The School Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 23 heard some welcome news about the Whitman Middle School project and a Seal on Bi-Literacy program and a time on learning grant worth $1 million over five years Whitman Middle School.
Committee members David Forth and Hillary Kniffen were absent and Glen DiGravio attended remotely.
Director of Equity and MTSS, Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis and district Family Liaison for Multi-lingual Learners Felicia Barboza introduced the Bi-Literacy program discussion and what it means for students.
Barboza made some introductory comments in Portuguese, noting that, while it may have been surprising to hear her do that, it is one experience that many of the district’s multi-lingual learners have when they come to school every day when teachers, staff and other students speak to them in English.
She translated her Portuguese remarks, saying her name, title, and her background as a one-time WHRSD student. She said she was there to discuss bi-literacy.
“Regardless of the challenges of many of our multi-lingual learners face, they still rise up to the challenges many of them are presented with,” Barboza said, noting many are proficient in English by the time that they leave WHRHS. “We want to be able to honor them and award them for how much they have achieved by [attaining] proficiency in English.”
Being a multi-lingual learner is an asset and a huge part of the reason why she has the job she does, is because of her capability in speaking two languages. When Barboza was a student, the Seal of Bi-Literacy was not available, but was an opportunity she said she would have loved to have.
Unlike many of her students, English was her first language and Portuguese her second language which she started learning at age 7, while her students are learning English as a second language.
“Our hope is that by offering this distinction, it will encourage students to pursue a second language, while also maintain their proficiency in their first language,” she said.
Semas-Schneeweis said the Mass. Seal of Bi-Literacy recognized high school graduates who attain proficiency in English and one other world language by graduation.
“It is a credential that is recognized by both colleges and employers as a skill,” she said, noting that WHRSD now joins more than 170 other districts in the Commonwealth offering the seal and also recognizes the English language achievement of students who speak another language first.
Committee member Dawn Byers asked if they could predict how many years of a second language English-first students would need to study to attain the seal.
Semas-Schneeweis said it would be offered to seniors in the spring to give them the best opportunity as the program was piloted with juniors last year, but ideally, they would like to see some sort of world language program returned to the middle schools to help with the achievement.
Going into next year, the seal will be part of the senior-year curriculum, she said. It was piloted with the juniors because it was not something the seniors were expecting this spring – it was only something extra being asked of them.
Time on learning grant
Assistant Superintendent George Ferro announced the district has received a 21st Century CCLC grant of $214,000 to fund an additional learning time program for the Whitman Middle School for the next five years. Of that, $154,000 will fund programs during the school year and $60,000 for summer programs.
The total value of the grant over the five-year period is more than $1 million.
“As you know we’ve had what’s called an additional learning time grant at the high school for years, where we are able to offer [support to] students from eighth grade, coming into ninth grade who are identified [as] needing extra support,” he said “They have a summer program here, they earn some credits here and then during the course of the school year, students who are either identified, or self-identify, as having some academic or social-emotional needs … we always offer four days a week an after-school program.”
Ferro said late bus transportation offered to those students is a highlight of the program with no budgetary impact.
That type of enrichment will now be offered at WMS through the federal competitive grant offered through the state.
WHRHS Math teacher Christopher Szkutak, who has run the high school enrichment program, applied for the grant to bring the program to the Whitman Middle School, where a separate site coordinator will be appointed with Szkutak in charge of all 21st Century remedial and after-school learning.
Ferro said there are no funds at this time, through the grant, for elementary grades. The high school program also offers credits, called floating credits, to participating students.
“There was a decision made, with Chris Szkutak in looking at our numbers and in talking to the middle school principals, that at this point in time due to the needs of the Whitman Middle School – you can only go for one school at a time – we chose Whitman Middle,” he said. When the application period opens again next spring, they would apply focused on Hanson Middle School, according to Ferro.
The committee unanimously voted to support Committee member Fred Small’s motion to send Szkutak a letter crediting and thanking him for his initiative and efforts. Byers added her thanks and stressed that, for working parents like her, the transportation piece of the grant was invaluable.
Bus routes
While on the subject of transportation, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said some guidelines have been formed to help reduce the time students are spending on buses.
“It’s not door-to-door service, it’s a school bus,” Szymaniak said after parents complained when some children were on the bus between 45 and 50 minutes. He had called other area superintendents to see how they were dealing with any similar extended bus rides.
One modification would curtail the practice of buses entering cul de-sacs, in agreement with state guidelines, unless it is “really necessary,” he said noting that there could be a person in the area who should not be near children.
Elementary students would be asked to walk as much as .7 miles to a bus stop. Right now the furthest any student is walking is .61 miles. Middle and high school students would be walking up to one mile.
“Doing that changed some of the routes,” he said, noting Indian Head had some routes of about 28 to 42 minutes, now he said the longest ride for Indian Head students is 32 minutes and the shortest is 28. “The longest ride at Hanson Middle is 34 minutes,” he said. “The longest ride at Duval is 27 and the longest ride at Conley is 23 minutes.”
Szymanian said it should control dropping off at the end of the driveway.
“That’s the number one thing I seem to get phone calls about,” Small said.
“This is a change, but it’s a change for the good of all,” Szymaniak said, because ridership is tied to state reimbursement. The state requires buses to run at 75 percent of capacity.
The change would have no budgetary impact.
The School Committee’s discussion of meeting protocol and norms was postponed to the next committee meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
“We would really like everybody to be present when we’re discussing the norms, because then everybody … would be in the game,” Stafford said.