By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WINDSOR, Vt. — The elected Mount Ascutney School District board met April 8, and discussed the possibility of hiring education consultant Peter Clarke to help with the creation of an “innovation team.”
The purpose of the innovation team, and Clarke’s purpose in it, was not made clear. Few specifics were offered to the public about Clarke’s background or what the board had in mind. However, the board members did say they were thinking of Clarke as a facilitator for the larger action, which could be a wide-ranging community education forum, or the building of the innovation team itself.
As Superintendent of School David Baker put it, the creation of a new merged district on July 1 will create the opportunity for new thinking, “outside the box.” To that end, he invited Clarke at the suggestion of the board to help them think about creating and running the innovation team.
For his part, Clarke said he would welcome the opportunity to facilitate. “Its hard for administrators to be full participants and also facilitate,” he said.
He also had some practical tips for the board. Since the merger has specific goals under Act 46, he said, the new board could look there to see how they could best serve both Windsor and West Windsor. Part of that should be listening to the community in both towns, and letting them be full members of the process.
“How inclusive do you want this process to be?” Clarke asked, recommending “as inclusive as possible.”
“I think we want to create a new school district,” said chair Amy Mullins. “We have an opportunity that has been given to us by both communities.”
Rather than “reinventing the wheel” the innovation team should be a “inter-community dialog” to determine what the board should re-think and what it should not, said Clarke.
In terms of operations and even pedagogy, he urged the board to remember that many students act out with disruptive behavior because they are experiencing mental trauma and anguish. “How do we find the resources to deal with that?”
Clarke talked about helping the board determine what they think graduates should be like upon graduation. One program he apparently works on to do this is called “Portrait of a Graduate.”
Whatever qualities or values people decide a high school graduate should have, the board should then align the district’s programs and resources to create that result, he said.
Clarke is the lead consultant of Creative School Solutions in Quechee, Vermont, which he founded in July 2015, according to his LinkedIn page. He is in a list of consultants at the Vermont School Board Association, where it is noted, “As an educational consultant, Clarke has worked with school districts to restructure district governance models; foster innovative/positive school cultures; develop authentic leadership strategies; transform curriculum and instruction in the social sciences; and mentor new principals.”
The board was expected to authorize Baker to create a scope of work for Clarke, to be voted on at the next board meeting.
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