Amhert Bulletin Article, Feb. 29, 2008

Amherst meets future principals By Mary Carey Staff Writer Published on February 29, 2008 MCAS tests, "differentiated learning," how to inspire and lead - all have been the subject of intense conversations among elementary school parents and prospective school principals in recent days. A hectic schedule of separate meetings with parents from each of the three elementary schools seeking a principal and five finalists for the posts did not deter people from coming out to the Amherst Regional Middle School to talk education. Groups of 30 or more parents from each of the three schools - Crocker Farm, Wildwood and Fort River - met separately for 40 minutes each with the candidates, beginning with Sandra Delaney, a Newton schools administrator, asking questions ranging from how they would handle a racially charged bullying incident to how they feel about the MCAS tests. "I'm feeling very good about seeing really quality candidates," Crocker Farm parent Clare Bertrand said Wednesday. "These people are really excited, energized; they want to be in Amherst, they're passionate in different ways." Michael Morris and Catarina daSilva met with parents Tuesday, and Ray Sharick and Jill Pasquini-Torcia were on deck for Wednesday. Middle school principal candidate Michael Hayes, the current interim co-principal, was scheduled to meet with parents and community members at the middle school library on Thursday and middle school finalist Glenda Cresto in the library March 3, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. "What I've been impressed with is the high level of parent turnout," said Amherst School Committee Chairman Andrew Churchill, who has attended meetings each night. Judging from their questions, which usually ran about 15 per 40 minute-meeting with a candidate, parents seem to share many of the same expectations and concerns, Churchill said. "I expected, actually, that the different schools would ask different types of questions, but the fundamental questions are really the same," Churchill said. "At each school, they wanted to know, how do you help make teachers the best they can be? How do you deal with what's important versus what are distractions and make the principal job doable? And how do you combine supporting and challenging all kids?" Parents were asked to fill out evaluation forms ranking the candidates experience and training, among other attributes. Parent interview committees from each elementary school expected to meet with Superintendent Jere Hochman to share their impressions with him on Monday. Hochman said he expects to offer positions to three of the candidates as early as the first week of March. Long day's journey The meetings with parents and community members capped a long day for the candidates, beginning at 10 a.m. with a tour of the schools, lunch with faculty, a meeting with Hochman and classroom visits. In all, each of the candidates was interviewed seven or eight times in a day. Candidates met with Wildwood parents in the ARMS auditorium, Fort River parents in the cafeteria and Crocker Farm parents in the library. The school PTOs arranged for free child care in the home economics room. "Basically, I never thought I'd go to college," Delaney explained to Wildwood parents, later saying that it was a teacher who encouraged her to pursue an education, not her parents. She ended up getting two master's degrees, served in the Peace Corps in northern Africa and taught high school for two years in Puerto Rico, before having four children and teaching at just about every level in schools in Cambridge, Chelsea and Newton. As a former Fort River teacher, Morris is well known to parents there as well as to parents from Crocker Farm, where he is now interim assistant principal. He told Fort River parents that having been a teacher recently gives him a feeling for what teachers are going through, while having left Fort River and worked as an administrator at Crocker Farm, has lent him a little perspective. DaSilva, who has been a teacher but most recently a graduate student at New York University, said she was eager to put into practice the theories that she's learned in school. She is writing a dissertation comparing schools in the New York City area. The three candidates who had met with parents by the Bulletin's press time said they have found standardized test scores useful for the specific data they provide about children's academic strengths and challenges. It was the contrast between the opportunities that schoolchildren got in Brookline compared with much poorer Chelsea that convinced Delaney of the merits of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. It ensures that children in every school are held to the same standards, she said. Morris said he is no cheerleader for the MCAS tests, but he has learned much by looking at detailed data they provide. DaSilva said test-taking does not have to push aside more creative learning opportunities in schools. Asked by Amherst School Committee member Kathleen Anderson what they would do if they had a lot of parents trying to tell them how to do her jobs, as she said it was very likely would happen. DaSilva and Delaney said they would listen but would be firm. "If they were really adamant," DaSilva said of parents, "I'd encourage them to be a teacher in the school."