Significant change is upon us at NAHS as we prepare for the 2014-2015 school year. The decision was made to reduce our high school by one full-time administrator while integrating a new curriculum structure that contains a focus on K-12 support and a new model for building support.
It will look and feel different for our teachers and building come September of 2014. We will be subtracting three department chairs (in addition to the two that were subtracted for this year) that have grown into essential instructional leaders over the last two years. These positions were part time teaching positions with time allocated to manage and lead our five core departments. Replacing the department chairs will be five full-time teachers with a stipend to be coordinators of curriculum and instruction for the building. At the district level, we will have a K-12 Humanities and a K-12 STEM administrator that will report to the Assistant Superintendent. The Art, Music, and Wellness department look to pick up much-needed K-12 stipend positions for assistance with curriculum. The exact roles and responsibilities for all of these positions have yet to be communicated. As a high school leadership team, we are meeting in three weeks to connect some puzzle pieces so we know what is expected of each other as we move forward. If you can attempt to translate the puzzle above you should be able to conclude that will be several different parts (some bigger, some smaller, some district-wide and some building based) that will have to connect on a mutual goal for us to be successful.
I believe my challenge, as a leader is to ensure that our leadership team plans and communicates effectively to continually improve student learning and to remain a level one school based on our MCAS scores. I cautiously look forward to the same challenge with a completely new look. My role in the building looks to increase and look different for next year. I don’t participate in any leadership challenge expecting to fail or planning to fail. We will soon find out if the puzzle we are attempting to complete is a 20 pieces or 1000 pieces. Either way it is our job to put everyone in position to succeed on behalf of our students. I look forward to being an active participant in the process while continuing to learn and improve each day. I hope everyone else feels the same way. Only time will tell.
