Canton Public Schools: January 20 & February 3 School Committee Recap: COVID-19 Protocol And Policy Updates, GMS & CHS Math Course Optio ...

Press release from Canton Public Schools:

Taylor O'Neil

February 17, 2022

Interim Superintendent Derek Folan would like to share with the school community updates and information provided at the Jan. 20 and Feb. 3 Canton School Committee meetings.

A recording of the Jan. 20 full meeting can be viewed here, and the Feb. 3 meeting can be viewed here.

Additional meeting materials, including all documents shared at the meeting and the full Interim’s Superintendent’s reports for the Jan. 20 meeting are available here and the Feb. 3 meeting materials are available here.

Vaccination Rates: See the updated vaccination rates for each grade/school here.

Protocol Updates: The updated protocols largely reflect DESE’s guidance regarding shortened quarantining time – a minimum of 5 days – for individuals who test positive and the additional masking recommendations once returning to school. Other updates include best practices for when to take a COVID test and language regarding the acceptance and recommendation of at-home antigen testing for various scenarios. View the updated protocol document here.

At-Home Antigen Test Opt-In: In accordance with the DESE and the DPH, the District is updating its COVID-19 Testing Program and opting into an at-home testing program that will increase testing of participating students and staff, regardless of vaccination status. The at-home testing option began the week of January 31 for students. In addition to this new at-home antigen test option, the District will continue with Pooled Testing and Symptomatic Testing during the week. As part of this shift, Test and Stay and contact tracing for in-school close contacts is being discontinued. A description of the program can be found here. A District letter can be found here.

Face Covering Policy: The Face Covering Policy was updated to include the strong recommendation of surgical masks over cloth masks, and the extension of the state’s mask mandate in schools until at least February 28. See the updated policy here.

The District is in the process of completing a math curriculum review for Pre-K-12. As part of the review, a group of staff members evaluated the current math program by looking at standards and data, participating in a visioning process, looking at the District’s current math course offerings, and reviewing best practices in math teaching. The team continues to look at high-quality instructional materials and in the future will plan for professional development for math teachers.

Currently, Canton’s 6th-grade students all take the same math course. Once they move into 7th grade, their teacher recommends which course they should take. This recommendation ultimately sets each student on a path for the courses they will take throughout high school, which hasn’t offered much flexibility for students to move between courses should they grow as a math learner. Through the course review, the team aimed to provide more flexibility for students. At the GMS, the proposed changes for the 2022-23 school year include adjustments to course titles, the addition of advanced courses to provide more rigorous and in-depth learning, and re-titling of Algebra I to Math 8 Advanced which will cover Algebra 1 as well as Geometry and Statistics topics that are included in the grade-level standards.

At CHS, there will be new course options to accelerate learning for students in grades 9-11, increased access to advanced courses in grade 12, and current courses have been redesigned to ensure they address all standards. CHS will also be increasing access to course electives, which will offer a new path of options that allows students to move up or down based on the level of rigor they would like to achieve in their math learning.

Parents/guardians will receive information regarding these changes prior to course selection so that parents/guardians and students understand the options available. See the full presentation here.

The School Committee voted to approve the proposed CHS and GMS Program of Studies for the 2022-23 academic year. This year’s Program of Studies for both schools are being hosted on a Google Site in an effort to make it more accessible for families.

As part of the proposed CHS Programs of Studies, changes include: the reorganization of the Mathematics Department scope and sequence, revised Visual Arts course names to better reflect the course topics, more detailed information about the level of language acquisition in the description of the World Language courses, Personal Wellness name change to Exercise Science, School Counseling removed the word “guidance” from their seminars, and the change of the letter “E” to the letter “F” to align with middle school and common secondary school practice.

As part of the proposed GMS Programs of Studies, changes include: the reorganization of the Mathematics Department scope and sequence, revised Visual Arts course names to better reflect the course topics, more detailed information about the level of language acquisition in the description of the World Language courses and the addition of a newly developed course, an added Student Services section, an updated list of resources used in English and Reading courses, updates to the Social Studies curriculum and standards in alignment with the recent Frameworks changes, the removal of the “Computers” section as the course has been reimagined and re-aligned with the Technology & Engineering courses, and the removal of outdated sections.

CHS Jeanette Winthrop Scholarship
The School Committee voted to approve the Jeanette Winthrop Scholarship in the amount of $20,000. Jeanette Winthrop joined the Dean S. Luce school as a substitute second-grade teacher in 1965 when she, her husband and three kids moved to Canton. The following year, she transferred to the John F. Kennedy School where she worked as a first-grade teacher until she retired in 1996.

• Emerging Young Artists (EYA) Juried Exhibition 2022: Two CHS senior Advanced Placement Art & Design students, Morgan Quinn and Olivia Schnock, had their work accepted into this very competitive juried exhibition. Read more here.
• All-State Music Festival: The District congratulates junior Atlas Curran Barker and senior Antoine Aoun on their acceptance into the Massachusetts All-State Music Festival. They will perform at Symphony Hall this spring in the chorus section. Read more here.
• Southeast Junior Districts Festival:  Freshmen Tyler Goldowsky (band), Sonia Le (orchestra) and Anthony Wang (band), and seventh-grade students Timothy Tseng (orchestra) and Elizabeth Silvasy (chorus) auditioned for and were accepted into the Southeast Junior Districts Festival! They will participate in the festival in March. Congratulations to all. Read more here.
• Luce Musical: Congratulations to the Luce Elementary School on an amazing performance of “We Are Monsters” on Friday, January 28. Due to the blizzard over the weekend, only one performance was held. The talent displayed was exceptional.
• Band and Chorus Step-Up Day: Band Step-Up Day was held on Monday, January 31, and the Chorus Step-Up Day at CHS was held on Wednesday, February 2. Congratulations to the following GMS students: Samara Brophy, Zoya Gildenberg, Jillian Grady, Miranda Grady, Alyssa Hanlon, Aleyda Hernandez, Rose Isaacs, Eva Jones, Veronica Lykov, Sophia Pankevych, Stacey Pierre, Regina Rizzo, Sofia Soto, Riley Swearingen and Brady Wong.

• Scheduling, such as: aligning start/end dates for all schools and grades, transportation, weather disruptions, student mental health, contractual obligations, state requirements, consistency, and more
• Holidays, such as: equity and diversity regarding holidays, homework and testing around holiday periods, community considerations, and more
• Wellness, such as: mental health considerations for students and staff members, professional development that supports students and staff, and more
• Professional Development, such as: meaningful professional development at appropriate times to meet teachers’ needs, scheduling considerations for students/families when holding professional development, and more
• Values, such as: recognizing days of faith, consistency in values, student success, maximizing learning time, access to child care, and more

This press release was produced by Canton Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.