The
2008 Bell School School Improvement Plan has been completed thanks to
the effort of the members of the Site Based Management Team. The
team is composed of staff and parents of the Bell School
Community. Special thanks to the members of this committee who
work diligently toward our goal of making Bell School the best that it
can be. The members of the SBMT are:
Eurim Chun, Parent
Representative
Amy Duffy, Teacher
Representative
Sandy LeFleur, Early Childhood
Staff Representative
Maura Dartley-Rocco, Parent
Representative
Paula Gold, Parent
Representative (Co-chairperson)
Martha Gurman, Teacher
Representative (Recorder)
Stephen Medeiros, Principal
(Co-chairperson)
Carol Neumann, Staff
Representative
Robert Picariello, Community
Representative
Lindsay Turcotte, Teacher
Representative
In this
report you will find references to the School Improvement Plans from
2002-2007. The goals from these plans and an analysis of the
success that we have made toward reaching these goals are also
included. These goals were developed over the years in an effort
to focus our efforts.
The
annual SBMT survey continues to provide the SBMT and school staff with
important information regarding how parents perceive school
issues. Over the past four years, the SBMT has focused on
buildings and playgrounds, along with other issues. With
playgrounds now complying to safety and handicapped accessible codes,
we can now move on to other
issues.
Thanks
to the efforts of our technology department, communication continues to
improve between staff and parents. Nevertheless, there were some
comments that were related to the lack of use of email as a tool for
parents to employ to keep the lines of communication open between
parents and teachers. However, with the capability now available
through "First Class," Bell School will now mandate its use for
teachers in 08-09. This does come with some important
restrictions and understandings. A pre-k through 3 building does
not provide as much planning time, due to the self-contained classroom
model. This model does limit the time that elementary teachers
have to answer emails. Thus, we will institute a 24 hour policy
(Monday through Friday), requiring teachers to respond in that time
period using whatever means available (note, email, phone call, etc.).
As
noted last year, Bell is the newest elementary school, but it is
40 years old, and there are some issues that should be addressed before
the building deteriorates. One major problem is the plumbing in
our student lavatories, which no longer works efficiently and leads to
some rather disgusting cleanliness issues. Replacement of the
plumbing in these lavatories is a major priority. Thanks to the
generosity of the PTO, along with some individual donations, plans are
now in the works to address these concerns. We will be looking
for school department's support to address ongoing issues such as
replacement of folding walls with permanent structures, as well as the
elimination of the carpeting in the school to be replaced with tile
flooring.
Building repair and maintenance is consistently the second lowest
scoring item on our annual survey. The Bell PTO has been working
to provide a more attractive and well-landscaped campus, while also
using their treasury to provide quality outdoor play equipment, and now
supporting new and exciting technology needs. The Bell School PTO
will continue to provide "Smart Board" technology and has already
provided wireless internet access at Bell School. This is
all done in addition to providing our school with new playgrounds and
new landscaping. Their contribution of time and money continues
to play a critical role in making Bell the best it can be.
Another low
scoring item has been the "school lunch" question. In addition to
addressing these issues, which have resulted in some positive changes,
the Bell School SBMT (Martha Gurman) wrote a grant for the return of
the "Food Play," that focuses on improved eating habits for
students. SBMT was awarded the grant from the "Marblehead
Friends" to fund this program along with the curriculum materials that
promote healthy choices. Additionally, we are addressing health
issues through the PTO's "walking school bus" program, which provides
supervised groups of students from four separate locations the
opportunity to walk to school once each week in a large supervised
environment. We will also be supporting the district grant
request being coordinated by Mary Devlin, to support our families and
their neighborhood schools in building walkable "Safe Routes to School."
The Bell School
SBMT also fully supports any initiatives to increase the safety of our
children. A few concerns were stated in the surveys, and it is
our intention to review and assess current safety policies.
This year's
report has also added a report on School Committee questions.
Last year, the Committee decided to take the annual survey and expand
it to include additional questions of interest to the entire school
district. Those questions were added and the results reported
here for your review.
All in
all, the Bell SBMT has worked hard to address all concerns outlined in
the survey. We have not only addressed the concerns that were
reflected by many parents, but also those concerns of merit that might
have only been addressed by a few parents. The Bell SBMT feels
that all concerns should be addressed. It is our intention to do
so in 2008-09.
|