At the Smyrna School District Board of Education meeting Wednesday, June 17 at Clayton Elementary, the board heard updates on the high school construction and curriculum. Board President Jeff Clark was absent.
At the high school, the framework is going up for the new kitchen, according to Clint Lasana, Buildings and Grounds Supervisor. The old kitchen will be the site of more cafeteria seating. There is mostly demolition going on in the exiting kitchen and cafeteria. The ceiling in the current cafeteria is being torn out.
The gym construction is coming along. The framework is being constructed.
On the front of the school where a new wing is planned, the sidewalks have been torn up and the flagpole was taken down. The grass has been removed from the front lawn along with three of the four front stairwells. The windows in the main office have been boarded up.
The sidewalks by the tennis courts are also being torn out. The parking lot and tennis courts will have to be moved because the new wing of the addition will extend out to that area.
The insulation is being put up on the inside of the boiler room in the physical plant.
Lasana said there is still some punch-list work that needs to be finished. Punch-list items are small things that need to be fixed.
“There’s nothing drastic, just some minor things,” he said.
High school office temporarily moved to Smyrna Middle School
The high school office staff has been relocated to the middle school until July 27. The high school phone lines have been switched to go to the middle school, so any calls at the high school phone number will be answered from the middle school office.
This week new power conversions from the old equipment to the new equipment have started at the high school, so there will be times during the day when there will be no power throughout the building. The security cameras will still be working.
Clearly Focused curriculum model
Sandy Shalk, Supervisor of Curriculum, told board members about the “Clearly Focused” program, a model of strategies about how students learn. Starting in the fall, this model will be implemented grades kindergarten through 12.
Teachers will be trained on things like putting new material into different frameworks to help students learn better. There will be a focus on comprehension and vocabulary strategies along with daily formative assessment techniques.
Teachers will also assess how previewing material accelerates student learning. One example would be to introduce new material prior to them learning the unit.
In the elementary grades, the teachers will be doing the model. There will be specialists coming to the middle and high school to move forward with the model.
The strategies focus on five areas: planning, curriculum, instruction, assessment and school organization.
Shalk said the state standards are so broad, the district is looking at how to compact them into smaller units.
