs another English Language Learner teacher, for which there isn't enough money.
'The cuts were too deep to provide all things we are required to do,' she said.
The school department has requested an additional $258,000 from the town to cover these perceived needs. The mayor has said there isn't money available now but might conceivably be once last year's financial books are closed. If money becomes available, the mayor would entertain requests from any department for supplemental funding.
The school department has also applied for $450,000 in state emergency aid, called 'pothole' money, although the prospects of getting this help is uncertain.
'Things are good and not good,' said Hollins.
'The kids will probably not notice the things that are missing & but the staff will,' she said. She said many school officials, and she, are excited about the changes that have been made to open the schools' doors on the first day.
Enrollment
She said that the school system had 1,660 students last year, not including those that the school department has to place out of Greenfield, and that this year that number is down 122, a 7 percent decline.
However, said Hollins, 'What's important about the numbers is that every day more students are enrolling in our schools.'
She said since the week of Aug. 18 to Aug. 22, the numbers have been creeping up, with kindergarten rising from 108 students to 115; Grade 3, 113 to 115; Grade 4, 139 to 143; and Grade 5, 128 to 131.
Class sizes, she said, will range from about 25 to 29. Last year, the range in grades K-6 were 19 to 23.
The Franklin County Technical School will have 40 ninth-graders from Greenfield, with a total of 143 students from the town in grades 9 to 12, according to that school's Principal Paul Cohen.
Budget construction
Hollins had to build into this year's budget increases to account for areas that went over last year, like utilities and special education.
She said the $14.6 million allocated by the town doesn't buy what the school system had last year and that the value of that number keeps getting smaller. She said she also had to add the contractual raises into the budget -- which totaled $114,915.
'Having to put all of those new non-teaching costs in that $14.6 million allocation pushes down the amount of teaching and instruction that can be purchased in 2008-2009,' she continued.
She said the budget that has been developed was off by $58,000. She said she could have stripped this from student supplies but said 'the point of all these other expenses is to educate children in the community & So what are we doing if we cut all the supplies and texts the teachers need?'
The school system has been advertising for teacher positions, including a physics teacher, chemistry teacher, Russian interpreter/tutor, Spanish teacher, high school guidance counselor(s), special education teacher, math teacher, and other positions. She said she has advertised for three more assistant/principals in case the schools receive emergency funding.
By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
Originally published on: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
GREENFIELD -- The Newton School and middle school will continue to offer longer days with more programs this year, as the interim superintendent has been notified that it will still receive the state Expanded Learning Time grants.
There were some questions about whether the schools would receive the grant again, since the configuration of the schools has changed from last year. Interim Superintendent Susan D. Hollins said that the public schools will receive $897,000.
Therefore, now all students who go to the Newton and middle schools will have extended days from 7:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., just like last year.
Hollins said although she spoke to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education about the grant during her first week of work in July and 'left the meeting feeling assured the grant would continue, the department had second thoughts based on the many personnel changes in the system.'
She said the school system had to submit more reports, and that the delayed state decision held up the school department decisions on school days, hiring, bus routes, schedules and parent notifications.
Last year was the first year in the program and the schools involved spent that year learning how to implement 300 extra hours per year of schooling and enrichment. Hollins said the grant funds academic advancement and enrichment activities -- from science to dance to television production, and field trips.
Hollins said that the implementation of the grant required adjustments to family and teacher scheduling.
'After a while, everyone adjusts. By the end of the year, teachers and most students enjoyed the program,' she said.
'For a few students, the extended day was too much, I am told,' said Hollins. 'The kindergarten at Newton is very careful. Children who need naps have them. The type of activity is low-key during the first months and then, as children adjust to school, the activities are a little more active. In both of our kindergartens children were reading by the end of the kindergarten year. There is no question the added enrichment helps expand learning.'
Before the extended day, the school day for Newton elementary students began at 8:30 a.m. and went to 2:55 p.m. For middle school students, it started at 7:55 a.m. and ended at 2:20 p.m.
Federal St. School autism program to begin 4th year
By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008
GREENFIELD -- Nine-year-old Noah Traver reads at a first-grade level and his mother, Mary, thinks that's "amazing."
Reading at that level wouldn't be an ordinary feat for someone going into the fourth grade, but Noah was born with Down Syndrome and was diagnosed with a mild form of autism when he was 3½.
Noah, who loves watching movies, singing and dancing, joined the Autism Learning Program and Supports (ALPS) at Federal Street School when he was halfway through the second grade, and Mary said during those years of being in the program and simply maturing, he has become better behaved, gets along with everyone and gets a lot of individualized instruction.
The autism program at Federal Street School marked its third anniversary this year, according to teacher Barbara Weber. ALPS was developed by Weber after she attained her certificate of advanced graduate studies in autism in Dec. 2004.
Weber said she decided to create the program because the school system "had a need" and because of the large number of children with autism in the schools.
The program is inclusion-based, which Weber says means that each child spends as much time as appropriate in a regular education setting, depending on their needs and the program. She said there are times when the students need "intensive teaching" with individual attention.
Noah is a good example of this because he isn't always in the ALPS classroom, his mother said recently as she sat in their Greenfield home surrounded by her son's artwork and photographs.
Mary said that between his third-grade teacher and his paraprofessional, "he was amazingly integrated into the third grade."
She proudly said that Noah, who can't talk, did a science experiment report in front of his whole class last year, where he held a pointer and pointed out parts of his project on a poster board.
But, sometimes Noah needs to be taken out of his regular classroom and the ALPS program offers a space for him to go when he needs individualized attention.
She said sometimes children with autism are disruptive and they need a safe place to go to get a hold of themselves.
"It is a really necessary program for kids like Noah," said Mary. "I don't know how other children with autism go to school without a program like this."
Mary also was enthusiastic about Noah's best friend, Jack Kimball, who comes to Greenfield from Athol and has been in the program since it started.
"'Jack' is one of the few words that Noah really tries to say," she said.
Another important aspect of the program, said Weber, is educating the other Federal Street students about autism.
"The children and teachers know how to work with and be friends with them," she said.
And, over the years, the number of students in the program has quadrupled.
In its first year, there were two students -- Kimball and Tye Albertson.
Weber said last year there were up to eight children in the program and that she was recently told by interim Superintendent Susan D. Hollins that the program would continue at Federal Street School this fall.
According to Autism Speaks, a New York City-based advocacy organization, autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person's lifetime. It is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders.
Today, 1 in 150 individuals is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. It occurs in all racial, ethnic, and social groups and is four times more likely to strike boys than girls.
Autism impairs a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associated with rigid routines and repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following very specific routines. Symptoms can range from very mild to quite severe.
The Federal Street School program won an award two years ago for education excellence from the Community Resources of Western Massachusetts for People with Autism.
The program has a team that includes a language pathologist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapy assistant and an autism specialist.
By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
GREENFIELD -- The town's new interim superintendent has started an online journal -- and one of her latest entries says that she believes she has 'conquered' this year's budget and plans to share her findings at the next school board meeting on Thursday.
Since July 10, interim Supt. Susan D. Hollins has been posting daily logs, which include information on grants, interviewing candidates for open jobs and touring the schools.
In her July 20 posting, she said that she will be confirming her budget findings with the town's chief accountant and that at Thursday's meeting she will also have a recommendation to begin recalling some of the employees who were given layoff notices at the end of last school year, when the budget picture for the coming school year was unclear. In all, about 60 of 160 teachers were laid off.
'We need to be sure our parents and neighboring districts have up-to-date information on our plans for 2008-2009,' she wrote.
The town's public schools are now getting ready to do a complete overhaul of their building configurations with about six weeks before the doors open again to students. In June, the School Committee voted to save about $2 million by closing both the Four Corners and North Parish Schools, moving five preschool classes to the Newton School and housing grades 3-6 at the middle school and grades 7-12 at the high school.
Hollins suggested at an earlier school board meeting that the school department keep Grade 3 with grades 1 and 2. It was suggested by former interim Superintendent Marcia Evans that Grade 3 move with grades 4, 5 and 6.
The new configuration is quite a change from what the schools looked like last year.
Then, there were three elementary schools that had kindergarten through fourth grades; the middle school housed grades 5-8; and the high school grades 9-12. The preschool was at the North Parish School.
The journal
In her July 17 posting, Hollins said that the Title I grant final allocations have been posted and that Greenfield will receive 91 percent of last year's allocation -- which she says is enough to have a literacy teacher in each kindergarten to third grade school (Newton and Federal Street schools) and also the lower middle school (grades 4-6).
She said there will also be full-time supplemental math teacher and ways-to-teach math seminars for parents for grades 1 and 2.
'This is good news,' she added.
In her postings, Hollins also expressed interest in having a regional early childhood program at the North Parish School, where the Academy of Early Learning was housed last year.
'If a first goal for regional collaboration is shared special education programs, why not let the first program be a regional early childhood program at North Parish School?' she writes.
She said if other districts used this program that building costs would be shared. She said it would likely take a year to see if other districts would want to or could collaborate.
In her exploration of the schools, she said, she has made discoveries of facilities that she didn't know existed. In her July 16 post, she said that the middle school building has a television studio and a greenhouse.
'Apparently, neither is being used now. Next year, we will open these for grades 4, 5 and 6,' she predicted.
The school department was preoccupied for most of this past school year with a $1.1 million deficit that caused staff cuts and much political angst among the town's municipal and school officials. School board members then struggled with how to shave roughly $2 million from its original spending plan for the coming school year, which led to layoffs and school closings.
At the same time, all of the town's principals in kindergarten through Grade 12 and several central office administrators left Greenfield for other jobs.
Joan Schell, last year's preschool principal, will become the elementary school principal.
Hollins said earlier that she was not sure whether the school department will be able to afford two elementary school principals, but said there are plenty of other school districts that have one principal for two elementary school buildings.
To read the interim superintendent's journal, go to the school's Web site: www.gpsk12.org
