Week One - a Success!

Our first week of school was a successful one! It began on Monday with a professional development day for teachers and paraprofessionals. A variety of activities were held to equip them for the new school year.

On Tuesday, we held our opening day convocation for all staff at Belchertown High School. We welcomed 18 new staff members, celebrated with 9 teachers who achieved Professional Teacher Status, and honored staff who have achieved longevity milestones: 9 employees with 10 years of service, 10 employees with 15 years of service, 12 employees with 20 years of service, 9 employees with 25 years of service, 3 employees with 30 years of service, and 2 employees with 35 years of service. The longevity of our staff is a tribute to the fact that the Belchertown Public Schools are a great place to work and learn! The theme of our opening day was "Know Thy Impact," which comes from a book our Leadership Team began studying this summer, Visible Learning for Teachers, by John Hattie. This book presents research on instructional practices and their impact on student learning. We discovered that the #1 impact on learning is students' own expectations of themselves. Our job as educators is to make learning visible to students by making our intentions clear, setting challenging expectations, and instilling confidence in students to achieve those expectations. Students make their learning visible to us when they achieve success in meeting those expectations, even if they have to work through errors to get there.

On Wednesday, the children arrived! Although our summer was jam-packed, it was great to see our schools full of students again. When I arrived at BHS for a check-in on how the day was going, Mrs. Vigneux, the principal, was meeting with the seniors. At the end of their session, they posed for a picture in their class t-shirts.

The Class of 2014 poses for their first official group "seniors" picture!

New administrators on board

We have hired two new administrators as part of our Leadership Team this year. Mr. Douglas Daponde joined the BHS staff as the new Dean of Students & Athletic Director. Mr. Daponde is a former high school teacher, coach, and assistant principal and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, which also includes military service, to our district. His first week was this past week and we are pleased to have him with us. Please be sure to stop and say hello if you should meet him in the hallways, on the field, or on the court.

Swift River Elementary School will welcome a new assistant principal next week, Ms. Eileen Farrington. Ms. Farrington comes to us from the Holyoke Public Schools and has a wealth of experience as a teacher, Education Team Leader, and teacher mentor. Ms. Farrington's experience is at the elementary level and we are looking forward to her sharing her knowledge and expertise with us. Take a moment to stop by SRE next week and extend a welcome to Ms. Farrington.

Adjustments to morning bus times

The first week of school always brings some adjustments to the run times of our buses, as we see how everything works with students on board. The following buses will be starting 5 minutes earlier, beginning on Tuesday, September 3rd: buses 1, 2, 14, 16, and 19. Bus 9 will start 5 minutes later, beginning Tuesday, September 3rd. These adjustments will ensure that our students will be on time for the start of their day. Thank you for your cooperation with First Student, our bus contractor.

New web site

Our web server crashed last weekend, causing our IT department to try and get a web site up and running from a backup copy - spending much of the weekend getting the job done. In the interim, they have put together a new web site on a new server, which just went live late today. Please take a moment to check it out at www.belchertownps.org. If you have any comments or suggestions, click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the main page and you will find a link to the webmaster's email on the page of contacts at the bottom.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this blog, please feel free to call me at 413.323.0423 or email me: superintendent@belchertown.org.

Enjoy the long weekend! Dr. Judith Houle, Superintendent of Schools

Another year is upon us!

The current flurry of activity in our schools these days is clear evidence that summer is on the wane and a new school year is upon us! I often get asked what we do during the summer in schools. Here's a brief summary of what we've been up to over the past two months.

We welcomed Paula Fitzgerald as our new principal at Chestnut Hill Community on July 1, 2013. Ms. Fitzgerald comes to us with a wealth of experience from both the Holyoke and Monson Public Schools and we are looking forward to what she brings to our district. New staff members have also been hired at each of our schools and we are looking forward to their becoming part of our Belchertown Public Schools family. A new teacher orientation session is scheduled for them on Friday, August 23rd.

There is a lot of activity in our school buildings as well in order to enhance the learning environment for our students. Our custodial staff has been working hard to make sure that all our buildings are in shape for the school year. It's always exciting to see that beginning of the year shine! Teachers, administrators, and other staff members have been working to prepare classrooms and other learning spaces for the students who will enter them next week.

We are also upgrading our security systems to ensure that our staff and students are as safe as possible. In addition to the building upgrades, a School Safety Task Force was established this summer with a variety of stakeholders to update our Emergency Operations Response Plan to reflect best practices in the prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery to a variety of potential emergency situations. We hope to have a draft of the new plan to the School Committee for approval in January, 2014.

Our technology staff has been hard at work upgrading systems and bringing in new equipment that teachers can use to enhance instruction across the district. Of particular note, the CHCS library has received a major upgrade, providing the means to facilitate the infusion of technology into the library as an information literacy hub for the school.

On the academic side, the School Committee approved the purchase of new K-8 mathematics texts last spring that will help us more effectively deliver the recently revised curriculum in this area. The new texts have arrived and teachers will receive their initial training on these materials during a professional development day on Monday, August 26th. New curriculum documents in the areas of visual arts, music, history and social sciences, and physical education have been approved and teachers will be using these to shape their daily lessons this year.

The Jessica's Boundless Playground Committee has also been hard at work this summer, along with Team Jessica, to come closer to the realization of a fully accessible playground for our community on the grounds next to Chestnut Hill Community School. Please plan to join us at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, August 21st, as a sign will be unveiled to mark the site of the new playground!

On Wednesday, August 28th, we will welcome back the students as we begin anew for the 2013-2014 school year! We look forward to the opportunities the new year will bring to us.

By the way - be on the lookout for our first PeaceBuilders project of the year - Pinwheels for Peace! More details will be coming shortly.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this blog post, please feel free to contact me at 413.323.0423 or by email at superintendent@belchertown.org.

Best regards, Dr. Judith Houle, Superintendent of Schools