High School Principal’s Report
WUHSMS Board Meeting
March 13, 2013

Curriculum- You’ve been hearing a lot about curriculum of late – teacher’s are developing curriculum units using a new model; old courses are being eliminated and new courses are being added; procedures are being changed to compel students to take more academic classes and more rigorous classes.  So what’s the goal toward which all of these efforts are striving?  The answer is for students – school wide - to be engaged in more authentic and more rigorous learning.

Authentic curriculum is curriculum which students will be able to use now, next year, and next decade.  We began our last in-service with the following quote:

Thus, the first question for curriculum writers is not:
What will we teach and when should we teach it?
Rather the initial question for curriculum development must be goal focused:
Having learned key content, what will students be able to do with it?

(From Common Core Standards to Curriculum: Five Big Ideas by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins)

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
High School Principal's Board Report - March 2013		387 Kb

MS Principal's Report to the Board

February, 2013

Our NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) results became available via the Web on Monday, February 4. We have only had a brief opportunity to review these results. As we have done in the past, we hope to be able to examine these results in a collaborative forum with the professional staff, so that we can design appropriate interventions for students and improve program development to expand learning. This year in particular, Dana expects to be able to dedicate some time with Garon and key staff members throughout the spring to broaden the examination of data as we continue to identify effective strategies to help students advance their understanding and performance, particularly in the area of math achievement. We are providing you with data that Dana has been able to review at this point in the process. Our results and the statewide results on the October 2012 testing are presented below. For preliminary commentary on this year’s data please see the end of this section.Preliminary NECAP Results

Download the PDF file to read the entire report.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
February 2013 - MS Principal's Report to the Board		129 Kb

February 2013 - HS Principal's Report to the Board

Included in the board agenda is a discussion of School Safety & Security. The school insurance company will be conducting a Safety Audit at the high school on February 11, 2013. The audit will identify areas of concern and possible solutions to improve safety and security. There will be a Rapid Response Training at the high school on Friday, February 22, 2013. This training will provide an opportunity for the Woodstock Police Department, Vermont State Police and personnel from the Sheriff’s Department to practice their response to an emergency event. The Safety Team has met three times since mid-December to personalize the Crisis Guide to suit WUHSMS, update contact information, discuss roles and responsibilities, share ideas and concerns to improve safety and security. Key items currently being addressed include feedback from 1/24/13 Lock-in Drill, determine which ‘commands’ to adopt, possibly use an advisory to share updated drill procedures and/or hold a school-wide assembly, increase the number of drills, create an emergency procedures folder to be placed in every room, identify doors that do not lock and resolve, alternate access into and out of the campus, possibly assign someone to monitor video camera screens and alternate means of communication (audio and visual) including use of codes.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
February 2013 - HS Principal's Board Report		87 Kb

Middle School Principal’s Report
WUHSMS Board Meeting
January 11, 2013

Interim Principal Transition Update

I was flattered by a teacher’s comment to me after a recent faculty meeting when she thanked me for “getting to know the staff so well.”  I share this comment with the Board because I feel that this anecdote is a good representation of the status of my tenure as interim Middle School Principal and an example of the professional and courteous manner with which the Middle School Staff has welcomed me as principal.   This relationship is a critical component of carrying out the professional development work that we have begun together as well as addressing some of the implications of a difficult budget season as we prepare to school for the 2013/2014 school year.

This month brought notice of the specific proposed staffing reductions for the 2013/2014 school year to WUMS. Thursday 1/10 Greg Schillinger and I met with each of the individual staff members whose positions, according to the Master Agreement, would be most directly impacted by these proposed reductions (Please see the High School Principal’s report for a list of the FTEs and departments that comprise this reduction).  Greg and I also met with Teacher’s Association President Keri Bristow and Vice President Nancy Pejouhy to develop strategies to inform and support our staff with concern to these reductions.  A whole staff voluntary meeting will be held at 3:00 pm Friday 1/11 where staff will be informed of the general parameters of these reductions as well as the conditions which have led to them being proposed.  A goal of our approach is to keep this process as transparent as possible.

Middle School Principal’s Report

WUHSMS Board Meeting

December 12, 2012

Interim Principal Transition Update

Over the past month I have continued my focus on classroom visitations and I will achieve my goal of visiting all class by the Holiday break.  An effective working environment of unanxious expectation is developing from these regular visits.  Rather than seeming primarily curious and a bit distracted, students are bringing me into their work through sharing and describing their experiences with class lessons. Likewise, my reflective dialogues with teachers are deepening as my understanding of classes and students grows and teachers come to see me as a professional development resource.

Student achievements were recognized at the End of Quarter One Assembly.  The assembly included academic honors, musical performances, and a contest based on the Mongolian dances students had learned from the visiting dance troupe in October.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
December 2012 - MS Principal's Report to the Board		113 Kb

High School Principal’s Report
December, 2012

1. At the last Board meeting, I was asked to review the School Choice program.  Included in your packet this month is a memo from Armando Villaseca, Commissioner of Education.  In addition, I’ve included some resources below:

Act 150 of 2000 was designed to foster choice for public high school students in grades 9-12. Each school must join with at least one other school to form a choice region. Schools are allowed to limit the number of students who may transfer out in a given year (five percent or 10 students, whichever is smaller), but they may set higher limits. Schools are required to determine their capacity to receive students, but there are no specific numerical or percentage figures. If more students want to transfer out of, or into, a school than there are places available, nondiscriminatory lotteries are to be used. The law provides no funding for transportation, and, unless regions agree otherwise, no tuition changes hands. Act 150 of 2000 is now included in Vermont’s Statutes, at 16. V.S.A. Secs. 1621-1622.  (http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/laws/act150.html)

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
December 2012 - HS Principal's Report to the Board		12 Kb