BOE focuses on safety plan, new teaching tools

PINE PLAINS — For the first meeting of October, the Pine Plains Board of Education (BOE) invited the public to come forward with any questions or comments on the revised district-wide safety plan at a public hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

It was held in the Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center cafeteria. Pine Plains Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler explained there is a state requirement that the school district must have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with any police agency it contracts with, and that the MOU must be included in the school district’s safety plan. Originally dated Oct. 24, 2018, the MOU among the Pine Plains Central School District, Dutchess County and Dutchess County Sheriff Adrian Anderson was incorporated into and published as part of the district-wide safety plan for the 2019-20 school year.

Handler explained that the details relayed in that version of the plan were vague, to prevent information about safety protocols and emergency responses ending up in the wrong hands. He also said the district’s building plan, while confidential, is more specific in terms of details.

As there was no public comment, the public hearing was closed and BOE members excused themselves for a short executive session, resuming the regular meeting following their return.

Under the superintendent’s report, Seymour Smith Principal Julie Roberts reported on the new instructional tools that have been implemented at the intermediate school. Reviewing the report one page at a time, she noted improvements made in academic achievement and testing results along with the trends in student comprehension over the years. The BOE discussed “the disaster” of its previous computer-based testing, which led to the switch from computers to pencil and paper testing.

“Unless we hear something different, it’s our expectation that we’ll continue with paper and pencil until we hear that they’ve got it right,” Handler said.

Roberts’ report also gave an overview on the intermediate students’ responses to testing, the areas in which the students appear proficient, the number of absences in the school district and the intermediate school’s efforts in reaching out to parents to ask about absences. This year, she said Seymour Smith has partnered with Right Reason Technologies, a student success platform driven to provide districts and schools with tools to improve teacher and student success, according to its website. Roberts said Right Reason Technologies will highlight the top areas where students falter and compare them with the expectations for state academic achievement standards, allowing the school to focus on state standards and assist students with their weakest areas. It will also help focus on the results by grade level and by the school as a whole.

“I think we’re going to get better data from Right Reason,” Handler said, “and we’re going to get quicker data. Now the teacher can use that and modify instruction and not wait four months for state results. We looked at a lot of products and this one kind of stood front and center.”