Each week, the Abington News is asking the three candidates for the School Committee a question to help voters better understand them as candidates. Election Day is Saturday, April 29.
Candidate responses are published as submitted, in the order they were received, and were not edited.
This week’s question: Abington schools overall measure up well academically when compared to other communities, but there’s always room for improvement. What areas do you feel the School Committee and school administrators should focus on?
In case you missed it, here is the Question from Week 1.
MELANIE WHITNEY
Abington schools have continued to improve and offer a great education for our students. From personal experience, the K-5 experience met my academic expectations, but there is always opportunity for improvement. First off, I acknowledge that improvements may cost money. Our School Committee has the responsibility to balance wants, needs and fiscal responsibility. Our town budget includes more than just the schools so we have to work collaboratively with all departments to provide the best value to our taxpayers. That being said, if I earn a seat on School Committee, I’d like to explore funding opportunities to offset enhancements like grants, private funding, volunteer resources, etc.
At the K-4 levels, I’d like to see smaller class sizes to enable students to have more educator interaction on a regular basis. At this level, the academic success of students is dependent on the educator’s ability to reach all students at all levels. With class sizes above 25 at Woodsdale and students’ academic experience widely varied, it can be challenging for all students to progress academically. We have augmented learning with interventionists and tutors which is helpful to students. I am curious if there are ways to provide intervention in the classroom. I wonder if students would achieve differently in the “push in” vs. “pull out” interventions. I am not an educator, so I would rely on our professionals to help us understand the best approach, but feel smaller class sizes would be the first step in providing greater service to all students.
I would also like to see “reach” projects for students who want more challenge. Students who find school boring at this age may need a side project to stay connected. This could be challenging for teachers to manage, so I wonder if there are ways to engage our older students and/or college students to develop projects with students. Could we give all interested third grade students an assignment to research the history of postage stamps? Could the fourth graders design a greenhouse out of recycled materials? Could we have a math logic problem of the week that students could do optionally? In this age demographic, academic curiosity is crucial, and these small projects could keep students excited about education.
At middle school, I enjoy seeing the addition of STEAM. I would like to see language starting in the 5th grade. I have heard an interest from the community for hands-on learning of trades as well. I’d like to brainstorm with our community of ways to introduce trades to our students without the infrastructure of a wood/metal lab, cooking facility, etc. I wonder if there are ways to use our kitchen to learn more about food. I wonder if there are ways we can utilize our beautiful auditorium to learn more about lighting and sound. I wonder if there are grants that could provide table top exercises for our students to learn more about engineering, plumbing and construction. I acknowledge that these exercises take away from the classroom time spent on core subjects, however I believe there are ways to combine the lessons (fractions with construction and cooking, science with lighting/sound, etc.) so our students have an understanding of how their curriculum relates to life after graduation.
At the high school level, I rely on what I hear from our community and educators at their departmental presentations. There are many electives that the department heads are eager to provide. From creative writing and film study to computer science and current events, I’d like to see an opportunity for students to tailor their high school education to their interests. I would like to see a financial literacy requirement for graduation and additional languages offered besides Spanish. I support and hope we continue to enhance our thematic learning and flexibility for students to show their understanding of topics through various forms. Students will succeed when they are able showcase their strengths while developing their confidence in other areas. School is an opportunity for students to try new things and learn about themselves. By offering a variety of formats and educational paths, Abington can foster engagement and student achievement.
There is no shortage of improvement ideas from our community and educators. The role of our School Committee is to listen to the needs/themes and find ways to support these improvements while balancing taxpayer funding. If you have additional ideas, I welcome the opportunity to hear from you. Please email me at melaniewhitney3@gmail.com or reach out via Facebook (Melanie Whitney for School Committee).
CHRIS COYLE
I want to start by acknowledging that our curriculum has shown continued growth over the last several years. The addition of the department heads presenting on curriculum at school committee meetings has provided insight to committee members, parents and the community on all of the hard work staff does and will continue to do to keep curriculum moving in the right direction.
An area of focus of mine, and something that I’ve been pushing for behind the scenes with central and school administrators, is the need to focus on improving the transition plans in place for students as they progress on their academic journey throughout the Abington Public Schools.
I find it very important that there is significant time dedicated to allow teachers and support staff of an incoming student, or group of students, to learn from prior educators and staff. I know that there are conversations that take place regarding classroom placement each year, but these need to go beyond that, and I feel that it’s not something that can end when the new school year starts. Teachers should always be encouraged to reach out to their colleagues to discuss and learn strategies that may have worked best for a former student or group of students. I feel this is something that is crucial for all students, but especially students who have difficulties due to different learning needs or students that may need extra social emotional support.
While each year is an important transition for our students, in my opinion there are some that provide their own sense of significant challenges when compared to the prior year. One of these is the transition from Grade 4 to Grade 5. While the children are moving from Woodsdale to Middle School, it’s important to keep in mind that they are still just elementary school students, and they need to be treated as such. The other significant transition that occurs is the promotion from Grade 6 to Grade 7. It’s during this transition where students are going from elementary to secondary, changing from being with one or two teachers for their core academics to four or five. I realize that the structure of our buildings changed when the new AMS/AHS was opened in 2017-2018, but we need to keep in mind that the makeup of our students doesn’t change just because the building where they are being taught does.
The topic of student grade-level transition is an area I know we can continue to improve on. I’ve brought this topic up for a few years now and I will continue to ask questions and discuss the progress with administrators throughout my term as a member of the School Committee. Work within the district is ongoing to provide better support for transition. This was started pre-pandemic, and like everything, had to be put on standby as we all navigated that timeframe. I’m thrilled that this work is now part of our professional development schedules, as teachers focused on this during the PD held on March 7. I will continue to discuss building and grade level transition with administrators to see what is working and what isn’t. We need to make sure our students, staff and families are fully supported for smooth transitions across the district.
This work is very important to me and I will continue the important discussions if elected to another term.
You must be logged in to post a comment.