One place where the Old Rochester Regional District’s elementary schools still feel a bit of an advantage over secondary and middle grades is the little kids got a bigger piece of the 2020-21 school year full-time and in person.
Asked to address anxiety during the February 3 meeting of the Rochester School Committee, Memorial School Principal Derek Medeiros pointed to the advantage of being first to transition the youngest learners back to in-person learning.
A key piece of meeting the needs of students has been the district-wide application of the “responsive classroom.” Traditionally emphasized over the opening six weeks of the academic year, this year the emphasis has lasted 8-10 weeks.
“And that’s okay,” said Medeiros. “If you don’t establish those routines and structures, then learning doesn’t take place the way we know it (should). … Obviously, we have a phenomenal school here so we’re very lucky, but we are seeing ourselves trend in the right direction.”
“I think our capacity to differentiate our social-emotional support in this building is immense,” said RMS Vice Principal Charlie West. “We have the ability with our team, as well as the teachers that we have who’ve been using responsive classroom … can come to those social workers, to administrators, and troubleshoot situations and really work to get those kids engaged and included and also always have our antenna up and know when we see kids that might be struggling a little more with obviously behaviors and anxiety or other emotional needs.
“Having a mechanism in place to be able to work with them and support them has been huge.”
Routines play a major role in establishing a sense of expectation for the students and allow them to focus on learning.
“I see that this year more than ever, especially with the younger population. When they can come in and know it’s a predictable environment that they know what they need to be doing, they’re thriving,” said West, who has been covering classrooms due to the lack of available qualified substitute teachers. “Jumping into Kindergarten, it’s amazing to see how responsive they are knowing how predictable things can be and knowing how they’re in a safe learning environment.”
School Committee member Jason Chisholm asked if the responsive classroom provides benefits for teachers.
“They don’t buy in and do that great work around the classroom … unless they believe in it themselves,” said Medeiros. “We try to promote that through (monthly) personal community learning meetings.” Medeiros said that staff meetings help teachers compare notes and discuss how to make the responsive classroom work well with everyone.
A key piece in the RMS School Improvement Program, said Medeiros, is to train 100 percent of the staff in the responsive classroom, a four-day course for licensed educators. “We’re right on track to stay with that goal,” he said.
School Committee Vice Chairperson Anne Fernandes asked Medeiros how Rochester Memorial’s progress in the five competencies of social-emotional learning is monitored. Medeiros explained a four-point grading scale and how it applies to everyday scenarios of family interaction.
ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson acknowledged that the pandemic has somewhat slowed the progress of monitoring social-emotional learning overall. “We’re getting to the point where we’re using a different Panorama tool,” he said, alluding to administration’s support of teachers through the Kaleidoscope feedback tool, along with report cards and the Panorama Survey tool used for parental and student feedback.
Director of Student Services Craig Davidson referred to a family survey conducted earlier in the 2021-22 school year that tied into ORR’s Accelerated Road Map. Davidson said the survey monitoring sense of belonging and focus drew positive results.
Fernandes’ questions during the February 3 meeting yielded a comprehensive explanation of ORR’s various student surveys. Some of the surveys are held anonymously and some designed to enter student information. One done with the Kaleidoscope tool, explained Nelson, keyed on a certain classroom. From there, information gathered by the Social Emotional Learning team customizes work for individual students.
“Charlie and I always feel like social-emotional learning is definitely one of the key strengths for us here at Rochester Memorial, and I think there’s a couple of different reasons for that. Number one is the main reason … our continued belief and approach around our responsive classroom,” said Medeiros.
Medeiros says RMS has benefitted from the ORR District’s support, providing all new staff a platform to learn about the responsive classroom. “We’re showing to our staff that we believe in that evidence-based approach,” he said, noting that the emphasis extends beyond school grounds to families via the RMS newsletter and access resources on the school’s website.
RMS students are learning that cooperation leads to responsible decision making, said Medeiros. “You don’t want to overwhelm students especially at the elementary level so we don’t want to make this too in-depth … you really want to merge them together.”
Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Jannell Pearson-Campbell summarized the results of the recently completed Tiered Focus Monitoring Audit of ORR schools, which looks at the implementation of English language learners, Special Education and Civil Rights regulations. The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) examines relevant documentation and student records, interviews staff members, and solicits parent/guardian feedback.
Nelson compared the audit to the special-education report made earlier in the school year by Davidson. System-wide, said Nelson, the six-school ORR District has 12 students receiving English Language Learner supports, including nine ELL students, three of those being RMS students.
At the committee’s January 18 meeting, Davidson thanked Special Education Secretary Kim Amato for her work in helping Rochester Memorial report to DESE.
“Having lived through that process a number of times, I just want to echo what Mr. Davidson said about all the hard work from each and every individual, from Central Office to our own office to classroom teachers, the whole nine yards,” said Fernandes. “It’s quite a process, very deliberate, painstaking and you guys did a great job. Thank you for everything.”
ORR was to report back to DESE by February 14 for a final stamp of approval.
The committee voted to approve the acceptance of two $500 donations from the Rochester Cultural Council, one to support RMS sixth-graders’ virtual lunar-robot project, and the other to support a financial literacy fair sponsored by MoneyWise.
In crediting the procurement of that support to Alison Bosma and teacher Tracey Forns, Medeiros explained that the sixth graders’ virtual lunar robot model must stand up on the moon, take a soil sample, and store and move it to another location 100 yards away. “Pretty cool project,” he said. “The students were able to build it in (two dimensions) and then 3D on that (computer) system.”
The $500 grant sponsors the students’ access to the computer program and entrance into a NASA-sponsored contest. “They also got to make it out of LEGO’s and actually build it out of LEGO’s first, then transfer it onto paper, then transfer it to the CAD system,” said Medeiros. “A lot of challenges to it. They had to make sure the temperature was right … pretty impressive work by our scientists.”
Nelson updated the committee on Covid-19. As of February 3, RMS had only four active cases. The state mask mandate is in place until at least February 28, and contact tracing will be discontinued in schools.
The committee began its February 3 public meeting to enter executive session including Select Board Chair Brad Morse. The committee and Morse emerged to public session to vote their approval of a Memorandum of Agreement to go into effect upon the approval and signatures of the teacher’s association.
On February 3, Nelson was pleased to announce that Diana Russo of the ORR Central Office is the recipient of the 2021 Massachusetts COSCAP Administrative Assistant of the Year Award. In 24-plus years on the job, Russo has supported three different superintendents and five school committees. “Diana is the ultimate professional,” said Nelson. “She’s trustworthy, and you will never find anyone with more integrity than her.”
In other business, Medeiros reported to the committee that the annual Grade 4 concert was held and recorded on ORCTV, and a virtual welcome to new students was scheduled for February 9.
In committee reports, Chisholm said that the Joint School Committee voted to accept an amended version of the 2022-23 school calendar. Fernandes told the committee that, when the Joint School Committee voted to adopt gender-neutral pronouns in policy language, she cast the lone dissenting vote. “I would have preferred we use common nouns,” she said. Kate Duggan reported on a “book walk” for Black History Month in partnership with Tri Town Against Racism.
In his January 18 report, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber told the committee that $626,000 remained in the unencumbered funds in the FY22 operating budget. Lunch counts in 2021-22 have quadrupled from the 2020-21 school year, a mostly hybrid formatted year. The committee ended its January 18 meeting to enter executive session to discuss bargaining.
The next meeting of the Rochester School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, March 3, at 6:30 pm, and the next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, April 28, at 6:30 pm.
Rochester School Committee
By Mick Colageo