‘Mindset Masters’ panel schedules second session on education plan

As published in the Record Journal, Monday January 21, 2013
By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff
(203) 317-2235evo@record-journal.com
Twitter: @ericvoRJ

WALLINGFORD - A committee working on ways to improve the school system will hold its second meeting Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. in the Getz Auditorium at Choate Rosemary Hall.

At the Mindset Masters meeting, which is open to the public, the group will continue working on gaining community support for the school district’s initiative to achieve a 100 percent graduation rate. As part of the effort, the group wants the community to read “Mindset” by Carol Dweck. The book teaches readers to practice a “growth mindset,” the idea that abilities can be improved through hard work and persistence, rather than the belief that people are born with a fixed amount of talent and ability.

The Mindset Masters committee ismade up of teachers, students, religious leaders and town officials.

At the group’s first meeting, members came up with over 130 ideas and activities to promote a growth mindset. A smaller group has started working on 30 of the suggestions, said Patty Pursell, a physical education teacher at Pond Hill and member of the school system’s Innovation Team. The team suggested the 100 percent graduation rate project and is helping to oversee it.

Pursell said the committee is trying to increase public awareness to encourage people to attend a community discussion on March 21.

“Hopefully we’ll get a large group to talk about core values for the town and the district, so that decisions (in the future) will be based on those core values,” she said.

“What we found when we did our research was that schools that had a 100percent graduation rate had 100 percent community support,” said Kate O’Donnell, an information technology resource teacher and another member of the Innovation Team.

Pursell said committee is focusing on recruiting town officials because they are in a position to easily spread information. Though the Innovation Team is spreading the message via social media, Pursell said the best method has been word of mouth.

“But we’ve found the best time to get people interested in what we’re doing is when we’ve sat down and talked to them,” she said.

The Getz Auditorium is in Choate’s science center.

Menzo: Next phase is making teaching ‘authentic’

As published in the Record Journal, Monday January 21, 2013

By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff
(203) 317-2235
evo@record-journal.com
Twitter: @ericvoRJ

WALLINGFORD - As the school district heads into the fourth year of its strategic plan, School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said the district has made significant progress and is now focusing on changing the way students are taught.

“The big takeaway is that there has been significant growth in each area of the strategic plan,” Menzo said.

In the area of community outreach, Menzo said the biggest accomplishments are an email notification and automated phone announcement system, as well as the power school parent portal. The portal gives parents access to students’ grades and other data. In the area of technology, every middle school classroom now has a ceiling-mounted projector. Library computer programs have been replaced and each school has a computer lab. Building maintenance has also been a priority, with asbestos having been removed at eight schools.

Menzo also pointed to positive behavior support programs and anti bullying measures. The final area, curriculum and instruction, is the main focus.

“The most significant work in our strategic plan right now, which I’m proud to say and glad to say, is in the area of curriculum and instruction,” Menzo said.

The district is rewriting the entire curriculum to emphasize hands-on learning over traditional lecture based classes.

With the new curriculum, instead of simply putting down an answer to a math problem, students will have to show their work. Menzo said students will have to work more in groups and “demonstrate their knowledge, rather than simply regurgitate it.”

“It’s more explaining the work ... explaining your reasoning and thinking,” he said.

Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay said she believes in different styles of teaching because each student learns from different methods.

“It’s a very positive direction to move in,” McKay said. “The reality is, as human beings, people can learn in a variety of ways. Being more open minded to delivering information can only be a positive.”

A lot of the new curriculum has already started in the elementary and middle schools. A new way of teaching also means revising courses offered.

“We’re looking at a course catalog and saying, ‘OK, what courses do we really want to offer?’ A lot of our students know how to use Microsoft Word, so we’ve retired those courses and put in courses like web design for businesses,” Menzo said. “We tried to increase the rigor and increase the relevancy of what we’re teaching. We want to make it authentic.”

With a new method of learning and new courses, he hopes students will become more well-rounded individuals.

“They’ll have all the 21st century skills — they’ll be critical thinkers, problem solvers and good communicators,” he said.

Menzo’s high on low hike in sustained services budget

As published in the Record Journal Tuesday January 15, 2013

By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff

WALLINGFORD — School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo’s strategic budget proposal for the 2013-14 school year asks for $97,603,899, an 8.94 percent increase. A 2.54 percent increase in the sustained services budget is the lowest since he became superintendent in 2009.

“I can’t underscore enough that having the 2.54 percent increase in the sustained services budget is favorable,” Menzo told the Board of Education Monday night. Menzo is asking for $91,847,356 for the sustained services budget.

The sustained services budget represents the minimum required to maintain services at the previous year’s level. The strategic budget reflects the funding needed to act on the school system’s strategic plan.

Contractual obligations, such as personnel services and employee benefits, make up the main reasons for the increase in the sustained services budget.

Menzo recognized that he was still asking the board for an increase in his budget, but he said this year’s proposal was a celebration. For the 2010-11 school year, in order to keep schools running the same way as the previous year, a 9.94 percent increase in the sustained services budget was needed.

“This is the lowest percent of an increase I’ve proposed to the board since I’ve been here,” Menzo said.

Last year, the school board proposed a 3.91 percent increase to sustain services, but that was chopped to 3.2 percent by the mayor’s office.

Menzo credits his lowest proposal to a number of factors, including the reduction or reallocation of staff and energy efficiency measures.

His first as superintendent“we cut staff significantly,” he said. “Those positions were never coming back. The total number of staff is still reduced, but we have shifted how we use our (available) resources and moved forward at a greater pace.”

Due to a reallocation of five elementary school positions and other resources, 12 new items were included in the 2013-2014 sustained services budget: a K-5 humanities curriculum resource teacher; a human resource specialist; world language teachers for grades 3 to 5; part-time career center professionals for both high schools; two part-time career center secretaries; additional full-term equivalency clerks for each school; VoAg aqua culture teacher; VoAg food science teacher; department chairs for Health/Physical Education and Fine Arts at each high school; subject area coordinators for each middle school; part-time custodian at Lyman Hall VoAg Center and after school programming for both middle schools.

The Board of Education will meet this weekend for a budget workshop, where they will go through Menzo’s proposal line by line. School board member Chet Miller said the board hadn’t yet had time to digest the proposal.