School Committee Summary
December 12, 2019
Official Meeting Minutes
Old Post Road School students sharing their work
Old Post Road School students sharing their work
Old Post Road School students sharing their work
Walpole Public Schools
Website: www.walpole.k12.ma.us
Location: 135 School Street, Walpole, MA, USA
Phone: 508-660-7200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/walpolepublicschools/photos/?ref=page_internal
Twitter: @PublicWalpole
Recognitions
We are proud to announce that one of our Walpole High School students, Aishwarya V., was one of five high school seniors selected in United States for the Global Innovator award. This award was presented at the Society of Women Engineers Annual convention at Anaheim, CA on Friday, November 8th
Aishwarya is a senior at WHS and a proud SWENext Member (Society of Women Engineers Next Generation). Some of her accomplishments include (1) programming a website for the Walpole High School Math Team with easy access to materials, (2) developing an Android application to send snow day and holiday alerts to parents of a tutoring company based in Norwood, and (3) developing a program to count bacterial buildups in various medical samples at a Boston Children’s Hospital lab.
Congratulations to Aishwarya! She has made Walpole Public Schools very proud!
Walpole High School Student Report
Student Council just had their annual Lock-in which means they stayed at the school from 9 PM - 5 AM bonding as a council and getting work done for upcoming events, like the Bocce Tournament we are hosting on January 11th.
Other events that are happening in the school are a toy drive competition against Norwood to see who can donate the most toys to Toys For Tots. So far Madison believes Walpole has the lead. The high school is also doing a food drive, and has filled a huge box to overflowing.
Madison said WHS is very busy with the winter sports starting and all the good things going on in as we go into winter break. She thanked the SC and Administration for their time and making the schools as great as they are. Madison also wished all a very happy holidays.
Thank you Madison for your insightful report and for staying and actively participating in the SC Meeting.
Digital Learning Student Presentations
Digital Learning students were present to talk about specific learning they are experiencing and what are their favorite programs related to digital learning. The students indicated a few of the apps they enjoy are Bee-Bot, SeeSaw, Osmo and BookCreator.
Bee-Bot is a robot designed for use by young children. This colorful, easy-to-operate, and friendly little robot is a perfect tool for teaching sequencing, estimation, problem-solving, and just having fun!
SeeSaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students show what they know using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. It’s a digital learning tool used to get student work in one place and share with families.
Osmo brings lesson plans to life and creates an interactive learning experience for all students in the elementary schools. The Osmo Learning System is ideal for classrooms where instruction meets interactive learning during independent, small group or centers.
Book Creator is a tool for creating digital books. Students are able to combine text, images, audio and video to create interactive stories, digital portfolios, research journals, science reports, instruction manuals and even comic adventures.
A middle school student was also present and discussed a simulated Stock Market game done with digital technology that allows students to research and invest in stocks sold on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and analyze the results.
These programs allow for collaboration and teamwork to solve math combinations, create and cultivate coding skills, and facilitate educational growth and enthusiasm in our students.
Some of our SC Members and our Superintendent were tested for their Bee-Bot coding skills. The SC and Superintendent even earned Digital Learning Badges.
Thank you to Digital Learning Coaches, Teachers, students and parents for attending this meeting and sharing your experiences.
Middle School and High School Science Curriculum Update
Ms. O’Malley, Mr. Kujawski and Ms. Naismith attended the SC Meeting to give an update with respect to the high school and middle school science curriculum. Students were also present to talk about their individual learning experiences.
Ms. O'Malley, Science Department Chairperson and Curriculum Coordinator, mentioned the changes to high school sequence change where freshmen now have Physics, Sophomoe take Chemistry and Juniors take Biology.
Ms. Naismith and Mr. Kujawski talked about science and engineering practices and learning at the middle school level.
Two middle school students attended and participated in a hands-on experiment where two full soda cans were placed in water and one floated and the other did not. The experiment taught them to analyze and investigate all possible reasons for this, including ingredients of each item, collaborating with others, creating lists and questions and coming to a conclusion. The students indicated learning in this way gives them more understanding and makes more sense.
Daniel Feeney Preschool Tuition Discussion
The SC will take the matter under advisement and discuss further at an upcoming SC Meeting.
Strategic Plan Goal 4 Update
Mr. Friscia and Mr. Imbusch gave an update on the Goal 4 Action Steps of the Strategic Plan.
Goal 4 is to ensure that facilities and resources support student learning and well-being. The Action steps are:
- 4.1: Effectively provide for the safety and welfare of all members of the Walpole School Community.
- 4.2: Identify and plan for future ready facilities projects
- 4.3: Identify, secure, and responsibly manage sustainable funding for all school department needs.
Regarding Action Step 4.1, an update was provided with respect to school building enhancements and/or repairs. These include the replacement of Turco Field at WHS, resurfacing of the WHS and JMS tennis courts, repairs to the stairs at WHS, PA systems at WHS and Fisher; an upcoming remodel of the lobby area at OPR and a partial roof replacement at WHS.
Mr. Friscia and Mr. Imbusch discussed critical incident drills at all levels as well as the Memorandum of Understanding between the Walpole Police and Walpole Public Schools. Walpole continues to improve upon security technology in school offices and buildings including security cameras, door locking mechanism and panic buttons installed that go directly to the Walpole Police.
The MSBA timeline for the middle school project was reviewed with the upcoming Owners Project Manager (OPM) selection dates regarding the selection of an OPM for the middle school feasibility study.
Capital budget money was also allocated for a feasibility study and needs assessment including planning and design.
Lastly, action step 4.3 is a continuous effort of school budgeting to meet all school department needs. This includes investigating and obtaining other possible sources of revenue for example, grants, fees and tuitions.
SPARK Kindness Report
Dr. Gough reported on SPARK Kindness. The SPARK Kindness mission is “To build kind, empowered & inclusive communities where no child or family feels alone, bullied, unsupported or unconnected. We support families, schools, coaches, artists, faith and community leaders in creating a culture that empowers youth and promotes kindness and respect. We do so through: (1) offering FREE programs & resources; (2) building awareness; and (3) creating positive community partnerships that support families.”
SPARK Kindness has officially started their Walpole community readiness phase. The SPARK team meets and interviews approximately 20 community representatives to gather feedback and eventually prepare a summary in advance of the WPS Strategic Planning Meeting.
Executive Director, Christine Guthery and spark Network Coordinator, Kristy Showsted will be the primary contacts during this phase. WPS hsa contacted the potential community members who will be, or may have already been, interviewed and the overwhelming response was very positive.
Superintendent Report
Dr. Gough gave an update with respect to:
Congratulating WHS for receiving the National Banner recognition for meeting/achieving national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect. During the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving break, the school was recognized as a National Unified Champion School. WHS was one of only 16 schools in Massachusetts and 179 schools nationwide to achieve this status for the 2018-2019 schoolyear. The Unified Track team did the honors of marching the banner into the gym to a standing ovation.
The 2020-2021 budget process is beginning. In addition to our budget workshop, which was held last Thursday evening with the SC, Mr. Friscia and Dr. Gough will individually meet with every leadership member (principals, Assistant Superintendent, Director of Digital Learning and the Director of Pupil Services) to discuss their goods and service budgets. Public Budget Hearings are scheduled for January 14, January 21 and January 23, 2020.
Dr. Gough is continuing her Superintendent entry meetings with various groups. She has met with preschool, elementary, middle school and high school councils as well as PAC Chairs for each of these schools. She publicly thanked them for their feedback and is looking forward to ongoing communications with them.
Dr. Gough's school visits this week focused on the middle schools and included discussions about the principals' goals as instructional leaders and our continued focus on teaching and learning.
She reminded the public that Friday, December 13 is an early release day. Dr. Gough and Mr. Hahn will be at the middle schools to start the staff conversation about the middle school building project and about the visioning process. They are looking forward to the staff feedback. The visioning process is critical to the project and once OPM and the designer are hired, they will continue vision discussions with the community.
School Concerts/Holiday Sing-A-Longs
December 17 7:00 p.m. JMS Grades 6, 7 & 8 Chorus Concert
December 18 5:45 p.m. OPR Holiday Sing-A-Long
December 18 6:00 p.m. Boyden Holiday Sing-A-Long
December 19 5:45 p.m. Fisher Holiday Sing-A-Long
December 19 6:00 p.m. Elm Holiday Sing-A-Long
WHS Community Service Club hosting a gift wrapping fundraiser - December 14
Some people, like ourselves, love to gift wrap their presents but for others it is a burden, so bring some gifts in and we will help take away your stress during this holiday season!
We will have music, games, arts and crafts, and so much more for the kids too! There will be a photo booth for families to enjoy so bring your own cameras! We will also be serving light refreshments!