PKM HIGHLIGHTS
May 18-22, 2020
Dear Bill, Darin, Michelle, Todd & Pat
West Virginia Ambassadors Recognition
On Monday, I spoke via Zoom with the four Berkeley County 8thgraders from Hedgesville, Musselman, North and Spring Mills Middle Schools – Ella Waters, Kendall Watcher, Audrey Hasley and Brianna Detzel. I want to also thank their principals Elizabeth Adam, Jim Holland, Becky Eyler and Tony Ponton along with Donnie Dellinger and Elaine Bobo who joined us on the call. Given the circumstances, the recognition and leadership opportunities afforded through the program have been canceled. At the suggestion of Becky Eyler, to acknowledge the students in some small way we sent them a copy of Sean Convey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teensand met with them to talk about their transition to high school and beyond. It was very impressive to listen to each of the students talk about how they are working through studying and thinking about the future. All of them are very excited about going to high school and the many opportunities for continuing their leadership roles and participating in athletics and club activities. All of us in attendance wanted to thank them for being leaders in their school, encourage them to continue to do so in high school and let them know that we will be recognizing them later this summer in the planned celebration of students, staff and community member recognition.
County Pre-K Committee Meeting
Dr. Murphy joined the Berkeley County Pre-K/ K Committee quarterly meeting on May 18, 2020 hosted by Michelle Martin. The meeting was attended by stakeholders from the community, Pre-K and K classroom teachers, health care, childcare, Birth to Three, school administration, special education staff, parents and BCS instructional department staff.
The early discussion centered around the current school year with the adaptation of online learning, with reports from the teachers, enrollment procedure adaptations and ELRS assessment changes in Pre-K and Kindergarten due to COVID-19.
The second half of the meeting generated open dialogue around the upcoming school year with a focus on Pre-K and Kindergarten transition plans and collaboration between the grade levels. The deeper enhancement of skills in both programs, which include teacher knowledge of interconnected grade level language, math and reading content, is essential for realignment of the Pre-K/K expectations.
The group also reviewed potential plans for optional stages of reopening of school in the fall, the new SEEDS program in Pre-K designed to address students with social, emotional and trauma induced behaviors, the calendar schedule to address cross grade staff development and language changes to Policy 2525, WV Universal Access to Early Education System, which is out for comment. The committee concluded with plans to reconvene at the next quarterly meeting to implement Phase 2 of Pre-K/K realignment.
Re-Entry State Superintendent Committee
State Superintendent, Clayton Burch has convened a group of superintendents, members of his cabinet and association leaders that comprise a group of 59-members from across all regions of the state. The committee met briefly for the first time this week to review the outline of the committees work to be completed by June 8 which will provide a framework for decision-making about opening school in the fall. Yesterday, Superintendent Burch also conveyed in his weekly conference call that it would be later this summer a determination about how schools will re-open. At this time, he expressed it is too early to make that decision because of many unanswered questions about the current health pandemic. The work of this committee will help guide those decisions and provide a framework for addressing the different elements that are going to need to be part of a plan for making those decisions. The reference document that the committee will be using can be found at https://wvde.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SchoolSystemReentry-051920-v2.pdf. The outline covers the three phases for re-entry, provides a historical timeline of the pandemic, and identifies nine focus areas which will be the work of this group. I will be sharing updates and reporting on the progress being made as more information is forthcoming in the next several weeks.
Sr. Staff Plus Pandemic Meeting-May 20th
The Senior Staff Pandemic meeting was held this week to discuss departmental updates as related to the Covid-19 closure. To date, over 204,000 meals have been distributed to the students of Berkeley County. As per Governor Justice’s declaration, we will continue to serve meals throughout August. Beginning in June, we will add three more locations to our meal distribution centers. As we continue the process of closing down our schools, the school nursing staff will release information regarding facial coverings for staff and students so they may enter the schools safely to return materials. In recognition of our graduates, the high schools have celebrations planned for the coming week. The schools have collaborated with health officials to ensure their ceremonies will follow social distancing guidelines. Remote learning summer programs for students are in the final stages of planning and more information for families will be released within the next coming weeks. In addition, educational resources and ideas for families to reduce the summer learning gap are being added to the district web page. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction has worked together to create a document listing the most critical standards from the fourth nine weeks. This will guide teachers next year to incorporate these standards into their teaching, so students are sure to have the necessary skills for the current grade.
Principal Meetings by Level (Pre-K, Elementary, Intermediate, Middle and High School)
This week Donnie Dellinger, Dave Banks and David Dilly met with principal groups by programmatic level to discuss a host of topics from wrapping up the school year, summer school planning and preparing for the start of the upcoming school year. The range of topics covered included final grades, summer learning programs, curriculum maps for the start of the school year to incorporate curriculum from fourth nine weeks, graduation and end of year celebrations, professional development, end of year faculty senate meeting, 2020-2021 school calendar, principal evaluations and upcoming plans for testing and assessment at all levels (e.g., SAT, formative assessments).
Two topics to highlight from the agenda include professional development and summer programs. Planning is underway and almost complete for a professional development for all teachers on the topic of online learning that will prepare them for remote and distance learning in the future should this be necessary. Sharon Dove, Derek Oldfield and Sharon Collins have developed this training that we are in the process of finalizing and will be rolling out for all teachers this summer. In addition to this training for teachers similar training for substitutes is also being developed so they are knowledgeable and able to work productively in a remote learning environment. The second area to highlight is the planning around summer programs that includes the summer library reading initiative, extended school year for students who receive special education services, a targeted reading program for approximately 250 students K-5 and reading and mathematics skills program K-12. More information on these topics will be forthcoming and shared with staff and families.
Musselman High School Graduation
Holly Kleppner and her outstanding Team at Musselman High School kicked-off the graduation ceremony and celebration on Thursday afternoon with the 405 graduating seniors and their families. School Board members Pat Murphy and Michelle Barnes-Russell along with Musselman and Mountain Ridge Middle School principals, Jim Holland and Dr. Ron Branch join the celebration line with me recognizing and congratulating senior and their families. The staff at Musselman High played a pivotal role in keeping the even moving and well organized. It was a very positive experience for the kids, recognized their achievement and you could tell parents and family members were proud of their graduates. It was also a very enthusiastic event with all getting into the spirit with signs, decorated cars and noise makers to add to the festive atmosphere high school graduation. Next week the graduation celebration has us celebrating on Tuesday-Martinsburg, Wednesday-Hedgesville and Thursday-Spring Mills graduates in a similar fashion with traditional graduates planned for later this summer.
State Superintendent Conference Call Meeting
Just prior to the start of the celebration at Musselman High School on Thursday, State Superintendent Clayton Burch hosted a conference call update with superintendents and senior staff members across the state. The first topics covered related to many of the currently schedule activities and how alternative plans continue to be in place to address graduation, ACT and Praxis testing, and out-of-season conditioning and practice all of which are either on hold or being rescheduled. We also heard about the most recent FAQ document that is attached below and will be posted to our website that address employees returning to work and personnel matters related to those procedures. We also received information about extensions on federal and state funding timelines that have been recently adjusted to allow more planning around how to best utlize these funds. We also reviewed the steps for distribution of meal during the summer and the state has subsequently identified 244 sites for meals to continue to be distributed after June 1. WVDE is also working with school district in gathering information related to a technology survey to determine student access and needs to improve remote learning. BCS is also gather similar information so this will be valuable to us in knowing how to better support and reach families during times of remote learning. Finally, Superintendent Burch updated us on the Covid-19 Recovery committee he has drafted (see Re-Entry State Superintendent Committee above).
Service and Professional Staff Weekly Conference Calls
Advance Team Meeting
The team met again for the second time and the group has expanded to now 25 members from across the school district including teachers, principals, administrators and central office staff. The meeting kicked off with a brief re-cap of the first meeting because of new committee members joining. We then heard from Sharon Dove and Veronique Walker on the status of the BCS technology survey and how it is aligned with the state technology survey. The group felt the information that could be crossed reference will be very helpful for us to determine solutions for students who have limited or no access. The second item that we revisited from our first meeting was around the priority of mental health and well-being of staff and students as we prepare for summer school and starting school in the fall. Sending a message about caring and supporting students, staff and families we continue to see as a priority. The Theodore Roosevelt quotes, “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” is ringing true for all of us. We are continuing to refine our message around this theme and see it as important ingredient that needs to be center stage in the plan.
We then moved on to looking at the various scenarios that are being discussed across the nation that we should begin to think and prepare for this fall. The continuum of options ranged from returning for face-to-face classes, a blended model of alternating days students attending school and/or working from home, all remote learning and providing instruction for students and having them determine how they would like to learn. The purpose outlining these options are to help facilitate the planning process in preparing at this point in time.
I updated the group on some of the research and information that has come my way from other school district across the county to give them a sense of what other educators are thinking and planning. Similar to the West Virginia Department of Education outline, 6 areas of planning need to be considered for any of the scenarios mentioned above. Those 6 areas include Family and Community, Mental Health, Operations, Teaching and Learning, Technology and Co-curricular and Athletics. The committee is breaking into small group aligned with these 6 areas of interest and responding to a set of questions for how we need to begin to plan.
The group as a whole shared that we need to be clear in communicating expectations to all groups – students, parents, and staff. The sense is that in providing clear and explicit expectations all of us will know the expectations related to work schedules, how grades and attendance will be calculated, and how much time will be dedicated to learning. In doing so, greater consistency will be achieved and more importantly the group see this as a way to ensure students can take full advantage of learning opportunities and staff and families support them in that effort.
The committee is slated to work off line for the next two weeks and reconvene on June 5 with small group work for each of the 6 areas identified.
Coaching Aspiring Leaders
Aspiring leaders who participated in the Berkeley County Schools’ Leadership Series provided feedback about their experiences as outlined in the following graph attached below
The aspiring leaders also provided feedback about their greatest take away, the least helpful moment, suggestions for the next aspiring leaders’ session, and final comments.
Regarding the greatest take away, one aspiring leader expressed: “The fact that this cohort was created shows me that Berkeley County wants to keep their educators and encourage them to stay and become leaders in the system. The Clifton Strengths was invaluable. It gave me a way to understand myself more and what jobs I would be best suited for. The whole program was informative and well-run.”
The following least helpful moment was stated by a different participant: “The levels and layers of leadership was great information, but I would have liked to know about the roles and descriptions expected. That would allow me to explore areas that I might be qualified to apply for in the future.”
“You might want to add a job shadowing element,” was a suggestion for the next aspiring leaders’ session.
One final comment was: “After the first Aspiring Leaders session, I left with a spring in my step. (I went grocery shopping afterward and couldn't even function because I was so excited.) I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the level of mutual respect and encouragement that has been shown by Dr. Murphy and Dr. Walker throughout these sessions. The fact that these sessions even continued in less than favorable circumstances speaks volumes. Please consider offering more leadership classes in the future.”
Thought for the Week
This week school principals have been meeting by region as described above to discuss their strategic plans for the coming school year. This year some of the areas that are prominent in our conversation have included, grade level transitions, articulating and connecting the curriculum from grade to grade and across levels (vertical alignment), establishing procedures through 90 day plans for monitoring progress and making adjustments and looking at quantitative and qualitative data to assess and determine progress and achieving goals. This year because of the limited standardized testing at the end of the school year there are currently limited sources of data and information leading into the coming school year. My encouragement and discussion with the principals and others in attendance was to begin to think about using multiple sources of data.
The collection of multiple sources of information in education is best exemplified by a teacher collecting evidence about student learning from different sources such as conversation(feedback), observation and product(e.g., projects, grades). The term that defines this process is called triangulation. The process for looking at student learning in this way offers several benefits for us to frame learning, define and demonstrate annual growth and progress and learn first-hand from the student about what and how they are learning.
If we rely on one source of data, a simple test score on a standardized test we have a very limited insight on what students know and how they learned. That score also only represents the questions that the test asked and not about other knowledge or information they learned. However, if we incorporate other sources of information and data into the picture we gain insight about student learning. Sources such as grades, formative assessments and survey information all of which can provide a more comprehensive picture of how learning is or is not happening. Finally, if we ask and expect students to communicate what they have learned we hold them accountable for their part in the whole learning process. Moving forward, this will become more important as the teaching and learning process is evolving through different ways of teaching online, remotely, and independently. By re-framing how we assess student learning, we will ultimately serve our students to increase the opportunities for them to be successful now and in their future.
PKM Calendar for upcoming week: May 25-29, 2020
Mon.May 25th
Memorial Day - all schools & offices closed
Tues., May 26th
Senior Staff
Routine Mtg
Wed., May 27th
Sr Staff Pandemic Mtg
Routine Mtgs
Service & Professional Reps
Thurs., May 28th
Video mtg
County Council Mtg
Fri., May 29th
Strategic Planning
Comms Meeting
Routine Mtgs
Meal Count to date - 204,300
Week of March 16: 10,266
March 23rd: 31,354
April 1st: 34,810
April 13th: 20,510
April 20th: 22,670
April 27th: 23,520
May 4th: 21,210
May 11th: 19,520
May 18th: 20,440
Please view the following attachments and Pat's Picks:
School Closure FAQ, 5/21/20
Aspiring Leaders Survey
Patrick K. Murphy, Ed.D., Superintendent
Email: patrick.murphy@k12.wv.us
Phone: 304-582-0880
Twitter: @PKMSupt