MARBLEHEAD — The School Committee approved improvement plans for Brown, Glover, and Village Elementary Schools at its meeting Thursday.
The improvement plans identified tangible next steps to achieve goals in three categories. The categories include streamlining curriculum and assessments, identifying and creating opportunities for relevant professional development, and supporting efforts that increase diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the district.
Representatives from Brown and Glover Elementary Schools said they are hoping to soon reconvene their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Teams. The Village School’s team has already met once this school year.
“I think it will be really important work and the team is really excited to get started,” Village School Principal Amanda Murphy said. “By being more inclusive, we can only get stronger.”
Murphy said Village School staff are working to make daily announcements at the school in different languages in order to ensure students of all cultures have equal access to opportunities. She also discussed the results of the school’s partnership with an outside consultant last year who suggested the Village School focus on ensuring all students receive the same form of discipline.
School Committee member Sarah Gold said she thinks its important staff also consider the cause of student’s misbehavior.
“I love the idea of looking at behavior as a symptom rather than an issue,” Gold said. “Particularly at Village, I think that’s a great age to focus on for that so I’m thrilled to hear that is part of the plan.”
Representatives from Brown and Glover Elementary Schools said they plan to work with culturally responsive experts to revise curriculum and assessments to provide learning opportunities and materials that resonate with all students.
The committee also voted to approve the payment of $517,631 in bills and heard updates from the district’s Director of Technology Stephen Kwiatek.
He said he is excited that the device to student ratio for students in grades kindergarten through six has reached 1:1. Kwiatek added that he is working toward creating a technology-specific curriculum for children in those grades that includes teaching them to use devices generally, to type, and to use Google Workspace.
Committee Chair Sarah Fox said she would like to see students be able to take home devices as well.
“Some of these kids need a device to be able to do their homework from home,” Fox said. “If we are sending a child home saying this has to be done online, they need to be sent home with a Marblehead Public Schools device.”
Also at the meeting Thursday, Marblehead Public Schools Superintendent John Buckey awarded the committee’s student representative, Yasen Colon, a recognition from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents known as the M.A.S.S. Excellence Award.
Rachel Barber can be reached at [email protected].
