New year, new faces in Hartford schools
Published: 09-20-2024 6:01 PM
Modified: 09-23-2024 8:50 AM |
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Last May, 11 Hartford middle schoolers were so frustrated with disruptions to their classes caused by misbehaving students that they staged a walkout and demanded to meet with the superintendent.
“It was our last cry for help” to an administration that didn’t seem to be doing anything about “extremely disruptive and disrespectful” students, then-eighth grader Kaya Dauphin wrote in an email shortly after the protest.
The walkout was a coda to a difficult school year plagued at the district level by staffing shortages, deep budget cuts, and tension between the teachers’ union and the School Board over decisions to create new administrative positions while leaving student-facing roles vacant.
At the middle school, a mid-year resignation of Justin Bouvier, a well-liked principal garnered pushback from parents over fears of unchecked bullying.
But the arrival of a new academic year seems to have brought with it a renewed sense of optimism, especially at the middle school.
“To say this school year has been different is an understatement,” social studies teacher Brycen Nardone said Wednesday. “The change in leadership has had a profound impact. It seems as though roles have been more clearly defined with the administration, procedures and practices fine-tuned, and quite honestly, our new principal has helped to change the overall vibe of the school.”
Cody TanCreti takes the helm as middle school principal this year, along with a newly-configured leadership team that includes a dean of students and an associate principal.
TanCreti is among the new faces who joined the Hartford School District in the first few weeks of July, when the district also saw the sudden departure of a long-term superintendent and a school board besieged by accusations of procedural impropriety.
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Interim Superintendent Caty Sutton had just finished her first year as Hartford’s director of secondary curriculum and instruction when she was tapped by the School Board in June to replace Tom DeBalsi.
DeBalsi left unexpectedly at the end of June with a year still remaining on his contract. Sutton’s tenure in the superintendent’s office almost immediately intersected with a fierce public backlash against the School Board for negotiating a severance agreement with DeBalsi worth more than $210,000.
A former humanities teacher and principal at the Randolph Union Middle and High School, Sutton said that she is enjoying the “district-level view” that her new position affords.
“There is incredible work happening here,” Sutton said. “It is such a caring community and so dynamic and innovative,” she added.
Asked about the controversy surrounding her predecessor’s departure, she said that her “intention is to focus on and prioritize the students, families, and educators in the district by moving forward and engaging in the districtwide work that needs to be accomplished in order to serve our students and celebrate the work they are achieving with our exceptional faculty, staff, and school and district leaders.”
Sutton sees the interim superintendent position as a new challenge that allows her to think about teaching and learning on a new level.
“What I’m grateful for is that I’ve had the classroom experience to understand how — when decisions are made without thinking about the implication of those who work most closely with our students — how harmful that can be,” she said.
Sutton isn’t sure yet whether she plans to put her hat in the ring for the permanent role.
“I think that remains to be seen,” she said Tuesday. “I’m still getting my feet under me; still learning what the position entails.”
The district has retained Omaha, Neb.,-based firm McPherson & Jacobson to conduct a search for a permanent superintendent. The cost to the district for the search will not exceed $16,375, according to the contract.
Following Bouvier’s resignation last December, district leaders created a new dean of students position for the middle school in an effort to address some of the behavioral challenges.
“We had a desire to deal with student mental health and behavioral needs in a more therapeutic manner, rather than traditional discipline,” then-superintendent DeBalsi said last spring about the creation of the new position.
Patrick Lincoln became the school’s first dean last January. His background as a mental health clinician informs his approach to working with students, which is focused on restorative justice.
“The model of rewards and consequences doesn’t work,” he said recently. “We can’t punish our way out of behavioral problems, but we can create meaningful consequences.”
The culture of belonging includes not just students, but families, parents and teachers.
“It’s been great so far this year,” he said. “I feel like the emotional climate is incredibly positive.”
For her part, Sutton focused on the importance of consistent expectations and routines in creating positive cultural change.
“Middle school is hard,” she said. “I don’t care where you are in the world, to be a middle school student has always been challenging and that’s always going to be true.”
Moving to a larger school and navigating new social dynamics along with the physical changes of early adolescence are perennial challenges that require “intentional and purposeful thinking,” she said.
Associate Principal Sarah Hisman completes the leadership triad at the middle school after serving as interim assistant principal last year. She was previously an instructional coach and reading interventionist.
“I bring big-picture thinking to the table, focusing on long-term plans and streamlining processes. Cody is our motivator, inspiring teamwork and driving us to take action. Patrick’s insightful nature has made him a trusted advisor among our colleagues, strengthening connections and fostering emotional growth,” Hisman said.
The middle school is divided into four teaching teams that “shrink kids’ worlds,” Hisman said. The team approach allows students to make stronger connections with a small subgroup of teachers, “have a person to go to” when issues arise and help them “feel like a family,” she said.
To further encourage a sense of belonging, TanCreti has implemented a “no-fly zone” during the first 10 minutes of each class period, where students commit to being in class and fostering connections.
“The only things I’ve heard (about the middle school) have been positive,” Linda Saturley, White River School kindergarten teacher and Hartford teachers’ union president, said by email last week.
“I’ve been told there is a better feeling in the building so far this year. I believe the change in leadership,” she said, “has been a good one.”
TanCreti, who was previously the assistant principal at the Woodstock Union Middle and High School, brings with him a data-driven approach to managing student behaviors.
Data collection, though, is “not used as a lever to make students behave,” he said, but rather as a tool to identify and get ahead of behaviors so that he and his team can do “proactive work with students and families.”
Noticing what time of day issues tend to occur, or whether kids are eating lunch too late, for example, can inform scheduling decisions, he said.
“The talk about Hartford middle school, the image of it, will change, and it should change, because there are amazing things happening here,” he said.
It’s too early to know whether the district is enjoying a honeymoon period or deep, sustained change, but the administration plans to quantify results.
TanCreti believes in paying attention to what he calls “street data” to inform changes impacting school culture. While standardized test scores, attendance numbers, and disciplinary encounters are easy to track, it’s also important to collect data on students’ sense of belonging and social-emotional well-being. This year, the middle school will use a software program called Panorama, to collect and assess surveys that are “created and delivered by students,” TanCreti said.
The middle school leaders, Sutton said, will deliver a presentation at a School Board meeting in October where they will “share some data and talk about what they’ve been implementing this year,” she said.
In the meantime, TanCreti is visible in the hallways connecting with and motivating. A sense of belonging “doesn’t just happen,” on its own, he said. “It happens when kids show up in the morning and we’re greeting them and walking them to class and standing outside our doors” to welcome them.
Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.