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March 14 marks one month since the tragic shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  Today is a day to solemnly remember the 14 students and 3 educators who were killed and to engage in reflection and civil discourse about preventing gun violence in schools. Divergent political views notwithstanding, we can unite in a commitment to pay our respects to these victims, and to the victims of 104 fatal shootings on school grounds since Columbine in 1999.

As the 20 Superintendents of 33 public school districts in Hampshire and Franklin Counties, and as the Executive Director of the Collaborative for Educational Services, we place a top priority on safe and supportive schools for all. To that end, our schools have long been engaged in multiple initiatives, including appropriate building security, collaboration with local law enforcement, and educator training in how to respond to threats to school safety.  We have also built pro-active systems and supports across all our schools and grades that are necessary for our children and youth to be safe and to thrive. These may include, but are not limited to, an increased focus on social and emotional learning; bullying prevention; asset-based, student-centered and culturally responsive practices; restorative justice and positive discipline approaches; equity and inclusion; trauma-informed education; and an intentional effort to ensure that every one of our students is known by a trusted adult who they can go to for support if and when needed.

Despite these many efforts, there are issues that are simply beyond the capabilities of schools.  Providing sufficient and timely mental health services is but one example.  Our community partners work with us on interventions and multiple wrap-around services, and together we do our best to address significant student needs.  Yet we note with alarm insufficient funding for – indeed, a disinvestment in – mental health and counseling services both in and out of school that are so critical for the health and safety of all. We, as a nation, must be willing to invest much more in both the educational system and in a range of needed community supports, including mental health services, for children, youth, and families.  This has to be one part of a comprehensive response to school violence.

The National School Walkout called for today poses unique challenges and opportunities for us. We want to ensure the safety of, and respect for, all students. On the one hand, we strive to honor the many students in Franklin and Hampshire counties who are responding to the tragedy at Parkland by using the critical lessons they have learned about American democracy and are using their hearts, their feet and their voices to address an issue that is critically important to them and to us.  At the same time, we strive to support all students and to make sure other opinions are respected and that students do not feel unduly influenced to follow their peers when they disagree.  To meet these twin challenges, educators and students in our districts are using this day — through classes, discussions, actions, projects, and assemblies, many of them designed by students – as an opportunity to practice, model, teach, and learn about civic engagement, how democracy works, and how we bring about change peacefully.  Each district is approaching this differently, and is doing so with consideration and respect for the developmental levels of our students in all of our schools.

We are proud to be administrators in Massachusetts public school districts.  After all, free public education for all was founded by Horace Mann in Massachusetts. As a state, and as a nation, we are extraordinary in our commitment and ability to provide appropriate and outstanding education to every single child who enters our system, no matter the many gifts or the challenges each one brings.  Let’s learn from this painful moment how to improve upon this legacy.

Signed by

William Diehl, Executive Director, Collaborative for Educational Services

Michael Morris, Superintendent, Amherst Pelham Regional School District

Karol Coffin, Superintendent, Belchertown Public Schools

Nancy Follansbee, Superintendent, Easthampton Public Schools

David Hopson, Superintendent, Gateway Regional School District

Sheryl Stanton, Superintendent, Granby Public Schools

Ann McKenzie, Superintendent, Hadley School District

Craig Jurgensen, Superintendent, Hampshire Regional School District

John Robert, Superintendent, Hatfield Public Schools

John Provost, Superintendent, Northampton Public Schools

Andrew Linkenhoker, Superintendent, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School

Nicholas Young, Superintendent, South Hadley Public Schools

Marlene DiLeo, Superintendent, Ware Public Schools

Jennifer Haggerty, Superintendent, Erving School Union #28

Richard Martin, Superintendent, Franklin County Technical Schools

Lynn Carey, Superintendent, Frontier Regional School District

Michael Sullivan, Superintendent, Gill-Montague Regional School District

Jordana Harper, Superintendent, Greenfield Public Schools

Michael Buoniconti, Superintendent, Mohawk Trail Regional School District

Ruth Miller, Superintendent, Pioneer Valley Regional School District

Tari Thomas, Superintendent, R.C. Mahar Regional School District

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In 1850, a Catholic orphanage called St. Aemilian was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to take in children whose parents had died in a cholera epidemic. 168 Years later, that same organization — now known as “SaintA” —  is still finding shelter for thousands of children who need it, often kids who have deep trauma in their young lives, and helps those kids with a revolutionary approach that’s spreading across the country.

No longer a residential orphanage, SaintA primarily places orphaned, abandoned, neglected and abused children in foster homes, and then coordinates their care. On any given day, it’s looking after some 2,000 children, almost all of whom are part of a 21st century epidemic of childhood trauma.

Alisha Fox: I got diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder when I was 15.

Milwaukee resident Alisha Fox was given that PTSD diagnosis seven years ago, months after she somehow found the courage to tell her grandmother – and then the police – of the terrible trauma she had been enduring.

Alisha Fox: For ten years, when I was four to 14. I’d been sexually abused and raped by my father.

Alisha’s father and mother split up even before she was born. Her dad eventually got custody because her mom had a drug problem, and he then hid his crimes from everyone for a decade.

Alisha Fox:  So during that whole time, I wasn’t a person. You know? I wasn’t anything. I wasn’t even my own property. I didn’t own myself. Somebody else did.

Oprah Winfrey: I can tell by the way you can speak about it, when you can say, “This thing happened to me from four to 14,” that now there’s been a clearing for you.

Alisha Fox: Right. Most people think that, you know, “Oh, she’s damaged,” or like, “Oh, she’s not gonna be okay,” but at the end of the day I think that I’m a survivor.

Oprah Winfrey: And every time you tell it, it makes you a little stronger.

Alisha Fox: Absolutely.

Alisha’s survival was not a sure thing. Her father went to prison for his crimes against his daughter; she went to live with her maternal grandmother and aunt, Bonnie and Michelle Hahn.

Oprah Winfrey: What did you think the first time you heard her described as suffering from PTSD?

Bonnie Hahn: I didn’t understand it because PTSD was for the veterans coming home from the war. That was what I thought it was. I had no idea.

Tim Grove: At the time, she was acutely suicidal.

Tim Grove is clinical director at SaintA, and he took responsibility for Alisha’s care.

Tim Grove: We might not be able to ever prevent the stuff that happens to kids. But we are fully in charge of how we respond when we see it.

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EASTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) – Hundreds of students attended a conference to learn how to overcome social justice issues at their schools.

Zemor Tevah, one of the educators at the event, told 22News students have a hard time feeling comfortable, “I feel like a lot of times, students are punished for being themselves. They’re constantly being policed and told what to do all day. To be able to change that dynamic, so that, they actually have a space where they feel comfortable.”

She and hundreds of educators and students, attended the Transforming Education for Social Justice conference, to find out how to make their schools more racially and gender inclusive.

Mishie Serrana from Holyoke High School said the school is taking matters into their own hands, by engaging in “circle practice” as a form of discipline, “Where students can talk things out with teachers, faculty, and even other students. So we that we can avoid altercations all together, further bringing down the suspension rate in our schools.”

The all day conference was coordinated by Collaborative for Educational Services. It was held at Easthampton High School. A school that was investigated by the Attorney General’s ofice for racial incidents, resulting in diversity and inclusion training.

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In January, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) filed a report with the Joint Committee on Ways & Means, the Joint Committee on Education and the Commonwealth’s Rural Policy Advisory Commission on Fiscal Conditions in Rural School Districts.  The report was part of a feasibility study requested by the legislature, relative to establishing a formula for aid to be distributed to rural school districts. It examines enrollment, staffing, spending trends, local aid, school choice, and charter school tuitions to understand the challenges facing rural districts.

The report documents the significant enrollment declines that have occurred over the last decade that have made it more expensive for rural districts to provide services. Rural districts employ more teachers and paraprofessionals per 100 students than other districts. While total spending grew at a faster rate in non-rural districts, average per pupil costs grew more quickly in rural districts, due to declining enrollment and rising costs. For instance, rural districts spend 50 percent more per pupil on transportation costs than districts across the rest of the state.

Changes to the Chapter 70 formula, reformulating how transportation reimbursements are determined, and providing resources and incentives to encourage districts to expand existing regional districts or share services more broadly, including through Massachusetts Collaboratives, are among the potential options discussed for working to address the resulting financial challenges.

Making sure the rural school districts in our region have the funding they need to thrive will be the topic of a forum on March 12th from 6:00-7:30pm in Shelburne Falls. State Senator Adam G. Hinds (D-Pittsfield) who serves as Senate co-chair of the Legislative Rural Caucus, is convening this policy conversation at his alma mater, Mohawk Trail Regional School, to highlight the fiscal conditions and challenges faced by rural school districts in western Massachusetts and statewide.

State education leaders from the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (ESE) will be in attendance to provide an overview of the recent legislative report filed with the General Court on the topic and answer questions. State Representative Stephen Kulik (D- Worthington), House co-chair of the Rural Caucus and vice-chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means is also confirmed to attend.
ESE Acting Commissioner Jeffrey Wulfson and Director of School Finance Rob O’Donnell are in western Mass. at Hinds’ invitation on March 12th to discuss recommendations and potential strategies to support rural school districts in the coming fiscal year. Hinds believes this conversation is timely as legislators are now preparing to deliberate FY19 state budget spending recommendations.

Municipal officials, school superintendents, school committee members and members of the public from across the region are encouraged to attend. Falls Cable, the public access television channel for Buckland and Shelburne, will tape and televise the event. During the forum ESE officials will report on important data, findings and recommendations from the report and Senator Hinds and Representative Kulik will facilitate an open discussion between officials and audience members.

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Woody Clift, CES Director of Department of Youth Services Education Initiative, was one of five panel experts at the Transforming Education for Youth in Connecticut’s Justice System event. Hosted by the Tow Youth Justice Institute at the University of New Haven, the event was sponsored by the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, the Center for Children’s Advocacy, and FAVOR.

Panelists discussed the challenges facing young people in detention centers and long-term custody, how education could be transformed for youth in custody, and what the best practices are for this type of change.

“It was an encouraging day, filled with passion, persistence, and a well thought out plan for reforming the state’s JJ system and improving outcomes for the youth who become justice involved in CT,” said Clift. Other panelists included Kathleen Sande, of the Washington State Office of Public Instruction in Washington State, Leon Smith, Director of the Racial Justice Project at the Center for Children’s Advocacy in Connecticut, and Kate Burdick, Staff Attorney at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

CES is proud that Dr. Clift could bring forward the great work of our educators and the progress we have made to improve outcomes for justice involved youth across Massachusetts

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It’s official: Jeff Riley will be the state’s next education commissioner.

Members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 8-3 to recommend Riley for the post. Among his supporters, Education Sec. James Peyser, who will make the official appointment.

“Riley is probably the best choice for us at this time,” Peyser said.

Riley has served as the state receiver supervising the turnaround of Lawrence Public Schools since 2012. He has won accolades in Massachusetts and beyond for his innovative management of the troubled system, which has experienced dramatic increases in graduation rates and some test scores.

But Board of Elementary and Secondary Education chair Paul Sagan cited intangibles as he declared his support for Riley. The various camps in education — charter school advocates, teachers’ unions, and others — “have fought with each other too much without breaking the logjam” to help students.

Riley was willing to cross boundaries in Lawrence, committing to a “third way” in education reform: partnering with both the union and with charter managers to run particular schools. And so he has won loyalty in surprising places: board members representing both the teacher’s unions and the business community declared their support for Riley early in Monday’s meeting.

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NORTHFIELD — The fact that Pioneer Valley Regional School science teacher Penney Betsold is this year’s winner of the Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Teaching came as no surprise to her students Tuesday afternoon.

“I could have called it,” Pioneer senior Matt Grover said, when Pioneer Principal Jean Bacon and Superintendent Ruth Miller entered Betsold’s second-floor classroom with a certificate and balloons.

Betsold, who is in her 11th year at Pioneer, said the award was “a lovely surprise,” as were her students’ congratulations and excitement for her.

“I’m really happy to be here teaching science, and lucky to have such wonderful students,” she said….

Betsold teaches ecology, biology, a combined advanced placement (AP) and non-AP environmental science class, and sometimes physics. She also oversees Pioneer’s Envirothon Team, which recently received a $1,000 grant from Project Learning Tree, a program of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Betsold said the grant will pay for development of a raised boardwalk to the campus wetlands as well as a rain garden that will be done in the spring.

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BUCKLAND — Hoping to boost state money to rural school districts by about $9.5 million, educators at the Massachusetts Rural Schools Coalition voted unanimously Wednesday to back a proposal for aid in the coming budget.

They also directed Coalition Chairman Michael Buoniconti to work with state Sen. Stan Rosenberg to put the school aid request before the Legislature in the current session.

If the coalition’s draft plan were approved as is, 71 rural school districts would stand to gain between $100- to $300-per-student more state aid, to compensate for the higher cost of doing business with fewer students per grade but with a full complement of teachers meeting state certification requirements.

“They could fix us with such cheap money,” said Quabbin Regional School District Superintendent Maureen Marshall. “$9 million is chump change, when you’re talking $9 million out of a multi-billion dollar (state) budget.”

Buoniconti, the Mohawk Trail Regional School District superintendent, created the criteria under which districts would qualify for different levels of rural aid. For instance, Tier 1 rural schools, with fewer than 10 students per mile, would receive the most aid, of $300 per student. Among the local school districts, those to benefit the most in new rural aid dollars would include: the Franklin County Technical School ($146,400), Frontier ($183,300), Mohawk Trail ($289,500), Pioneer Valley ($260,100) and Ralph C. Mahar ($225,600).

Schools districts with 10 to 20 students per mile would receive about $200 per student. These would include: Athol-Royalston ($293,200), Deerfield ($80,200), Orange ($125,800) and Quabbin ($449,600).

Districts in Tier 3, with between 20 to 35 students per square mile, would get $100 per student in aid. These include Gill-Montague ($95,100).

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Thank you for the article Jan. 17 announcing an innovative and exciting program to provide paid internship opportunities for high school students in Hampshire and Franklin counties (“Grant to boost internships in STEM”).

The internships will be in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and involve local employers. The Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board received a two-year grant from the Baker-Polito administration to organize and implement this effort.

The Collaborative for Educational Services in Northampton is taking the lead on this project, and building from our STEM Employer Action Group. The collaborative of 36 school districts in Franklin and Hampshire counties is uniquely positioned to implement regional education projects such as this.

We also work closely with the employment board and are most appreciative of its many years of successful work in regional workforce development and youth employment activities.

The collaborative welcomes inquiries from students, schools, or employers about this internship program to Matt Rigney at mrigney@collaborative.org.

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