Published July 3, 2019
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The objectives outlined in the school system’s strategic plan are designed to enhance teaching and learning, Superintendent Jane Tremblay said in an interview with the Villager.
The School Committee approved the strategic plan for the 2019-2020 school year last month. Tremblay said the strategic plan focuses on five areas: Social and emotional wellness, building leadership capacity, educator growth, curriculum and assessment, and assessment and accountability.
Social and emotional wellness
Tremblay said the social and emotional wellness component of the strategic plan entails integrating and expanding existing support systems for students.
“It’s all hands on deck,” said Tremblay.
Tremblay said security will “continue to be the number one priority” for the town’s schools.
“We are going to be having complete evacuation drills in the fall,” said Tremblay. “Students will be going to reunification centers and we will have buses there to bring them to a safe spot. We will communicate with parents prior to doing it.”
Students in grades 7-12 will be taking the Youth Risk Behavior Survey this fall, which was last administered in the fall of 2017. Teaching and Learning Director Kevin Cyr anticipates students will be taking the survey in either late September or early October.
Tremblay said school officials will be implementing “strategies for educators and parents to support anxious and depressed students.” Social-emotional learning will continue to be integrated and expanded throughout all four schools’ curriculum.
Additionally, Tremblay said Student Services Director Roberta Keane is going to be working with the department in order to establish clear “entrance and exit criteria” for specialized programming.
Building leadership capacity
Tremblay said the building leadership capacity component of the strategic plan entails cultivating “an expertise and skill set to strengthen a professional culture for effective teaching practices” throughout the district. As a result, she said the initiative will help educators improve their teaching practices.
“We are focusing on building leadership capacity from within,” said Tremblay. “We are finding more and more opportunities to create leaders within our school district.”
Tremblay noted Huckleberry Hill Interim Principal Melissa Wyland will begin leading the elementary school next year while Keane and Summer Street School Principal Dr. Karen Dwyer will be entering their second year working for Lynnfield Public Schools. As a result, Tremblay said the Administrative Leadership Team will be working to make sure the district is “calibrating the evaluation process so that all teachers across the district are getting meaningful feedback that will help them improve their practice.”
In order to help educators improve their teaching practices, school officials will continue providing professional development opportunities to educators across the district. Tremblay also said Educational Technology Director Stephanie Hoban will be recruiting teachers to a new committee.
“Stephanie Hoban is putting together a technology integration planning committee so that teachers have a greater say in technology in grades K-12,” said Tremblay. “It’s similar to an advisory board.”
Tremblay noted the school system will be looking to expand leadership opportunities to students as well as educators. She recalled that a group of Lynnfield High students discussed the dangers associated with vaping at the middle school this year. She also said high school students participated in internship opportunities and volunteered at the elementary schools in order to “help out with things such as recess.”
“It was so successful this year that we want to capitalize on it next year,” said Tremblay. “When we are talking about building leadership capacity, its not just educator capacity. It’s also student capacity.”
Educator growth
Tremblay said the educator growth component of the strategic plan seeks to have educators improve their teaching practices.
“We will continue to focus on the fact that teachers need to continue to grow and learn in order to be effective in the classroom,” said Tremblay.
Tremblay said school officials will continue working on and refining the support system for specialists such as adjustment counselors, guidance counselors, nurses, psychologists and speech pathologists.
“We want to find meaningful professional development opportunities for them,” said Tremblay. “There are some instances where they can work on curriculum initiatives such as Understanding by Design and in some cases it is not. We don’t want to waste time. We want everyone to grow professionally.”
Tremblay said a new subcommittee has been formed that is tasked with “defining exemplary ratings in accordance with the educator evaluation tool.”
“We feel that we have exemplary teachers in this district, but the way the rubric was written previously makes it really hard to award those teachers with exemplary status,” said Tremblay. “We are looking at defining what that wording means for us in Lynnfield Public Schools so it’s more attainable for teachers.”
Tremblay also said the school system will be overhauling the new teacher orientation program that will be held on Aug. 20 and Aug. 21.
“We are adding an additional day so we can go more in depth about what the teachers need to know,” said Tremblay. “It’s all going to be streamlined.”
Curriculum and instruction
Tremblay said the curriculum and instruction component of the strategic plan entails supporting “continuous curriculum development and instructional excellence.” As a result, Tremblay said educators will have “a shared vision for high quality outcomes and expectations.”
“This will be evidenced by consistent student engagement and higher order thinking through deliberate and focused instruction,” said Tremblay.
Tremblay said the main focus area of the curriculum and instruction component of the strategic plan is implementing the fourth year of the Understanding by Design curriculum framework.
According to the strategic plan, school officials and educators will be looking to increase student engagement by “emphasizing differentiated instruction and personalized learning.”
Assessment and accountability
Tremblay said the assessment and accountability component of the strategic plan involves continuing to “analyze data to drive and support continuous student growth and achievements.”
The superintendent noted two new surveys will be created as part of the initiative.
“We are going to be implementing surveys for student feedback about teachers, which is in accordance with what the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has asked us to do,” said Tremblay. “A subcommittee spent last year making the surveys and piloting them. We have tweaked them to the point that we think we are in a good place, so we are going to roll that out in the fall. And along with that, we have designed and developed surveys for the faculty to give feedback to the administrators. Our expectation is the faculty will be talking with the administrators about the feedback they have received during their evaluation meetings, and the administrators will be talking to me about the feedback they have received from their faculty.”
The School Department will also be implementing a new English language learner (ELL) leadership team. The new group will be analyzing student assessment data in order to help students who speak English as a second language improve academically.
