education

It's hardly news, but managing childcare is a challenge in Westwood or anywhere. The Early Childhood Office provides many resources including the Resource Directory (latest hardcopy version available at Main Library) which provides a starting point for researching options...but ultimately, every family is going to have their own requirements and will have to navigate the system as best they can.

When we first moved to Westwood, I worked in Boston and my wife raised our two children...then we had our third. We figured out the whole preschool lottery application process and had good experiences with St. John's Nursery, Dedham Community House, and Mothers' Morning Out. But our needs changed and we now find ourselves evaluating full-time options including Knowledge Beginnings and Next Generation Children's Center.

I'm not going to post "reviews" here but I'm going to start a weekly item I'll call "Wednesday's Parent," where I'll share a tip or two related to resources for families. I'm sure one could do an entire blog on that (and many people have) but I'd like to tag things that are specifically relevant and useful to Westwood. Feel free to send me suggestions...

The Westwood Educational Foundation invites grant applications from individuals or organizations for projects which, in keeping with the mission statement of the Westwood Educational Foundation, will benefit the Westwood schools or community. Grant applications are due by March 1, 2010.

The WEF website contains detailed instructions in their Grant Application Overview describing the annual grant and mini-grant programs. To get a better sense of the types of programs that can be funded, check out the descriptions of grants from 2008-2009.

The graduates of Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton (Westwood is one of the school's district towns) go on to do great things.  The executive chef at Fenway Park is a Blue Hills grad.  So is a Commander in the US Navy who is training to be an astronaut at NASA.  Another star-in-the-making has her own cooking show on Norwood Cable TV - and she is only a sophomore!

If you are the parent of a middle school student in Westwood and you want to learn about the outstanding educational opportunities available to your son or daughter at Blue Hills Regional, come to a presentation on Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 3:30 pm at the Westwood Public Library, 668 High Street.   There will be several speakers including the Superintendent of Blue Hills Regional, and former Westwood High principal Charles Flahive, now a member of the Blue Hills Regional School Committee.

Questions or more information, call 781-828-5800 x333

Here's what everyone's been waiting for...

http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x1624774098/Full-day-kindergarten-starts-this-fall

This week's Hometown Weekly has a short column I wrote with some questions and information about the proposed changes to be presented to the school board on Thursday, February 26. I mention a number of resources that I link to below:

• Westwood Schools Web Site - including links to the Full Day K FAQ
• School Committee information - calendar of meetings, meeting agendas, meeting minutes. Unfortunately, the minutes have not been updated since the Jan 15 summary prior to discussion of Full Day K.
• Email Listserv - sign up to be emailed with meeting notices, minutes, etc.
• Early Childhood Program - I spoke with Carol Craig-O'Brian today and learned a great deal more than is published on the website--see below.
• Education411

Today I had the opportunity to attend a "Parent Discussion Meeting on School Readiness" where Peggy Scott, Principal at Martha Jones Elementary School, and Carol Craig-O'Brian from the Early Childhood Office, described what Kindergarten is really like and what "readiness" means. I highly recommend any parent who has questions attend the next session on Wednesday, February 25 at 9:30am at the Islington Community Center (MMO). If you cannot attend that session and are concerned about "readiness" you should call the Principal of your elementary school.

I did not identify myself as "media" and I won't quote anyone here, but I hope relating some of this information will be helpful.

Many parents received a letter on Saturday announcing Superintendent Antonucci's recommendation to move Westwood to a program whereby kindergartners would follow the normal elementary schedule on all days except Wednesday. Wednesday would always be a half-day.

This topic has been discussed here on WestwoodBlog before but now that a formal proposal has been announced, I'd like to share some thoughts and see what others think.

First of all, the program is optional--but I believe everyone in Westwood takes the option. The morning program is free of charge, but the extended program costs $1200/child. This proposal further extends the existing program to a full day and does not add any cost to parents. Also, it is worth noting that kindergarten itself is optional in Massachusetts--if you don't want to send your kids to any program, you can start them off in first grade.

Secondly, and news to me until my wife told me about what a huge topic this is among moms of 4-year olds, parents can elect to "hold out" their kids if they feel the child is not ready for kindergarten. This explains why there can be 6-year olds in class with 5-year olds. I believe there is some concern that extending the program might increase the number of kids who are held out, resulting in more of an age mix, but mostly, this concerns kids who were born in the summer and are close to the cut off age.

The letter we received detailed a series of activities over the past year to develop this proposal. It appears that most of the communication was through the school system...since we are not in the system yet, none of this communication reached us. It would have been helpful to send out letters to parents of future kindergartners in addition to parents of school age children. But the process now provides for feedback and it is more likely everyone will be focused on the issue now that a decision is imminent: Superintendent Antonucci presents his formal recommendation to the School Committee on Thursday, February 26, at 7:30pm in the High School Little Theater.

I like the idea of a full-day program in general and am optimistic that it could provide a comfortable pace for kids with more time and less pressure to get through required material. I read the Full Day Kindergarten: School Committee Presentation posted on the town website, but the presentation is mostly bullet points without the context of an in-person meeting.

One thing I believe would be helpful in this discussion is a "before and after" document that outlines a typical day for the kids. I am hoping more time means more play. But I don't really know what the kids do right now and what is necessary to get them ready for first grade. When our daughter Sharon was at St. Johns Nursery last year, I remember going to a Parent's Night where director Mal Tennihan gave a presentation that both reassured me that the kids were not in some kind of learning boot camp for overachieving parents, but that there was a solid plan behind the activities the kids were doing designed to help them develop social and attention skills to be ready for a more formal environment. I think more time has the potential to allow a more natural pace and less pressure and I'd like to see what that means for the kids so I have something to compare against.

Superintendent John Antonucci is asking members of the community to complete an online survey as part of Westwood Public Schools effort to create a district strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan is to articulate the overall goals of the system and to identify strategies to achieve them. The survey should take only 5 or 10 minutes to complete and must be submitted by Friday, October 17.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB2287446357H

Editor's Note: The following event is a public service to benefit the High School, unrelated to town meeting.

The Westwood Community in Action (WCIA) sponsors an All-Night Graduation Party for the entire senior class. It is a fun, safe, alcohol free event. One of the fundraisers the WCIA does is a shopping day at Roche Bros. who once again has agreed to donate 5% of all receipts and gifts certificates purchased to the party. This year's shopping day will take place on Thursday, May 8 between the hours of 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm.

Here is how you can help:

• Shop at Roche Bros. on Thursday, May 8 between the hours of 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm and hand your receipt to a volunteer at the door as you leave.
• Purchase gift certificates at Roche Bros. on May 8 between the hours of 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm.

Remember that Roche Bros will donate $5 to the All Night Graduation Party for every $100 you spend! Buy Gift Certificates for a month's shopping and really make a difference!

We have good schools in Westwood. We don't need U.S. News and World Report to confirm that, but it is always great to see some recognition. Over 10 years ago, I worked with a guy in San Francisco, Bill Jackson, whose dream was to improve K-12 education by giving parents access to more information and stimulating their involvement in the schools to make good schools "Great Schools." You can see the fruits of his labor at greatschools.net, a website that allows you to compare schools, write reviews, and track improvements over time. I was happy to find that the Westwood Schools all receieved 10/10 ratings from greatschools, but it is based entirely on MCAS scores. As parents and educators, you can visit the site and write reviews and/or provide more information to better complete the picture--as has been done by parents in Wellesley, etc.

It's not a competition, although of course you will do as I did and look up your school and then sort by test scores to see how others did. The idea behind greatschools is to provide a basic starting point using public data, then encourage parents and educators to supplement that information with more specific details.

The Hometown Weekly, reports that Westwood High School has been recognized as a "Silver Medal" school by U.S. News and World Report in their Best High Schools feature. The Boston area did very well; the magazine does an in-depth profile of two Gold Medal "winners:" Boston Latin and MATCH Charter and awards Silver Medals to our neighboring Norfolk county high schools in Needham, Brookline, Medfield, Millis, and Sharon. Wellesley Senior High and Dover-Sherborn Regional were also Gold Medal winners.

I think it is great the school is getting some recognition, but I'm a little tired of these U.S. News rankings. It's fun when your school, city, college, graduate school, or whatever else they dream up comes out on top or at least better than somebody you don't like...but what's the point really? The schools should be the best they can be for our community--which is less about test scores and more about relevence to preparing kids for the future.