Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 1/4/2024
WILBRAHAM — As part of the district’s equity plan that focuses on bullying and discrimination in schools, Superintendent John Provost shared district data that showed clear patterns when it comes to bullying.
So far in the 2023-24 school year, 90% of the recorded bullying incidents involve male aggressors. However, one member of the diversity, equity and inclusion team told him girls are more subtle in how they target and harass others, and therefore, may be underrepresented as aggressors.
Students with disabilities are another subset of students that is “dramatically overrepresented” as both targets and aggressors, Provost said. He added that research on this subject is scarce but said support for these students is “inadequate.”
Provost reported that the studies that are available show peer dynamics spur bullying behavior, which often becomes a problem in middle school. Preteens are developing their identities and social status, which creates a “high stakes” environment in which fitting in feels critical, Provost shared. Bullying a peer or being the target of such bullying can result from an aggressor’s desire to maintain social status.
Provost said staff are “working tirelessly to change the game.” He cautioned that the work being done on how to disrupt these behaviors is in its infancy.
School Committee member Michael Tirabassi asked if overcrowding at Wilbraham Middle School is a contributing factor in the amount of bullying that is happening. Provost said, “It doesn’t help.”
School Committee member Sean Kennedy said he does not accept that it is impossible to eradicate bullying. He questioned whether the way adults in authority treat students affects the way students treat one another. Provost responded that the most important thing teachers and administrators can do is to treat all students without favor or disfavor, eliminating bias in the classroom.
Supporting students
Moving on to the strategic plan’s ongoing implementation, Mile Tree School Principal Allison Petit began a presentation by school leadership on the incorporation of multi-tiered support systems.
MTSS is the practice of employing levels of academic and social-emotional support for students, with the first tier being generalized support for all students, while the second and third tiers are increasingly more intensive support.
Petit explained that the elementary schools are using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills screener three times per year to determine where each student’s skills are in relation to the benchmarks for their grade. When students fall below or very below the benchmarks, the DIBELS diagnostics assessment can identify areas in which they are struggling. With that information, the student receives Tier 2 small group support or Tier 3 one-on-one support, and their progress is monitored.
Parents receive a screening report at the beginning of the school year and intervention group assignments and progress are shared regularly.
After a six- or eight-week intervention cycle, the student is reevaluated. Stony Hill School Principal Monique Dangleis said that if the student tests at or above the benchmarks for their grade, the intervention is discontinued. If progress has been made but there is still work to be done, the student continues with the interventionist for another cycle. If no progress has been made, the supports may be adjusted to try another approach, including the use of an individualized education program, commonly known as an IEP.
School Committee member Sherill Caruana asked if the intervention program waits too long to reevaluate students. Petit explained that because there is constant progress monitoring, the educators can easily and quickly make changes to the student’s support services. So far, Dangleis said the students have made “incredible progress.”
Wilbraham Middle School Principal John Derosia explained that the school had begun offering a stand-alone Math Strategies class to students who need support. Students eligible for the class are determined by teachers who review academic performance in current and previous years and use Fast Bridge, IXL and AIMSweb diagnostics. Participation in the class requires parental consent. Derosia said Allowing a student to participate is usually a “no brainer” for parents, but not always because the class is a substitution for another special, such as art. The Math Strategies course runs for 10 weeks to coordinate with the school’s semesters.
There are currently 38 students enrolled in math strategies, with a maximum of eight students in each class, and two classes per grade. “Quite a few more [students] could use the course,” Derosa said but there is not enough staffing to accommodate that.
Minnechaug Regional High School Principal Stephen Hale noted universal screeners are difficult to employ at the high school level because there are more than 100 curricula being run simultaneously. Instead, he said student-teacher assistance teams meet for half an hour, twice per week to discuss attendance, social emotional needs, academic progress and mitigating factors for students. Associate Principal Nicole Smith explained that every student is assigned to one of three student/teacher assistance teams.
Students struggling with math or English have one block of intervention with small group instruction. There are also general education academic supports, in which students can earn credits to offset any they may be missing over a two- or four-to-six-week period. After-school help and tutors are also available twice per week for students.
The school has begun an incentive program in which students enrolled in senior Advanced Placement courses can attend a study hall alternating with their physical education class. He said the response has been positive so far.
Smith said parents are provided with detailed updates, so they are aware of their student’s learning priorities.
Hale pointed out that the school is also working to recognize students “doing great things.” Students receive pins, which are worn at graduation, and a certificate for being exemplary students. So far, 327 student pins and more than 70 staff pins have been distributed.
Revised regional agreement
The School Committee discussed some of the major questions to be tackled by the new regional agreement, including how capital projects will be funded; the use of one-person, one-vote representation, and funding vocational training outside of the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative’s CTEC classes.
School Committee member Richard Rediker was involved in the regional agreement’s creation from the early 1990s. “There was a lot of horse trading,” he said. Three separate school committees were involved in the negotiations, which had to be completed in six months to qualify for funding the state was offering to incentivize regionalization. Kennedy suggested that this time, a workshop be conducted to hash out each potential change.
Tirabassi asked if regionalization will be limited the middle and high school or if it will be for grades K-12, but School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau said that had not yet been determined.
Either way, School Committee member Bill Bontempi said, “We’re still drawing a line.” He said future school committees will find themselves with many of the same problems the current committee faces, and he did not want to “hamstring” them by restricting regionalization to the middle and high schools. He assured that the district would attempt to educate students in their own towns, even if HWRSD became a K-12 regional district. Bontempi also wanted to change the method of approving student transfers across town lines. He said the district administration is the proper authority to make those decisions, not the School Committee, as it stands.
The School Committee is comprised of seven members with equal votes, with five people from Wilbraham and two from Hampden, reflecting the 72.4% to 27.6% population split when the agreement was created. The populations are now split 74.7% to 25.3%.
With a one-person, one-vote system, each member of the School Committee would have a different weight to their votes, depending on the population of the town they represent.
Rather than population, the existing regional agreement stipulates that the budget assessments are determined by annual school district enrollment percentages. Kennedy mentioned an idea suggested by Bontempi in previous years, which would use a rolling five- or seven-year enrollment average to smooth out any spikes in assessments. However, Bontempi said the enrollment changes have been consistently trending toward Wilbraham, with smaller and smaller percentages of Hampden students attending the schools.
Tirabassi said the new agreement must include a formula for capital expense assessments that can shift and adapt as the district changes, whether it is based on enrollment or another factor.
Bontempi said the School Committee must be able to propose and support potentially unpopular changes to the regional agreement if it is in the best interest of student achievement and success.
However, Tirabassi emphasized the need for leadership in both towns to rally resident support for the new regional agreement, which will be up for a vote at the spring Town Meetings. The Planning Committee already includes one member of each board.
The next Planning Committee meeting is on Jan. 9
Capital project assessments
The district received bids on the two capital needs assessments — one for the Minnechaug building and another for information technology needs. The administration is required to accept the lowest bid, which is $50,403 for the building assessment and $21,900 for IT.
Bontempi said the technology assessment makes sense to pursue, as it may offer expertise on the district’s existing IT needs and what technology changes are on the horizon. He was less convinced about the need for the building assessment.
Tirabassi said he was less in favor of the assessments because the towns have “backed off” regarding pressure to evaluate capital projects. Boudreau commented that that may be due to the cost of the assessments. She suggested the committee could wait to contract for the work, but Kennedy proposed the committee pursue the IT assessment with the existing bids and wait to have the building assessments performed.
The committee agreed, approving up to $22,000 for the IT assessment and temporarily foregoing the building evaluation. Caruana voted against the decision, while Kennedy abstained from the vote and acknowledged that he had had previous interactions with one bidder but had not had any input on this matter aside from recommending the firm put in a bid.