• Pittsfield Elementary School (PES) REACH: Our Rigorous Expectations and Academic Challenges will begin in mid-October and provide daily opportunities for intervention and support for students who will benefit from additional literacy and math support as well as enriching opportunities to challenge students with strengths in these areas.
• PES Responsive Classroom: Several teachers received additional training this past summer; this year, we’re hoping to provide for stronger in-school leadership for this successful social skills program by arranging for two in-school coordinators.
• PES Schedule: Students will be dismissed daily at 2:30 p.m. (was 2:25 p.m.) to eliminate the after-school wait time for students taking second bus runs; we’ll now have just one bus run. Also, we’ll schedule an early release day each month and dismissing at 11:30 a.m. (was 12:15 p.m.) to allow for additional staff development and planning time needed for continued school development. (Kydstop, a program offered by our partner, the Concord YMCA, will be offering after-school care for early release days; information will be provided in the opening day packet coming home with students.)
• PES Science and Social Studies Blocks: Longer blocks of time will be provided for science and social studies learning to allow for additional hands-on projects and field work for upper grade students.

• PES Technology: Technology can provide for stronger engagement of students and deeper learning; increased opportunities infuse technology into our classes will be provided (Parents and community members are invited to learn more about this during our Technology Conference to be held at PES from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 26; please call the school at 435-8432 to register.).
• PES Writing: Longer blocks for student writing, an essential literacy skill and an area in which the need for improvement has been indicated by our state assessment results, will be provided to upper grade students.
• Pittsfield Middle High School (PMHS) Advisories: Student advisories will be refocused around three different program emphases, based on student needs in grades 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12; students will be assigned to advisories for two-year groupings to work with teachers within those grade level spans. Also, advisories will be shortened and moved to the middle of the day, back-to-back with lunch periods.
• PMHS College / Career Readiness: A new emphasis on post-secondary school planning will be developed over the next three years. Elements include job shadowing, college campus visits, and individual career / interest self-assessments for students.
• PMHS Course Competencies: A transition in the manner in which course credit is earned will occur over the next three years with an emphasis on student demonstration of specific course competencies rather than the traditional method that was based on seat time.
• PMHS Extended Learning Opportunities: Opportunities to earn credit outside of school will support student interests and learning in areas that can not be offered within our school. Students will be encouraged to learn by doing in out-of-school settings.
• PMHS Extended Learning Time: Plans are being developed to revamp our summer school, open our library during out-of-school hours, and add a late bus to allow for increased opportunities for academic support and participation in extra-curricular activities. We’re also planning to expand our extra-curricular offerings.
• PMHS Personal Learning Plans and Student-Led Conferences: Students will be setting their own goals through the development of personal learning plans. Students will also be taking responsibility for leading discussions when we transition from traditional parent/teacher conferences to student-led conferences.
• PMHS Project-Based Learning: Students will find our development of project-based learning to be more engaging than the traditional lecture method of instruction. Students will exercise a greater degree of choice as we make this shift over the next five years.
• PMHS Schedule: Our schedule moves to a seven-period day this year (was eight periods) and also includes a late-start on Wednesdays for high school (grades 9-12 students); the late start will provide essential staff development and planning time on a weekly basis. Middle school students (grades 7-8), reporting at the regular time on Wednesdays, will enjoy the benefit of academic support and enrichment during our Wednesday mornings. The schedule will not include any early release days for PMHS students.
• PMHS School Council: Our new school council will allow for greater student and parent voice in decision-making. Our student representatives have been elected, and we’re in the process of selecting our adult representatives. Students will hold a majority of seats in our new council.
• PMHS Student Leadership: Students will be engaged in identifying and addressing areas of needed improvement at PMHS. Students will be providing leadership for positive change in the climate and learning of our school.
• PMHS Teaming: Academic teams are now organized in three interdisciplinary groups: grades 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12. The teams will more closely monitor the progress of each student and be empowered to design interventions for support and enrichment when and where needed.
• District-Wide Bullying Prevention: We’ll be working with international bullying prevention expert Stan Davis over the next three years to eliminate bullying in our schools.
• District-Wide Instructional Strategy Development: We’ll be working with a major educational research and support organization - WestEd - to help us develop our instructional repertoire of effective teaching and learning strategies.

These exciting developments - and more - are being supported through our district budget and a number of grant programs, including a competitive technology grant of $120,000+ awarded to the district last year and a school improvement grant of $2,000,000+ awarded to PMHS to begin this year.

The 2010-2011 school year will be an exciting one for our students, our schools, and our community.  As always, the strong support of the Pittsfield community is an essential element in our work to continuously improve the education of our children and youth. 

 John J. Freeman, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools

TO THE NEXT MEETING OF THE

PITTSFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

6:30 p.m.

Pittsfield Middle High School Media Center

New officers of the Executive Board will be elected.

We would love to see you there.

Mr. Bickford currently serves as principal of Nute High School and Nute Middle School in Milton.  Previously, Mr. Bickford had served as assistant principal of Nute as well as assistant director and director of the River Valley Technical Center in Springfield, Vermont.

During his tenure at Nute, Mr. Bickford has provided leadership for the development of course competencies that serve as performance standards for each high school course.  In addition, he has been instrumental in expanding academic options for Nute students through the development of Extended Learning Opportunities that access community resources for learning.

Mr. Bickford’s secondary school teaching experience includes service at Fall Mountain Regional High School in Alstead; Alvirne High School in Hudson; Manchester School of Technology in Manchester; and Limestone High School in Limestone, Maine.  His teaching courses have included agri-science, animal science, agricultural mechanics, landscape, horticulture, and natural resources.

Mr. Bickford holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Mechanization from the University of Maine at Orono and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Keene State College in Keene.  Mr. Bickford also manages his small-scale family farm in New Durham.

The proposed 2010-2011 budget reflects a decrease of 3+%, or about $300,000, when compared with the current 2009-2010 budget (which was decreased by 1.7% compared with the 2008-2009 budget).  The proposed 2010-2011 operating budget - $9,538,404 - reflects a zero tax impact for Pittsfield taxpayers, without warrant articles.  

Most warrant articles also reflect a zero tax impact for Pittsfield taxpayers.  Proposed warrant articles address the food service program, federal grant programs, the teacher collective bargaining agreement, replacement of the PMHS gym roof, and the reserve fund for costs associated with educating disabled children.

To achieve an operating budget with no local tax impact, the board’s proposed budget has had to accommodate increased costs in a number of key areas, including contributions to the New Hampshire Retirement System (+5%) and health insurance costs (+18.9%).  The impact of these increases was heightened by the estimated reduction of funds from non-tax sources by nearly $150,000. 

The proposed budget also reflects reductions in allocations for books, supplies, and equipment, as well as the elimination of 10+ staff positions, effecting reductions in the teaching, administration, guidance, and the support staff.  The impact of such a reduction will mean larger class sizes and fewer options for high school students.    

Importantly, the district is embarking on a major initiative to redesign the instructional program of our middle high school.  This multi-year project aims to increase student engagement and student achievement.  The proposed 2010-2011 budget includes increased funding for Improvement of Instruction at PMHS, which will be used primarily for the purchase of consultant services to advise on this project.  The district is also hopeful about supplementing the district budget with grant funding for this exciting and important initiative.

Once again, revenues from federal, state, and other non-tax sources will provide funding for more than half of this budget; this includes funding through the state’s Adequacy Grant and Catastrophic Aid, which supports special education placements, among others. 

In addition, entitlement and competitive grants are providing another $941,000 to support Pittsfield’s students in the current year; these grant sources include more than $312,000 in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA/Stimulus).  As always, the district has been aggressive in seeking and winning competitive grants to support the education of Pittsfield’s children and youth.

- National Conference of State Legislatures 

It’s not hard to see that that our high schools need some attention. 

Disappointing test results in international comparisons of reading, math, and scientific literacy; a dropout crisis with estimates of 7,000 young people dropping out of school per day in our nation; college professors reporting that students are not able to adequately able to comprehend complex reading material; low voter turnout; employers telling us that newly-hired employees tend to lack in written communication skills, leadership, and work ethic; no, it’s not hard to see that our high schools need some attention.

Despite dramatic changes in the world outside the walls of our schools, inside the walls of today’s typical high schools, we’d find that things look a good deal like the high schools that you and I attended, whether it was five, ten, fifteen… or even fifty or sixty years ago. 

If you visited today’s typical high school, you’d find the day divided into seven or eight periods with each period devoted to the same single, unconnected subjects that have been in place for over a hundred years.  After school, you’d see just about the same teams and clubs that you could have seen in the 1930’s.  School would be in session for about the same length of time per day and for about the same number of days per year.

Sure, there have been attempts to update things a bit.  When Sputnik was launched in 1957, our federal government called for stronger math and science programs in the interest of national security.  When President Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its report A Nation at Risk in 1983, the Commission called for higher standards, a longer school day, a longer school year, and more technology in the schools, among other reforms.

But it still seemed that the more things changed outside of school, the more things remained the same inside.

Fortunately for our students and our society, we’re finally seeing some initiative for real change in our high schools.  Our regional accreditation agency, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, is expecting students to leave high schools armed with 21^st Century Skills; our New Hampshire Department of Education is providing leadership for redesigning high schools to support the acquisition of real-world competencies; and high-powered, national collaboratives like the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills has identified topics such as global awareness, health literacy, critical thinking and problem solving, flexibility and adaptability as new basics for our high school graduates.

This is good news for our Pittsfield students.  And it’s good news for our community and our society at large.

During the winter and spring of 2009, our school district hosted a number of open community forums that began a community conversation about what our schools should look like and what we should expect our graduates to know and be able to do when they receive their diplomas.  Building on this foundation, a group of students, community members, and educators convened in November 2009 to begin to create a vision of a Pittsfield Middle High School that would better serve our students.  And over the years ahead, this vision will serve as inspirational guidance as we redesign Pittsfield Middle High School.

What are the essential elements of this vision?  What changes can we expect with our redesign?

• Curriculum: identified core curriculum of essential learning; specific graduation requirements in terms of what graduates will know and will be able to do; senior projects; development of skills needed for success in career, college, and citizenship.
• Methodology: project-based learning; options for demonstrating course competencies; inquiry-based instruction, driven by questions and relevance; personal learning plans developed by each student; close collaboration and mutual support between regular education and special education teachers and staff; strong relationships with families and student-led student/parent/teacher conferences; development of extended learning opportunities that will enable our students to take advantage of learning in our greater community.
•  Organization: the development of a site council to open up decision-making to students, community, and staff; flexible scheduling of the school day; dedicated time within each week for professional staff development and team planning / monitoring of student progress.

• Student/Teacher Relationship: higher expectations; commitment to the learning of each student; advisories organized to address a broader variety of relevant student needs; teachers in roles of coaches supporting student learning.

Certainly, technology will play an important role as we achieve our vision.  How could it not?  Already, observers are calling the current generation of youth the Net Generation.  It should come as no surprise that our Net Generation is behaving a bit differently from earlier generations.  Today’s Net Generation is accustomed to instant gratification and connections, uses the web regularly for multiple purposes including learning and self-expression, is nearly constantly connected to others, and views multi-tasking as a way of life.

Fortunately, observers also tell us that our Net Gen-ers have not lost the sense of altruism and idealism that have long been a positive characteristic of adolescents and young adults.  Net Gen-ers want to make a difference in the world and want to do interesting and worthwhile work.  We have every reason to be optimistic about today’s young people; we just need to change our ways to give them the education that they will need and that they deserve.

This exciting transformation will take time, time measured in years and not marking periods.  And we’re fortunate to have a few important factors in our favor.

One of these assets if our size.  In the past, large schools with plenty of options for students have been seen to be the ideal.  More recently, however, small schools, with strong relationships among students and staff, flexibility to make quick changes in response to student needs and changing conditions, and willingness to access resources outside of school have been viewed as a preferable model.  Many formerly large schools have been divided into smaller units and organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been strong supporters of the movement to scale down the size of our high schools.

Another asset is the availability of successful models.  Many small alternative schools and charter schools have emerged over the last twenty-five years.  In fact, members of our visioning team have been inspired by visits to several such schools in Massachusetts and New York.  In our visits, we found engaged, excited learners taking charge of their own learning, and we found outcomes in terms of class discussions and student work that more closely resembled college-quality than that produced by typical high school students.

And a third asset is the support and energy for this process displayed not only by our faculty and staff but also by many Pittsfield citizens who have learned about our plans for the new direction for our schools.  This support is greatly appreciated and is essential to our success.

Yes, I stand with those who believe that our schools, particularly our high schools, need to do a better job in preparing our young people for success in careers, college, and citizenship.  I’m also very excited to be a part of this vital transformation of our own schools here in Pittsfield.

Respectfully,

John J. Freeman, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools