Written by MSAD #75 Board of Directors | 16 August 2010

At each recent meeting of the Board of Directors, Harpswell citizens concerned about SAD 75's interest in closing the West Harpswell School have attempted to dissuade the Board by questioning the enrollment data being used, raising the negative effects of longer bus rides, and describing the community interest in retaining a school. In spite of these arguments, a Board majority has continued to support the consolidation of the two schools primarily for educational reasons.

The District is invested in Response to Intervention, an instructional construct that is organized around the belief that all students will meet State and District learning standards. RTI expects that teachers collaborate and learn from one another as a regular part of practice so as to be more strategic in addressing student needs. It asks that student performance data be the bed rock for diagnostic and prescriptive teaching. RTI promises that the issues for struggling students be addressed quickly, and that the strategies employed be monitored closely so that they can be changed if students fail to do better.

If RTI is to be successful, and it has shown itself to be, teachers need to be able to consult with colleagues dealing with similarly-aged students in a timely manner and to rely more extensively on in-house expertise. A very small school with a very small faculty where teachers are teaching combination grades affords few opportunities for this kind of consultation and does not have the capacity to fully implement RTI. If the two Harpswell elementary schools were to consolidate, this capacity would be improved.

The greater the amount of staff resources, the greater the flexibility and capacity for the school to create the organizational structures that allow for teacher collaboration and a prescriptive assignment of resources. Similarly the greater this capacity, the better able the school is to have options to address student needs through grouping and regrouping for instruction, individualized support, and more independent, exploratory and alternative learning activities.

Students also need positive student role models from which to learn. Very small grades limit that exposure. Educational theory and practice and brain research speaks to the role that language and social engagement play in the learning process. Many teaching practices ask for students to interact and work together, to build language together, to hear each other's thinking, and to help each other learn.

A qualitative difference in the capacity for professional educators to work together in the best interest of students can be seen in a school with sufficient numbers of students and teachers to organize most effectively for instruction. These include

• More robust teacher collaboration with professional peers with same developmental level students to improve core classroom instruction
• More robust professional interaction regarding student learning results and progress monitoring
• Greater flexibility to group and regroup students for instruction across classrooms and grades
• Greater ability to focus on specific student's needs through professional peer consultation
• Greater access to specialists, because they are more present
• More opportunity for group learning practices like Cooperative Learning, group problem solving
• Greater opportunity for co-curricular activities and experiences
• More and different group activities in PE due to increased class sizes
• More opportunities to play musical instruments with others for ensemble and band experiences
• More exposure to vocabulary from peers as models
• More exposure to positive peer learning role models
• A broader range of instructional material resources re: technology/ library
• Greater flexibility in scheduling academic programming, including greater opportunity for more varied teacher options
• A greater ability to balance classes
• More opportunities for group counseling
• Greater opportunities to experience peer differences as learning opportunities for social skill development
• An increase of social exposure that broadens student view of the world and capacity for understanding
• Greater opportunity to address 21st Century Skills - critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration - through peer interaction

It is for these reasons that a majority of the Board has voted again to pursue the consolidation of the two Harpswell elementary schools into one. We have seen very positive results in student performance data across the District since using the RTI approach. We want to provide the same learning opportunities for all students in the District. This is the District's mission.