On Friday, March 14th, Principal Rebecca Tatischeff and Superintendent Steven Dellinger-Pate sat down with U-32 Chronicle editors to answer questions about the most up-and-coming topics at U-32. This is the first article in a new series titled “Super Principal’s Press Conference.”
This edition you will find articles about:
- Super Principal Reflections
- Class Cut: U-32 Shrinks its Daily Schedule
- Rise of the 6th Grade
- Big Changes in Little Vermont
Super Principal Reflections
By Avery Ryan
As both Steven and Becca have worked in new roles as superintendent and principal, this school year has brought ample opportunities for reflection, embracing change, and goal setting. “You’re learning new dynamics. You’re learning sort of what flow or arc is there. There are some [patterns] that happen in every place,” said Becca.
Becca recounted that the first principal’s press conference this year was full of questions about equity and social justice work. “That is very aspirational here, and the practicality of that work is long term work,” Becca said. As a new principal, she has assessed that U-32 needs better systems in place to figure out what equitable means for the community. Next year, she said, the administration will focus on that central question: “How do we look at what it means to have equitable outcomes for students?”
Only five other principals have achieved or surpassed Steven’s tenure as principal. “10 years of principalship is a long time these days,” he said. This has allowed for a lot of reflection, and has encouraged him to embrace that it was time for U-32 to take the next step. “I could still be a part of a community that I really value,” said Steven. As superintendent, he can influence students’ learning outcomes and access to an equitable school district from the beginning.
It’s a big shift for the district to have a new superintendent and principal in the same year. Steven hopes to provide some stability for the district as superintendent. Meanwhile, Becca looks forward to changes in U-32 that enrich students’ experience as learners and community members.
Not only is U-32 facing changes in its community, but Steven sees policies shifting on the state and national levels. “We need to adapt to this new culture that’s really being formed around us as we speak,” said Steven.
Class Cut: U-32 Shrinks its Daily Schedule
By Samara Davis
For the majority of most students’ education, U-32 has had eight classes per semester for high schoolers. With this in mind, the recently proposed change from eight to seven classes a semester has been jarring to the community. “Elective courses in high school offer significant advantages for students with IEPs,” commented one community member on the petition against the class change.
The current schedule of eight classes has allowed students to explore their passions and hobbies, as well as challenge themselves in a plethora of academic areas. For rising freshmen, the change to seven classes threatens their opportunities in academics, art, and music for the next four years.
For the Admin team, specifically Principal Becca Tatistcheff, the change is about sustainability over time. “It helps us [by] making sure that we have sustainable class sizes so that you’re not signing up for a class with only two students in it and then not being able to take it,” Becca said. Maintaining class sizes and being considerate of the budget are two driving factors of the class change, which, to Becca, could greatly benefit the U-32 community.
The student body has not been quiet about its opposition to this proposal, and a petition was created on February 5th with the intent of stopping the continuation of the schedule change. Despite this effort, and vocal support from the community, the petition flunked, and conversations around the schedule change have continued posthaste.
Even in the face of failure, and with the fear of an unknown future, the students of U-32 have not lost their ability to advocate. Though the petition may have failed, it displayed a remarkable responsibility in the student body to self-champion. Becca believes student advocacy should be encouraged, but not at the expense of sustainability for U-32.
Are you curious to read more about the school’s change from eight to seven classes? Read more here.
Rise of 6th Grade
by Elly Budliger
Recent discussions around school district reconfiguration have opened discussion about 6th graders attending U-32 in the future. Principal Rebecca Tatischeff confirms that, “It’s not going to happen next year, but from my perspective, we have to start to talk about what we mean by middle school, and what is really important about middle grades education.”
Questions surrounding what we want for the education of our students have been prevalent in recent district conversions, “I think the question that we’re asking as a community right now is, what do we want education to look like for kindergarten through graduation and beyond? And where are the breaks in that between an elementary, middle grades, and a high school education?” Said Steven Dellinger Pate, WCUUSD Superintendent. These questions are being taken to a Reconfiguration Committee where Steven, Becca, community and board members discuss these issues, “What are the programs that we want? Where do we want to see those? How might we create sustainable programs? And then what’s the structures that we can use to be able to deliver that? That builds from the work that we’ve already done as a board around strategic plans.”
They are still unsure about what these changes are going to look like, but these vital discussions will continue to take place. “That’s why we can’t say that absolutely sixth grade is going to be here, because we’re not sure that that’s exactly what the values of our programming and our structures are going to actually work for,” said Steven.
Big Changes in Little Vermont
By Elise O’Brien
In early January, the Vermont legislative session opened with news from governor Phil Scott on drastic changes to state schools. The biggest question it raised was how these changes would affect the student and school communities. Legislators are considering many proposals for change, such as consolidation and organization of schools, and the state funding per school and student.
Currently, the number of school districts is one of the most heated debates on this topic. “It could be as big as five districts in the state, which means we would be part of a district that currently is something like 14 or 15 districts that would then be put into one,” said Steven Dellinger-Pate, superintendent at U-32. Steven believes there should be some consolidation, but that it should not be quite as extreme as proposed. Right now it is difficult to weigh the pros and cons of funding for these changes. ¨The funding formulas don’t really have any consistent messages,” said Steven. There will be more about this decided in the legislative session next year.
Though students, parents, and educators might be nervous about the uncertainty of their education, these proposals are very preliminary. There is still plenty of room for edits to be made and changes to happen. “There’s a lot of implications within the legislation on how big schools should be, how big class sizes should be, and there’s no consistent message yet. I would expect in the next month for it to start coming into a little clearer focus as to what it might look like. Then, it would be easier to talk about what the effects on us are,” said Steven.