School Committee Pauses to Remember Newtown; Addresses Impact on Wayland Schools

The Wayland School Committee meeting Monday night began on a somber note as members of the committee and meeting attendees observed a moment of silence to reflect on the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

“I want to acknowledge and thank the staff at all the schools for their care and vigilance in a moment like this," Superintendent Paul Stein said following the silence. Principals from Wayland's schools were in attendance Monday night. "We really count on the staff for being especially alert to kids and using their day-to-day knowledge of kids to recognize when something is amiss, but, equally important, to provide the comfort of a normal schedule.”

Stein said that principals and administrators communicated throughout the weekend regarding how best to support students and address any questions they may have had returning to school after Friday's shooting in Newtown.

He explained that faculty members met before classes Monday morning to address questions about "How to do the right thing. 'What do we do with a student who says this, with a student who says that.'"

"That kind of preparation meant that when a student approached them, the response was a sensitive one,” Stein said. "At each [school] level, the sense was, 'Let's both create a situation of normalcy but at the same time sensitivity to questions.'"

Email messages from principals Monday afternoon indicated that classes progressed largely without questions or incidents.

"I was out and about in the building most of the day ... and I am happy to tell you that it was like a typical Monday, " Claypit Hill Principal Debbie Bearse wrote in her email.

At Wayland Middle School, students observed a moment of silence before their regularly scheduled winter concert, Principal Betsy Gavron related in her afternoon email.

"Following a brief homeroom period where we connected with students, we transitioned to our previously scheduled morning winter concert," Gavron wrote. "There we took time as a learning community to pause for a moment of silence to honor the victims from Newtown and their families. The healing power of music and song complemented this reflection as students let their instruments and voices sing forth."

Even as schools and parents focus on helping students through this period immediately following the Newtown tragedy, Stein assured meeting attendees and committee members that security at Wayland Public Schools is also at the forefront of the conversations taking place.

"I know there remain concerns not only for how to sympathize, help, be of assistance in some way to the folks in Newtown, but also what we can do in Wayland around security issues," Stein said. "There are some plans that were in the making, that I suspect will be accelerated a little bit."

In May, the School Committee approved several security upgrades at Wayland schools to be funded from a 2009 allocation that went unspent. The upgrades include installing new interior locks and hardware on Wayland's three elementary schools as well as card swipe and keypad access on the exterior doors. The funding also provided for exterior lock upgrades at Wayland Middle School and, if funding remains, to begin updating interior locks at Wayland Middle as well.

Stein said he has already set up meetings with Wayland Police Chief Bob Irving and Wayland Fire Chief Vinnie Smith to discuss the building and grounds security and access.

"The response from the community has been very supportive and also some creative ideas with regard to security that we’ll have to take into consideration," Stein said. "We’re going to just need a little time to have discussions. For some people, the answers never come fast enough … we’ll do our best to get those answers as fast as we can."