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Schools

Suffield Educators Finish Year by Setting Stage for 2012

Superintendent of Schools Karen Baldwin outlined academic reform strategies and budgetary priorities at a Suffield Board of Education meeting Tuesday night.

While Santa’s elves were busy in their workshop, crafting toys for good girls and boys, the Suffield Board of Education held its own workshop last night at .

The session allowed Superintendent of Schools Karen Baldwin to discuss plans for district wide improvements as well as lay out the budget focus for 2012. Coming on the heels on , the educators were able to see a picture of what 2012 may bring for Suffield and how much it may cost.

The state of Connecticut has mandated changes in education and communities will need to make changes in classroom approaches and methodology in order to meet the new standards. This is going to have a price tag as well but no one is sure how much that cost will be.

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To meet these new standards, one of Baldwin’s objectives will be greater teacher collaboration for the overall improvement of education.

“There is predominantly an isolationist culture in education,” she said. “Not just here but everywhere. We need to change that culture and capitalize on the talent that we have here… that is how we are going to see improvement… finding ways to bring teachers together.”

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This could mean more teacher workshops, professional development days and other collaborative efforts. Currently, a team-teaching approach is employed in Suffield, along other Connecticut town, and this is just a beginning. As Baldwin noted, the team and data-sharing plans used in Suffield have been around for a few years, the question has been the leadership involved in implementing this data and actual changes within the classrooms on a daily basis.

When speaking about the past teacher workshops and professional development initiatives, Baldwin noted, “We can do these until we are blue in the face but if it doesn’t come back to the classroom then we are wasting our time.”

To that end, Baldwin has attended faculty meetings and will continue to play a visible role in the implementation of the new direction.

At the core of the initiative will be the creation of Student Success Plans for all students that can be utilized across the board by all teachers. Currently, the state is just forming the framework for these plans, Baldwin said, but they are going to integral for the delivery of education statewide in the coming years.

“There are so many things that have been done in the past that don’t have any substance to [them], is there anything we can do to show how this effort will build momentum?” Asked board member Jeanne Gee.

“We need some quick wins to build that momentum,” said fellow panelist Bob Eccles.

Baldwin emphasized that the continued connection with building principals will generate the participation and the quick wins.

“Authenticity and trust pieces here are huge,” she added. “We have to show how this works and looks to them and show that she said 'she was going to do it' and that it is actually getting done. But make no mistake, this work has to be done at the building level.”

When is came to the budget, Baldwin emphasized that one of her priorities will be finding and creating efficiencies within central office and the school system. She added that the budget priorities need to focus on the findings of the recent Blum Shapiro report received by the board and the CREC report on special education.

One of the challenges, she noted, was that “the CREC report findings showed there seems to be a system of regular education and a system of special education... There needs to be ways to combine them and this is going to have an impact on the budget.”

“Our goal is excellent educational outcomes,” Eccles added. “This is the most important thing we do and we need to define these goals and support them in the community to ensure we get the budget we need to achieve these goals.”

Baldwin and the central office staff will begin meetings with the board throughout the early part of the coming year with a strategic plan to be in place for 2012 – the hope is to hit the targets both educationally and economically.

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