Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/27/2022
HUNTINGTON — Gateway Regional Superintendent Kristen Smidy was marveling at the number of students taking advantage of the free summer camp being offered at Gateway through Aug. 11 for the first time this year.
“There are 76 students signed up every week. Three hundred kids, district-wide, in camp. About half the district is enrolled, and it’s free for everyone,” Smidy said.
In the past, the district offered summer programs for students on IEPs — individual education plans — and a wrap-around program at Littleville Elementary School that parents had to pay for and provide lunches. This year, the camp is being funded through federal COVID-19 relief funds designed to help students catch up from the pandemic shutdown, and is also providing food services.
Smidy just completed her first year as superintendent of the district.
Previously, she was high school principal at Hampshire Regional High School in Westhampton. She also successfully completed her first budget process with the six Gateway member towns, Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery and Russell.
She said the budget process was comprehensive and the towns were engaged. The towns unanimously approved the budget.
“I appreciated that,” Smidy said, adding that she tried to visit with as many of the finance committees and select boards as she could. “I think there’s some good understanding of how regional school budgets work.” she said.
Having three select board members on the School Committee this year, from Chester, Huntington and Montgomery, also helped, she said.
“The School Committee was great this year and thoughtful. They kept the kids at the center of their work,” despite how easy it would have been to get sidetracked by COVID-19 negativity, as happened in other towns in the region, she said.
However, local voters did not pass a new Regional School Agreement, which required a unanimous vote from the towns. Smidy said she needs to get in touch with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to hear what next steps it recommends.
The School Committee spent the last three or four years, and many hours in a facilitated discussion led by a group of retired superintendents, updating its agreement with the towns, which is required by DESE. Smidy thought they were close to an agreement earlier in the year, but it was voted down unanimously by the town of Montgomery.
The sticking points are around alternative assessment methods, and a clear calculation, if a town were to withdraw from the district, of how much it would owe in post-employee benefits. The issue is difficult to resolve in part because when Worthington withdrew in 2015 through an act of the state Legislature, the town declined to pay any of the costs billed to it by Gateway.
Besides failing to pass an agreement, a problem which predated Smidy’s tenure by several years, the new superintendent is optimistic.
“The students and staff have been incredible. I felt so welcomed,” she said, adding that there is great communication, and it’s not unusual for students, teachers and paraprofessionals to pop their heads in her office. “I have asked them for input,” she said.
In her entry plan, there are three priority areas. The first is having all students feel respected, that they belong, and safe.
Strong instruction and curriculum in every classroom is the second priority. Smidy said through DESE grants, Gateway was able to purchase a new math curriculum, which rolled out this year, and a new English-language arts curriculum for next year. She said the grants, which totaled over $300,000 were for the purchase of high-quality instructional materials and curriculum.
“We got so many grants this year. It’s been a great opportunity,” she said.
The third priority is being focused on community.
“We are being really intentional about how to bring people together to build community, and make Gateway the hub of the community,” Smidy said.
One of the challenges she hadn’t anticipated this year was the departure of longtime elementary principal Megan Coburn. Coburn had served as principal of both Littleville and Chester elementary schools and some middle school classes, and had assistant principals in both schools.
Smidy restructured the positions, and has hired a new principal for each of the elementary schools: Vanna Maffuccio in Chester, who had previously served in Chester one year as interventionist, and Andrew Samuelson in Littleville, a former literacy coach in Northampton and principal in Holland. Both started July 1.
She has also hired a new assistant principal for the middle and high schools to replace Martha Clark, who will be taking on a new role as vocational and activities coordinator in charge of summer and after-school programming.
Smidy said Gateway is looking to make club offerings more robust and inclusive.
“Our leadership team looks different. There is new energy and positivity,” Smidy said.
Gateway has two Chapter 74 vocational programs, welding and early childhood education and care. The school will offer both for students outside the district starting this fall, similar to the process for Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School and Westfield Technical Academy.
The welding program is expanding its capacity with new equipment and a revamped shop, and will also offer night classes for adults.
Smidy said students applying to vocational programs at Gateway will have the opportunity to receive certification and a robust college prep academic program in a half-day shop, half-day academic schedule. The charge to vocational students from out of the district will also be on par with the vocational schools, currently at around $18,000.
“There are so many good things happening,” she said
Another program the school is investing in is the Visually Impaired Program, which currently has six students enrolled, and there are interested placements from Lee and Pittsfield.
“We are looking to build that cohort,” said Smidy.
The team is also addressing a declining high school enrollment.
Smidy said she surveyed all the school choice-out families. Two themes that came up were the school culture and academic offerings. She said the leadership team hopes by promoting a bigger culture of acceptance and inclusion and providing more robust academic offerings the enrollment projections will even out.
“When I came in, there were a lot of good things happening, we just tweaked them,” Smidy said. “We have some good work to do, and a good sense of positivity, hope and collaboration to get it done.”