SK Nominees for Teacher of the Year

South Kingstown is embarking on a selection of its Teacher of the Year and is beginning with identifying our nominees. Our schools are full of high quality teachers and we are glad to take this opportunity to recognize their excellence through the selection of a representative. It would be impossible to choose one best teacher and that is not the purpose. The purpose is to choose one teacher who represents the excellent teaching in the district. The selected delegate will be chosen by a group of teachers and administrators and celebrated in September.

According to the national selection criteria, the candidate should

! Be an exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable, and skilled teacher;

! Inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn;

! Have the respect and admiration of students, parents, and colleagues;

! Play an active and useful role in the community as well as in the school; and

! Be poised, articulate, and possess the energy to withstand a taxing schedule.

Congratulations and thanks to our South Kingstown Teacher of the Year nominees:

Gary Bryson Barbara Canfield

Denise Colombino Breta Combs

Jeanne Congdon Esther Eberly

Elizabeth Ferguson Anne Hathaway

Deborah Hopkins Nancy Lenoce-Walsh

Kimberly Mather Carol Reppucci

Nicole Russell Donna Santaniello

Dawn Sauro Roberta Sherman

Elyse Scherza Sharon Schmid

Kristina Shumate Danielle Speights

Julie Turcotte Janice Webb

Robin Wildman Sarah Wojciechowski

South Kingstown expects approval to receive a guest Chinese teacher in 2007-2008. The teacher will work in the local schools to introduce students, faculty, and the community to Chinese culture and support curriculum development for the inclusion of a Chinese language program. Earlier this year a Chinese cultural delegation came to South Kingstown, made an evening community presentation that was broadcast on local cable television, and spent the following day doing demonstration lessons in our middle schools.

Our specific plan is for the guest teacher to serve as part of our grade 6 world cultures program in both middle schools, work with the high school social studies department to develop an Eastern Civilization course, and establish curriculum and develop student interest in a Chinese language program to begin in succeeding years. The guest teacher cannot replace a district teacher and must be supplemental to our own staff. The cost to the district is to support the visa for the guest teacher and provision of housing and transportation (see below).

Host Family Sought for Chinese Guest Teacher

Would you benefit from a year of cultural learning? Would you like to enrich your family with a guest from halfway around the world? Is performing community service important to you? Is there an available room in your house?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then consider applying to host South Kingstown’s Chinese guest teacher for the 2007-2008 school year. The host family will provide room and board and assist in transportation for our guest from China. CARES has volunteered to coordinate the selection of a host family. If interested, please contact CARES at 360-1304. Don’t miss the opportunity of a lifetime!

School Department Phones

Over the past few years the school department has been upgrading its phone system in order to add lines, additional phones, and voicemail within schools. That entailed moving to an internet based phone system that expanded capacity, provided room for future growth, and reduced costs.

So far, South Kingstown High School, Hazard, Curtis Corner, West Kingston, Matunuck, and Wakefield are upgraded and Peace Dale will be done this summer. Broad Rock, which has the district’s newest phone system, will have voice mail added. The new PDES number will be announced as soon as it is confirmed with Verizon.

We also know from your calls that phone books have not always kept up with the new numbers. The updated phone numbers are on our web site (skschools.net) in the Contact Us section. Main numbers are below:

SKHS 360-1000

CCMS 360-1333

BRMS 782-6223

PDES (now) 792-9648

WKES 360-1130

MES 360-1234

WES 360-1400

Hazard 360-1200

ITA 284-1559

Administration 360-1300

Maintenance 360-1120

Middle Schools to Form Three Grade 7-8 Teams, Discuss Looping in the Fall

Over the past two years the schools have been working on how to handle the declining enrollment in the middle schools. In a community discussion last year that reviewed numerous options, it was decided to keep two parallel middle schools. Additionally, it was originally planned to make the change in both schools in 2008-2009, but budget constraints forced a consolidation at Broad Rock in September with Curtis Corner following as scheduled. Broad Rock was able to consolidate sooner since it has fewer students.

That decision required reducing from a total of four teams to three teams in seventh and eighth grade. But, how to organize two grades into three teams? Two grades easily divided into four teams (two teams per grade), but not three. Such an organization requires “split teams,” teams that have sections of each grade, for example two sections each of seventh and eighth grade. This mixes students on teams, but not in classes. To aid in the decision, teams of teachers and administrators were sent to visit Rhode Island schools that have split teams. They reported back their findings which were reviewed in the schools and presented to the School Committee.

The selected organization is to have all three teams consist of both seventh and eighth graders. This is driven primarily by the principal of having a common, equitable education experience. It was noticed in the visits that where there was one split team and others not, it was often seen as somehow not equal to other teams for both students and faculty. In schools where all teams were split, this was not an issue. Since there is no research basis for one structure being superior or inferior for student achievement, then our principal of equity is best served in this way.

Having three split teams places clearly on the table the question of looping. It is a structure that easily lends itself to having seventh graders stay on the same team as a cohort for eighth grade. Rather than rush this question, however, we will take the opportunity to have a school wide discussion in the fall. In that way, faculty, administration, parents, and students can participate in the discussion and the decision can be made then.

The decline in population also affects unified arts, since fewer are needed. Technical education will be dropped, leaving Music (band, orchestra and chorus), Family and Consumer Science, Computers, Health, Physical Education, Art, and Reading available to students. Technical Education was chosen since we have two technical areas (with computer) and the computer program is not only a required graduation proficiency in and of itself, but will serve as an introduction to digital portfolios, required at the high school. Please look forward to participating in the looping discussion next year.

Recommended School Breakfast Pilot

You may have recently read in the newspapers that the School Committee will discuss the superintendent’s recommendation to establish a pilot universal free breakfast program in the middle schools at its June 26 meeting. The rationale behind the recommendation is addressing at minimal to no cost the connection between students coming to school without breakfast and those not achieving to standards. The entire report presented to the School Committee is available at the district web site, skschools.net.