On Monday familiar yellow buses will roll over Island roads, stopping along the way to collect their precious cargo: school-age children from kindergarten through high school.
When school bells ring this morning, kindergarten students won’t be the only ones with butterflies. The school district processed paperwork for 100 new staff members this summer, and many more returning employees took on new roles.
An elementary school principal from Mattapoisett has been named assistant superintendent for the Vineyard public schools, superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss has announced. Matthew D’Andrea, currently principal of Old Hammondtown School in Mattapoisett, accepted a 22-month appointment Monday as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Mr. D’Andrea toured Island schools last Friday.
With the school year nearing and many personnel out on vacation, there are still three major regional administrative positions to be filled.
The Cape Cod Collaborative conducted a search for assistant superintendent of schools beginning two weeks ago that has yielded five candidates, including three off-Island and two local applicants. None of the candidates are currently employed by the school district, Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss said.
The rafters echoed with laughter as 12 high school seniors gathered in Polly Hill Arboretum’s far barn to commemorate their graduation with a simple lunch. These students are the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School’s Class of 2013, the school’s largest graduating class since its first class of seniors graduated in 2001.
Adult and Community Education of Martha’s Vineyard (ACE MV) was named an Outstanding Community Arts Education Collaborative on May 22 by Arts Learning. The award was presented in a ceremony at Lesley University in Cambridge.
ACE MV offers numerous classes in many different mediums. It also hosts community forums, performances, readings and cultural events focusing on the arts.
The mission of Arts Learning is to transform education through the power of the arts.
The classroom is up the open staircase to the right in room 220 at the Edgartown School. Flags of world nations hang from the ceiling. There is a quote on the door that reads, “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” This is the English Language Learning room, although it is not the only place in the school where English language learning takes place.
On his 103rd day on the job, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Matthew H. Malone came to the Vineyard for a full immersion in Island education: he chatted up students and praised the school’s vocational program, made suggestions for school fundraisers and sampled the culinary program’s scalloped potatoes.
Mr. Malone was on the Island Thursday for a look at Vineyard schools and to listen to concerns, he said, as part of a tour of schools across the commonwealth.
I have had more failures and mishaps learning to farm than most. My tendency to be cheap and, at times, careless has proven costly more often than not. In California, on a winery where we were also raising food, three heritage breed piglets were purchased from a breeder on the coast for more money than I would like to admit. They were brought back to their new home, and housed in a small makeshift pen meant to be a temporary home while we constructed a more permanent place for them behind a large storage facility.
I began my high school teaching career in 1992 following a stint in the Oak Bluffs School and an alternative school so I guess this year I come of age. I have 21 years of growing, struggling always to do better, of working and living with this community. It is time to reflect. There is so much to be thankful for in this richly diverse culture where I have found support from so many whose love for our children is indeed boundless.
