Sippican School Prepares for PARCC

Putting five school committee members in front of a Chromebook and telling them to make the angry bird chase the pig yields a more interesting Marion School Committee meeting – at least for a little while, anyway. Long enough on December 3 for the committee members to explore a few of the 345 new Chromebooks the Old Rochester Regional School District recently purchased.

Committee members took a shot at some online coding by spending a few minutes on the website code.org, which students will use one hour per week dedicated to learning how to code.

School Committee Chairman Joseph Scott’s face – lit by the glow of the open Chromebook before him – smiled as he followed along with Superintendent Doug White’s instructions to make the angry bird chase the pig.

The Chromebooks are also a tool that the four Tri-Town school districts will use to administer the new PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessment in later months of the 2014/2015 school year to grades 3 through 11.

Assistant Superintendent Elise Frangos, who recently attended a PARCC workshop at Bridgewater State University, said “PARCC readiness” for both students and teachers is currently a priority. She referred to “waves of training” that will be forthcoming.

Frangos said that during her day in Bridgewater, she had the opportunity to sit and take the English Language portion of PARCC for grades 3 through 6.

“Just to find out what it feels like,” said Frangos. She urged parents to visit the ORR homepage and click on the link for sample PARCC tests so they, too, can experience the new assessment their children will be taking. “Not that these tests are a barrel of fun,” Frangos said eliciting a few laughs. “[But] these are lively tests,” she continued. “Very unlike the MCAS.”

Frangos also touched upon the Old Rochester Regional High School’s latest achievement of making the Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Roll and how it is never too early to encourage young learners to consider participating in AP classes in high school.

Talk to your students and children, suggested Frangos. Make AP classes part of the conversation and plant the seed to succeed “and to believe in themselves with that mindset that they can achieve…”

Frangos said the central administration is looking for ways to assess what the school is doing well, in regards to the AP program, and how it can move forward and expand to include more Special Education students with IEPs and 504 Plans.

“Because everybody can succeed at AP,” said Frangos.

Also during the meeting, discussion of Marion’s 40B housing development was brief due to the limited information available at the time of the meeting. The lottery was to be held that same night as the meeting, and White reported that after reviewing the data available from the families’ applications, there lies the potential for 35 school-age children to move into the Marion School District. How many will actually move in was still unknown at the time.

There has been a slight delay in the availability of the 30 units, however, with completion pushed back into mid-February to early March, still a relatively short time for Fiscal Year 2016 budget consideration.

“But we need to think about that as we move forward,” said White.

The committee approved a budget transfer totaling $38,619.29 involving adjustments to salaries from changes in staff.

The next meeting of the Marion School Committee is scheduled for January 7 at 6:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry

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