Superintendent Dr. Peter Giarrizzo Delivers Mid-Year Report To BOE

From Pelham Union Free School District: Superintendent Dr. Peter Giarrizzo delivered his Mid-Year Benchmarking report to the Board of Education on Jan. 24 and said that the Pelham Union Free School District is continuing to make significant progress on its five-year Strategic Plan.

The Strategic Plan, which runs from 2014-2019, focuses on four Pillars: 21 st Century Learning, Networks of Support, Social-Emotional Development, and Professional Development. It includes 42 total action steps designed to help the District meet specific goals and Dr. Giarrizzo reported that just two-and- a-half years in, 40 of those steps are currently completed or are in-progress.

To ensure that the objectives of the Strategic Plan are met, the District has formed several committees to oversee the work. Some examples are the Diversity Oversight, Professional Learning Advisory, Wellness Oversight, Math, Safety, Literacy, and International Baccalaureate committees, as well as the Elementary World Language Task Force.

“The real nuts and bolts is happening in the buildings and via our committee structure,” said Dr. Giarrizzo. “How do we get 40 things in motion in such a short period of time? There are people that are accountable to these tasks.”

Throughout the first half of this school year, Dr. Giarrizzo said, the District has made important strides on some key provisions of the Strategic Plan, such as implementing the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme in grades 6-10, creating MakerSpaces in each building and completing the final integration of the Singapore Math curriculum for grades K-5. Furthermore, the District is moving ahead with the recommendation of the World Language Task Force to add a world language to the elementary school curriculum and continuing to focus on social-emotional growth of all students.

In addition to curriculum enhancements, the District is also strengthening professional development offerings for teachers and staff, and building networks of support to back up these important initiatives.

As an example, of the progress the District has made, Dr. Giarrizzo highlighted the IB program, which is in its second year of implementation at the Middle School and already transforming classrooms. After spending much of last year training and immersing teachers into the IB framework, the school is now preparing for its final review and authorization visit by the IB Organization on April 20 and 21. Progress is also being made at PMHS, where 9 th and 10 th grade teachers are being trained in IB this year with plans to expand the IB framework into more classes next school year. Additionally, Dr. Giarrizzo reported that, thanks to a generous grant from the Pelham Education Foundation, each school is now outfitted with a MakerSpace. These areas are equipped with modern technology, such as 3-D printers and robotics applications, and allow students to innovate, tinker and learn through play.

“The MakerSpace movement is full-throttle in Pelham,” Dr. Giarrizzo said. “They are the coolest places you could be in a school. It’s about more than playing, it’s about making sense of really complex concepts and putting them to work.”

Other areas of growth include utilizing new learning technology through the 1:1 Chromebook Initiative and introduction of Google Classroom, expanding the Mandarin Chinese program, and developing Performance-Based Assessments for grades 5 and 12.

The District is also focusing on social-emotional growth of the whole child. This year, with the help of the Pelham Education Foundation, the District is piloting the School Yoga Project in special education classrooms, as well as in 1st and 3 rd grade general education classrooms. Each of the six schools are also working to ensure that every student has at least one identified adult that they can trust. “These initiatives are crucial to helping our students deal with stress in a healthy and productive way,” Dr. Giarrizzo said. “By focusing on the growth of the whole child we are ensuring that each student is prepared to learn both while they are in the classroom and when they eventually leave the Pelham Public Schools. We believe that there is a direct correlation between social-emotional readiness and academic achievement. Thus, it is our responsibility to develop both core sets of skills in our students.”

While proud of the work that the District has done so far, Dr. Giarrizzo stressed that there is still a long way to go.“By using the Strategic Plan to guide us, we are able to systemically improve our programming and curriculum,” Dr. Giarrizzo said. “While we developed the plan with four separate pillars, they are all connected in the work that we do and essential to maintaining the excellence of the Pelham Public Schools.”

Images Courtesy Of Pelham School District