The NBEA Board of Directors represents the views of its members and our members have made their position clear. We cannot and will not support proposals which will harm our students and members. We encourage UIA to support initiatives like the Engineering Academy at New Bedford High School.
The NBHS Academy of Engineering is a new academic option for New Bedford High School students that began as a pragmatic idea by a group of technology teachers. Through their efforts and with only the funds and resources they already possessed, they have forged a partnership with the National Academy Foundation and have brought this idea to fruition. More information about NAF can be found at: http://naf.org/
The academy is located in its already existing space of the shop and tech classrooms located in the D-block of the high school. Teachers volunteered their time to plan and design an academy that meets the needs of the students, DESE requirements, and works within the parameters of the school building and the NBEA Contract. This exciting program was designed/implemented with no additional funding. What they have done is nothing short of monumental.
Through internships, job shadowing, certification programs, and dual enrollment options, student will gain work force and college readiness. Students can choose from one of 4 pathways including: Construction Technology & Architecture, Power & Energy, Computer Specialization, and Robotics.
Already armed with an impressive lineup of community and business partnerships, this academy promises a bright future for itself and students and could become a model for others like it. Robotics students have set an outstanding bar of achievement by placing and winning in several state and national competitions.
This is a positive example of what happens when innovative thinkers drive forward to accomplish progress no matter what the limitations or lack of resources. They serve as excellent examples to our students.
9 comments:
As most of our members blissfully continue their summer vacations, the forces that want to take away our collective bargaining rights are hard at work.
Last week, it was the student group. This week, the UIA. Their common denominator: support from those "Giants of Journalism" over at the S-T. I wonder if Steve Urbon will quote me. It must be tough spending most of your career at a second-rate paper. How's that for "invective?"
I have to wonder why the two proposals can't follow the excellent example set by the NBHS Engineering Academy. Well, because this isn't about the kids. These proposals are all about money and power. What's even more insulting is when political groups use religion to advance their agenda.
Here is a preview of what is coming to New Bedford:
http://vimeo.com/41994760#at=0
Some of the practices in the video are used at our 2 charters.
The UIA must be stopped.
Congratulations to our Engineering Academy students and teachers for their excellent work and making the New Bedford Public Schools a shining star. Our elected School Committee members should be praising their accomplishments on the radio, in the newspaper, as well as showcasing them at the School Committee meeting.
To the Anonymous poster who provided the link to the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman"...thank you! I plan to use this film to help our district understand what we must do to fight back against the system. I have already ordered a free DVD, and hope to find a proper venue to screen the film in the near future. It's not too late to change the course of the way things are going...
After attending the meeting at Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. James Church in NB last night, I was very dismayed to find that the two so-called "innovation" schools that are proposed simply aren't all that innovative. The two "design teams" each presented their cases, touting mission and vision statements, which while nice sounding, simply weren't all that different from any other mission or vision statements found anywhere else. Anyone can promise anything -- it doesn't really make it happen.
Two of the city's schools would be affected by the development of the two schools with wonderful names (Esperanza School of Language and Culture & Renaissance Community School for the Arts) -- Roosevelt Middle School, and Gomes Elementary. What these design teams want is to move into our schools, co-locating and taking over the very resources that are already in use at the schools. For instance, it was stated last night in their power point presentation that the "dual immersion" innovation school would consist of 50% ELL students and 50% English-speaking students in grades K-8 (two classes per grade) taking up residence at Roosevelt Middle School. Why? Because as they reported, Roosevelt has all this extra space that they are not using, and that the population of ELL students is concentrated in the South End of NB. Wrong and well, wrong. I work at Roosevelt, and I can honestly say that we DO NOT have 18 classrooms to give up; in fact, nearly all of our classrooms are full at this time with approximately 850 students per year attending. To install an innovation school in this location would certainly mean displacing the students who already have the right to be there in their neighborhood middle school and having them double up in classroom sizes of over 35 students in order to "make room" for all these extra students who will have smaller class sizes. Also, although RMS houses the SEI population for the middle schools in the city at this time, the majority of those students live in the North End of the city and are bused in each day. So why isn't this school being placed at Normandin Middle School in the North End? Hmmm.
In addition, they would be siphoning off our resources of workers such as custodians and cafeteria workers, as well as utilizing the bathrooms, gymnasium, nurse's office, etc. This means double work and less pverall space, including office space for those already working at Roosevelt. Not to mention that they would be placing K-2 students with much older students in 6-8 grade which research has shown is not developmentally helpful (which is why we have junior high and middle schools in the first place). Parents and teachers need to stand up and say NO to this ridiculous proposal.
The same goes for Gomes school. This is a school that the "innovative dream team" claimed had an issue with having many students who are at-risk for dropping out. Well, why not help those students rather than taking all of their current resources and re-routing them elsewhere? The reality is that small autonomous schools DO NOT take in ALL students. They pick and choose those students not requiring more extensive Special Ed services, or those that do not have a history of disciplinary issues. And if by some chance they take under their wing a SPED student that doesn't work out, they have IEP meetings geared toward moving that child out of their building. Where do they go? Back to their neighborhood public school, who welcomes them back AND provides them with the services they need. They claim that they will NOT ever expel any students, force them to leave their wonderful little art school, and keep them through all grades K-5. They stated that they would do everything in their power to forge and maintain relationships with parents. Wonderful, but not necessarily realistic. Small autonomous schools? Hardly not. If they are so autonomous, why can't they provide their own buildings, resources and supplies and leave ours alone?
The S-T left out a key detail in Tuesday's article about the Esperanza School. It would be housed at Roosevelt.
The faculties of Gomes and Roosevelt will have the opportunity to vote on the proposals. I urge them to watch the video at the link below to see the evidence of how destructive it is to have a charter move into your building. Let's be truthful. An "innovation school" is really a charter school.
http://vimeo.com/41994760#at=0
To the commenter that suggests the program should be at Normandin, we are completely overcrowded at Normandin. We have students on special permission (who misbehave and still stay) and with the redistricting that occurred last year our numbers are very high. The highest of the three middle schools.
I do agree that housing the program in any of the middle schools would be a disaster. These ideas look good on paper but are totally unrealistic.
To the person who suggested they use Normandin middle school. We do not have one empty room to spare and have the highest numbers in the district so that is a crazy proposal. I have a better proposal...how about we stand together to fight this, how about we stop these ridiculous proposals altogether? We need to change what we have done thus far because it isn't working and we all agree. But these proposals are NOT in the best interest of the students, teachers, schools, district, anyone for that matter. We have to stand together and stop passing students along that do not have basic skills. We must expect them to self manage and summer school should be a place for remediation and should only be for students who failed one subject not four! Let's make some changes that will benefit the district as a whole, look at our reading program, our ESL program, our retention program, discipline program, have consistency across the district. Finally, get rid of the "bad eggs" the ones at Prab, administrators, and teachers. Hold everyone accountable, parents and students alike! This isn't rocket science.
I agree with the last post. Whether you work at Gomes, Roosevelt, or another building, the innovation school proposals have an impact on YOU! We must all stand together. One or two innovation schools would likely lead to more. Changes at Gomes and/or Roosevelt would likely lead to higher enrollments elsewhere.
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