February 17, 2012

Dear Parents and Guardians:

I hope everyone will enjoy a little time off with the students at home during February school vacation. Heading into March everyone buckles down and works, as holidays and vacations have passed. Could it be that the weather keeps us all indoors and we are all just waiting for spring?

It will certainly be a busy month for the schools. After the budget hearing on the 29th of February at 5 pm, the School Committee and the Town will have to decide what to ask the Town to financially support. Education is not cheap, but the effects last a lifetime. We have some special education programs we need to add or expand and class sizes that are too high. Any additions will put us beyond an increase of 2.5%. We may even be forced to cut some programs or increase fees again to make room for the special education programs that we are mandated to provide.

The struggle to secure the needed resources is tugging against our ability to meet all of our students' success. We know our best students can compete with their peers and that they can get into the best of colleges, but just as important is “why do we have students that are not successful?” In 2003, there were 37 students listed as “Dropped Out”.   Over the last three years the average has been 16 WHS students per year.

In an effort to further decrease the number of drop-outs, we have actively been looking at the profiles of students who are not successful. Our research has indicated that these high risk students have substantial needs related to school, home and problems that are social- emotional in nature. We are working together to develop internal programs and protocols to identify these students early and intervene sooner rather than later. One common issue that many of these students have is with attendance. In many cases they are absent for more than 10% of the year over several years, resulting in substantial gaps in learning. Another predominant characteristic we see is students who have emotional, family, or substance abuse issues. We have tried to address these issues by adding counseling staff (WHS and WES), and by intervening more aggressively with the help of the school adjustment counselors and the school resource officer. Examples of interventions include pursuing court involvement with families where students are chronically absent. Additionally, many of these students also have behavioral issues that require removal from classes on a regular basis. We have trained some staff in behavioral approaches and interventions that may have some effect on the student culture over time, but not necessarily in the short term.

In addition to these issues, there are students with learning difficulties who have been retained or who have failed to make sufficient academic progress separating them from their peer group through the years. Very often these same students tend to be in special classes that remove them from the mainstream. We have added some programs in SPED to help students succeed in the mainstream, but constantly battle the tendency from well-intentioned adults to request special placements for students who require assistance that remove them from the mainstream. These placements should be reserved for only the most severe of cases.

In all, we have started to slowly add some supports for these students and overall the trend for dropping out is beginning to lower. However, additional progress in this area will not come without additional resources to help staff deal with difficult students (those with behavior or academic issues), or to create programs for students to catch up (some surrounding districts have night, after school, or summer offerings beyond what we can supply). Finally, we still struggle to provide the basics of reducing class sizes and in the long term, this will affect students in the margins. Students who could be successful in smaller classes will struggle in larger class settings.

This brings these thoughts full circle. We struggle to convince the Town (you who vote) that the schools need additional resources, yet without them, we know some students will not be successful. So it is my hope that we all gather strength from a few days at home, so we can join together in building educational success. I hope to see you on Wednesday, February 29 for the budget hearing for the schools (5pm) in the High School Media Center.

Sincerely,

Dr. Carlos Colley

Superintendent of the Westport Community Schools