Hats off to PVRS SC

 Who knows maybe the SC is finally seeing the light . I also think its time the SC talks to all the teachers ( past and present)  and students  to get a handle on what is really going on at the schools . This would be no easy tasks due to the fact teachers  are afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation and job loss. ( I would also like to put to task how the SC would like being bullied going to work and live in constant fear )

You have a Superintendent and Principal  who are not working for the betterment of the school but instead for each other . This is a no win plan that fails every time. You have teachers maybe not on the lists looking elsewhere for employment . What do you do than? You have such chaos running thru this school its a wonder it functions at all . This is due mainly to wonderful outstanding teachers who put themselves last and students first . So for just one second put yourselves in their shoes and ask yourself could you work in conditions that they have ? 

Sadly you see Students no longer have the spirit they once had , its more like getting thru the day and leaving, than it is enjoying school and being excited about learning . With the news of Ms Hawkin Harris  moral  has sunk lower . Many expressed that if they weren't graduating would ask for transfers and the ones staying parents are already looking .  When the kids lost  very suddenly all they had ever known who supported them and guided them , IE: Mr Wehrli, and especially Mr Duprey this hit many students hard and quite frankly I am still wondering why a SC would choose a Superintendent over people they have known for years who stood by them and allow such abuse and threatening  ( verbally) to continue . Now losing Ms Hawkin Harris , you basically have set a school in a tails spin.  These teachers and Students went from having someone who believed in them and supported them , to a school of fear and negatively . I need the SC to explain to ALL of us  just how they plan on fixing the mess this school has become before I agree to another dime , let alone a 5 year plan. You have teachers trying to teach all the while fearing they will be the ones receiving pink slips, how is that a positive atmosphere  for the students or teachers?

Matt Killeen was absolutely correct to ask this of the SC. Bacon excuses is just that , she knows damn well  these teachers were kept in the dark.  Her bait and switch lies won't get past us and hopefully  not the SC.

These were replies posted just a few weeks back :

AnonymousJanuary 10, 2017 at 7:27 PM

Misinformation, half truths, strong arming, and acting against what is in best interest of students is the way of this new admin. who has zero experience. Thank goodness for Cathy HH and caring teachers who are still doing what PVRS has always done. Hoping they don't drive them out.

 AnonymousJanuary 2, 2017 at 10:41 AM

The SRO at PVRS was a political move to allocate a 4th officer to Northfield under another line item. The concerns in the article need to be handled deftly, but within the school climate of misinformation and strong arming, the SRO has a very long road ahead.

AnonymousJanuary 5, 2017 at 9:00 PM

Teachers have been told many times that their jobs are not secure for next year. So many questionable things going on in total secrecy. Probe, please. First year principal supposedly out of building on a two week vacation right now. Unheard of.

These are real concerns by taxpayers , who seem to get more information from us here than where  it should be coming from .This blog came to life in June of 2016 , its not even a year old and already its numbers are  way to high  which shows people are concerned as to where PVRS is headed. 

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Many feel its time that the SC takes a larger stand and bring back Duprey if you can and another good move would be to keep Cathy HH as Vice Principal .Its also time to search out a more responsible and workable Superintendent who has the teachers and students best interest . Bacon is a failure  and is not PVRS material nor is Miller. This is bluntly clear .

This will not end till you make your wrongs right and with that you will have our total support . Till than we will report the truth  like it or not . 

School committee postpones vote on Pioneer’s five-year plan, after faculty concens

By SHELBY ASHLINE
Recorder Staff

Sunday, January 29, 2017

• Print
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• NORTHFIELD MA
• Pioneer Valley Regional School District

NORTHFIELD — After members of the Pioneer Valley Regional School faculty expressed concerns over the new five-year School Improvement Plan, the School Committee decided to postpone a vote on the plan until its March 23 meeting.
According to Pioneer Principal Jean Bacon, the plan gives administration a clear vision of what the school should look like in 2021, with the main goals being improving seventh- and eighth-grade performances on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests and giving students necessary preparation for college or careers following high school. The plan also states the school will offer more Advanced Placement and online classes in heterogeneous groups.
However, the process by which the school council presented the plan to faculty raised concerns. Social studies teacher Matt Killeen spoke before the School Committee during its Thursday meeting, and asked that the committee’s vote on whether to approve the plan be postponed pending further staff outreach.
“We, members of the PVRS teaching staff, are in the midst of a cultural miscommunication,” Killeen said, reading from a prepared statement.
The “cultural miscommunication,” Bacon later explained, may be a result of how the school council and administration notified staff.

In the past, she said, faculty would wait until a plan was complete and be invited to give their feedback at the last minute, after which changes were made accordingly. However, Bacon, who took over at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, offered faculty opportunities to contribute during the process.
The school council, made up of Bacon, four parents, four students and four faculty members, met every two weeks starting in September to draft the plan, which was completed Dec. 13.
Faculty outreachShe said meetings were held in October and November where faculty were invited to discuss possible areas for improvement and teachers voted on topics that were priorities to address in the short and long terms.
After creating a draft, it was emailed to all faculty, and they were invited to provide additional input. The school council also scheduled a meeting where faculty could share input and ask questions. Only two faculty not on the council attended, she said.
“In the last month, I’ve heard nothing from any faculty members regarding concerns with the plan,” Bacon said. That is, until Killeen approached her a few days prior to the School Committee meeting, she said.
Bacon presented the plan during the Dec. 15 School Committee meeting, and board members had the opportunity to review it before Thursday’s meeting, but given faculty’s concerns, agreed to postpone voting on whether to endorse it.
Members of the school council were understanding of the request.
“I think it’s important that we look at this, maybe because it’s a little too generic,” said Dana McRae, a Pioneer student and school council member.
“I think you have sort of our first thoughts,” said Sue O’Reilly-McRae, a school council member and McRae’s mother. “I think I’d like to take the request of the staff to have a little more time with it.”
Killeen hoped that by March’s meeting, he and other faculty might better understand the changes.