Superintendent's Blog

Superintendent's Bulletin #20

August 20, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that you are enjoying this beautiful New England summer while spending time with your family and friends. We are looking forward to your renewed energy and creative spirit as you return on September 1. Three weeks from now we will welcome 3154 students in our schools knowing that our teaching will significantly influence their lives. Welcome back!

Many staff members and colleagues have continued their hard work over the summer to prepare classrooms and schools for September. Thank you for your excellent preparation.

Thirty-five teachers and tutors provided a successful summer school program for more than 200 preK-12 students during July at Ripley, Alcott, Sanborn, and CCHS.
Elementary ELL students participated in a successful pilot for English Language Development during summer school.
More than 40 high school students participated in student study travel trips to Nicaragua and Madagascar.
Twenty-four CPS/CCHS teachers and administrators attended Alan November's Building Learning Communities summer conference with world-class presenters and participants from all over the world.
Many colleagues participated on interview committees to hire 5 teachers at CCHS, 3 teachers at CMS, 7 elementary teachers, and 12 support staff members. We also welcomed our new principal at Thoreau, Kelly Clough, new Business Analyst, Matt Wells, and new Transportation Manager, Spyros Saucier.
Approximately 214 educators spent summer days working collaboratively with grade-level or department teams to revise and develop new curricular units using the new Atlas curriculum mapping software.
More than 125 educators participated in weeklong district in-service trainings in ActivInspire, Moodle, and First Class.
The IT staff worked fast and furious to install 16 new servers, update 6 severs, install new RAID storage unit at CCHS, upgrade First Class, install United Streaming internal video server, upgrade firewalls for protection, replace all non Intel MACS, upgrade all workstations to latest version of MAC OSX 10.6, install additional wireless base stations, and activated the X2 parent portal and automated attendance in employee portal.
Maintenance and custodial staff continued to improve facilities with deep cleaning and summer capital projects: At CCHS, air conditioning was installed in the Band and Chorus rooms and carpeting was installed in the Chorus room. Speed bumps were placed on the entrance and exit roads. At Sanborn, the drainage was fixed, the parking lot was repaved, and the auditorium is being replaced. The stairs at Peabody were completely restored. Solar panels were installed at Willard. Power factor corrections equipment was installed at Alcott and Thoreau. Adult and Community Education was moved to CCHS and the area was prepared for the preschool therapeutic services. More classroom space was provided for the Concord Children's Center. The preschool playground has been expanded and the Ripley walls were painted.
The Human Resources office facilitated the hiring process for 30 new employees, updated Applitrak, MyLearningPlan, and BudgetSense, and revised and reissued the 2010-11 employee handbook, organized new Wellness program offerings for 2010-11, and developed procedures and trainings for the new automated teacher attendance and substitute management system, Aesop.
The CCHS Building Committee has met several times and is working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to move forward with the new building project.
Food services staff consulted with a chef from Sustainable Food Systems to offer more nutritious school lunches.
Materials and supplies have been ordered and delivered, bus routes have been adjusted, and student schedules have been finalized.

We are ready to welcome students on September 7 thanks to our terrific hard- working staff and colleagues. WE APPRECIATE YOU!

On August 26, new teachers will gather at Willard school at 8:00 am for their orientation. On Wednesday, September 1, we will celebrate the opening of the 2010-11 school year with K12 colleagues and staff members at 8:00 am at CCHS. Coffee and morning refreshments will be served in the CCHS cafeteria from 8-8:30am. Opening remarks and Dr. Tony Wagner's presentation on "Educating in the 21st Century: New Skills, All Students!" will be held in the CCHS Auditorium, 8:30-10.

Dr. Tony Wagner is the Co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of "The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need ---And What We Can Do About It. "He was a high school English teacher for twelve years; a school principal; a university professor in teacher education; co-founder and first executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility; project director for the Public Agenda Foundation in New York; and President and CEO of the Institute for Responsive Education. For the past several years, many CPS/CCHS administrators, teachers, and technology specialists have attended Dr. Wagner's keynote speeches at professional conferences and/or have read his book and discussed the seven survival skills that students need to succeed in careers, college, and citizenship in the 21st Century. We look forward to sharing his ideas about what matters most for the "net" generation with the entire faculty and staff as we begin the new school year. Dr. Wagner has also been invited by the CCHS Parents' Association to share his ideas with high school parents in early October.

Enjoy the remaining weeks of summer and see you in September!

Sincerely,

Diana Rigby