NORTHVILLE — Northville Board of Education and Mayfield Board of Education brained stormed ideas together for possible shared services at a combined BOE meeting on Wednesday.
The two boards met and shared what programs each school district has to offer and how they could possibly benefit one another.
“There’s no formal agenda other than picking each other’s brains and seeing where we have some commonality and some services that we may be able to join and work together with,” said Northville BOE President John Sira.
To start out, principals from both school districts went through the programs that each elementary, middle school and high school has and which of those programs could possibly be shared.
Northville Elementary Principal Tammy Driscoll-Reidell said programs the elementary school has include a strong Positive Behavior Intervention Supports program, communications, Project-Based Learning (PBL), teaching videos, data meetings and protocols, flexible classroom environments, teacher leaders and collaboration practices and a strength and character education program.
Some ideas Driscoll-Reidell thought the two districts could share are technology programs, professional development, teacher visits, the Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) teacher, any clubs, testing, pre-kindergarten and special education programs.
Northville middle school and high school Principal Kyle McFarland said programs in the middle school include an embedded English Language Arts and math coaches, constructive student response, six and seventh grade ELA and math every other day, free breakfast for all, PBL and coach, District Assessment Review Team and benchmark assessment to grade level standards.
He said programs at the high school include: advisory, P-Tech or Pathways program the school is trying to implement, 12 Fulton-Montgomery County College or SUNY courses, embedded ELA and math coaches, PBL, curriculum council, possible mental health or social worker, advisory program, small classes, free breakfast for all and the tech area.
Some things that MCSD offers that McFarland believes could be beneficial to NCSD are its drama program, AP classes, a shared-bell schedule, clubs, distance learning, professional development and any classes or clubs to get students more involved after school.
“I love the idea of teacher visits and I love the idea of your videos,” said Mayfield Elementary Principal Katria Hitrick.
She said one area she is interested in is the STEM teacher, and if there were enough students, it could possibly be something the districts could combine. Hitrick said Mayfield has a strong character education program which is Service Perseverance Attitude Responsibility Kindness (SPARK) that could be also be combined with Northville.
Mayfield high school principal Chris Wojeski said one program that could be combined is Northville’s Manufacturing CNC program with Mayfield’s Project Lead-the-Way pre-engineering program. He said they are also looking to creating a pathway that would focus on arts and business such as advertising, social media and marketing. He said with Mayfield’s drama program, the high school recently had its auditorium updated with new sound and lighting technologies as part of their project. Wojeski said Mayfield does have three advanced placement courses, along with 15 college and high school courses through FMCC, Schenectady County Community College and two courses through Syracuse University as well.
Board members from both NCSD and MCSD agreed that shared services would be great for the students in both districts.
“Everyone is open to this, which I think is great,” said Mayfield BOE President Ernie Clapper. “Everyone is open and everyone is realizing all that this is going to be good for all our kids. If we do things good for all our kids, then we all win and most importantly our kids win.”
The next steps for these possible shared services ideas would be for the two boards to schedule a time to meet to continue to brainstorm to make these ideas happen. Surveying the students as to what they think is also the next possible step.
“I think the most important thing is getting the students involved,” said Northville BOE member Dean Shepard. “We need to get our students involved and ask them what they’re looking for.”
