Dear All,

I too am a Thomson parent. I concur that there was little or no communication around what AYPs are, what they mean, and how they affect students and their families. Thank you, Sandy for providing the link.

While I share many of the same feelings of frustration, I think it's time to turn our energies toward more positive and constructive outcomes.

What ought to be done today, and what are each of US willing to commit to, in time and effort?

I've been involved at various levels, and have spoken with many people, mainly focused on the education side of things. In short, it often appears to be the few that carry the many, and the difficulty lies in motivating enough people to achieve a critical mass that overcomes the negative perspectives and bad histories, resulting in more meaningful results.

What's required and currently lacking, IMHO, are the following:

1. Greater involvement from a larger number of concerned NA citizens, willing and able to address complex problems and present "best case" solutions. This is often very difficult and sometimes not possible.

2. Better communications between our boards, elected officials, and the general public. Would an SC member or BOS member maintain a BLOG detailing decisions made, and rationale, etc.?

3. Longer term perspectives and planning, meaning application of our own lessons learned. This will also address accountability.

4. Constructive feedback. If a person isn't part of the solution...

The topic at hand, Thomson status, is only one symptom of the larger issues enumerated above. I am doing my part, and I invite the reader to do the same, if not already doing so.

When is the next SC meeting? I couldn't find it on the calendar. Can we request the SC to send out a "what if" scenario letter at this point in time? Is it OK to do this?

Thanks,
StoneCutter

I tried to find the SC meeting schedule on the NAPS site but the entire site is down [and has been for the last couple of days at least]. http://www.northandoverpublicschools.com/schoolcommittee/index.php

I also can't find it on the town site. http://www.townofnorthandover.com/Pages/NAndoverMA_BComm/schoolcomm

I guess we're all supposed to be away on vacation.

Hmmm I can get to http://www.northandoverpublicschools.com... maybe there is an issue with a service provider locally (Comcast?) for name resolution. Someone else mentioned having a problem to me relating to this site this morning.

The link to the School Committee Schedule is found at http://www.northandoverpublicschools.com/school-committee-meetings.html but there are no meeting publicized after June 19th on it.

FYI... PotentiallyHonestAnswer... I'm not sure why '_' get thrown in to things on this forum. Some bug. I'm looking to upgrade the forum technology shortly to a newer version to hopefully resolve the issue. I agree it is annoying.

PHA,

I agree that not being able to find information can be a little bit frustrating, or irritating. But I don't think I need to say that comments like this do not help "I guess we're all supposed to be away on vacation. "

Do you know what I mean?
I'm guilty of this at times too.
But come on.... play nice. Please?

Thanks for your consideration,
StoneCutter

StoneCutter,

I deference to your request I have chanted 'Kumbaya' three times. Do you feel better? (After all, that's all that counts.)

Being 'nice' and 'understanding' and 'meaning well' have resulted in a school system that:

1. Has a school on the brink of being notified it failed to make AYP two years in a row.

2. Can not keep a principal at Thomson for any length of time.

3. A school committee that can not hire a permanent Superintendent.

4. The last Superintendent that was hired was ethically challenged (at best) or criminal (at worst).

These are facts. Unpleasant but true. Circling the wagons and demanding 'we all play nice' won't change that.

Get upset that don't have a clue from the school system about the 'plan' for mitigating AYP at Thomson.

Accepting excuses for failure just guarantees more failure in the future.

PHA,

Using saracasm is your right and I respect that. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

You seem interested, somewhat knowledgeable, as well as concerned. It also appears to me that you also have some time. Perhaps you can provide some constructive approaches to the concerns you've raised?

I am not looking to avoid confrontation, nor ignore real issues. It is not about me feeling better. My point is, you may be able to help make the situation better, if you want to. Do you?

-StoneCutter

IMHO, I don't think PHA has the time or the "power" to make the situation much better or worse.

We elected our School Committee and we've had our Town Meeting. Now we have to play the season with the team we assembled. We hired the School Committee (for better or worse) and, for the most part, we have to watch them do their jobs from a distance - with the occasional sarcasm thrown in.

Best wishes,
ahbgone

Stonecutter,

Thank you for validating my rhetorical rights. However, this is not about me.

These school system problems exist.

I suggest (again) that the community not accept excuses, not accept no communication from the school system, not just hope the issues go away.

Waiting a couple of years for 'things to work out' is the easiest (and most likely) approach but it has also given us the AYP situation at Thomson.

The school system needs to adopt real standards (not just talk about having standards someday). This includes adopting more stringent curricula. Our school committees have 'kicked the can' on standards for years.

The MCAS is just a snapshot in time of particular groups (grades) of kids. The information it feeds back to the community must already be well known by the teachers who routinely give and grade the tests, papers, etc. of the children.

The reason MCAS exists is because school systems failed to give objective measurement of the children and convey accurate information to parents and the public. MCAS is a system-independent method for the public to get this information in a trustworthy way.

These MCAS results hopefully will prod the community to not conduct school affairs in the same way as we have for the last ten years. Per NCLB all grades must be 100% proficient by 2014 and progress must be made toward this goal each year. This requirement will bite harder
every year and the later proficiency improvements will be much harder to meet. If we don't change, MCAS AYP failure will spread across all the schools and will be nearly impossible to avoid.

"IMHO, I don't think PHA has the time or the "power" to make the situation much better or worse."
I leave it up to PHA to define how much time and/or effort he has. I thank you for your perspective.

My point is exactly this: You, me, PHA, and others CAN make a difference, if you are willing to sacrafice some time, money and energy to do so. Yes, others are directly responsibile, and WE are in-directly responsible.

So I ask again: What are you specifically willing and able to do to address some of the concerns raised?

PHA, do you have an educational background or experience setting school system wide standards? Have you spoken with Dr. Hutchinson? I think he has some role in this area, but could be wrong.

This is OUR problem, that WE solve together. What are YOU going to do?

-StoneCutter

Here's an three examples -

I kind of like the idea that if a student who isn't deemed proficient on an MCAS test (or some similar academic test) to repeat a grade until they become proficient.

I also think a large amount of our problems are due to state mandates and regulations.

I could volunteer to tutor Thomson students.

I don't think I can do much to have more students repeat grades. I also don't think I can do much that's practical to reduce state regulations because most voters seem to like the state regulations.

Rather than tutor the Thomson students, I choose to concentrate on tutoring my own family.

Instead of asking anyone who thinks they've discovered a problem and possibly a solution to a problem what they can do the help, I suggest that the town or the schools or StoneCutter describe what help they need and ask for volunteers to meet that need.

Best wishes,
ahbgone

Ahbgone,

Wow! I love it! Next school year, Gregg Gilligan is the interim principal for Thomson. You can contact him, or members of the PTO. You can find their contact info here: http://www.thomsonelementary.com/pto.html

Thank you so much! I am encouraged.
StoneCutter

Why doesn't North Andover allocate $35M a year so we can hire professional school management, dozens of teaching staff, purchase the latest curricula, and annually test students to confirm the teaching is effective.

We could also elect a supervisory committee of citizens to ensure only the highest outcomes are acceptable.

That should work!

OK. Where and how do we acquire $35M/year ?

I think a catchy name is 'property taxes.'

StoneCutter,

In my opinion you are wasting your time in attempting to converse sensibly and logically with PHA. He has proven to be nothing more then an agitator (" one that agitates: as a: one who stirs up public feeling on controversial issues " source Webster) with an anti-public school/Property tax agenda. I base this on his many bombastic posts on this site over the past months.

Regards,

Bill Kelly