News
Preparing students for jobs of the future
By David Gordon
GREENVILLE — On paper, the Greenville Central School District Board of Education’s goals for the coming year are the same as the goals for last year. However, at a workshop Monday, July 28, the board reviewed the district’s progress toward its goals and refined them.
The goals are as follows:
? Develop a comprehensive master plan for facilities and infrastructure to support educational excellence and advance the broader needs of the community.
? Develop a comprehensive energy efficiency policy for the district.
? The board will learn how to nurture a 21st century school community that celebrates human diversity and that values and develops the gifts and talents of each student.
The board did not list student achievement among its goals because “that’s our job, that’s what we do,” said school superintendent Cheryl Dudley.
The third goal, which was updated to include the words “21st century,” drew the most discussion. Much of the discussion related to this goal took place during a report of the administration’s goals and the goals set by individual school buildings prior to the discussion of goals.
Drawing on a talk by Ray McNulty of the International Center for Leadership in Education, Dudley said the challenge for educators is to make their offerings rigorous and relevant. Dudley and curriculum director Colleen Hall attended an administrators’ workshop at which McNulty spoke. Dudley recommended that if possible, board members should hear his talk, which was humorous as well as enlightening.
McNulty asserted that many of the jobs we do today will probably not exist as we know them in 2027, including grocery cashier, film processor, construction worker and call center representative. Such jobs as mortician, politician, tax collector, prostitute and soldier will probably remain with little change.
Such jobs as gene screener, drowned city specialist, teleport specialist, robot mechanic and dirigible pilot will be among the new professions in 2027. The facetious listing of professions made a serious point: “we are preparing our students for jobs that don’t yet exist,” Hall said. “There is a need for more creativity, for knowing the story behind the product, not just how to produce.”
Dudley noted that McNulty “brought home the fact that the rest of the world is moving faster than we are,” and that schools must keep up with technological change. For instance, McNulty predicted that by 2011 50 percent of courses would be available on line. “That has implications for our high schools,” she said.
Globalization is also changing the way schools must operate, Dudley said. Routine work will increasingly be done in other countries; America must be able to lead in creative, innovative thinking.
One troubling aspect of McNulty’s presentation was a study that showed students find school boring, hall said. He stressed the need to make school relevant to today’s students as well as rigorous. “If they are bored and not engaged, we aren’t doing it (educating),” Hall said.
The board’s goal of finding every student’s strengths, both academic and non-academic, has influenced the goals of the various building level teams, Hall said. For instance, each school has included character education among its goals. For instance, one of the building level goals at Scott M. Ellis Elementary School is “emphasize and enhance a culture of respect at Scott M. Ellis.”
Board member Rosanne Moore recounted a problem her grandson had with another student who bullied him. He wanted to maintain a relationship with the student, but without the bullying. Principal Peter Mahan brought the boys together and got them to work out an agreement, Moore said. She was impressed that five and six year olds could learn to discuss their problems and work them out, she said.
“This is important, because they will have to deal with people from different cultures and different ways of life,” she said.
Each of the schools has some variant on a program to develop interpersonal relationships among students.
In keeping with its goal of learning more about how the schools foster individuality and nurture all the students, Lampman suggested a workshop with the administrators. Part of the workshop could include an outside speaker, and part a dialogue on how the goal could be translated into action at the school level.
”Would an outside speaker put the administrators on the spot?” Bear asked. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing,” Moore responded.
Board members agreed to keep the goal, slightly updated, for the coming year. A workshop, set for Nov. 17, would include administrators and possibly an outside speaker. However, this was not incorporated into the goal, but should rather be considered an action toward realizing the goal, Lampman said.
Board president Wilton Bear Jr. reported on progress toward the first goal - continuing the development of a master plan. Stieglitz/Snyder Architects, which is working with the school district’s Comprehensive Plan Committee, expects to have a draft completed in November, Bear said. “We should have a plan in place by the end of next school year,” he said. The architects have interviewed teachers, students, administrators and school staff to develop the plan.
Board member Greg Lampman said he would like the board to have periodic updates to the plan as it evolves. The board will have to sign off on the final plan, he said, and it could be overwhelming if it received a finished plan all at once. The planning process includes recommendations by the architects, which would be reviewed by the Comprehensive Plan Committee and then by the board.
“I would like to see some of the nuances, not just the final recommendations, Lampman said. “I wouldn’t want to see everyone invested in this document before it is put in front of us. It would be much harder to say ‘no’ to any part of it.”
Board vice-president Anne Mitchell asked how long the draft would be. When Dudley told her it would be about 60 pages, she said she would have no problem reading it.
The board agreed that the goal should stay in place until the final plan is approved.
The architects are scheduled to meet with the Comprehensive Plan Committee, 4 to 6 p.m., August 27, Bear, the board liaison to the committee, said. Other interested board members could attend, he said, as long as a majority of the board was not present. If a quorum of the board attends, the meeting becomes a school board meeting under the open meetings law.
The board’s goal of developing an energy efficiency policy remains in effect. The policy can be as simple as a statement that any materials purchased should be as energy-efficient possible, Lampman said.
“Would NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) be interested in using Greenville as a model?” Dudley asked. Lampman, who is employed as a project manager at NYSERDA, said he would look into what the agency has to offer. He noted that NYSERDA generally lets a school district know what it has to offer, and leaves it up to the school district to determine which services or projects it wants to use.
The goals are as follows:
? Develop a comprehensive master plan for facilities and infrastructure to support educational excellence and advance the broader needs of the community.
? Develop a comprehensive energy efficiency policy for the district.
? The board will learn how to nurture a 21st century school community that celebrates human diversity and that values and develops the gifts and talents of each student.
The board did not list student achievement among its goals because “that’s our job, that’s what we do,” said school superintendent Cheryl Dudley.
The third goal, which was updated to include the words “21st century,” drew the most discussion. Much of the discussion related to this goal took place during a report of the administration’s goals and the goals set by individual school buildings prior to the discussion of goals.
Drawing on a talk by Ray McNulty of the International Center for Leadership in Education, Dudley said the challenge for educators is to make their offerings rigorous and relevant. Dudley and curriculum director Colleen Hall attended an administrators’ workshop at which McNulty spoke. Dudley recommended that if possible, board members should hear his talk, which was humorous as well as enlightening.
McNulty asserted that many of the jobs we do today will probably not exist as we know them in 2027, including grocery cashier, film processor, construction worker and call center representative. Such jobs as mortician, politician, tax collector, prostitute and soldier will probably remain with little change.
Such jobs as gene screener, drowned city specialist, teleport specialist, robot mechanic and dirigible pilot will be among the new professions in 2027. The facetious listing of professions made a serious point: “we are preparing our students for jobs that don’t yet exist,” Hall said. “There is a need for more creativity, for knowing the story behind the product, not just how to produce.”
Dudley noted that McNulty “brought home the fact that the rest of the world is moving faster than we are,” and that schools must keep up with technological change. For instance, McNulty predicted that by 2011 50 percent of courses would be available on line. “That has implications for our high schools,” she said.
Globalization is also changing the way schools must operate, Dudley said. Routine work will increasingly be done in other countries; America must be able to lead in creative, innovative thinking.
One troubling aspect of McNulty’s presentation was a study that showed students find school boring, hall said. He stressed the need to make school relevant to today’s students as well as rigorous. “If they are bored and not engaged, we aren’t doing it (educating),” Hall said.
The board’s goal of finding every student’s strengths, both academic and non-academic, has influenced the goals of the various building level teams, Hall said. For instance, each school has included character education among its goals. For instance, one of the building level goals at Scott M. Ellis Elementary School is “emphasize and enhance a culture of respect at Scott M. Ellis.”
Board member Rosanne Moore recounted a problem her grandson had with another student who bullied him. He wanted to maintain a relationship with the student, but without the bullying. Principal Peter Mahan brought the boys together and got them to work out an agreement, Moore said. She was impressed that five and six year olds could learn to discuss their problems and work them out, she said.
“This is important, because they will have to deal with people from different cultures and different ways of life,” she said.
Each of the schools has some variant on a program to develop interpersonal relationships among students.
In keeping with its goal of learning more about how the schools foster individuality and nurture all the students, Lampman suggested a workshop with the administrators. Part of the workshop could include an outside speaker, and part a dialogue on how the goal could be translated into action at the school level.
”Would an outside speaker put the administrators on the spot?” Bear asked. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing,” Moore responded.
Board members agreed to keep the goal, slightly updated, for the coming year. A workshop, set for Nov. 17, would include administrators and possibly an outside speaker. However, this was not incorporated into the goal, but should rather be considered an action toward realizing the goal, Lampman said.
Board president Wilton Bear Jr. reported on progress toward the first goal - continuing the development of a master plan. Stieglitz/Snyder Architects, which is working with the school district’s Comprehensive Plan Committee, expects to have a draft completed in November, Bear said. “We should have a plan in place by the end of next school year,” he said. The architects have interviewed teachers, students, administrators and school staff to develop the plan.
Board member Greg Lampman said he would like the board to have periodic updates to the plan as it evolves. The board will have to sign off on the final plan, he said, and it could be overwhelming if it received a finished plan all at once. The planning process includes recommendations by the architects, which would be reviewed by the Comprehensive Plan Committee and then by the board.
“I would like to see some of the nuances, not just the final recommendations, Lampman said. “I wouldn’t want to see everyone invested in this document before it is put in front of us. It would be much harder to say ‘no’ to any part of it.”
Board vice-president Anne Mitchell asked how long the draft would be. When Dudley told her it would be about 60 pages, she said she would have no problem reading it.
The board agreed that the goal should stay in place until the final plan is approved.
The architects are scheduled to meet with the Comprehensive Plan Committee, 4 to 6 p.m., August 27, Bear, the board liaison to the committee, said. Other interested board members could attend, he said, as long as a majority of the board was not present. If a quorum of the board attends, the meeting becomes a school board meeting under the open meetings law.
The board’s goal of developing an energy efficiency policy remains in effect. The policy can be as simple as a statement that any materials purchased should be as energy-efficient possible, Lampman said.
“Would NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) be interested in using Greenville as a model?” Dudley asked. Lampman, who is employed as a project manager at NYSERDA, said he would look into what the agency has to offer. He noted that NYSERDA generally lets a school district know what it has to offer, and leaves it up to the school district to determine which services or projects it wants to use.
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