By JEFF EPSTEIN
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WINDSOR, Vt. — As a two-day educational conference called “Innovation in Education” gets underway in Woodstock April 2, local school boards to the south are separately thinking ahead on how they might form their own local “Innovation Team.”
The conference, which is part of a larger national series about district innovation and collaboration, is sponsored by the Windsor Central Supervisory Union, and does not directly have anything to do with schools in Windsor and West Windsor. But by co-incidence, ideas around innovation and collaboration could be heard at recent board meetings in Windsor March 25.
For example, Windsor serves hot lunches through the vendor Café Services, and Albert Bridge School in West Windsor does not. But the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union would prefer equivalent service for the schools shortly to be joined under the Mt. Ascutney School District. WSESU Superintendent Baker reported to the meeting that Café Services is willing to make and send lunches to Albert Bridge School, but wants to change its contracted expense in order to cover its increased cost.
But MTASD board members also want to form a formal “Innovation Team” that would research best practices at schools and professional development programs the new district could use. Such a team could be made up of board members and non-voting members such as parents, community members and staff members.
Board member Elizabeth Burrows suggested taking two months to plan the team and decide who to invite to be on it. Others in the discussion, including chair Amy Mullins, Albert Bridge School Principal Jenifer Aldrich, and Baker talked about who might facilitate the panel. Suggestions for the facilitator included respected educator Peter Clark and a faculty member from Dartmouth College.
No formal plan was created, however, and the Innovation Team concept will likely come up for further discussion again at the next MTASD board meeting.
Meanwhile, Baker, Aldrich and Windsor School Principal Tiffany Cassano are looking at the possibilities of joint field trips or other activities that MTASD coordinate. Teachers are both schools share a common labor agreement, and it might be possible for them to share professional development activities that are done on days when students are released early.
The Windsor School initiated such a release day program two years ago, with one early release per week, Cassano told the Eagle Times. On such days, however, not all students go home. Some participate in “enrichment activities” such as Outing Club, Crafting, Maker Space Club, Crazy 8’s Math Club, Homework Club, T-Kids, and High 5 Club, she said.
So, could Windsor School host such activities for Albert Bridge students? Could the ABS students be bused to Windsor? Could there even be joint field trips with buses?
Coordinating all this within MTASD is accordingly a subject of great interest to Baker, who mentioned that a coordinated proposal from Aldrich and Cassano could be on the table, at least as far as transportation, at the next district meeting in April.
But transportation isn’t the only issue. Windsor and Albert Bridge schools don’t even run the same school day right now. Windsor starts at 7:45 a.m. and Albert Bridge at 8:15 a.m. It’s actually fine for the schools to not have the same start and finish times, Baker said, but they need to have the equivalent amount of instructional time. Windsor runs 20 minutes longer than Albert Bridge, so the latter would need to add instruction time to get up to 6 hours and 55 minutes.
The scheme holds potential benefits for both students and teachers, although Burrows said she wasn’t sure Albert Bridge teachers would necessarily want to share their professional development time with Windsor teachers every week. Still, “there is a need for flexible thinking,” she said during the meeting.
MTASD is likely to develop these ideas further later this month.
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