Yes, we need to keep on course and find out why these long time highly regarded professionals are resigning. Pioneer has already been determined  one of  the best High school's  in the state and now is coming into question by  so many  about what is going on. PVRS status is in danger that's becoming very clear.

We have seen from past post's where Miller  has been in charge  (she is removed or she resigns before being removed) that  the schools  felt the need to bring in past  Superintendents and principals to heal the schools, teachers, students  and the  budgets . Again we need to ask ourselves  do we allow the destruction of our schools or do we  do a recall and fix this mess before its to late? Like in past posts we are warned to watch the budget . It's with 100 % certainty kids are not her top priority nor teachers.

Letter: The Pioneer model

Sunday, June 26, 2016

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Pioneer Valley Regional School and the district have been featured in several articles and letters in the past few weeks. As a recent retiree from that school community and one who attended one of the most recent School Committee meeting, I would like to add my perspective.
PVRS deserves the distinction of being named among the top high schools in the state. The newly hired principal wishes to make it a “model” high school in western Massachusetts. It already was that during my last 12 years at the school, although not only for the reasons cited in the U.S. News and World Report criteria.
PVRS has been a model of inclusiveness and compassion. The staff, from administrators to teachers and support personnel, including custodians and food service employees, knew and showed care toward as many students as they possibly could. Students were greeted at the door and as they came off the bus each day and also recognized in the halls. The teachers went far beyond what was necessary to plan and execute the often emotionally and physically taxing demands that are the nature of their work.
I was honored to work with all of them.
That is why I attended the School Committee meeting where the resignations, NOT retirements, of four of the most dedicated and talented leaders in the school/district were questioned. Yes, it was an emotional question-and-comment period and the audience was reminded that personnel details could not legally be discussed. A previous letter implied that the audience did not know or was not informed of this; however, it was stated numerous times. There were also calls from the audience, most notably Julia Wallace, a PVRS student, that respect be maintained in the comments directed at Superintendent Miller. That call was applauded by many members of the audience. We were there for insight into this sad loss of leaders who were 100 percent committed to the students of PVRS.

I hope that the school community I very much enjoyed being part of will survive as a model for high schools everywhere. There will be much work to do. Meanwhile, let us continue to search for answers as to why four such highly regarded professionals have all felt the need to seek employment elsewhere during the past 6 months.
Karen E. O’Neil, retired science teacher, PVRS

Leyden

I also think if this should happen Vernon also needs to have at least two members of its school board committee at PVRSD school committee meetings to ensure that  Vernon students are protected  under this  new Superintendent .

Vernon to vote on leaving regional school union

Jun. 30, 2016, 5:15 pm by Mike Faher Leave a Comment

Vernon Elementary School. File photo by Mike Faher/VTDigger

VERNON — Having rejected Act 46 merger talks in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, Vernon officials now are asking voters whether the town’s school district should strike out on its own.
On Aug. 9, Vernon voters will consider pulling out of the regional Brattleboro Union High School District. If the measure is approved, the town would be exiting a five-town educational union that has existed for six decades.
Officials say Vernon Elementary School students would still be able to attend Brattleboro’s middle and high schools — albeit under a new tuition arrangement.
But exiting the union would have an impact at the administrative level: The rest of Windham Southeast would be free to pursue a merger under Act 46, while Vernon would be able to seek an option that allows the town to preserve its coveted school choice setup.
“For us, school choice is important,” said Mike Hebert, Vernon School Board chairman. “We believe it’s in the best interest of our students.”
Hebert added that the board will be holding two public informational sessions in July — the dates of which will be announced via a mailer — to answer questions before the August vote.

Mike Hebert is chairman of the Vernon School Board. File photo by Andrew Stein/VTDigger

“It sounds very simple, but it’s actually a very complicated issue,” he said.
Merger talks have been complicated from the outset in Windham Southeast, which includes schools in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney and Vernon.
Act 46, approved by the Legislature in 2015, pushes for larger school districts throughout Vermont. A study committee in Windham Southeast spent months looking closely at an Act 46 “accelerated merger” of all districts in the union; under that plan, each school would have remained open but would have been governed by a single collective board.
Advocates of the idea touted state tax incentives for accelerated mergers, operational cost reductions and greater educational equity — a key goal of Act 46. But the proposal was controversial, with some questioning the transparency of the process and the potential loss of local control.
Vernon officials protested the most, since it seemed clear the town would lose its unique school choice options under a merger with other Windham Southeast districts. Starting in seventh grade, Vernon students currently can be tuitioned to schools other than Brattleboro, and some attend nearby Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts.
State education officials have said districts in any given merger must have — or adopt — the same structure when it comes to the grades for which they operate schools or tuition students.
Vernon eventually pulled out of Windham Southeast merger talks. Amid the ensuing confusion, leaders of the Act 46 committee acknowledged they could not meet a June 30 deadline for member towns to vote on an accelerated merger.
Since then, Act 46 merger discussions have continued in Windham Southeast, but Vernon representatives have not returned to their seats on the study committee.
The upcoming vote in Vernon — approved this week by the town school board — appears to be a way to possibly resolve that impasse.
The problem is that Vernon and the other towns currently are bound together in the Brattleboro Union High School District, also known as BUHS District No. 6. “As long as Vernon’s a member of BUHS, legally, you can’t do anything in Windham Southeast unless Vernon votes on it,” Chris Leopold, a Burlington attorney consulting on the local merger talks, told the Act 46 committee at a recent meeting.
So the current multistep plan looks like this: If Vernon voters decide Aug. 9 to leave the BUHS union, the other four towns would be allowed to vote in November on whether to approve Vernon’s departure and on whether to form a new consolidated school district among themselves.
The State Board of Education also would need to weigh in on both of those issues.
Hebert said he’s in favor of Vernon leaving the BUHS union. Becoming an “independent district” keeps the town’s school choice in place, he said, while preserving the town school board, its budgetary authority and ownership of the Vernon Elementary building.
Vernon students still would be able to attend Brattleboro’s middle and high schools, Hebert said, since the town school district would be contracting with Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. “Historically, 75 to 80 percent of our students have gone to Brattleboro,” he said. “We see no reason why that should change.”
But there are many issues for officials and residents to consider. At a June 16 Act 46 study committee meeting, Leopold said Vernon’s upcoming vote could break new ground.
“There is no school district in Vermont that has voted and left a union school district since the current statutory scheme went into place. … It goes back to the late 1960s, early 1970s,” Leopold said. “There’s very little history here.”

Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Superintendent Ron Stahley listens as Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe answers a question during a meeting in Putney. File photo by Mike Faher/VTDigger

Financial questions are a big part of the union departure debate. Officials have been weighing Vernon’s interest in BUHS assets, its share of debt related to the high school and its future tuition payments if it pulls out of the union.
Preliminarily, it appears it all would add up to “kind of a wash,” Windham Southeast Superintendent Ron Stahley said Wednesday. By that, he means officials expect no significant negative financial impact for Vernon or for the districts that would remain in the reconfigured BUHS No. 6.
Hebert confirmed that, for Vernon, it appears that “we could do this at a not-significant amount of cost to the town.”
But at the study committee meeting earlier this month, Windham Southeast Business Administrator Frank Rucker cautioned that these are only estimates. “This is what would need to be analyzed and agreed to” among the school districts, Rucker said.
There’s also the question of what Vernon could do as an independent district to meet the goals of Act 46. It’s possible Vernon could seek to merge with other districts that have similar school choice setups, but that could be difficult geographically, Hebert said.
He’s hoping that, ultimately, the State Board of Education and Agency of Education will see fit to allow Vernon to remain unaffiliated. “We want to form an independent, alternative district,” he said.
Stahley, who has advocated for the benefits of consolidation in Windham Southeast, said he still would like Vernon to join the other districts in a possible regional merger. But he also understands Vernon officials’ desire to gauge their constituents’ appetite to leave the union.
“I think in the long run, if they do this, and in a year or two or three they feel like it’s better to join a unified district. We would welcome them,” Stahley said.

Update from Templeton

News update from Templeton. Seems Ruth Miller  resigned !! After having the old superintendent back this past year in Templeton  before leaving  he made a point of  saying :
Hemman said he is pleased with the thought that he is leaving a district where teachers care and are happy coming to work and the students feel safe and welcome.
The new Superintendent stated :
 He said he wants the facilities to see continued improvement, and the kids and teachers “to feel great, supported and heard.”

 Funny how that would be a statement coming from the Superintendent  who took  over for Miller . Funny how our teachers are not happy and students no longer feel  safe and secure. Funny how this  was spoken months ago to a useless school committee who doesn't give a damn about  the students or the teachers . 

Hello PVRSD  students and teachers in Templeton lived what our teachers are now , this needs to end . 

RECALL IT'S TIME.



 Changing of the guard at 'Gansett

+ click to enlarge News staff photo by Christine Smith Incoming Superintendent Christopher Casa­vant, left, and outgoing interim Superintendent Stephen Hemman stand by the Narragansett Regional High School playing fields. + click to enlarge News staff photo by Christine Smith New Narragansett Regional School District Superintendent Christopher D. Casavant in the district’s administrative office. Christine Smith TEMPLETON  They chided each other as good friends often might. The familiarity was there, but will serve as a prelude and preparation for the transition that is fast approaching. One will be leaving the Narragansett Regional School District superintendent’s desk for the last time on June 30, and the other will be officially taking his seat in the spot the next day. Interim Superintendent Stephen Hemman, who had retired some years ago, came back last year to guide the district that he had led from 2000-2008 through this latest year of transition. It was the trust among those at Narragansett — and his previous internal knowledge of the district — that he said prompted the invitation to come back to help with finalizing plans for a new $47 million elementary school and hiring a new, permanent superintendent to replace Ruth Miller, who resigned in early 2015. As Hemman quietly hands the keys over and returns to retirement, former Gardner Public Schools Business Manager Christopher D. Casavant will begin the job of guiding the district forward into the new school year. “As I phase out, he phases in,” said Hemman. Hemman said he will miss the students he loved to see at music or sporting events, special banquets or while he walked the halls of the district’s buildings. He said he and Casavant have been working together on decision-making as they have neared his final days on the job. Hemman said he is pleased with the thought that he is leaving a district where teachers care and are happy coming to work and the students feel safe and welcome. Meanwhile Casavant said he is looking forward to the job. Why Narragansett and why the jump from the financial office to the head position? According to Casavant, the opportunity presented itself and the move was part of his life plan. “It’s that simple,” he said. Casavant said it was a move he had been preparing for all along, since his job as business manager in Gardner was in fact a way for him to better understand the administrative position he now will hold. He had acted on advice he received while studying for his doctorate in educational leadership at Boston College to become familiar and experienced with all aspects of how a district operates, including its financial details. He said he had educational experience as special education teacher and residential supervisor at the Stetson School in Barre, as well as building management through his position as principal of Gardner Middle School. With business administration came an understanding of how budgets worked in conjunction with state aid, changing state regulations, and other facets of a district’s management of its money. Casavant has been visiting Narragansett on a regular basis since he was given the job earlier this year, and he says that he will be able to hit the ground running when he starts on July 1. He has been collecting information since he was given the go-ahead in January, attending a few small school events and meeting with faculty and other groups in the school system. He has been able to figure out his agenda to move Narragansett forward by amassing and piecing together information along the way. He knows that much of his new job will entail meeting with parents and local community leaders, and he hopes many who would like to discuss issues will contact his office for one-on-one meetings or seek out some community forums that he has in the works. “Being visible is the key — not just visible, but invested,” said Casavant. He said he wants to meet with the students, so they can get to know their new superintendent. “Honestly, this is the thing I can’t wait to do,” he remarked, adding with a laugh, “even if I may be a fleeting thought by lunchtime. It will at least make me feel good.” Casavant pointed to the students as the reason he and all educators in the district are here. He does not plan to change things in a strict sense, but he will bring his own stylistic technique and approach influenced by the positions he has held in the past. Of all the candidates who applied for the post, said Casavant, “what they looked for in a superintendent was me. Hopefully that ‘me’ is good enough.” It would not work to try to be another Stephen Hemman, he said, since their personalities are quite different. However, he said he will borrow every great thing Hemman has done for the schools and blend them with his own ideas, and with continuing input from staff and leaders and parents from the surrounding community. He said his vision will be a “shared vision” of the district community as a whole. Casavant said his personal long-term goal is to improve the schools and bring the district’s rating up from its current Level 3 status. He wants to see the district fiscally balanced where every dollar is spent wisely, but is pushed toward academic excellence with good classroom teachers who have access to continued professional training. He said Narragansett has to find the balance between meeting its budget and its academic goals. “In three years I want to look back and say we’ve made this place better,” he commented. He said he wants the facilities to see continued improvement, and the kids and teachers “to feel great, supported and heard.”

Good Luck Templeton you deserve it even if we did get your monster . :(

Kudos goes out to Sue O’Reilly-McRae

My Turn/O’Reilly-McRae: PVRS parents should voice their concerns

 

 

By Sue O’Reilly-McRae

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

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• my turn
• pioneer valley regional school
• administration

Since just before the December holiday break, I have been a heartbroken Pioneer Valley Regional School parent.
As a 30-year educator, mother of two successful PVRS students, and an advocate for public education, I was stunned and deeply saddened to learn of the unexpected resignation of our long-time principal, Bill Wehrli.
Bill had been the principal of PVRS since my oldest son, now a sophomore in college, began attending as a seventh-grader. Over the eight years that I have observed and interacted with PVRS as a parent and fellow educator, I’ve watched our school grow and evolve, hire new and dynamic staff, and sustain its commitment to the arts and athletics. I observed and experienced an unmistakable investment and pride in the administrative team that supported PVRS: Bill Wehrli as principal, Mike Duprey as assistant principal, and Cathy Hawkins-Harrison as dean of students.
When I learned of Wehrli’s resignation, I was grief-stricken. Not just for the loss of this one administrator from our school, but for what this type of resignation signaled about what was suddenly happening at a school I care deeply about. I knew how dedicated to our school community Bill Wehrli was, and I believe that he would have never left midyear without speaking with students unless something professionally intolerable was happening to him.

Now several other key administrators have felt the need to leave our district. Mike Duprey has resigned from PVRS. I am confident that like Wehrli, he would not step away from the school he is devoted to unless his professional experience there had likewise become intolerable.
I believe that what we had in the leadership team at PVRS was a model of sustainable leadership. Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink in their 2006 scholarly article — based on 15 years of work investigating school change — suggest that, “sustainable leadership respects and builds on the past in its quest to create a better future ... it doesn’t treat people’s knowledge, experience, and careers as disposable waste but as valuable, renewable, and recombinable resources.”
I believe that every devoted educator takes their work personally. We pour our creative energy into our relationships, the curriculum experiences we devise, and the academic support systems we create. Teaching and supervising teachers is very personal work; the best educators put their hearts, their whole person on the line in an effort to reach every student, every staff member, and to support growth, development and learning for all.
Throughout this stressful year, the teachers at PVRS have continued to love, care for, and teach our children. Thank you. In spite of the ongoing administrative turmoil you have sustained, you focus on and are committed to our children. I am so grateful for each one of you.
Hargreaves and Fink suggest that “the greatest source of trust in an organization … is communication trust, meaning that there is clear, frequent, open, high-level and reciprocal communication. Without communication, trust ... feelings and attributions of suspicion and betrayal infect an organization like a plague.” Since Wehrli’s resignation in December, parents, teachers, students, and community members have been asking for communication that would somehow restore the trust we had in our former superintendents — trust that has been further broken by the subsequent resignations of additional valued administrators.
I and others across the four towns in our district have contacted our School Committee members requesting information that might help us make sense of what is happening. Not only has this information not been forthcoming but at the May committee meeting citizen concerns like those I’ve stated here were eloquently and passionately voiced by former administrators, parents, students and teachers. These concerns were not addressed by the committee and were later discussed, after most of the concerned community members had left.
At the May and June PVRS School Committee meetings, former Pioneer district administrator Scott Lyman and other concerned parents and community members requested that the committee refuse to accept any additional administrator resignations until exit interviews were conducted by the School Committee to determine why we are suddenly losing so many valued administrators. Did you refuse to accept Mr. Duprey’s resignation, as Lyman and many others requested and, signaled by enthusiastic applause from around the room, the larger community seconded? Have you conducted exit interviews with other administrators?
At the May meeting we were listened to and not responded to. At the June meeting, the School Committee chair and other members referenced Massachusetts general law as the reason why they would not/could not respond to our concerns. I would love for the School Committee to cite exactly where in Massachusetts general law it says that a school committee may not respond to parent, staff, and community concerns.
District residents: please make every effort to call and/or write to your School Committee members if you share my concerns. The current PVRS website can be accessed at www.pvrsdk12.org/ and contact information for each School Committee member is listed under the School Committee tab at the top of the web page. Please attend the upcoming school committee meeting at PVRS on Thursday, Aug. 25. The PVRS community has been seeking understanding for too long.
Sue O’Reilly-McRae is a PVRS parent and an educator.


Start flooding the recorder  its the only way to get the school committees attention  and sharing this blog.

Video Watch

The PVRSD video of the  PVRSD School Committee 6-23-16 is on Thursday June 30th/ @6 am on BNCT

http://www.bnctv.net/schedule 

Watch and see what school Committee members need to be replaced  during election or recalled  sooner.

(Young and Morse high on our list) 

I also went over SC meeting minutes again  . Everyone needs to pay close attention to the budget , don't be left off guard . This was a major warning to us from Templeton.

http://www.pvrsdk12.org/school-committee/sc-agenda-and-minutes

It begins here 2-11-16 ( this is after she tried throwing Dayle Dorion under the bus and it was all her mistakes the SC learns later and they still give her a positive grade which tells us they are covering some serious mistakes they do not want us to find out about. We owe Templeton a thanks for these heads up )

1.57 % increase for Fy17

operating budget 14,248,071.00

increase of 417,071.00

Than a special  meeting 3-2-16 where it goes up. 

2.5%  increase over FY2016 

 
“I hate this budget. I don’t like this budget. This would be the last budget on this Earth that I would want to put in front of you,”Miller said

 * You will hear this  again and again , same exact quotes were used in Templeton. "I just hate this budget" "its the states fault with ups and downs" "we have no choice " and when you finally smarten up and see the facts , its already to late . Most of these will be due to covering mistakes,  and expenses . Your first mistake was  taking it from budget sub committee to Superintendent . 

Dec 17,2015

Concerning building. Miller is insistent the building  move cannot be stopped due to all the work that has gone into it . 

( another warning from Templeton about buildings and this is also on blog) 

Warnings - missing documents or late documents with excuses concerning cash  flow. You will also see this appear . ( check over past blogs post to see these warnings  given to us from Templeton).

 

Should have teachers and parent  do this scoring would of been more factual. It also AMAZES me how fast this went up .

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6az_Rkk2vEcLXp0LUhuNzFFYVk/view

 

 

Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it's a lethal cocktail.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/head.html

 “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” ~ Babe Ruth

Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it's a lethal cocktail.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/head.html

Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it's a lethal cocktail.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/head.html

Little eye opener

I have spoken with some parents about school choice . Pioneer   who has run without a contract with Vernon  now wants one. Here's the problem Vernon will not do a contract for school choice  or tuition and that's from a very reliable source. I also know that only one child applied this year going in 7th grade from Vernon and that's still up in the air. If forced Vernon will stop school choice/tuition  and no grandfather clause will be issued . If act 46 passes no grandfather clause will be issued .

VT Background information: Currently under the Act 46 merger process you cannot have a school and school choice. Legislators were ASSURED that school choice would not be threatened by mergers, so they approved the legislation. The school choice political "hot potato" was passed around until the State Board of Education decided Act 46 did not allow choice and schools to co-exist.

This is up for a vote  in 2017. So I would suggest  PVRS districts tighten the pocket strings. 

I have also heard that Winchester NH is still undecided and leaning towards other options , like Hinsdale or working out the problem with Keene.

So watch the budget PVRS.