Bedford education leaders are relieved that the schools navigated the Covid-19 pandemic with reasonable success. And they are excited, albeit cautious, about the prospects for 2021-22.
These sentiments were apparent during last week’s community forum sponsored by The Bedford Citizen. The program, entitled “The Academic Impact of the Pandemic and How the Schools Will Respond,” was presented as a webinar on the Zoom platform.
Panelists were Assistant Superintendent of Schools Tricia Clifford, Special Education Director Marianne Vines, Davis School Principal Beth Benoit, Lane School Principal Rob Ackerman, and Bedford High School Principal Heather Galante. John Glenn Middle School is between principals.
Superintendent of Schools Philip Conrad, serving as panel moderator, acknowledged that “The pandemic was difficult for everybody. We need to figure out where everybody is so we can figure out how to support our students and families.”
Schools are focused on the question, “How we are going to help kids get and stay on track for the fall?” he said. “As we begin to think about the next school year, we want to make sure we have an umbrella to cover kids, making sure that teachers and students can make connections when they come back.”
“Our focus next year is going to be making sure students get grade-level-appropriate instruction and make sure that on-time scaffolding is available for students. If teachers see students need some scaffolding, they can jump right in.”
Asked about efforts to connect with families, Benoit said that at each grade level, families will be invited to webinars that allow for questions in the coming year. “Given the stress that took place, we want to make sure that every family unit has an opportunity to talk about how children will experience transitions.”
In the fall Benoit anticipates ways “for families to come together in traditional ways. We are going to bring together grade-level groups to have specific conversations about the response to the intervention process, how do we decide when and how to differentiate, and at what degree.”
“We want families to hear about the process, to learn more about screening assessments,” she continued. “We know families have a lot of wonders about where students are, and we want to provide a clear picture.” Most important, she asserted, is: “Keep the children happy, joyful learners. We want that joy to be part of their learning experience.”
The joy factor was an important piece of the 2020-21 year as well, Conrad said, as evidenced “every time we changed the model.” The return of Davis School to full-time learning in April had an atmosphere like the opening day of school, he said.
Ackerman stressed the significance of the annual transition meeting for incoming third graders. “There’s always a level of anxiety,” he said. “Parents are so curious as to what school is going to look like next year.” Questions aren’t that different from any other year, about a typical school day, or how teachers will respond to students who have been struggling.
“We offer tours throughout the summer. They are a chance for me to connect with kids and parents, to alleviate those jitters,” added Ackerman. “Some second grades have already visited and asked questions.” He said there will be Zoom meetings for parents through the summer as details take shape for 2021-22, and an event will be scheduled in mid-to-late August especially for Boston families. “We expect it to look like a normal year.”
Galante noted the value of the advisory program this past school year, accelerated by one year as requested by students. Groups of BHS students meet with an adult twice every six-day cycle. “Faculty members are all on board and they answered students’ craving for connection.” Teachers, she added, are “well-versed in trauma-sensitive practices.”
Asked about building community, Galante said, “Our students have a rigorous academic offering. We have tons of resources. But also integral to the high school experience are those activities, class events. As a team, we are thoughtfully planning for some of those.”
For example, she noted that incoming ninth and tenth graders missed the usual grade 8 trips to Washington, DC, and Canobie Lake Park. “What can we do to give them a communal connection. How do we mitigate the transition for sophomores? We are thinking as a class and as a school community.”
Galante added a note of caution. “We are planning for a potential struggle if next year doesn’t go as planned. We are going to be there to help get them through post-pandemic pressures.”
Benoit pointed out that at Davis and Lane Schools, teachers follow the model known as Responsive Classroom, which incorporates “focused class meetings to set goals for the day, sharing advice from the day before. You have a community that helps achieve individual goals, giving advice, feedback, and support.”
The approach addresses the “challenges of learning and socialization. It is built out of resilient theory – real clear policies and procedures on how to create those environments for students to feel safe.”
Ackerman noted that “because elementary students spend 80 percent of the day with one adult, “it’s a huge focus on our school on who we hire. The teachers have to connect with the kids. The kids have to look forward to being in the classroom and connecting with teachers and peers. We have to find adults who have that ability to connect with kids – warm demanders.”
Asked about the middle school, Conrad said students also will have an advisory program. “The teachers are in a team, so as students start to be with a different teacher, that team can really put some safety rails around that student, figure out what the student needs and how to get needs met. The ‘whole child’ approach makes sure the child has social-emotional and academic [support] and the activities,” he explained.
Clifford said, “We are all in agreement that much work has been done in the area of social-emotional learning. Students need to feel heard, need to feel they are part of the classroom. That is a priority.”
Vines commented that “the biggest concern is social-emotional needs and how a pandemic can really impact.” The pandemic exacerbated the needs of students who already warranted direct support in connecting with others. We were fortunate to bring students back sooner and already being able to start that work. It is embedded throughout the curriculum, throughout the day. We’re not doing that in isolation.”
She acknowledged the support of school counselors. (The Citizen is considering a separate forum featuring counseling priorities and social-emotional learning.)
Clifford also emphasized curriculum review in a particular area; a continued focus on grade-level standards, with calibration planned for the summer; and assessment in math and reading for all grades and science in the upper grades. “We have a lot of professional development; we’re really lucky that our teachers are so invested.”
Clifford also described “response to intervention,” when “different students need help in different areas. We use literacy specialists and other folks for tiered intervention. The good news is that much of this is work we have been doing.”
“The state has pushed us to really look at our curriculum regarding equity,” Conrad said, “helping students to see themselves in things, having windows and doors in which they can see and enter experiences.”
Galante addressed that topic. Upcoming will be “a cultural review with program administrators and directors. We want students to have robust and rigorous experiences, consistent experiences across the school, and we also want them to see themselves reflected in the curriculum.”
“What we really worked on this year was a template,” she continued. “As faculty build lessons in content areas, we want to make sure we are hitting all these key areas: are all students able to access this material? If not, what accommodations are we making and are we looking through a culturally proficient lens?”
‘We are rolling it out to all the departments beginning next year. It’s a three-year process, with lots of student and faculty feedback, within departments and as a whole school.”
Conrad said health guidelines from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are beginning to emerge, but in Bedford, it already has been decided to maintain high levels of ventilation and air filtration and exchange.
In answer to a question about the budget for the coming year, Conrad explained the reserve fund approved by town meeting “that we can draw on if we need to make sure our class sizes are smaller, our social and emotional learning needs are taken care of, whatever needs we have.” He added that the schools have committed to exhaust all federal and state resources before turning to the local reserve.
Addressing the school-wide literacy plan, Clifford said one of the big changes is in sixth grade, which will now feature both a writing and reading class “for the solid foundation in literacy.”
Vines acknowledged parental concerns “about reading instruction for the younger grades and how has the pandemic impacted their ability to learn reading. One of the silver linings of Covid is how teams worked together to make sure our students are all receiving the type of instruction they needed, remotely or in person, in general education and special education.”
Conrad addressed a question about vaccination. “We are not going to require vaccinations for teachers and students,” he said. “There are protocols in place for those who are not vaccinated. We are hoping that we will be in the 75-80 percent range, which will give us herd immunity. We have been fortunate our community has jumped on vaccines. As soon as we know what’s available for younger students, we probably will be involved in that.”
The most specific question was how to separate students from their electronic devices.
“We’ve had this question throughout the year,” Ackerman said. “The parents really have to become the parents and tell the kids: ‘Here is when you can use it and here’s when you can’t. And you’ve got to be strong enough to tell the children. It’s really difficult, and most of us absolutely fail at times, but it’s the only true way to educate them about the downside.”
Galante responded from the perspective of a high school student. “We want to make information in cell phones accessible. In a large portion of classes, students are engaged — kids don’t have their heads buried in their phones all day. Students do a real nice job at school not being tied to their devices. At the high-school level, you can’t just take phones away. We drive home responsible use. They hear it over and over again in the curriculum, peer leadership.” But she acknowledged, “It is a struggle.”
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
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