Before students arrived for the first day of school on September 6, staff members at the Westmoreland Central School District were already hard at work.
Opening Day for the 2018-19 school year took place on September 4 and 5. Instructional staff reported to the Jr./Sr. High School Gym both days, while instructional and school-related staff reported to the gym on September 5.
Day two kicked off with Superintendent of Schools Rocco Migliori and Board of Education President John Acee welcoming everyone to the start of the new school year. Superintendent Migliori also introduced new staff members, communicated several updates pertaining to school safety, fire safety, technology and special education, and discussed the district’s strategic plan, along with the school building reconfiguration plan implemented for this school year. The reconfiguration plan converted the Elementary School into the Primary Elementary School for grades PK-2, the Middle School into the Upper Elementary School for grades 3-6 and the High School into the Jr./Sr. High School for grades 7-12.
“It really is designed for a number of reasons,” Superintendent Migliori said. “From a practical and economic perspective, we now have fewer teachers traveling from building-to-building and every teacher in the Jr./Sr. High School now has the same certification. Also, there is simply more opportunity. For example, students in the Upper Elementary School have everyday access to new enrichment, such as the ZI3 lab, a technology classroom and a larger gym.”
“It represents a total team effort involving various stakeholders, including the Board of Education, faculty and staff and community members,” Superintendent Migliori added. “We strongly believe it will better fit and serve the needs of our students.”
After Superintendent Migliori’s comments, as well as state mandated trainings, staff attended meetings at their respective school building or department. There was also time designated for classroom preparation at the end of the day.
Day one, for instructional staff only, was an opportunity to more closely review the district’s strategic plan and curriculum and instructional initiatives. Chief among the initiatives for the 2018-19 school year is “Understanding by Design.”
According to Superintendent Migliori, “Understanding by Design” is an instructional framework being adopted by the Westmoreland Central School District. In addition to the training offered on Opening Day, there will be two more trainings later in the year before the framework is officially implemented.
The main purpose of “Understanding by Design” is to create a common understanding among instructional staff so all teachers are planning with the same ideals in mind.
“Every teacher’s lesson plans won’t necessarily look the same, but they will eventually be structured in the same way to allow for every teacher, regardless of grade level, to speak about essential questions, transfer goals and the integration of skills, content and knowledge in the same way,” Superintendent Migliori said. “We really want to start speaking ‘one’ language as a district.”
“Understanding by Design” is being implemented in three phases:
Phase 1 – Establishing transfer goals, or the purpose of teaching specific material and how students will be able to transfer that material to other purposes in life.
Phase 2 – Designing performance tasks using the transfer goals.
Phase 3 – Integrating instructional strategies to help students understand and utilize the transfer goals.
Superintendent Migliori says the new approach has the potential to be very effective.
“For example, in math, if we are teaching students how to graph a line, we can better identify the purpose and the transfer skills students can take with them when they leave algebra.”
The Westmoreland Central School District wishes everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2018-19 school year!