Leaders say
Teachers grow through evaluation

GUILDERLAND — Guilderland teachers are being evaluated in ways that help them grow professionally, say leaders of a committee that developed the new system.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Nancy Andress and Chris Claus, a reading teacher who is president of the teachers’ union, updated the school board last Tuesday on the new evaluation system.

A committee, which convened in 2001, has been guided by James Stronge of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
"We looked to an expert in the field," said Claus, quoting Stronge: "Evaluation begins with professional growth and ends with professional growth."

By contract, Claus said, the evaluation system, in a pilot phase since September of 2004, needs to be approved by the Guilderland Teachers’ Association. The union is scheduled to vote on the matter in March, he said.

Under the old system, supervisors would write a narrative of what they had observed in a classroom.

The pilot project involves a three-tiered system for performance responsibilities:

— Domains, broad categories or placeholders for classifying teacher standards;

— Performance standards, basic duties the teacher performs to meet job expectations successfully; and

— Performance indicators, examples of observable behaviors characteristic of the successful performance of job standards.
"Evaluation for us is a process, not an event," said Andress. "It is an activity which is conducted with teachers and is based with hope on trust and communication."

Administrators think the new system promotes professional growth and reflection, Andress reported. More conversation is generated and teachers are developing better goals and better time management.
Administrators report they now have a systematic way of looking at teaching. Supervisors see their role now as being "gatekeepers of excellence," she said.

Teachers stress the importance of trust in their relationship with administrators, Claus said, and say the new system has helped their professional growth.
"It has contributed a common vocabulary," he said.

He also said the format allows teachers to reflect on their own teaching and it gives them clear expectations, repeating the language of the rubrics.
"This chance for professional conversation is something people seem very happy with by and large," said Claus.

Claus and Andress described the project as a work in progress and went over several concerns.

The system was originally just for classroom teachers. Rubrics are now being developed for nurses, librarians, guidance counselors, and special-education teachers. New teachers have to be trained to understand the evaluation system and some categories cause stress, feedback from teachers said.

Consistency across administrators and departments is a concern as is time spent on observations.
"Supervisors and principals are doing a better job with that," said Andress.

Building reports

By votes of 8 to 0, the board accepted three state-required reports on the district’s buildings.

The first was a survey on building condition, which has to be done in depth every five years.

The report consists of 38 pages each on nine different district buildings — six schools, two maintenance facilities, and the district office.

Farnsworth Middle School, which was just updated and expanded, was exempt as were the transportation building, the concession building, and the press box, because they are relatively new buildings.

Board member Colleen O’Connell said that it didn’t make sense that a 50-year-old school like Westmere Elementary would get the same satisfactory rating as an 11-year-old school like Pine Bush Elementary.
"The architect is charged with coming up with that determination," said Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders.
As other board members raised similar concerns, Superintendent Gregory Aidala said, "We’ve had this conversation every time we have these reports...You’ve highlighted some of the things that don’t fall in place."

He said that, 15 years ago, a wall collapsed in a school building and the legislative response was to tighten control.

The good news, Aidala said, is the survey shows the district is meeting requirements.

The second report was a five-year capital facilities plan.
The $12.5 million price tag, Sanders told the board is "to give you perspective." The priorities, he said, are based on health and safety. He called it "an evolving plan," and said, "Things may change."

O’Connell said she was surprised that refinishing the gym floor at Farnsworth Middle School wasn’t listed.
"I’m not an inspector; I’m a mother. But I know a warped floor when I see one," she said.
"It’s something we have our eye on," said Sanders. He said a lot of work had just been done at Farnsworth and refinishing the floor was a relatively low-cost job that could be done in-house.
Board member Thomas Nachod said of the facilities plan, "It sounds like a Catch-22...If something happens, we do know about it."
"It’s a planning tool," responded Sanders.
Board Vice President Linda Bakst asked if the items in the plan should be part of the budget process. Sanders said that "routine maintenance and repair" are part of the budget.

He said Bakst’s assessment was correct that the schools had no code violations and the plan was for future upgrades.
Finally, the School Facility Report Card, Sanders said, "puts key data in consistent format."
"Do we have to approve or can we just accept"" board member Richard Weisz asked.
"I would say, let the record reflect the board is accepting the reports," said Aidala.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Heard glowing reports from several foreign exchange students attending Guilderland High School;

— Adopted policies on Internet and computer use and on alcohol and drug testing of bus drivers;

— Established a citizens’ budget advisory committee, which will meet six times in March. Volunteers can sign up on-line or by writing or calling the superintendent;

— Heard from Aidala that registration of new students in the district, from first grade on, will now be standardized and take place in the district office, beginning Feb. 1.
"This will be a much more consistent effort," he said.

Kindergarten registration, which occurs each spring, will continue to take place at each of the district’s five elementary schools;

— Reviewed a policy on notification of releases of Level 3 sex offenders. Level 3 offenders are considered the most dangerous in the state’s three-tiered system.
Bakst said she didn’t think the district should include a picture of the offender as part of the notification. She said that could be accessed on-line and it was "unnecessarily scary."

O’Connell, who serves on the policy committee, said the committee felt strongly in favor of the procedure it had developed, where the information for elementary students will be sent home in a sealed envelope and, for secondary students, a sealed envelope will not be used.
"Not everyone has a computer," she said. "We wanted to give as much information as possible";

— Heard from Weisz that volunteers are being sought for a new committee on alternative revenue sources for the district. Aidala said that 26 people had expressed interest so far; and

— Met in executive session to discuss four matters — a teacher performance review, administrator performance reviews, an audit committee membership, and an update on negotiations with the Guilderland Teacher Aides and Monitors Unit.