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Message from Principal Lynne Beattie February/March 2012
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Dear CMS Families,
At this time, I seek your input on an intriguing proposal. What follows is a query to both adults and students in the CMS community, and some information on the background and purpose.
Reflecting upon your experience at CMS, please identify pros and cons of the following proposed change in our organization: All sixth graders attend the Peabody Building, and all seventh and eighth graders attend the Sanborn Building.
Additional Information:
- There would be two Houses (Teams) in each grade level, as there are currently. CMS staff would place students into Houses based on programmatic needs and the goal of maintaining a heterogeneous community.
- Support staff, such as counselors and special education case managers, would likely move with students throughout their tenure at CMS.
- All after school activities would continue to run as they do now ñ across grades at both buildings.
Background:
Earlier this year, the student support team began to look at ways to improve our 5th-6th placement outcomes. Over the past several years, despite enormous efforts to evenly mix the groupings from the three elementary schools at both Peabody and Sanborn, we have not been successful while ensuring programming needs and matching each student with at least one friend from their friend list. This created numerous situations in which students coming in felt isolated, separated from all but one or two familiar peers while others have entered a well-extended friendship group. We had several conversations over the years about removing the friend identification option, but decided against as it was felt to increase stress for kids regarding placement.
Another option that was explored was to assign buildings based on elementary attendance. Unfortunately, given that three elementary schools feed into two middle school buildings, one elementary school would need to be divided. This was decided to be untenable for those students attending the split building; two thirds of their middle school community would have traveled together through elementary, and it would be difficult for them to break into their new community.
Finally, a suggestion was made by a couple of staff members to think about restructuring the buildings to allocate Peabody to sixth graders and Sanborn to seventh and eighth graders. This proposal creates opportunities for some very different options for our work with students, approach to instruction, and community development. We need to evaluate carefully the degree to which the various impacts would be positive. Since the proposal was made, staff has had discussions and submitted feedback as to the pros and cons of moving to this model.
Just Some of the Key Points Identified by CMS Staff:
- A single building placement for grade 6 would eliminate a large part of the stress around placement as students will all be together and still have the opportunity to to meet new people. Though an additional transition will be introduced, traveling together as a whole community and with support staff eliminates most of the anxiety triggers of transition. An orientation and mentoring for the move would be instituted.
- At each grade level from year to year, the school would have flexibility to create heterogeneously mixed Houses, re-adjust to improve dynamics as needed, and provide opportunities for students to meet new friends.
- At each grade level, teachers would have increased access to one another for important collaborative work on curriculum planning, reflection upon student growth and achievement, and improvements in instructional practice to meet all studentsí needs; this consolidation may have implications for reallocated staffing to broaden the variety of interventions we offer to struggling students or to challenge those students who consistently perform at an exceptional level.
- There would be an increase in opportunities to cultivate a school-wide community within each grade level, and the unique placement of sixth grade would enable us to create different types of activities specific to introducing sixth graders to the middle school model. However, we value the 6th-8th grade community experience we currently have in the individual buildings, and will want to examine carefully the differences in these two community models so that we ensure that opportunities like peer mentors, student leaders, and older students serving as role models are revised, maintained, and even ideally, expanded as opposed to forfeited.
- A number of questions were raised about the physical capacity of Sanborn that will require the following:
- Space and scheduling at Sanborn will be carefully evaluated based on instructional needs (including teacher work space outside of the classroom) and projected enrollment for the future.
- Staffing allocation of both teachers and support staff will be evaluated to take into consideration the different proportions of students and staff at the two locations.
- A projection of the actual costs of the move will be developed.
The Decision Making Process:
In the end, I will make the decision based on input from staff, parents, and students, our ability to find solutions for restructuring challenges, and alignment with the CMS core values of Community, Achievement, and Lifelong Learning. Though implementation and details of the outcomes of each of these values may look quite different in a reorganized model, it would not be acceptable to make a change that will result in a decrease in development of our studentsí capacity for any of the related skills, or one that does not promote these three values in our school community.
At this time, I have heard from staff and I would now like to hear from families. I invite you to email me at lbeattie@colonial.net with your thoughts or questions based on past experience, the opportunities you identify that the model may provide, or concerns you may have about the proposal. In early March I will provide a structured opportunity for students to complete a short survey at school so that I hear from as many students as possible.
By the end of March I believe I will have gathered sufficient information to a) approve and pursue restructuring for the 2012-13 school year, b) determine that though it looks promising, we need more time to evaluate it effectively for potential implementation in the 2013-14 school year, or, c) determine that though there are benefits, they are greatly outweighed by the costs, and will continue to seek other solutions to improve our school transition and address other needs.
I recognize this is a lengthy letter, and hopes it serves as food for thought and possibly rich discussion around the dining room table.
As always, don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Lynne Beattie, CMS Principal
978.341.2490 x6110
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Sanborn Building 835 Old Marlboro Road, Concord, MA 01742 Main Office: 978.318.1380 |
Peabody Building 1231 Old Marlboro Road, Concord, MA 01742 Main Office: 978.318.1360
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Voice Mail Directory 978.341.2490
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