Williamstown Elementary to Add Assistant Principal
 Williamstown Elementary School's population has increased, one factor in the decision to hire an assistant principal. |
The change was prompted by a suggestion from the school's new superintendent, said School Committee Chairman Dan Caplinger on Tuesday morning.
"When Doug Dias came in, one of his first questions was, for a school the size of WES, who the assistant principal was," Caplinger said. "When he found out we didn't have one, he was surprised by that."
The school has been bucking the declining regional trend the last couple of years with increased enrollment — partly because of recent early retirement packages offered the town's largest employer, Williams College, and the influx of younger faculty and staff that has brought.
The Williamstown school, which typically has had three classrooms per grade in recent years, had four kindergarten sections last year and four for the 2015-16 academic year. It also has a large fourth grade population that is moving through the school, necessitating four classrooms at that level again this year.
There are other factors driving the addition of the assistant principal position, which has an advertised salary range of $71,000 to $78,000.
"[The enrollment] combined with some of the increased administrative requirements that had been falling squarely and fully on [Principal Joelle Brookner's] shoulders were really starting to become a problem," Caplinger said.
"We began implementing a new evaluation system a couple of years ago as required by the state. One of the key things the assistant principal will be able to do is help out with some of those functions."
According to the job description created by the district, the new assistant principal would have a range of duties from the teacher evaluations to assisting with strategic planning to providing professional development for staff. He or she also will assume the responsibilities of the principal in his or her absence.
In all, there are 16 different items listed.
"[Brookner] has always had a lot of help from staff who took responsibilities way beyond their specific job descriptions," Caplinger said.
Brookner likely will assign specific duties to the assistant principal based on the successful candidate's skill set, Caplinger said.
The job requirements include a master's degree in education, experience teaching at the elementary school level, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education certification and "comfort with technology implementation and usage in an elementary school setting."
Caplinger said the committee was not offered specific numbers about comparably sized elementary schools and their administrative setup, but all five members of the committee agreed the addition made sense.
"We didn't get a sense that once you hit 'X' number of students it makes sense to add an administrator," he said.
"We felt finding someone to fill this position would be a 'best practices' way to make sure we're getting all the things done that a head administrator should be doing to support the school."
The district hopes to have the new assistant principal in place by the start of the school year in September, Caplinger said.
In other business on Monday night, the School Committee heard an update on a plan to update technology in the classroom with funds from the school's building renewal fund.
The committee voted in April to spend $57,653 from the fund to install high-tech projectors to replace 32-inch televisions in all of the school's classrooms.
But just after that vote, Brookner and Technology Director Tom Welch learned about newer, more user friendly technology that is available for classrooms, Caplinger said. The down side of the newer technology is that it is more expensive.
The administration decided to apply the funds toward the acquisition of the more up-to-date equipment and install it in about half the school's classrooms, Caplinger said.
"The takeaway for the committee was under the old system, we would have had the school completely outfitted," he said. "With the new technology, sort of the expectation is that next year we'll be looking at the potential for another request to fill out the remaining classrooms.
"The sense of the committee was favorable."
The school building renewal fund, which stood at about $1.1 million in April, was created by Williams College when the elementary school was built. The School Committee in April voted to spend about $97,000 from the $361,000 available from the fund on a pair of projects.
Monday's meeting also featured an update from Caplinger on the work of the Berkshire County Education Task Force, which met recently with Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield, to discuss issues facing districts throughout the county.
"The future work of the task force is to drill down and figure out which of the things we come up with are viable and workable going forward," Caplinger said.
The task force, made up of administrators and school committee members, will hold its next meeting on Aug. 9 at Nessacus Middle School in Dalton and plans to meet every three weeks.
"Sen. Downing suggested that something concrete by the end of the calendar year would fit well if we needed legislative support or funding," Caplinger said.
Tags: school administrator, WES,
