Superintendent Reports

On First Early Release Wednesday

By Eliza Hallabeck

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson reminded the Board of Education at its meeting on December 7 that the first early release Wednesday in October was a milestone for the district.

“I don’t know if people in this room appreciate the fact that the first early release day was the very first time that those grade level teachers had ever come together across the district,” said Dr Robinson. “Ever.”

When she first came to the district, Dr Robinson said she noticed the capacity for learning, but students experienced different lessons than their peers, depending on which classroom they were in.

“We have, as a district, typically operated with site-based management,” Dr Robinson said. “And because of different schedules and a variety of other things, the district had never come together.”

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda announced the first quarterly report on the early release days to the school board during Tuesday’s meeting, and other topics during the evening included a visit from First Selectman Pat Llodra and the schedule of conferences for the fall of 2011.

The purpose of the early release days, according to Dr Gejda’s report, is, “continuous improvement in the teaching, learning, and assessment of student writing.”

During the first Wednesday of each month, since October, teachers have been gathering in professional learning communities to discuss and monitor writing in the district. January 5 is the next scheduled early release day in the school district, and will include teachers sharing feedback from the previous professional learning community meetings.

“When I consider what has happened in [the combined] six hours,” said Dr Gejda, “it’s really amazing.”

Dr Gejda said she is excited about the amount of work going on in the professional learning communities, and thanked everyone who has put in the effort to make them work.

“We’re trying to put much of this to the district website as well,” she said.

School board member Debbie Leidlein asked Dr Gejda if teachers, like some district parents, had expressed concern for the lost hours of instruction time. Dr Gejda said she noticed teachers working to compensate for the time spent outside of the classroom by making sure the work was meaningful.

“We’re trying to address the needs all teachers are expressing,” Dr Gejda said.

Board member David Nanavaty reflected on his years with the school board, and said any type of change generates criticism.

“This year this board took a very dramatic step in allowing our superintendent to start the [professional learning communities],” he said. “And we agreed that we were going to try half-days, because, not only did it achieve a great benefit for our teachers and our students, it was also, in a tough economic season, the most cost-effective way to do it.”

He then charged Dr Robinson and Dr Gejda to quantify the impact of the early release days, both educationally and economically.

“Because we are coming into a budget season,” Mr Nanavaty said, “and if we can work out something where we have teachers come in on Saturdays once a month. And financially we can put it in our budget and make it work, then let’s quantify that.”

In response to a question from school board member Lillian Bittman, Dr Gejda said it would take three years to see results from the professional learning communities on students in the district.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr Nanavaty also said he had never seen a first selectman appear at a school board meeting in as collaborative a manner as First Selectman Pat Llodra on Tuesday.

Mrs Llodra said her appearance is the first of more visits to come, and came after discussion with school board Chairman William Hart.

“This is what we hope will be the beginning of a practice,” said Mrs Llodra, adding it will likely be a once a month pattern.

Mrs Llodra discussed recent news topics with the school board, including the collaborative effort in forming a self-insurance policy and state mandated changes to graduation credits for high school students effective for 2018, before leaving to attend another meeting.

Conference Schedule Changes For Fall 2011

Also during the school board’s meeting, Dr Robinson announced there will be a change to the conference schedule in the district for next year. The announcement followed a blog entry she posted on the school’s website, www.newtown.k12.ct.us, on December 3 on the same topic.

“School staff has been listening to the parents who expressed concern over the number of half days scheduled for conferences throughout the district. The principals met this morning and changed one day on the spring schedule which affects the Middle School. They will have one less day. All of the spring conference days coincide so there will not be a repeat of last month’s span of days,” Dr Robinson wrote.

All the fall conference dates will occur in the same week next year, with Reed Intermediate School and the middle school having one additional day, according to Dr Robinson.

“We sincerely hope this meets the needs for Parent-Teacher conferences and yet alleviate some parents’ child care concerns,” she wrote.

The school board also voted to cancel its scheduled meeting on December 21, making Tuesday’s meeting its final meeting of 2010.

The last topic of the evening, a discussion and possible action regarding the town’s latest municipal audit, was tabled in a six-to-one vote, with member Debbie Leidlein voting against the motion to table.

Ms Leidlein also later requested, after the motion was tabled, her board’s indulgence to ask district business manager Ron Bienkowski for information regarding the audit. The request was denied, and the school board meeting adjourned.