5th Year in A Row for Drury Aca Deca!

The Drury High School Academic Decathlon "A" team advanced to the State Competition by getting top scores in the Regional Competition at Pittsfield High School this past weekend. The regional competition (a national event)includes schools in the Central & South Berkshires and all of Western Massachusetts. During the daylong event, each team tries to score the most points on a series of 10 categories: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech.

The two highest scoring teams qualify for the state competition, and this is the 5th straight year that Drury has achieved this. My son & daughter both took part in two previous Academic Decathlon wins. It's a big deal for Drury and North Adams to come out on top at an event that measures academic performance against that of other school districts.

Congratulations to the Drury students who once again showed that a quality school education is available to all who put in the effort in the North Adams School District.

Attorney Raises Questions

In a letter to the Editor of the Transcript, Attorney Richard Taskin questioned the legality of the police lockdown done at Drury High School. My guess would be that he has been hired to represent one of the students that were allegedly in possession of drugs or alcohol.

Would he prefer that drug possession and alcohol possession in the schools be ignored? I am sure there were stresses and anxiety that were felt by students and teachers during the lockdown. Seems to me to be a small price to pay for a drug-free, alcohol-free school environment. To my understanding the lockdown was done by the book. Much preparation went into it, and a very thorough, detailed plan was put in place.

I applaud the pro-active stance that the administration of the North Adams School District took in the undertaking of this lockdown. I would support it being done again – if and when it is deemed necessary by the school district administration.

An Endorsement for Governor Based on Education Views

Deval Patrick wants to extend the school day, reduce class sizes, and raise teacher pay. He promises free, full-time kindergarton for all 5-year olds and an expansion of early education programs for 3 and 4 year olds. He proposes a new funding formula for charter schools so that regular public schools are not disadvantaged.

Lt. Governor Kerry Healy proposes raising the mandatory school attendance age from 16 to 18 to address dropout rates. She wants students to be tested at the beginning and end of every school year to better measure performance. She would lift the cap on charter schools.

I endorse Deval Patrick for Governor. His views on the extended school day, early childhood education and charter schools are the same as mine.

I do support Lt Governor Healey's view on raising the mandatory school age from 16 to 18, but I strongly disagree with her views on adding additional layers of assessments on an already over-tested student. Her strong support of charter schools is something I can't come close to agreeing with.

First in the State

The Berkshire Wireless Initiative is alive and well in the North Adams School District. With distribution of more laptops to the 6th and 7th graders by the end of December, Conte Middle School will be the first school in the state to have a computer in the hands of every student. This, along with the very important increased professional development for the teachers to better integrate the use of laptops into the classroom, and with a top-notch director of technology in Matthew Mervis to expertly guide the full implementation of this initiative, spells great hopes for the current and future education of the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in North Adams. And if the initiative proves its worth in the middle school, as I believe it will, the school committee and the district administration will likely pursue expanding the usage of laptops in other grades.

The major advantage to laptops, in my mind, is that it increases the level of interest in the student's learning. Anything that can get the kids to want to learn is a good thing. Apple has done a great job of linking the laptop curriculum to the state frameworks. The potential is unlimited, but it has to be supported by strong professsional development for its implementation.