Elementary reshuffle moving along

The Norwood School Committee recently met and discussed the reordering of the elementary school organization that will go into effect next school year.

The reorganization and redistricting process took place because the Norwood Public Schools District (NPS) decided to make the new Coakley Middle School a grade 5-8 school, freeing up one whole class in the elementary schools. After that, the District decided to change the Willett Early Education Center from a centralized kindergarten school for all districts to another regular elementary school.

But that also means reshuffling all the elementary schools to have kindergartens and necessarily meant the reorganizing of the neighborhood school districts – which determines which students go to what schools – to accommodate the new Willett Elementary School.

That said, NPS Superintendent Timothy Luff believes the process is moving along well. He said they have relocated all teachers from each school to meet staffing goals, with four teachers remaining at the Willett as elementary teachers.

“I have notified all general education teachers, and we have had volunteers to go from our kindergarten teachers to be kindergarten teachers at those schools, as well as grade-level teachers going to the Willett School when it becomes a K-4 school next year,” he said. “I will say it’s been an incredibly thoughtful process on the side of the teachers. They were incredibly humble, happy and willing to support Norwood in general in this process. I want to thank all the teachers who worked with me to make this possible.”

Luff said the transfer to the other elementary schools of the kindergarten teachers means that the District will retain all the kindergarten institutional knowledge that it has been building up over the years.

“The goal was to have highly qualified kindergarten teachers at each elementary school and highly qualified grades 1-through-4 teachers also at the Willett,” he said.

Luff explained that there are different certifications for different grades, with pre-k through 1 being most frequent at the Willett now, and grades 1-6 being most common around the current elementary districts.

“So we had to make sure that those kindergarten-licensed people were in the right spot,” he said.

Luff said the District recently held a community forum with parents to go over the redistricting implications and issues. Several parents said they wanted to have their child or children remain in their current district because they would be able to keep their transportation schedules and costs as they were, as some students found themselves no longer able to take the bus for free in their new districts (if you’re more than two miles from your school, you get a free ride). Some parents said they would have to upend their entire schedule, and Luff said they will consider such requests, but no one should hold their breath for it, as the new district lines have already been voted in after a large public process.

“There have been some requests for folks to stay at their schools; I am not taking those into consideration yet,” he said. “I am holding them. For parents who have made those requests, I will get in touch with them once I know the full numbers, and only if it’s an extenuating circumstance, as per policy, will I make any changes that way. As of now we have the new district lines and we have to follow them as the School Committee approved them.”

Luff added that all shifts were sent out to parents in November.

Luff said there will be no major shifts of special education teachers or English language education at this time either. He said he expects shifts to happen in the future, but it will be through the usual processes based on numbers and caseloads.

“Nothing really based on the redistricting piece itself,” he said.

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Also at that meeting, Luff said the District has started organizing the five-year plan process. He said the District has contracted with the Teaching and Learning Alliance to facilitate that plan.

“Which will include us sending them a tremendous amount of data about the school district,” he said.

He said he’s looking to put together a steering committee made up of School Committee members, school staff, community members, members of the Board of Selectmen, community representatives, faculty and parents to get about two dozen people together for the planning process.

“I will let you know that it is quite the commitment,” he said. “They have asked that this commitment be held to, because it takes quite a bit. For example, each meeting will last approximately two-to-three hours, and we’re looking at a 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. timeframe. The schedule of the meetings is already set and we are looking to be starting… on January 29th.”

Luff said it will be an introduction meeting, followed by a data analysis meeting, and continue from there. He said the goal is to have a final presentation and copy by around May.

“This plan will be a beautiful document they will create for us, but it will obviously be fluid,” he said. “As we know, with strategic planning for five years, things change. But it will be something that will drive our work over the next five years, which will be beneficial.”