BERNE — Superintendent Timothy Mundell says that it is his passion and goal to make sure students at rural Berne-Knox-Westerlo have the same opportunities as those in suburban and urban schools.

At a recent school board workshop, Mundell laid out how he believes the district is changing for the better and reviewed the goals the board had set in July and the work administrators have done.

He concluded the presentation with an idea developed by management consultant Jim Collins in his book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t,” the hedgehog concept. Mundell said the hedgehog concept means being able to do something really well and feeling good and thriving in that.

“We’re a pretty good community at taking care of kids,” he said.

Collins tells the story of a hedgehog able to thwart predators with one tactic — its spiky armor — using that as a metaphor for companies that have focused on what they are able to do exceptionally well to succeed rather than being mediocre at multiple things.

“I think the school system lost sight of what it does well,” Mundell said, of the district when he arrived as school superintendent. BKW had had a high turnover rate of school administrators when Mundell arrived from Long Island three years ago.

Mundell told The Enterprise that, in addition to Collins, others who have influenced him include Rick DuFour, Peter Senge, and Otto Scharmer. DuFour was a well-known proponent of education reform and voice of authority on developing professional learning communities, in which educators collaborate in order to improve their students’ performance.

Scharmer and Senge are both lecturers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and have developed theories on organizations and how they can succeed.

At the presentation on Jan. 29, Mundell explained that a group of staff members had met three times in January to come up with a vision for BKW, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the past and present for the district, as well as charting future success.

Key themes that were developed include technology, project-based learning, strong community ties, whole-child centered learning, and preparing students for life after high school. The group later developed a vision and mission statement, he said.

The other BKW administrators — secondary school Principal Mark Pitterson, elementary school Principal Annette Landry, and director of Pupil Personnel Services Susan Sloma — reviewed how the district’s goals were being achieved in the schools. They reviewed four goals: putting technology in the classroom, investing the community in the school, focusing on student achievement, and maintaining fiscal responsibility.

Stressing tech

Pitterson, for example, said that teachers in the secondary school are integrating technology into their lesson plans. The school has also increased the use of its computer lab and continued offering coding courses.

Landry said that teachers in her building are focusing on “21st-Century skills,” such as collaborating and problem solving, in their lessons.

“If you walk into a classroom, it might look very different than it did five or 10 years ago,” she said, explaining how students now work in groups, helping each other solve problems in the classroom.

Landry also said that third- and seventh-graders will be taking the state’s English/Language Arts test on computers for the first time and are practicing in the computer lab.

Sloma said that an assistant technology consultant has been teaching special-education students to use tablets, and that the consultants are now working in-district. She also said that students in grades six and seven will be receiving Chromebooks to use in the classroom.

Mundell later told The Enterprise that, from the perspective of Collins’s book, technology is “an accelerator of greatness,” or a tool. Students are able to obtain information and communicate, but the district also needs the right infrastructure and devices to successfully use new technology.

“But technology’s a tool,” he said. “It’s not just an end product.”

Including all

In an effort to include all community “stakeholders,” which includes students and staff as well as community members, Pitterson said that, with a new schedule, teachers now have a “professional period” to work on coursework and collaborate.

Both the elementary and secondary schools will be participating in the Junior Achievement program and have been bringing in guest speakers. Landry discussed various student clubs, adding that that students will soon be able to participate in a 4-H club and in a STEAM club, which focuses on science technology, engineering, and math.

Sloma said that the school has been looking into how adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, can affect students. She also said that the school has had a satellite of the Albany County Mental Health Department in the school. Also, an agency to help special-education students transition has been made in-district.

Measuring progress

In focusing on the goal of measuring progress through student achievement, the secondary school will offer college classes in the high school through the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, said Pitterson. He noted that students receiving free or reduced-price lunches will be charged a reduced rate for college credits they earn in the program.

“I’m very excited about that possibility,” said Pitterson.

Landry said that the elementary school is using the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment for a second year in a row. She also said that sixth-graders who are now able to use the student portal to check their grades had not understood how their grade-point averages were calculated and so they were taught how this was done.

Sloma said that the peer mediation program that began last year was expanded in many ways. There is also a new district-wide counseling program following new regulations that were laid out last July.

Balancing the budget

At the workshop, Mundell relayed the progress of the fourth goal, of fiscal management, describing how the school has invested in programs that are “budget neutral” such as new clubs and the Chromebook program. He also said the district is being monitored financially with an audit from the state comptroller’s office as well as one conducted by the district. Both showed good news for the district, he said.

Part of balancing the budget includes not raising taxes while getting the most possible in state aid, he said. BKW has also saved money by keeping services in-district, he said.

“Flywheel effect”

Mundell described a “flywheel effect” in the district’s goals making an impact in the school.

“Once that flywheel gets moving, the momentum, there’s an acceleration,” he said, adding that he feels it getting there. “I live in that every day.”

The flywheel is another idea from Collins’s book, stating that a transformation is not sudden, but gradual, akin to getting a big wheel to spin, one push at a time, bit by bit, until it eventually is capable of moving on its own.

“We’re getting some movement and the flywheel is beginning to turn,” Mundell told The Enterprise. He said that the full transformation of the district will not be one change, but several.

Mundell noted during the workshop that the district has a 95 percent student attendance rate and better reports in terms of discipline.

“It means students want to come to school,” he told The Enterprise. He added that, in terms of improving discipline, it indicates there is “an improving atmosphere,” in the district.

During the workshop, Mundell also emphasized the importance of bringing in the community stakeholders to help plan the new building project as well as inviting budget advisory committee members to the school board meetings.

He emphasized, too, how long it may seem to take for a program to be established. The agricultural science program, for example, took two years to create.

“Transformation comes from the outside in and the ground up … ,” he said. “This is about transformation.”