Spring and Thoughts of Scheduling....

I love spring! Not only for the hint of warmer weather it promises because, for those of us on Cape Cod, we know that to be a cruel illusion. No, I love spring for the promise of the new school year it suggests. Every spring I begin the scheduling ritual and I am always encouraged because the process, though often tedious and frustrating, is also an exciting time of renewal. Though they would be reluctant to admit it, students are also excited to be selecting their courses for next year, a process which suggests that they are inching closer to that goal of graduating from high school and moving on the the next challenging phase of their lives. For me the scheduling process is a time of hope and optimism. It is also a time of challenges and ultimate success. Building a master schedule for a small school is daunting to say the least. Most of the courses we offer at CHS are singletons which makes conflicts inevitable. We ask students to indicate their course preferences and we do our best to accommodate them. Our first priority is to make sure every student gets what he or she needs and then we try to get them the courses they want. In a sense, we suggest to students the advice in the Rolling Stones song, "You can't always get what you want, but in the end you'll find, you get what you need!"

The real fun begins after the master schedule is set and the conflicts abound. Resolving schedule conflicts is like solving a Rubiks Cube. We make a few changes here and resolve a few conflicts only to create five more conflicts somewhere else in the schedule. But, in the end, we are encouraged that all of our students will have a schedule and we will be ready to go come September. That's what keeps me going throughout the spring and why I enjoy it so much!

For those of you who sat down with your son or daughter and discussed course selection with them over the past few weeks...thank you! Most of the course requests are now in and they look very good. Students seem to be selecting courses which will challenge them and suggest that they are not just looking for an easy way out. You and they have done a wonderful job and managed to get the forms in on deadline. Now it's time for me to get to work!

Open House or Empty House?

A few weeks ago, just after the start of our new semester, we held our second Open House of the year so parents could meet their children's second semester teachers, hear about their course syllabi and their expectations for the semester. We also hoped that for many parents it would provide an opportunity to open up a line of communication with teachers via phone or email.

Now, we are always pleased to see parents in our school and we enjoy talking about what we teach, but more importantly, we love to talk about student learning and progress. However, it was rather disappointing to see so few parents attend our recent Open House. We instituted this second evening a few years ago at the request of a number of parents who felt it was important that they get to meet thier children's second semester teachers. We certainly agree and will continue to offer that opportunity in the future.

On the assumption that perhaps there is something wrong with the way we structure our Open House, I would like to pose two questions to parents:

First, if you did not attend our recent Open House, please let us know why. (This blog allows you to post anonymously so please let us hear from you.)

Second, what suggestions do you have to improve the Open House which might encourage more parents to attend?

I welcome and look forward to your feedback.

The Benefits of the Evaluation Process

I spent the first four days of this week at another school here in our Commonwealth serving on a NEASC evaluation team. The days were long and the work was hard, and in this case, made more difficult by the snow day which closed the school on Monday, typically the day when the majority of the necessary information about the school is gathered. However, the team persevered and by Wednesday we had written the draft of a report which will provide a road map for improvement the school will be able to use in the next few years.

Over the years I have served on a dozen visiting teams and I am continually amazed at just how much one can learn about the strengths and weaknesses of a school in such a short amount of time. Our own NEASC evaluation visit was exactly two years ago this month and the report that we received commended us for so many things we are doing well and provided us with close to thirty recommendations for improvement based on the accreditation standards to which we have agreed to adhere. In October, I will have to submit a Two Year Report to the Commission on Public Secondary Schools. Thanks to the work our faculty has accomplished since the visit, I will be able to report, in detail, that over half of the visiting committee's recommendations have been implemented. Look for that report to be posted on our web page when it is completed this fall.

Two years ago our NEASC report confirmed for us what we already knew; Chatham High School is a very good school! The two year report will suggest that we are getting even better!