FHUHS Administration

Fair Haven Union High School (FHUHS) experienced an excellent year. The faculty/staff demonstrated their professionalism and dedication for making FHUHS the leading high school in the greater Rutland region. FHUHS faculty continuously work before, during, and after school (at least once a week formally) to improve student learning. A source of tremendous pride has been the desire of the faculty/staff to incorporate twenty-first century skills as an integral part of our positive student-centered climate. Over the past year, we have accomplished the following: twenty teachers were trained to use Smartboards and now actively implement this technology in their instruction; the entire faculty attended conferences, classes and/or in-service opportunities to improve instruction; FHUHS provided access to online student progress reports; our extracurricular activities involved more students than years past and became more organized; furthermore, an involved Student Council and faculty collectively analyzed a variety of data to validate, correct and/or improve student performance. I am proud to say that we at Fair Haven Union High School have improved our “product” while reducing costs. I am also excited by the manner in which we not only view learning but our means to improve such opportunities.

Nearly everything that we do as a learning community needs to be connected and analyzed as to its impact on student performance, and then quantified into means for which its effectiveness may be assessed. While the word “data” is thrown around the educational world, it is a useless concept (or remains just that) unless the professionals facilitating the learning understand and relate to how and why it will be gathered. I am certain that the faculty/staff at FHUHS are ahead of our competition with generating and reviewing data in order to improve instruction. This meta-cognition of educational practice and analysis of data is a necessity for continued improvement. Connecting our responsibility to our taxpayers with our driving mission of educational excellence is a primary importance. With that in mind, we continued to rearrange our resources making the appropriate cuts while improving our learning environment. I believe few institutions in the area will be able to boast of reducing their spending (we have a zero percent increase in our 2010-11 budget) while improving the ability to educate.

For the past many decades education reform has been stagnant; essentially, it practiced the same means for improvement yet expected radically different results. The future of meaningful learning opportunities is with the acceptance of individualized education plans for all our students. Three years ago, during my interview process, I spoke about a five-year plan that has as an end goal of individualized education for every student. Parents have also heard me speak of quantifying what we do and being able to specify the skills, content and objectives of every course taught. Part of my five-year plan is to have all of that available for every parent and student. At the last Open House, I was thrilled to report that we are roughly nine months ahead of where I anticipated our progress.

For the past three years, I have spoken about meaningful reform being difficult, slow and needing to be steadily enacted. Very few important changes are had quickly, and changes that are quick fixes are usually quick to leave. There has been a critical need to radically alter the way we view educational reform. The first step is to analyze all initiatives as to their intended outcome and evaluate how they connect with the stated goals as written in the action plan. If an initiative is seen as supporting the desire to improve writing student performance, then it should be accepted but reworked as to HOW it will be implemented. Instead of working on standards (which exist already in a commonly agreed upon manner), student work should be professionally critiqued by the entire staff with the conversation steered towards improving instructional practice. It is by working backwards, examining what we have been doing in terms of where we want to go, that real reform will be realized.

At FHUHS we are fortunate to have a high level of expertise and professionalism in every department. This solid core has been, and will continue to be, the operating structure used for our improvement. When areas are outside our expertise, such as district-wide online displays of data, we will seek consultants to teach us. It is, however, our professional obligation and duty to openly analyze, discuss and connect our varied data in order to move forward. In this pursuit, the faculty and staff at FHUHS have been exemplary. This is also true with our cost-effective utilization of resources.

By 2012, I anticipate all incoming students to be given the tools to successfully navigate and connect their learning. This currently translates into a portable computer for every student with online access. FHUHS is the only school of which I am aware that also has grant money for technology experimentation. This grant is used by faculty and students for the educational examination of the latest technological tools such as iPods, Smart Response systems, lab probes and eBooks. Those experimenting with these resources then offer an analysis as to learning possibilities as well as cost effectiveness.

Rearranging the way we use and organize our resources is also examined on a regular basis through our Tuesday meeting times. Every teacher in each department examines future expectations for learning and the best methods to currently meet them. This has meant a shift from ‘single use resources’ such as calculators, textbooks and paper to learning tools that allow for widespread and greater connected educational opportunities such as: laptops, iPods, open source software and modern communication/social tools. The hurdles that still need to be cleared include bridging the technology gap that exists with high-speed wireless connection and providing resources needed to facilitate modern learning while away from school. For the first time in the history of education, nearly instant access to information on nearly any topic or interest is not only possible, but available to use for personally-driven educational opportunities. The manner in which the majority of students are learning, communicating and interacting is no longer debatable nor is the future direction of how we will learn.

The manner in which learning takes place has never been altered so radically and rapidly than it has over the past ten years. The most effective leaders in business, entertainment and the military have discovered that combining top-down directives with bottom-up input is the means for success. By connecting advanced skill-building with student interest (or passion), we can successfully challenge all level of learners.

One area that we are focused on building is our technology infrastructure – the means to give and receive information, technology support (which is why we have budgeted for a second full-time support person), and the ability to update educators on effective use of the countless communication tools that drive our business, educational and social world. As we are halfway through our first five-year improvement plan, our task is to understand the rapidly changing face of learning and make it a reality for our students. A stimulus funded grant for a full-time Integration Technology Coach is now in place. This person’s primary job is to teach the teachers and more rapidly assist in our drive for educational excellence.

As we work on making all our learning resources immediately available to our students through the 1:1 technology initiative that I touched upon earlier, we are taking the steps to see that we have the solid foundation to make this shift in our practice educationally sound while becoming more fiscally responsible.

The Learning Annex, the new offsite extension of the high school, has offered alternative education for a number of students. Individualized learning plans have been developed with students and their teams, teachers, parents, and counselors to better meet the needs of a wide variety of our students. From students with credit concerns to those desiring accelerated or more personalized learning, the Learning Annex has worked to meet their individual needs. As this program continues to develop, we are confident it will be seen as a model for alternative education and help connect area schools. Currently, we are located downtown. In addition, the Learning Annex connects our students with work study/internship opportunities (in order to supplement to and apply the knowledge they are gaining within their personalized program). These work study and internships have the capacity to create long term relationships with our students and our communities. We are determined to not only have our communities involved with their school, but our students involved with their community. As mentioned, our after-school opportunities have not only increased the past few years, but the percent of students participating has greatly increased. With over fifty percent of our entire student body involved in organized extracurricular activities this fall and our winter numbers at the highest in recent memory, we are thrilled to also have the high school recognized and used as a community resource. Our facilities have been available for a variety of purposes from local club meetings to hosting the World Powerlifting Championships; our state-of-the-art track is used by community members, students and Castleton State College. We have also been happy to have our athletic fields (baseball, soccer, and football) and basketball court available for both the college as well as other community groups. While our primary task is improving academics, we believe in offering opportunities that allow for more comprehensive student growth. Thus, the incredible potential that lies in our youth has a greater chance to be actualized.

I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, community, and most importantly the students, as we continue to steadily march towards excellence with everything we do at Fair Haven Union High School. I continue to be highly appreciative of the vast support of the community and welcome ongoing input and assistance with our school.

Sincerely,
Brett C. Blanchard