NEWTON
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
OFFICE
OF THE SUPERINTENDENT
MEMORANDUM
TO: School
Committee
FROM: Jeffrey M. Young
Superintendent of
Schools
DATE:
RE:
Following
the work of the NNHS Citizens Task Force, the School Committee asked the school
administration to prepare an updated statement of educational and programmatic
needs that should be considered as the project design team begins a feasibility
study. While similar studies were
undertaken by school staff in previous years, the aim here is to confirm or
modify our earlier thinking, particularly as the educational goals for the
building project pertain to the “Large Hybrid” model described by the Task
Force. This memorandum details the
teaching and learning goals, as well as the social and cultural objectives we
believe are essential if the ultimate design of NNHS is to appropriately create
the best physical conditions for future education in
1.
The Large
Hybrid has the potential to achieve many of the educational goals identified by
the school administration and the NNHS staff.
• The educational specifications voted by the School Committee
contain sufficient classroom space to house English, social studies,
mathematics, science, and world language classes, given the projected
enrollment at North. The same is true
for the arts, music, business, library/media and technology.
• The ed specs
contain adequate square footage for a revised Career and Technical Education
program, assuming the elimination of the auto body program and the introduction
of A+/N+ networking and biotechnology offerings. Cosmetology is not covered in the ed specs, nor is it recommended as a program to be
introduced at this time.
• All of the infrastructure upgrades
identified in the first feasibility study are carried forward to the Large
Hybrid model, so that all safety and health concerns, including air quality,
are addressed.
• Teacher workspace is recognized as a
critical element of a successful modern high school, and the Large Hybrid
appears to contain enough space to afford staff the opportunity for
conferencing with students, parents and colleagues as well as for quiet private
work. Details on design (i.e., cubicles
vs. group work areas) are yet to be determined.
2.
The concept of
the Large Hybrid raises some questions and may present some limitations on the
way NNHS operates.
• Main Street
is widely regarded as an essential cultural feature of North, a gathering place
for students and staff where important connections are made daily. It is possible that within a Large Hybrid
model,
• Guidance and
counseling spaces need to be re-examined in the feasibility study. The original ed
specs do not capture the scope of services counselors offer to students and
families.
• Special
education spaces need to be further analyzed, and the ed
specs will need to be changed in order to provide the breadth and depth of
services NNHS students require.
3.
There has been
less analysis of the potential of building a brand new NNHS, but this option
should be considered as part of the feasibility study.
•
Consideration of entirely new construction would pose a new set of questions
and challenges for the staff, specifically, “How would we use approximately
450,000 square feet to educate nearly 1900 students?”
What we want
at
Staff and
community discussions of what we sought in a new/renovated NNHS began in 1999
and have continued in the past year after the original project was put on hold
because of safety and phasing concerns.
In the past two weeks, I have met with the principal, department heads,
housemasters and teachers at North to revisit the original assumptions and the
future hopes for the project. Many of
the values and beliefs expressed several years ago remain paramount today.
Education at
North should embrace the ideals of academic challenge and support, positive
relations between staff and students, opportunities for individual students to
discover their uniqueness as young adults, and a strong sense of community. The curriculum should emphasize a strong,
coherent core of academics, and it should provide ample opportunity for
students to pursue elective studies and extracurricular activities.
The school
should be organized in such a way that adults and students can know one another
well enough to foster civility, mutual respect, and a true sense of
community. The human relationships that
grow up among staff members and students are essential in ensuring that all
students reach the achievement levels we expect of them. These conditions are also key
in providing a safe, secure, positive environment for learning and teaching.
School culture
can be thought of as the soil in which the achievement of students,
academically and socially, can grow and flourish. Culture must be respected and nurtured, and
there are several important areas in which the physical plant of a school
building can either aid or deter the evolution of a healthy educational
environment.
At Newton
North, the house structure is central to the success of the school. Housemasters find value in walking around the
school, maintaining a presence and engaging in frequent interpersonal
interactions. The notion of smaller
learning communities, wherein staff and students are organized into units or
teams holds great appeal for the school staff; at this time, we do not envision
any particular architectural necessities to advance this ideal. It is more of an administrative and cultural
change that we seek. Flexible space
should be preserved where possible as we explore this idea further.
As mentioned
above,
The
friendships that grow up among students on
For reasons of
safety, security, and providing a welcoming feeling to the high school, we
strongly recommend that the principal’s office be moved to the first
floor. In addition, it will be important
during the feasibility and design phases of the project to ensure adequate
conference space for small and large groups.
Community use of the school is also part of our vision; plans should be
put in place to foster the growth of Newton Community Education and to make the
school’s facilities, including the auditorium, the stadium and the swimming
pool, accessible and inviting to the general public.
Finally,
the school must be clean and functional.
A recent report from the National Association of Secondary School
Principals in partnership with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching puts it this way:
“The condition of facilities can affect
the climate for learning. All aspects of
the high school’s physical environment have an impact on students and their
inclination to achieve. The physical
setting of a high school should nurture a student in much the same way that the
clean, safe interior of a home makes the youngster feel comfortable and
secure. The physical environment of a
high school ought to lend a sense of affirming, supporting, tolerating,
accepting, and caring. Americans must
provide the kinds of school facilities that show students that society values
them. In this connection, districts
should ensure that facilities are accessible to the disabled, which, after all,
is a legal requirement. Furthermore,
schools must provide for the safety of all people who use the facilities,
making certain, for instance, that fire alarms and sprinkler systems work and
that the design of parking lots protects pedestrians.”
As
noted above, most of the academic programs see no change from the previous
iterations of this project. That is, the
educational specifications voted by the School Committee in 2001 still apply. In some cases, the opportunity to think fresh
thoughts has produced new ideas about how particular programs might be housed
in a differently designed NNHS. The
chart at the end of this memo summarizes the program areas we have discussed in
terms of whether the educational objectives we described in 1999 have remained
the same, and whether the School Committee would need to re-consider and
re-vote the ed specs for those areas.
Some
highlights of the departmental goals:
•
Science – All science classrooms/labs
should be located in the new construction; storage and preparation space are
critical; science classrooms should be located near Career and Tech Ed programs
to foster interdisciplinary study.
•
Social Studies – Early project
planning recognized the usefulness of outfitting a classroom with furnishings
we have in storage from the Newton District Courthouse; support for the Mock
Trial program and other possible uses in English and Social Studies classes is
advised.
•
Career and Technical Education – This
program, which serves all students via exploratory courses as well as 120
“career majors,” is a key component of the NNHS curriculum. The following programs will remain in this
area: auto technology, child studies (including Plowshares),
carpentry/construction, electrical, drafting/CAD, graphics, culinary arts,
robotics, technology/engineering lab, and family and consumer science. We have begun the A+/N+ networking programs
and are poised to introduce biotechnology and allied health. A proposed elder care program can be
consolidated with childcare. At this
time we are not proposing to add Cosmetology to our local program; students
will continue to be tuitioned out for this option. We strongly urge that the Tiger’s Loft
student-operated restaurant be moved to the first floor of NNHS to allow
greater community access. Citywide, the
goal is to offer complementary programs at Newton South high School, affording
all
•
Guidance and Counseling – This
department provides a variety of services, including individual work with
students, group discussions with fifteen or more students at a time,
staff/parent conferences, and college and career counseling. Counselors’ offices should be scattered
throughout the building with two or three paired together. This decentralized arrangement facilitates
the confidentiality counselors believe students and parents seek. The Department Chair should be situated near
the principal’s office to enhance communication and to provide a welcoming
reception space for the many newly registering students and families. Conference space for parents and students to
meet with all of that student’s teachers and counselor is regarded as an
extremely important component of the counseling services.
•
Special Education – While inclusion
is the primary focus at NNHS, the school runs a number of specialized in-house
programs, including Pilot, New Start, Integrated, Connections,
•
Athletics – Task Force members
rightly raised questions about the availability and use of playing fields
during and after construction. This
matter should be examined thoroughly, as athletics is a significant part of
what makes NNHS special. Although it was
not part of the original scope of the project, Dickinson Stadium must be part
of the feasibility study and future project planning. With that facility in its current state of disrepair,
this is the time to decide how best to refurbish or replace that familiar and
important landmark.
Following
this discussion, the architects and the project manager will commence work on
the feasibility study. They will weigh
the educational and programmatic goals outlined in this memo and describe how
well those objectives are met by the Large Hybrid model as well as by an
entirely new school. Decision-making
matrices to help policymakers understand the trade-offs associated with each
model will be developed.
Clearly,
project financing is a high priority, and eventually the School Committee, the
Mayor, the Board of Aldermen, and the citizens of Newton will need to decide
how best to achieve our educational aims at a cost that is acceptable to the
City.
As
the team moves through the feasibility study and then on to design development,
I cannot state strongly enough how important it is for the faculty and staff at
Newton North to have an ongoing voice in the process. These are the people who live at the school
and use it every day; they understand, better than anyone else, how the real
life of the school works. Finally, the
school administration stands ready to assist the School Committee in its
information gathering and analysis as we set out to make the best decisions for
the students of
JMY/mb