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The Belmonte School Community opened the 2009/2010
school year with several priorities in mind: address
large class sizes, particularly in grades six
and seven, improve achievement as measured by
MCAS tests, restore programs and staff including
foreign language, improve communication between
school and home, develop a schedule that allows
for greater staff collaboration, and integrate
technology to best meet the needs of the 21st
century learner.
In just a little over one month we are aggressively
making progress on these goals. Two days into
the school year, I was given the authority to
hire four additional teachers: two in math and
two in language arts. These positions served to
reduce class size from 30 to 23, and provide students
with daily additional support in strengthening
math and language arts skills. In August, we hired
a full-time Spanish teacher to work with students
during Encore periods; students in 6th and 8th
grades now take Spanish once/week for the length
of the school year.
This year teachers have implemented new technology
in the classroom: four smartboards are in use
daily with students at each grade level, over
twenty teachers are using digital projectors as
a regular part of their instruction, and we have
opened a computer lab for any teacher to use with
their class. The new library/media center is already
becoming a research and professional development
hub for teachers and students. We are excited
to set up the new flat-screen TV, brought to us
by Saugus Community Television and Saugus Youth
Services (special thanks to Gregory Nickolas and
Rich Garebedian for their collaboration). Teachers
are motivated to utilize the latest in school-based
technology to strengthen and enhance student learning.
Later this year, middle school parents and students
will have access to grades and progress via X2,
our student management system. Families will have
a username and password to login to a student-specific
page where teachers will post assignments, grades,
important announcements, etc. I am excited to
get this started and provide parent and student
access to academic progress online. For right
now, please check out the new website: http://www.saugus.k12.ma.us/Belmonte/index.htm.
Many features continue to be added with each passing
day.
In the past couple of weeks, different members
of the school community continue to convene to
problem solve and plan for the future - a leadership
committee of over 20 staff members have met and
split up specific planning tasks based on school-wide
priorities for improvement. Our school council
had its first meeting at the end of September:
we are looking for two parents to serve on the
council - please email me if you are interested.
It is an exciting time to be a part of the Belmonte
community; I look forward to your continued support
and please contact me with your ideas or any feedback
on how to make our school even stronger.
Regards,
Geoff Bruno
Principal
gbruno@saugus.k12.ma.us
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