What Makes Hopkinton High So Good? Candidates Respond

This week on Patch we wanted to help Hopkinton voters get to know what makes the School Committee candidates tick and where they stand on various issues. To do this we asked each candidate to respond to four questions from Tuesday, May 15 through Friday, May 18 we will feature all of the candidates' responses to one question.

All four candidates are running for two open positions in the election.

The fourth and Final question focused on the excelent ranking that US News gave the High School last week.

4.) Last week . What do you think is the best aspect of the school and what do you think needs to be done to ensure Hopkinton does not lose ground.

Jean Bertschmann: There is so much to celebrate about our schools. From the Integrated Preschool  through the High School, we have an outstanding, dedicated faculty and administrative leadership team. We have engaged parents, generous school support groups, and are fortunate to live in a community with a long history of supporting education. Our students give their best efforts in the classroom, performing on stage and in competitions, in clubs, on the athletic fields, and in the community. The district has experienced tremendous growth in the last two decades – both in terms of numbers and in terms of curriculum and instruction. Our K-12 curriculum database is a model for the state.  Our Strategic Plan provides us with a vision for the future, and sets a high bar based on community expectations. At @$1,100 under the state average per pupil spending, this success is also represents a great value to the community. I continually receive feedback from residents about what a source of pride our district is for our town. Creativity, innovation, dedication, and collaboration keep us moving quickly along the path to local and national recognition. It is crucial to continue to be vigilant about monitoring costs, finding efficiencies and revenue enhancements, and maintaining our commitment to the primacy of learning for all students.

Jon Graziano: I think that the best aspect of all of the Hopkinton schools, including the high school are the dedicated and talented administrators and teachers who work so hard to create a successful learning environment for our students.  In order to continue the success of the schools, we need to provide them with the tools to deliver the best education to our students.  In an environment of increasing costs and limits to revenue we can realize from taxes and fees, this will require us to think differently about our budget to make sure that we are getting the most value out of our revenue.  Without a determination to find new, innovative solutions for the annual budget, the School Committee will have to put key strategic educational initiatives on hold or cut valuable services.

Frank Sivo: While I have four children in the Hopkinton schools, I have yet to have hands-on experience with the High School.  What I can say, it is a marvelous facility that has generated some fantastic academic results in recent years.  In particular, the Grade 10 MCAS results for science have been tremendous for several years (ranking within the top 10 districts in the state for the past five years). In 2011, the MCAS scores for all subject areas (ELA, Math, and Science) were all truly exceptional; ranking in the top 10 the state for all areas. 

Additionally, for the children requiring special education support, the improvement in 2011 was tremendous.  The Grade 10 ELA proficiency rate went from 44% in 2010 to 91% in 2011. This type of improvement has never been seen in our schools before. In fact, I can find no similar one year improvement of this magnitude anywhere in the state, over recent history.

So, I salute the entire class of 2013 for their stellar performance on 2011 MCAS and the accolades it has brought to the school.  However, in addition to celebrating this grand success, we must push ourselves to understand what made these results possible. Of course, the goal is to achieve such results year after year. It is human nature to desire understanding about what led to a decline in performance, but sometimes we fail to ask the same critical question about success.

As a member of  the School Committee I will work with the administration to better understand what has recently changed to allow the High School to move from statewide rankings of  79th,70th (ELA,Math) in 2007 to 9th,8th (ELA, Math) in 2011. Whatever we learn to be responsible for such improvement, we must safeguard, reinforce, and sustain.

Once we learn what drove this improvement and can safeguard it at the High School, we must apply any relevant findings to the Middle School. The academic attainment of the Middle School is still the weakest in our system.  If we can find ways to improve outcomes in the Middle School, the achievements in the High School will simply be an extension of each student’s previous achievements; requiring less heroics at the 9^th and 10^th grade.

Frank D'Urso: The best aspect of the High School School, in my opinion, is the drive the students have when they participate in committee meetings, they arrive fully engage and when asked provide a wealth of information that has truly been useful. The students exhibit a real sense of community and team work. Their hours of community service and how evident it is that they care about our town impresses me. These are both things that are not measured by US News & World Report, those rankings are the results from the class of 2010 who took AP classes, many of whom are completing their Sophomore year of college right about now. It’s not a question of losing ground, it’s more about keeping up. We cannot hang our hat on AP tests that occurred three years ago.