Norwich Schools

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by: Jill Kraft

As the 2007-08 school year got underway last September, purple signs peppered lawns across the city – a sign that negotiations between school support staff workers and the school administration were not going well.

Now, as the support staff and the district stand at an impasse, school Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan says he is still hopeful the outcome will benefit both the support staff as well as the district. The administration has also met five times since the beginning of the year to decide on a contract for the teaching staff as well. Both the support staff and the teachers are currently operating under their previous contract, which ended in the summer of 2007.

As for academics, moving forward is one thing the Norwich City School district seems to have excelled at during 2007. “We are always making progress,” said O’Sullivan.

Keeping up with a changing society, O’Sullivan explains parent/teacher and student contact has also begun to change. “We can now e-mail parents to keep them up to date,” he said. With the “home access” Internet program launched last year, parents can log in, see their child’s test scores, homework assignments and contact teachers with questions. In addition to upgrading the technology to stay in touch at home, up to 80 teachers are expected to be certified on the ‘smart board,’ which is an interactive learning tool built to aid the education process in classrooms. As part of the technology upgrade agenda, smart boards, starting last year, could be seen in all four of the school buildings in the district.

O’Sullivan says the district is continuously making a gain academically. During the past year the re-vamping and/or upgrading included anything from redesigning school lunch calendars and meals to a $35 million building project.

After being placed on the Schools In Need of Improvement listing (SINI list) four years ago for certain subjects and populations at the middle school level, school officials looked hard at curriculum and programming. Once placed on the list, the status for the school remains there for two years; when adequate testing scores are reached, it takes another two to be removed.

It was recently announced by the state that the middle school had been removed from the list for math, but will remain on the list for English language arts. “We are very confident the students will be successful this year and we will be completely removed,” said O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan also says both the numbers in the advanced placement courses at the high school are on the rise as well as the participation of students attending the Career Technical Education programs at the DCMO BOCES facility. “We are giving our students more opportunities to learn outside the classroom walls,” said O’Sullivan.

In January 2007, district residents approved a proposal to purchase $2.1 million worth of buses and four pieces of maintenance equipment. Since 1985, the district has followed a schedule which replaces buses every seven to eight years.

O’Sullivan says figuring out the budget gets increasingly harder each year as state mandates and costs continue to rise across the board. As the board got ready to propose a $32,305,709 budget last year, the rules changed as the “contract for excellence” was put into place by the newly-elected New York state Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Based on testing scores and economic status, the state allotted additional funding to the Norwich school district for the contract for excellence program. After appointing the money, the state then dictated how the district could spend it. With the added funding O’Sullivan said nine new positions were created with two teachers on special assignment at the elementary level in both math and English. In addition, new courses were made available to students within various buildings.

The district analyzed what specific areas the money would best benefit, and with the approval from the state board the new implementations were put into place.

Ensuring children are eating a healthy, nutritious breakfast and lunch is one way the Norwich school district is aiding the fight against childhood obesity. Food Service Director Jackie Jenks said throughout the past year the district has been taking an aggressive approach to ensure children are receiving healthy breakfast and lunch choices. “These might be the only time some of these children eat all day,” she said.

The biggest endeavor on the table for both the school administration and faculty and staff currently is the $35 million building project. With an expected date of completion less than a year away, the project has quickly changed the landscape at Norwich schools. At the high school, the football field was given a brand new turf surface and new playground facilities were put in at both elementary schools.

Transformations are also underway now at the middle school. It is expected that by the time students return to the school next fall, the sixth graders will be joining seventh and eighth graders and by December the district offices will also occupy the additional space in the middle school building.

“A lot of work that has been completed have been things people cannot see,” said O’Sullivan, “A lot of infrastructure work has been done.”

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