Lee schools look to future with interim superintendent

LEE – In his first four days on the job, Interim School Superintendent Alfred W. “Al” Skrocki has started to create a vision for the district’s future.

This specifically involves looking into technology usage, making the school committee more involved in the budget process and working with administrators and teachers to implement the new educator evaluation system and fully align to the Common Core State Standards.

Mr. Skrocki is working with Technology Administrator Charles Flynn, Lee Middle and High School Principal Joseph “Joe” Turmel and Lee Elementary School Principal Kate Retzel on identifying the gaps and needs the district has in terms of technology.

“We want to find the gaps in support and frustrations in the day-to-day operations,” Mr. Skrocki said. “This is an incredible challenge in any district. The starting point is for everyone to understand where [the technology] is and what needs to be done.”

In addition to doing a complete inventory of all of the district’s hardware and software, they plan on identifying teachers to help with technology support as needed.

To ensure the school committee is involved and informed of the latest technology happenings in the district, a technology subcommittee has been formed. School Committee Vice Chair Robert Lohbauer and Member Alexandra Heddinger are the appointed members.

“This is something that really has to start with a subcommittee of the school committee,” Mr. Skrocki said.

He added the process of updating the district’s technology is costly, and he realizes it can’t all be done at once due to budget constraints.

“We’re not going to resolve everything,” the superintendent said, adding the goal was simply to start “chipping away” at what the district needs.

Budget

The school committee also formed a budget audit and evaluation subcommittee in order to be more involved in the budget process.

“It gives the committee an idea of how the numbers actually work,” Mr. Skrocki said.

The membership of this subcommittee has not yet been finalized, but it is likely to be Loren Kinnaman and Thomas Consolati.

Working with teachers

Mr. Skrocki will be working with Mr. Turmel, Mrs. Retzel, Special Education Director Andrea L. Larmon and Curriculum Director Kerry A. Burke to help implement the new educator evaluation system and push adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

The superintendent highlighted the Berkshire County Curriculum Frameworks Project, where, a couple of weeks ago, teachers from throughout the county came together to start mapping out curriculum that aligns with the Common Core.

Dir. Burke was in attendance for the frameworks project sessions, and Mr. Skrocki saw that as a launching point for her to guide Lee’s teachers in moving things forward with the Common Core.

Strategic planning

Finally, to help oversee the future as a whole for the district, a strategic planning subcommittee has been formed, likely consisting of Mr. Lohbauer and Dr. Consolati. (Dr. Consolati was not in attendance at the organizational meeting to confirm his involvement.)

This comes after the town’s neighbor, Lenox, has formed a committee of its own and hired someone to assist with its strategic school planning. One possible outcome the Lenox School Committee has expressed interest in is a merger between Lee and Lenox public schools, something the Lee School Committee also seems interested in exploring.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on July 11, 2013. Filed under Education News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry