Survey Results Versus Real Leadership

A concerned parent asked us to post this article anonymously. Your comments are always welcome - The Reconfig Team

Both sides in the recent discussions surrounding reconfiguration have cited results from the community survey as justification for their positions (for example: whether or not all the lower-house students should be in the same building).

But in focusing so much on survey results ("53% of respondents say XYZ"), a much more important point has been missed: that there is a fundamental lack of real leadership by the administration. Some stated goals of the administration are to minimize transitions for students and to achieve a high level of satisfaction with regard to various aspects of our schools. How do these goals help our students learn? How do they help prepare our students for high school and beyond?

The real goal that appears to motivate all of the administration's actions is: "maintain the status quo". This is apparent in the fact that the grade groupings for the houses will not be changed; that extra groups of students will be brought into selected houses to avoid making fundamental structural changes; and in the fact that all lower houses will not be placed in the same school building. In other words, it's business as usual.

By the administration's own admission, we are a divided community--with people disagreeing on what form the educational structure in the Williston schools should take. (And in fact, the surveys have revealed that this division goes nearly down the middle.) Against this backdrop of community sentiment, guiding our schools requires a clear statement of a solution to bridge this divide and a description of how we can achieve that solution.

True leadership does not consist of changing the subject or evading the questions. It consists instead of building consensus through communication and respect and then developing in stakeholders the desire themselves to do what is right.

This is the kind of leadership we need for our schools.

Read more!

School Board Reconfiguration Community Forum!

WHAT'S NEXT? RECONFIGURATION, PART 2

On Monday, June 2, the Williston School Board will be hosting a "School Reconfiguration Forum" at the Williston Central School Auditorium from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. The Forum is a continuation of communication initiated by the Reconfiguration Committee for Change and will include School Administration, Williston School Board, Teachers and Williston Residents. (Click "read more" to continue)




At the first public forum sponsored by "Williston Reconfiguration Committee For Change, approximately 125 residents came together to voice publicly, their questions, concerns and satisfaction of the Williston School System. Numerous questions and comments were compiled and presented to the Administration/School Board. A School Board Meeting at CVU High School on May 14 also brought many comments from Williston Residents.



At the forum, the Administration will publicly respond to the questions presented to them regarding but not limited to: communication with and involvement of parents with regard to the reconfiguration plan; number of hours of instruction in core subject areas (state of Vt. requires minimum 120 hours each for math, science, social studies and language arts), curriculum and scheduling, inconsistency in academic quality among houses, alternate configuration options, length of school day, creation of the separate elementary school and questions about four year vs. 2 year placements and/or looping. There will be time allotted for the public to respond with questions/comments to the Administration/School Board.



All children/families are affected by reconfiguration. Whether the current system does or does not work for you and your child(ren), please attend the forum to become fully informed of the issues at hand. Now is the time for all Williston residents to set aside a few hours and take a vested interest in our childrens' education.



This forum is a vital step to finding common ground among parents, administrators, teachers and the community who all want to produce well-rounded, well educated students who will be prepared for the many challenges that they will face as they enter society as young adults.



Mary Whitcomb

Williston

Read more!

Walter Nardelli's Responses to the Forum Questions

We have posted Walter Nardelli's written responses to the questions compiled at the Reconfiguration For Change Forum on May 5th (Hit "read more" below). We encourage everyone to provide feedback regarding his responses and to provide VERY SPECIFIC follow up questions which you would like answered further. PLEASE refer to specific questions by number when commenting/asking further questions on a topic. You may reply anonymously or with your name by hitting "Comment". Feel free to also respond via email to reconfig.williston.schools@gmail.com and we can post your responses for you.

School Reconfiguration Forum
May 5th, 2008
Questions from the Open Discussion Period
Questions & Answers

1. Q: How much input did the consultant (Ray McNulty) have to the reconfiguration decision? Is his report publicly available?
A: Ray McNulty gave us information about Williston compared to other high performing schools. We talked about the characteristics of high performing schools. We could not afford to hire him to write a report. He worked as an unpaid consultant.

2. Q: If the reconfiguration plan is halted now, will the administration be able to put a workable structure into place by the end of August?
A: No. Remember, teachers have no contractual obligations over the summer.

3. Q: Do the current teacher contracts preclude the administration from considering a different configuration plan at this point?
A: No. However, we must give teachers their specific assignments by June 1.

4. Q: Why were the two other configuration options eliminated by Program Council and/or the administration?
A: We did “+” &”-” charts on all of them. No configuration will be a total win. We looked at the negative factors of all and eliminated the ones that had little to gain but much to lose.

5. Q: The community configuration survey was seriously flawed. Was this the only parent input given to the configuration discussions? Why?
A: The survey was developed with input from a consultant that had worked in Williston before on a different project. We also looked at parent and student input from the past. There are house satisfaction surveys along with fifth to fourth to fifth grade transition surveys done every year.

6. Q: Did the teachers consider input from parents on the Upper House satisfaction survey, which shows that 53% of those parents do not support the four-year structure?
A: The survey in part was designed to clarify that input. The key switched on how you would show support on that question only. People may not have noticed the difference if they were skimming the survey. On the follow-up survey, 61 % of the respondents supported the upper house structure.

7. Q: Why are we forced into this four-year house system? Is there some economic benefit?
A: Our research showed that fewer transitions mean less “starting over”. Also, it allows for strong relationships to be created between teachers, students, and families which have a positive effect on educational outcomes.

8. Q: Why did the school administration not properly inform all families affected by the dissolution of houses? Why were Phoenix students rather than their parents given details about the reconfiguration plan?
A: During the April break, parents had already been discussing the changes that were about to happen. The students returned knowing much of the information already and were asking their teachers questions about next year. It was decided to give them the information rather than having them speculating about what may happen. We knew it was not ideal but felt it was in the best interest of the students to be open with them. We also emailed parents that day and followed up with a mailing the next day.

9. Q: Why can't the school district offer different options for configuration? What about piloting houses with two-year or looping options?
A: The school district can offer different options if the community supports the concept. This is a broader discussion that needs to happen. Changes of this type also take a great deal of work to implement them properly. We want to be sure we spend our energies where they will make the most difference for our students.

10. Q: What is the "educational philosophy" of the new Upper House?
A: The philosophy and mission statements are the same for all houses. They are located on the school website under administration. The new house is in the process of working out how it will operate on a day to day basis.

11. Q: What role will the new teachers play in Voyager House and how will they influence its educational philosophy?
A: The teachers are meeting together to combine the best practices from each house as they move forward.

12. Q: Does the school have an "educational philosophy"?
A: Yes. It is located on the school webpage under administration.

13. Q: Can't we look to other schools to see what structures are most successful and why?
A: Ray McNulty worked with us on the characteristics of high performing schools.

14. Q: Why is there such inconsistency in academic quality between all houses (Upper and Lower)?
A: We have a common curriculum shared by all schools in the Chittenden South Supervisory Union. We have meeting among teachers of different houses and schools to share how they are implementing the curriculum – best practices. Teachers have the responsibility to implement the curriculum based on their students and what will work for them. We agree that addressing the rigor of the implemented curriculum is valuable work.

15. Q: Given the complexities of the different house schedules, how will we ever manage to bring same-grade students together to make academic connections?
A: We will make a concerted effort to make this work coupled with best educational practices for all students.

16. Q: How will the school manage the problems associated with more frequent house changes (supply and demand imbalance between stronger and weaker houses, inconsistency in curriculum from house to house)?
A: We are looking to put the curriculum on a two year rather than four year cycle. That means that all student s would have covered a similar curriculum in first and second grade and fifth and sixth grade making changing an easier process. We are always working on making all houses stronger. That is a journey not a destination. Parents provide input in the process through the Satisfaction Survey.

17. Q: Why won't the school consider a straight-grade system?
A: 78% of the people who answered the survey favored multi age classes. We would need to explore this issue further with the community.

18. Q: How will the time gained by separating our buses from the CVU system be used?
A: Planning takes time and we are still working on how to best use this time.

19. Q: Many students spend more time in band than in science and social studies. Shouldn't band be held at the end of the school day?
A: Band meets before school along with during the day since there is more than one band. Some schools have offered band during the last period of the day only to find that some parents and students interpret that as the day ends early if you are not a participant. If you mean band being offered after school then it would conflict with sports.

20. Q: Isn't configuration a separate issue from the rigor problem? How are they related?
A: They are separate issues. Configuration deals with structure and rigor deals with the level at which students engage in learning.

21. Q: Why is there no unified curriculum in both Lower and Upper Houses? Shouldn't the school put a unified curriculum in place first and then build the structure around that?
A: There is. See my response to a previous question. Curriculum is an issue we frequently return to for further refinement.

22. Q: Why is the administration not establishing a lower elementary school at one site? Doesn't this make more financial sense, since special education and other resources could be shared rather than duplicated?
A: Due to school capacity restraints, we cannot put all elementary students under the same roof. The number of students we have generates the same number of resource people necessary to meet their needs regardless of building. Enrollment will have to decrease more before we can consider this option.

23. Q: How can the school ignore the 78% of parents who want children of the same grade housed together at one site? Can't the community take a look at the numbers to see whether it would work?
A: This is a capacity issues. If we could house the students at the same building, we would. We would be happy to share the numbers with a committee appointed by the Williston School Board to look further into configuration.

24. Q: How can parents find out how much time different houses allocate for instruction in core academic areas?
A: We are conducting a time study right now. We will share the results when it is completed.

25. Q: Doesn't the School Board represent us (the voters and taxpayers)? Why is the Board not demanding accountability and a guarantee of academic rigor from our administration?
A: They are. This is a question for the School Board. Remember the School Board represents everybody and there are a variety of opinions held on most issues.

26. Q: Why is there such enormous inconsistency in Upper House curriculum?
A: The curriculum is the same. The implementation differs depending upon the house. Three houses currently give grades and students are taught by subject specific teachers. Three houses use standards based reporting systems and the content is more integrated.

27. Q: How will students be able to move from house to house given the lack of continuity of the curriculum from one house to another?
A: This question has been answered previously.

28. Q: How is the school helping prepare those children whose houses have been dissolved--and who are being dispersed throughout the school--for this major change?
A: They have had a chance to talk to their administrator and guidance counselors. We are also listening very carefully to their parents about what placement would best support them.

29. Q: Can the School Board sponsor a forum? How can a community member get an issue on the agenda? How much advance time is required?
A: We are working on a date right now. Of course there are many conflicts at this time of year. The forum is open to comments from the community.

30. Q: Why is the school unable to answer basic questions about how the reconfiguration plan will be implemented? How can parents possibly give meaningful input to placement forms, which are out this week?
A: Planning takes time to do well. Teachers of affected houses are actively working out the details for next year. They are also highly engaged on their teaching commitments from now until the end of this school year. Parents will be giving us valuable information about their child as a learner. We will match that information with house placement.

Read more!

School Board Meeting on Wednesday Night at 7pm!

Hello Neighbors,
Here's a little update on how things are proceeding.

On Monday afternoon the core organizational members of the Reconfiguration Campaign for Change will be meeting with Walter Nardelli, Jackie Parks, John Terko and Carter Smith. We will present them with the entire list of questions and comments compiled at the forum and have included ALL of them both for and against the current plan and the issues surrounding academic rigor. We will NOT be asking for Walter to answer the questions at this meeting. We feel it is Walter's responsibility and obligation to respond to the community himself. We will instead be addressing key concerns we have, which we would like to have addressed by the administration. We will give you all a complete report after the meeting.


THERE IS A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING THIS WEDNESDAY AT CVU at 7pm and we have been informed that the issue of reconfiguration is on the agenda. We encourage you to make this meeting a priority. This is everyone's opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to the administration, superintendent and school board and to work with them to make our school system even stronger. (Click "read more" to continue)
There is also time allotted for public comment prior to the beginning of the formal agenda and as long as there are questions, they will defer the beginning of the formal agenda items. Please come prepared with a question or we can hand out the questions we gathered at the forum to give to anyone who may not have formulated one in advance. This is an extremely important meeting. Please plan to attend!!

The dialogue we stimulated at the forum is very important and everyone's voice counts. We know that there are some who feel that we are not acknowledging that some families are very happy with the structure the way it is. We want to reassure you that we hear you and respect you just as we hope you can hear us and respect us! We are all part of this community, let's listen to each other and try to hear what each other is saying. We all want what is best for ALL the children in our community. There is room to find common ground and improvements that will benefit all of Williston's children.

One of our main objectives for this Campaign has really transformed to be to improve the academic rigor for all students in all houses. Williston needs to not only improve to meet state minimum requirements for a "course of study" in science and social studies they need to be exceeding it just as our fellow CSSU middle schools and neighboring middle schools do. Minimum should not and cannot be good enough for our children in this rapidly changing and complex global society with exploding technology and scientific advancement. The Williston community, school board and administration need to work together and strive to be the best! We need to go from offering below minimum requirements to providing maximal instruction in all areas.

Through this process we have also learned that there needs to be a system of accountability (checks and balances) which assures all houses are meeting the Grade Level Expectations for each grade each year. Right now there is no reliable accountability system in place. This is exemplified when children switch houses and then miss key academic curriculum and/or repeat others.

The academic rigor piece is HUGE and is significantly impacted by the structure of the house system. There is very little flexibility for scheduling, less time for "core subject instruction," limited sharing of academic resources and teaching expertise and little to no ability to group children from different houses for advanced and/or tutorial classes/instruction as needed. Our kids need this sharing and grouping to maximize their education and their socialization. Nearly all other middle schools can do it and we can too!

We'll be in touch. Thanks for your support. Keep writing, keep calling, keep the momentum rolling!

Remember, we need you there at the School Board Meeting on Wednesday May 14th at CVU at 7pm.

With great respect,
Your reconfiguration team-
Abby, Jason, Sarah, Michelle, Mary, Sandy, Nancy, Kevin, Jeff and Ann

Read more!

Thank you for your time and efforts!

I just wanted to send a note saying THANK YOU for your time & efforts!!!!

Having a nest full of special needs kids, Beth & I are constantly at meetings or doctor's appointments with the kids. Neither of us works outside the home any more because of this. We are consistantly fighting with the school to meet their academic and emotional needs. (click "read more" to continue.)

We spend just as much time at home teaching them "life skills". As a result, we have little time left to be on committees but we help in whatever small way we can: contributing to classroom requests, chaperoning field trips, helping with fund-raisers, delivering pizza (LOL), and of course, writing letters, etc. (Not to mention shuttling kids to extracurricular activities.)

When these broken babies came home to us we had no idea how far they would be able to go. In fact, in the beginning, we thought they would all be living with us until we died. However, these children continue to astound us!!! As they reach new heights we fight for better services. We consistently hit these brick walls. Beth knows the law inside & out when it comes to special ed. I carry on with the battle cry, "No child left behind!" Yet the process is long & arduous. The paperwork & appeals when disagreements come up seems endless. My Beth has made many enemies because of her persistence. God bless her!

In my mind, when we fight, we are fighting for all the kids, not just the ones who need extra help. We continually have other parents asking us "how" so they can help their own kids. So many of these parents spend most of their time caring for their families and have no knowledge of how to get the help they need. I KNOW we couldn't do this alone. The teachers, staff, volunteers, doctors, psychologists, paras, parents & everyone else who have the time to help out during the day are the backbone of our school systems.

It takes a village to raise a child. I love our village!

I find Williston citizens quick to respond when folks are in need. When Hurricane Katrina hit, we were lined up waaaaaaay down the road to contribute supplies. When the Moon family's house burned down, the very next morning, there was over $1500 collected at the front office, let alone what folks continued to do for the rest of the month. The generosity around the holidays is overwhelming! I am so PROUD of us.

I know that MOST of the children in Williston schools are extremely bright and eager to learn. This is because MOST of the parents are well educated and/or active. Given the right preparation, these kids can change the world and are already doing so (as is evident in many of their 8th grade projects). Our high school kids are pulling off even more phenomenal things. That whole "We got your back" project to collect school supplies & backpacks for the younger victims of Katrina blew me away. They don't learn this spirit of community pride/giving without parental example.

I was so excited to see how many folks showed up for your forum the other night. If not for YOUR hard work this would not have come to fruition!

I could go on & on but I have other letters to write. Suffice it to say, I love being part of this community and am HONORED to have folks like you as my neighbors & friends!

Grazi, grazi, mille grazi! Domo arigato! Merci! Muchas gracias! Shay-shay. (That's all I know, lol)
--
Affectionately,
Your friendly Neighborhood
Mama Cricket

Read more!

An Extraordinary Forum!

Greetings Neighbors!

We were thrilled with the attendance and dialogue at Monday night's community forum! WOW!

We wish to extend a big THANK YOU to each of you who attended and made it such a wonderful, thought provoking and powerful night. Community dialogue/community involvement regarding reconfiguration has finally and officially begun! We have effectively started what the administration failed to do and now we need to keep the momentum going!

We counted 125+ people in attendance Monday evening and we got roughly 85 signatures on our petition with more coming in! We still need more signatures from spouses/partners, friends and neighbors who were not able to attend. More on that below. (Click "Read More" to continue)

We believe most everyone came out of the the forum agreeing that Williston's schools are NOT performing academically where they should be given our socio-economic status as compared to those schools most similar to us in Chittenden County. We are lacking consistent and accountable academic rigor across all house and grades. Each child deserves an outstanding education. It needs to work for all children.

It was also very clear that the house system is working and is very comfortable for some, but it is not working for many, many families. This system is not equitable and provides no choices and very limited flexibility to meet family requests. At the very least we need choices!

Our school has clearly failed hundreds to perhaps thousand(s) of students--past and present--in the areas of science and social studies. Williston's failure to meet state minimum REQUIREMENTS for hours of instruction in science and social studies is UNCONSCIONABLE and must change despite which configuration plan is adopted! We need and deserve accountability from our administration.

What next? We need more help!

If you are willing to volunteer to help garner more signatures on the petition, please respond to our email accound reconfig.williston.schools@gmail.com and we will send you a copy of the petition for circulation/canvasing in your neighborhood etc. If you know any of the organizing members of the campaign we will all have copies as well or you can request a copy via email.

We also need volunteers to help with the process of moving forward quickly! If you can volunteer in any capacity we'd love to hear from you. We are planning to meet with the administration in the next few days to discuss the meeting, the PowerPoint data and where we need to go from here.

We also need you to let the Administration know how you feel about what you learned Monday night. We need and deserve a say in the education of our children. This is imminent! Please write, meet with them or call as soon as possible.

Finally, we have posted the PowerPoint presentation on our blog: http://reconfigwilliston.blogspot.com It is on the right hand column under Documents--Click on "FORUM PRESENTATION (PowerPoint)."

Please encourage your friends, family and neighbors to read the presentation and become informed and help keep this campaign moving forward.

Thank you all!

With great respect-
Your Reconfiguration Team
Jeff, Ann , Abby, Jason, Sarah, Michelle, Nancy, Mary and Sandy

Read more!

Redirecting our energy with civility and respect.

I am sure you have all read Walter Nardelli's piece in the School Bell by now. If not I would encourage you to do so. (It has actually been anonymously posted as a comment on the Forum update post!) For many of us, Monday's announcement of the "official" Reconfiguration plan set off a fury of emotion. The information from Walter has hopefully... (Click "read more" to continue.)

re-invigorated this energy. At this point we want to pause and redirect this energy. We were guilty of a rush of emotion ourselves when the official reconfiguration plan came out on Monday. But now that the dust has settled somewhat we want to regroup as a whole and proceed in a civil, organized, professional and respectful manner. We want to hold our community forum and proceed with our mission to halt this reconfiguration plan.

We are a big, stong group of caring parents (and our numbers keep growing daily!) who want the best for their children as well as the future students of Williston schools. We want to be heard. It is a battle worth fighting.

The organizing members of the Williston Schools Reconfiguration Campaign for Change has done their homework feverishly, professionally and completely. We are well researched, extremely well organized and we have some very powerful information to share with all of you. All of this hard work will facilitate progress toward our goal of getting the current plan stopped. We then look forward to getting the school board and administration to re-evaluate, explore the options of reconfiguration and go back to the drawing board of devising a plan but this time with community input/representation.

Attached please find a brochure outlining the goals of the Community forum. Please let us know if you have questions. As always, thank you for your support.

Reconfiguration Campaign for Change Organizational Members:
Ann and Jeff Smith, Sarah and Jason Hibbeler, Sandy Loisel, Michelle Rath, Abby Klein, Mary Whitcomb, Kevin Mara and Nancy Kahn

Read more!