leadership in high schools

Four administrators from Erie 2 BOCES representing the Alternative Education programs, visited Niagara Academy a program within the Oleans-Niagara BOCES.  Three years ago, the Superintendent there, Dr. Clark Godshall, serving as an interim superintendent for Erie 2 had invited me to visit this school facility.  The invitation got shelved somehow.  Connections made at High Schools New Face, 2008 led to my speaking to team members from Niagara Academy ( SSzortec, Muio, Goldman) and getting another invitation to visit this time with a team of educators. 

I am still reeling from the truly positive energy that vibrates through this 250 plus student population comprised of middle and high school students.  The positive energy is apparent both amongst the staff and students.  We started our morning being welcomed by the Principal Sushma  Szortec who gave us an over-view of what our day could look like bases on our interests.  

Highlights of our visit:

•  A historical lesson in leadership and service by the Principal.  Mission and Vision
•  A meeting with 2 counselors explaining their in-depth work with students utilizing a caseload of 25 students and dealing with every aspect of the student’s life.  Every student is assigned a counselor irrespective of whether counselling is a mandated service or not.  Students and can request a change of counselors if the relationship is deemed by poor, ineffective or “going no where” by student. 
•  A meeting with 2 members of the Graduation Committee, classroom teachers,  who laise with school district guidance counselors to plan and outline a course work of study that will lead to graduation. 
• A tour of the facility conducted by two randomly chosen high school students.  Here we learnt about ALC rooms – alternative learning centers where students go if they are having trouble in class with other students, issues at home etc.  Teaching and learning  is provided in these rooms and students can remain here for 1 period or more depending on their circumstances.  RR rooms are Rest and Recovery Rooms manned by counselors (?)/staff where students go when having a conflict that needs resolution and can be solved in 10-15 minutes.  Students are penalized for documented behavior at the time of the incident, not for any errant behavior that occurs on the way to ALC or RR areas.  Students interviewed about why there are no fights and mayhem in the school, reported that they felt safe, were treated fairly by the faculty and school culture therefore did not feel the need to take matters into their own hands – they trust the adults. 
• A structured point and level system is in effect.  Posted in every classroom and one that determines the school culture which is student centered by determined by the faculty and staff. 
• The school has no School Resource Officer.  This is both deliberate and intentional.  The school culture will not support the existence of this office.  Students are exposed to a non-threatening environment focused on problem resolution and recovery. 
• The school nurse has the authority vested in this office by the school board to drug test students in a far more precise way than most schools.  The test kit is scientific, lab. oriented and checks for over 30 illegal substances;  the nurse has the ability to  deliver the results within the school without resorting to the police or hospitals.    All incoming students are asked for a parents sign off on drug testing.  If parents refuse and students are suspected of being under the influence, parents are asked to fetch their children and not bring them back until a full disclosure with lab tests is conducted on the same day that the student was removed from school. 
• Classroom visitations to a home and careers classroom, a music/band room. gym, a special ed. 1:6:1 classroom. 
• Classroom sizes range from 1:6 to 1:12 max. 
• Team meetings with staff at both the middle and high school level.  These meetings are scheduled during the school day, daily and involve all program personnel.  Conversations are about students and student programming.  Committee chairs report out to the principal and at faculty meetings. 
• Lunch with 3 student council members, Mrs. Hulse the art teacher and her Instructional Assistant (I.A)(teacher aide or paraprofessional).  I.A. is the term used at Niagara Academy.
• De-briefing session with the Principal in the school library which has an entire wall devoted to professional readings, journals and documentaries celebrating teaching and learning.  Teachers are encouraged to use and refer to these sources in their conversations about learning, schools and teaching. 
• Attendance at a weekly Faculty meeting which stays true to the same format.  Celebrations, Committee Reports, 21st century skills development and use in classrooms by teachers which involves teachers sharing their instructional tools/teaching skills  which are then distributed to all faculty and attached on a key chain celebrating teachers, What instructional strategy worked in your classroom this week, What was the response of students.   

Have you got a sense of what makes Niagara Academy an alternative school? 

What salient features identify your school program? 

How does your school program reach out to students and make them feel a part of the behavioral culture that is standard and expected? 

In planning for this trip I relied on wet paint the social site used by Niagara Academy, email and telephone.  Niagara Academy now has a site on NING which they will invite us to.  I asked for help in brainstorming questions, from my TWITTER friend Mr. Blake and will address those valuable  questions under separate blog post

This is a bountiful year for us at the Hewes Center.  We have never hired these past 6 years,  so many new teachers and staff.  A welcome reception will be hosted for them on Monday afternoon.  The purpose of this social is to introduce teachers and staff to each other before the first faculty meeting this week Thursday. 

Those on “stage” will be  Mr. Curto, Ms. DeLeon, Ms. Calimeri – teachers, Ms. Swanson – physical ed. teacher, Ms. Darling – guidance counselor, Wendy Johnson – Behavioral Consultant teacher.  New aides are Jessica Blake, Rick Cogliano and Justin Clark.  In addition to these 5 teachers are 2 that joined us at the beginning of the year, Laurie Wilcox and Christine Barber.  The Hewes Center is a vibrant, exciting place which is poised to see continued growth and development in terms of student programs, graduation rates, active, student-centered instruction, use of technology and an environment that is disciplined and professional at all levels. 

I and two other professional colleagues both retired school administrators and special ed. supervisors, have been invited to speak to a group of 10 graduate students in the School of Education, St. Bonaventure University, Olean, NY by my friend and colleague, Dr. Paula Kenneson.  The time allotment is 2.5 hours and the lecture is outlined below.  My purpose is to elicit support for starting a bridging venture with St. Bona’s that will result in placing student teachers with teachers of Alternative and Special Education at the Hewes Center.  I believe that these teachers have a particular and specialized skills set that has been honed and perfected based on education, training and experience which is bar none the best that I have seen to date.  I say this because, these teachers take on students after all strategies have been tried, adopted and modified and then, when out of school district placement is sought for students at a BOCES or regional educational center, teachers are forced to debunk all past practice and start afresh with a new bag of behavioral knowledge tricks based on different incentives and teacher skills sets.   

Objectives The students will be able to:

·     Explain the major considerations in determining whether the school has met its obligation to provide a free and appropriate education.

·     Outline the requirements in conducting a nondiscriminatory evaluation to determine eligibility and related services.

·     List the components of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) required by the IDEA.

·     Discuss the major factors the courts consider in determining the least restrictive environment.

·     Describe the procedural due process protections afforded parents under the IDEA.

·     Compare the eligibility requirements of the IDEA with those of Section 504.

·     Distinguish between the requirements placed on school districts under the ADA and those under Section 504.

Guiding Principles

·     The IDEA mandates that school districts make a free and appropriate public education available to all children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21.

·     In order to receive services (i.e., special education programs and related services), a student must have a qualifying disability and the condition must have an impact on education to an extent that requires special education.

·     An Individualized Education Program (or plan) (IEP) is a written document that provides the plan for implementation of the special education program and related services.

·     The IEP meeting, at which the plan is developed, must include parents, teachers, special education specialists, a school representative, and the student, when appropriate.

·     To be appropriate the IEP must be reasonably calculated to confer educational benefits for the student.

·     The IDEA requires that the student receive the special education services in the least restrictive environment, based on his or her individual specialized needs.

·     Parents have a number of procedural rights under the IDEA including the right to notice, consent, and ability to challenge decisions through an administrative hearing process.

·     Section 504 prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. It is broader than IDEA and is intended to prevent discrimination rather than require the delivery of services.

·     The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in services, programs, and activities.

I am looking for comments, suggestions and anecdotes to share in this session with the graduate class at St. Bonaventure.  I will be incorporating web 2.0 tools.  

The 4 high school 1:6:1 classrooms are full and the two 1, 08:8:1 high school classrooms are as well.  In total this comprises 40 students.  The former is most noteworthy because we are only in the first week of this school year.  Normally this is not the case and student transition in and out of programs is not uncommon.  With a student demographic that is stable no more students can be accepted into our Hewes Center special education programs unless authorization is given to open a new classroom based on component school district needs.  This need will have to be studied with reference to our program growth and sustainability for next year.  At present, the High School teachers are assured that their classrooms will be able to focus on sustained instruction without having to constantly deal with students transitioning in and out of programs.  This will allow for instructional stability, focused quality relationships with students, attention to sustained growth of students and internalization of school expectations by students which should result in better student management and behavior plans.

For a BOCES or a regional school center this is a great start to a new school year because it ensures stability in terms of academic programming.  We are growing our Regents Diploma population within special education and need to plan for the development of a self-contained 1:6:1 high school classroom later this year.  In addition, we need to plan next year for the continued growth of a 1:8:1 classroom that will be geared to students who can work more independently.  Currently, the Hewes Center has a 1:8:1 high school classroom that is made up of work experience students that are receiving more focused academic instruction outside of their classroom in math, global studies and english.  These students are also able to participate in half day instruction in a  Career and Technical Education (CTE) example health assisting.   

This past school year I worked alongside Linda Finn an educational administrative intern through SUNY Fredonia.  This summer Sandy Olson will be attached to the Hewes Center Summer School Program as she works on completing her administrative internship through SUNY Fredonia as well. 

Administrative Interns give Principals and Supervisors working in schools a unique opportunity to stop and take stock of process and procedures in the day to day running of an educational venture.  Most of the time veteran school administrators work on automatic pilot knowing or seeming to do exactly what needs to be done at the given moment.  Time to process information and challenge decisions does not come until the end of the day when school is over, by this time, students may have left school with hurt feelings, teachers may have left feeling ignored or paraprofessionals have left for the day without informing the office of some nagging problem.  In my mind even when the school is quiet, the principal may not devote time to valuable reassessment of the day because calls have to made to parents regarding disciplinary actions, email has to be answered, paperwork has to be completed and turned around so as to reach higher office and the demands continue into the night. 

Having an administrative intern for me is the greatest joy because I get to explain what is happening in real time, share my thoughts in real time, ask for in-put from another adult in real time, check for understanding of the issues with another school official and get another perspective from people who ordinarily work in school settings in other capacities – Linda Finn is comprehensive health educator throughout Erie 2 CC BOCES, while Sandy is a school psychologist at Panama Central School in Western New York. 

It is a privilege to be associated with an administrative intern program.  The goals of this program are to give an individual interested in pursuing educational administration the most succinct immersion in the working life of a principal/supervisor.  Examples of internship duties and exposure are as follows – hiring, staffing, participating in CSE meetings, writing memos, planning faculty and staff meetings, developing short school based programs, contact with parents, discipline of students, working with outside agencies, developing a administrative portfolio, interacting with teachers and staff, problem solving, assisting in writing grants, researching school based programs and assisting in the evaluation of teachers among other worthwhile opportunities that can be provided by the internship experience.   

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the interns that have been assigned to my office in the past, now and in the future.  You challenge my thinking and my practise and for this I am grateful because together we both learn.  To the teachers and staff of the Hewes Center thank you for your patience and understanding as you partake in the development of school leaders.