Schools

Back to School: KP School Committee Tours High School and Middle School

The committee found no major issues as they toured the regional high school and middle school.

No problems were seen as the King Philip School Committee did their annual walkthrough of both the regional high school and middle school last night. Taking a look at the work being done over the summer, both schools appeared to be ready for when students return to school on Tuesday.

In the tour of the high school, first year Principal Lisa Oliveira touted the improvements made during the summer break in preparation for the new school year.

New to the school this year will be the Academic Student Center. Formerly the school’s library, the area will now be home to 504 Coordinator Kip Lewis who will have an office in the center.

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The advantage of having Lewis in the area, according to Oliveira, will be the opportunity to take better advantage of Virtual High School which Lewis coordinates. There is the hope that more seats in the program will be used with Lewis around to emphasize and promote the program.

In the center, students who are struggling will be assigned a teacher who will help keep track of the student’s studies. Students may stay in the program for however long that they need and would visit the area during a study hall. Students who are struggling more can go to the center for credit recovery in an effort to catch up and graduate on time.

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In addition, students who have a free study hall and at least a 3.25 GPA may help tutor another student in exchange for 1.25 credits.

The group also saw a cleaned up courtyard that does not get very much usage. School Committee Chairman Patrick Francomano suggested that the area be used as a function space in the future.

A vendor in late October will be coming in to help replace the bolts in the chairs in the auditorium. The school hoped to have the bolts replaced earlier but could not get the shipment needed from the manufacturer until the end of October. Over time, the bolts have been ripped out of the bottom of the chairs, making a need for the replacement bolts. In addition, the lighting will be updated with help from Symphony Nova who will be performing three times during their season. The new lights will be brought out and down a little bit to help prevent the lights from blinding the conductor.

At the middle school, there were minimal changes aside from the usual floor work and wall repainting.

As usual, all the lockers in the school received a new lock to avoid any issues that may arise from curious students checking if the combination on their old locker. 

During the tour, there was more emphasis on what will be happening in the classroom rather than changes and fixes made to the building. One of the examples was a board in the back of a math classroom where any student could post a notecard with some sort of math knowledge they find valuable. If students were stuck with a problem, they could check the board to see if what they needed was posted.

In an English room, one teacher was working on creating essential questions her students. The questions would be used to help create a framework on what the kids were going to learn during the year.


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