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Date: 9/13/2023
WILBRAHAM — Minnechaug Regional High School is undergoing the accreditation process from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Schools must be reevaluated for accreditation every 10 years.
Principal Steven Hale spoke about the process at the Sept. 6 School Committee meeting. He explained that schools must adhere to six standards to be accredited. They are required to provide socially and emotionally safe environments for students and adults, have a written curriculum consistent with alignments, and have improvement plans, professional development and programming. They must provide interventions, support, and services for students, and support curriculum delivery and services. Finally, schools must have written core values, beliefs about learning and a Vision of the Graduate.
The Vision of the Graduate is something the school has been working on for the past year. It consists of skills or “competencies” that students are expected to master by graduation. Hale explained that the staff working on it have based the competencies on the “CHAUG” foundation of Challenge, Honor, Adapt, Understand and Grow.
MRHS was commended for its “safe, positive, respectful and supportive school environment,” Hale said. Other areas which received positive evaluations were the facility’s cleanliness and maintenance, community partnerships for student exploration and learning using the universal design method, as well as removing barriers to Advanced Placement courses and honors classes, and its cultural responsiveness. The school was also lauded for its use of technology in learning, encouraging inquiry problem solving and higher thinking and library resources.
The school is prioritizing work on creating intervention strategies for students who need additional support, providing updated materials and exploring scheduling alternatives, designing a long-term professional development framework, developing staff engagement with core values and solving indoor temperature conditions.
Heat wave
Temperature conditions were top of mind, considering the heatwave that had coincided with the first week of school. Superintendent John Provost said, “There’s some very hot rooms and there’s some oases of coolness in every building.” Students were rotated through cooler areas to provide a respite from the heat and fans were brought in to help at Soule Road School, which has the fewest air-conditioned spaces of all the schools. Provost also said lunch menus were changed to cold sandwiches to eliminate heat from the school kitchens.
Provost decided not to dismiss students early on Sept. 7, a step many districts took. He said schools can watch for signs of heat effects. If sent home, he said, there was no way to know what supervision students would have and he worried about them playing in the sun. Parents could decide to excuse their children if desired. Moving forward, as weather patterns change and heat becomes more common during the school year, Provost said the district needs to “start thinking about how we can be more strategic” with relief from the heat.
Capital projects
The district is asking the towns for funding to address capital expenses at the high school. Air conditioning is required by some students’ individualized education programs, to which the law requires schools to adhere. Also, one of the school’s boilers has failed and will need replacement. The heating system is running on the remaining boilers. Together, these items cost $179,000.
The security cameras are original to the school and insufficient for the school’s needs. There are also gaps in coverage. Additionally, the district wants to purchase projector screens/monitors for classrooms. The total of these items is $129,000.
Two articles, grouping the heating and air conditioning items and technology items, were requested to appear on the warrant for each town’s fall Town Meeting. Wilbraham had requested the items be separated so each one can be considered independently. The School Committee agreed to submit each item separately.
Osborne said the district finished the fiscal year 2023 with $360,000, but that money will be used to offset some of the $850,000 in excess and deficiency funds that was used to fill gaps in the FY24 budget.
Turning to another capital expense, the district went out to bid on a project to create an extended second-floor railing at Minnechaug. The project would raise the height of the railing by adding a barrier to keep students from climbing over the edge of the walkway and jumping down to the first floor, which has happened in the past.
Based on previous estimates, the project was expected to cost about $125,000. The one bid received was for $488,000.
“For plexiglass? A half million dollars,” School Committee member Sean Kennedy asked. “I think I’m in the wrong business.”
Director of Finance, Operations and Human Resources Aaron Osborne said, “This is the world we are living in right now.” The district will work with the bidder to redesign the project and lower the cost.
Hale commented that other schools have railings with the same design that are 6 inches lower than at Minnechaug, with no other safety devices in place.