Stone Soup

Many of you may be familiar with the story, Stone Soup, where a stranger comes to a village and succeeds, with a little help from everyone, to make a delicious soup which he starts with a stone. It is an apt analogy for our Extreme Makeover Day which was a positive event on a variety of levels. Throughout the day, items such as plants, mulch and machinery from families, crushed stone and paint from local businesses, even a chipper from the highway department appeared to support the efforts of over 1,000 students and adults who worked to refurbish South Kingstown High School.
Gary Brierty of Narragansett Rubbish Removal, who donated dumpsters that would have cost over $900, told us that he hauled away nine tons of trash! Sheds were emptied, re-organized and painted, beds were weeded and mulched, rooms were painted and much of the school was scrubbed.
I told the students Wednesday morning that while there is a referendum which is the talk of the town scheduled for June 9th, in many ways the Extreme Makeover day was a referendum on their growth, maturity and school pride as students at SKHS. And they responded. We had over a 90% attendance rate (it usually runs around 95%) and only 17 tardies – much lower than most days. All but 19 out of 300 seniors arrived on time. It was truly an impressive effort.
In de-briefing with the students afterwards, we know there are some organizational issues we need to address; there is some talk of expanding the day beyond the high school and its surrounding environs to local families and/or businesses who could use some help. Based on the overall comments from teachers, students and parents, this will not be a one-time event but something we can build on for the future.
One local official told me an individual had questioned whether the event was appropriate because it was difficult to directly link it to student achievement. If our main goal is truly to prepare students to function in a participatory democracy, then perhaps we need to think of such events as ones that reinforce the concept that working together, we can accomplish great things: as a school, a community, a nation. Extreme Makeover may not improve our math scores but it does remind us that ultimately, schools are inhabited by people who are more than student achievement numbers.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have comments or suggestions.

Extreme Makeover

Last night, I attended the South Kingstown Partnership for Prevention’s (SKPP) Outstanding Youth Award event, which celebrated the community service efforts of South Kingstown students. As I was leaving, I congratulated Eileen Stone, one of the directors of SKPP, on the success of the event and she said to me, “I want to see more events like this. There is plenty to celebrate!” I would agree.

This coming Thursday, an event similar in spirit will take place at SKHS. The brainchild of a few inspired faculty members, the entire school will be utilizing Thursday, May 28th (weather permitting) for an entirely different learning experience, spending the majority of the day cleaning the school and the surrounding neighborhood. Students and staff, organized by advisory, will have specific areas to attack. For instance, my advisory is in charge of the center stairwell, the front parking lot, and re-painting the courtyard benches (partnering with a few other advisories). For a detailed version of the scope of the endeavor, you can click on http://www.honorsir.net/HIR/THE_CLEAN_TEAM/THE_CLEAN_TEAM.html

There are inherent risks to such a noble idea: some students may see this as a “free day” where they don’t have to come to school. Others may come for a few hours and then leave. Some may not take the work seriously. But I think the rewards are worth the risk. Over the past four years, I think we’ve seen a change in students’ attitudes about their learning and about SKHS as an institution. There is quantitative (the reduced number of physical altercations) and qualitative (students picking up after themselves in the cafeteria) data to support this. I often hear from faculty members about a time when SKHS was considered the top high school in the state and there was tremendous pride within the student body. I think Thursday will serve as a litmus test regarding the pride that students take in our school and their level of maturity.

I have told the faculty to take this day as seriously as they would any other day; we will be communicating that message to students as well. I hope that parents, who will hear more about the day via phone calls and the listserv, will do the same. This event has the potential to be an incredibly positive event that drives home the message that community is not something we just talk about but something we actively value. What better lesson is there we can teach?

High Expectations and support

One of the tensions we often struggle with in public schools is how high expectations can be interwoven with systems for student support. The state has embarked on the somewhat hypocritical path of ratcheting up expectations for all students (a good thing) but eliminating study halls which for most schools, is a time when students could receive extra support or even dare we allow it, a breather.

This question of rigor and recognizing that kids like adults need additional support and timely breaks is a constant tension that manifests itself in schools. Our recent decision to set as policy that only long-term projects can be assigned during extended vacation is one way we have attempted to set some parameters around school life and family life.

Teachers are constantly caught in this bind between for lack of a better term, rigor and reality. For instance, some teachers have to struggle with a policy that forbids them to assign extra reading over a break with the demands of an AP curriculum which expects that a tremendous amount of material needs to be covered. Teachers want to provide more time for students to understand material but know that they must cover certain concepts in a timely manner if students are to get adequate exposure before taking state tests in their junior year.

There are no easy answers to this conundrum; much of what this space will be dedicated to is detailing how we are trying to provide those systems of support (for teachers and students) so that rigor across the curriculum can be achieved in a manner that does not lead to teacher or student burnout . Can we support kids and provide teachers the opportunity to explore certain concepts in depth, and at a clip which is fast-paced but not overwhelming? What trade-offs are we willing to make? More student support time means less time for direct instruction. There are no clear-cut, easy solutions.

Hidden victories

Over the April break, I noticed that the boy’s tennis team had a match vs. Barrington scheduled to begin at 11:00. Since I do not do a good enough job of leaving the office and enjoying our kids participating in co-curricular activities, I saw this as an opportunity to see our juggernaut tennis team in action (they won convincingly). When I was there, I fell into conversation with a few seniors - who were there to support their friends - and we started talking about the boys’ volleyball game vs. North Kingstown the previous night. It was described by all of them as an amazing back and forth match, where our boys fed off of the emotion of the crowd during the fifth and deciding game to defeat NK. Those moments, like the girls’ basketball team’s comeback victory over LaSalle this winter, are the memories that for many will serve as indelible high school memories.

High schools are filled with those moments of personal and group triumph that can be as special for those who witnessed the event as for those who participated directly. There are a variety of ways that SKHS students and staff create those opportunities of accomplishment: it might be through painting a door to a classroom, or revising a paper so that it becomes an “A” paper or figuring out a difficult formula. While we try to celebrate those accomplishments, we often overlook or forget to celebrate them. How many community members know about our state championship gymnastics squad or the performance of our band at local festivals or the students who picked up the back parking lot a few weekends ago?

It’s important to remember that while the “news” we often read about connects to issues around budget, conflict and accusation, there is plenty to celebrate regarding the personal and group triumphs of young men and women in and out of the classroom.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome to the SKHS Principal's blog

When I was reviewing our revamped website with our Multi-media/AV tech guru, Diane Kroll, she pointed out that there was a place on the website for postings from the principal. It reminded me that I have been toying with the idea of blogging about SKHS for quite some time. While my admitted bias towards blogs has been circumspect given the plethora of Seinfeldian (blogs about nothing) blogs out there, I have grown more appreciative of their use in schools as I have observed the benefits of blogging from teachers like Kimball, J. Johnson, Buxton and Matteson. I do see it as a vehicle for providing some context to how we make decisions at SKHS, as well as describing some of the wonderful stories that occur here on a daily basis which rarely get shared to a wider audience than those who are directly impacted. While I still have some concerns, I do view my conversation with Diane as a signal that I need to discipline myself to post something once a week and take it from there. I hope you find the subject matters of interest and my writing at least tolerable. In generating topics this morning, I quickly brainstormed a list varying from the boys’ volleyball team’s thrilling victory over NK a few weeks ago to ninth grade transition programs to explaining what happens on Wednesday mornings during Common Planning Time. The topics are endless; I hope I pick some that resonate with you.