February 9, 2007

INFORMATION FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT

1. Curriculum Brochures Available

The staff of the Pentucket Regional School District is proud to present to the parents and communities our curriculum brochures. As Superintendent of Schools I commend each and every one of our staff members for collaborating together to produce these documents. It was hard work with much decision making as to where certain topics should be covered and mastered. These brochures describe the standards of our curriculum in every grade level for every subject area. The standards are aligned to state and national standards and aligned to the MA curriculum frameworks which are the basis for the states MA Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing.

 By clearly establishing a common systemic curriculum for the Pentucket Regional School District , we can now assure that all children have the same educational experiences in all schools and all classrooms. Teachers will now be better able to assess strengths and/or gaps in a child’s learning through our assessments and then target instruction to help students reach the standard or extend their learning when the standard has already been met. The focus of our instruction is on the continuous improvement of student achievement for all students. This is what defines differentiated instruction.  

The brochures will be distributed in hardcopy after February vacation and they are currently on line at our website at http://www.prsd.org/CB/Index.htm The brochure areas are: Prekindergarten, Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6, Grade 7, Grade 8, English Grades 9 – 12, Fine and Performing Arts, Foreign Language, Guidance, Health Education, Math, Math Electives, Science, Science Electives, Social Studies, Social Studies Electives, Technical Education , Nursing Services, Art K – 6, Instructional Technology K – 12, Instrumental Music 4 – 12 A, Instrumental Music 4 – 12 B, Library Information Literacy K – 12, Music K – 6, and Physical Education K – 12.

 2. Conversations with the Superintendent

 The Superintendent is hosting an opportunity for open discussion about any topic on February 12, 2007, 7:00 p.m. at the conference room at the Superintendent’s office at the middle school. Please plan to attend and bring a friend or neighbor to share a cup of coffee and have your questions answered.

3. Foreign Language Offerings for the Coming School Year

 The PRSD is not eliminating German for any student who has started in the program. Your child will be able to continue course work in German next year in grade 8 or at the High School. However, in the exploratory program in grade 7 we are talking about replacing German with Latin. We are also planning to add a Latin offering at the High School along with French, German and Spanish. During next year, we will plan to do a survey of parents to see what languages they would like to see offered to our students. Both French and German programs are changing in all schools in our state and across the nation with many being eliminated. Asian and Arabic languages are taking on more presence in school curriculums but we need to see what programs the populations of our communities want. Latin has been shown to increase student achievement not only in language study but in all subject areas.

 It would be great to be able to offer many subjects in all content areas but the financial realities are that we will have to make choices over the coming years. We need to focus on what programs will help us continuously improve student achievement overall in the best interests of our children while still being able to meet the needs and interests of our students and parents as best as we possibly can. It will be financially difficult to maintain four languages at a middle school level with an enrollment of only 500 students. As we gather more input during the coming year, we will have more discussions about this. I appreciate your interest and concerns for the children of the district and hope you can continue to be part of the discussions as we work to make the best decisions we can for our schools.  

4. District and School Based E-Mail Communication

To better communicate with families and community members, we have set up e-mail for each building and the district as a whole. Please sign onto our website, www.prsd.org, and sign up to receive both of these communications. The schools and I will use this email system to distribute important information about events, meetings, and emergencies as appropriate. I will use the district e-mail as one method of announcing snow days. We will still continue to use other methods of communications as well including; hard copy distribution, newspapers, local cable, and snow days on radio and television. We will need your input on various surveys that will be distributed through these e-mail systems to collect data on how we can improve our process of student learning.