Principal Coffee - more on the Principal Search

David Fleishman, Superintendent of the Newton Public Schools; Cynthia Paris Jeffries, Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education; and Gil Lawrence, Assistant Director of Human Resources, were all in attendance at the Principal Coffee held on December 12.  Approximately twenty Franklin parents and guardians participated in an information and feedback discussion on the search for a new principal for the Franklin.

A Selection Advisory Committee has been created consisting of:

• Four Franklin staff members
• Three Franklin parents/guardians
• One Newton Public School Principal
• One Newton Public School curriculum coordinator
• Cynthia Paris Jeffries, Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education
• Gil Lawrence, Assistant Director of Human Resources
• Heather A. Richards, Director of Human Resources

David expects that there will be roughly twenty applicants largely made up of sitting principals from other districts and district curriculum coordinators.  Prior leadership experience will be a critical factor as will be crisis management and their ability to set the culture of a school.  If there isn’t a strong candidate, they will not settle.  David doesn’t anticipate any issues, Concord is the only other town they are aware of that’s looking for an elementary school principal.

Upcoming dates -

On January 25th, final candidates will visit a Newton Elementary School and will be provided with scenarios to see how well they will listen, how they show empathy, etc.  They will also visit classrooms and will be questioned on what they observed.

On February 8th, there will be an open meeting with parents at the Franklin to meet the final candidates.  Each candidate will provide a five minute introduction and then will answer questions from parents.  The purpose of this meeting will be to ascertain how well they respond to questions and think on their feet.  The hiring team is looking for parents that can participate with all finalists in a small group setting.  The commitment will be for approximately 90 minutes.  There will also be an open meeting with the Franklin faculty on February 8th.

Following the visit to the Franklin, the hiring team will check the references for the finalists. Ideally, a single candidate will stand out and be a unanimous selection. If teachers and faculty are split, the superintendent will have the final word on appointing the new principal.  David is targeting the announcement for the February break.

Questions from parents:

What does success in the first year look like for the new principal?

• Building trust and confidence with different stakeholders

• Building relationships
• Learning the school culture
• taking on pressing issues
• Lots of listening and learning
• Need to be very strong educationally

Are there existing challenges at the Franklin that you’re aware of?

• The Franklin has a lot of new teachers that need consistent support

Meeting attendees were then asked to share their search feedback for the new principal:

• What’s working well right now?
• What areas need the attention of a new principal?
• What qualities and attributes are you looking for in a principal?

Where are they now: Amy Kelly

Former Franklin Principal Amy Kelly is now the District Leader of Social and Emotional Learning for the Newton Public Schools!  Newton has received $1.9 million over five years from the federal Department of Education to transform school climate and culture throughout the district.  This grant will create a multi-tiered system of social and emotional interventions to ensure schools are secure places for students to learn.  Particularly unique to this grant, is that it bubbled up from work that is already being done at NPS.  Now there is the money and a dedicated person to accomplish the work and increase consistency across the district.

But why is this work important?  With much of the national education focus on standardized testing, students need to be emotionally healthy and socially competent in order to succeed.  “Your child is not going to learn anything if he/she isn’t feeling safe”, Amy stated.  In light of last year’s three high school tragedies, NPS has also received mental health grants.

Amy will lead the district in developing a common set of practices across schools and the district which will teach basic social competencies

(http://www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning/core-competencies/):

1. Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one’s strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.
2. Self-management: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
3. Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
4. Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.
5. Responsible decision making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others.

This new multi-tiered system will be combine several well-respected, widespread approaches including:

1. Responsive Classroom approach:

“Responsive Classroom is a research- and evidence-based approach to education that is associated with greater teacher effectiveness, higher student achievement, and improved school climate. It has been recognized...as one of the most well-designed, evidence-based social and emotional learning programs.” - https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/about-responsive-classroom

Amy first learned about the Responsive Classroom while she was student teaching in second grade at the Burr Elementary School.  She liked the idea and was trained by the Northeast Foundation.  Once Amy applied the principles to her classroom, she loved the results.  When Amy first came to the Franklin Elementary School seven years ago, many teachers were describing the behavior as out of control.  That summer, Amy offered a 36 hour course on the Responsive Classroom.  Thirty teachers voluntarily attended without being paid.  Since then, Amy has offered two full sessions every summer for the past six years.  Currently, almost all of Franklin has been trained in Responsive Classroom 1.

Amy is one of about 50 other educators grandfathered in as a “sponsored agency trainer”.  In it’s current model, the Northeast Foundation has done away with sponsored agency trainers and now charges $21,000 to train 25 teachers.  As a trainer, Amy was recertified in October and continues to be retrained.  While she has gone through the Responsive Classroom 2 training, she now needs to become certified so that she can train teachers in the district in the second level of Responsive Classroom.

Stage one will be to train everyone on in-classroom practices of the Responsive Classroom approach.  Stage two is to create a school wide plan tracking behavioral data and assessing trends.  Stage three will be to implement a consistent approach in the middle and high schools.  In order to do this, an assessment and evaluation of school climate and culture will be done by an external evaluator.   They will conduct surveys and interviews, and analyze existing data on the students - specifically a behavior risk survey - to generate a list of what the concerns are and what needs to be put in place.

2. Response to Intervention:

“Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavior needs. The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children in the general education classroom. Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning.” - http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/what/whatisrti

3. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS):

“School-wide Positive Behavior Support is a systems approach to establishing the social culture and behavioral supports needed for all children in a school to achieve both social and academic success.” - https://www.pbis.org/

PBIS consists of three tiers of support:

• Tier 1 - support for all students
• Tier 2 - additional support for students who need extra
• Tier 3 - highly individualized support for serious behavioral problems

While students, families and teachers miss Amy, she is also missing the Franklin community and the rapid problem solving required of an elementary school principal.  She is adjusting to her new role, loves the work, and will be leading initial trainings in February.  Good luck Amy!