WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Tuesday discussed how the school is adjusting its curriculum to meet the needs of 21st century learning.

 

Members of the committee in recent months have expressed a desire to be more involved in the discussion of how students are educated at the junior-senior high school. And at its monthly meeting, Principal Mary MacDonald and history teacher Jeffrey Welch outlined some of the changes that recently have been made to the program and what more is in the works.

 

MacDonald briefly discussed learning models in departments ranging from English to math to science, but the bulk of the conversation focused on the history curriculum, which is undergoing a major overhaul.

 

"The history department has been working aggressively for the last year and a half to consider what the needs of students are," MacDonald said. "With Williams College funds, we embarked on an assessment of social studies — the same process we went through for math and science. We're taking a close look at what courses are offered and what kind of teaching is going on."

 

Mount Greylock once again engaged the Rexford, N.Y.,-based International Center for Leadership in Education but also consulted a local business consultant, who MacDonald described as, "the sort of person you'd hire if you were doing a startup," to help assess the department.

 

Welch said the curricular changes are driven by the school's teachers and their opinion of what today's students need.

 

"Our department vision is we want to help students understand the present and be participants in the future," Welch said.

 

A more relevant education about the past is the way to achieve that. Today's history classes are less about broad surveys and more about context, he explained.

 

"The Common Core has emphasized doing fewer subjects but delving more deeply into them," Welch said.

 

"21st century learners don't have to master a sequential linear body of knowledge. They have to recognize themes and know where to go to learn about things they may not have studied in school."

 

With that in mind, Mount Greylock's history teachers are developing courses built around themes, including "force and diplomacy," "identity," "belief systems," "technology" and "communication."

 

"The end game in all of these cases is the present," Welch said. "How does history shape the modern world?"

 

And, by extension, how can history inform the decisions that high school students will need to make as informed citizens of the modern world?

 

That approach resonated with current School Committee member Richard Cohen and a former committee member who attended Tuesday's meeting.

 

"I think this looks great," Cohen said, referring to an outline of the revamped history curriculum. "I think the themes you selected are important ones. And I love how you've incorporated civics."

 

Former School Committee member David Langston, who spoke at a recent meeting to advocate for more civics education, also was encouraged by Welch's presentation.

 

"It sounds like they are headed in the right direction," said Langston, a professor of English and communications at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

 

Good news was a theme throughout Tuesday's School Committee meeting.

 

MacDonald gave the committee the results of the spring 2015 MCAS standardized tests. Once again, Mount Greylock achieved Level 1 status from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

 

There was a concern within that status in that the school fell short of its state-mandated goal for closing the achievement gap among "economically disadvantaged" students. However, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education did not hold that measure against any districts this year because DESE redefined that subgroup during the 2014-15 school year, moving away from its previous "low-income subgroup" definition.

 

In terms of the population as a whole, Mount Greylock's student body continued to be high-achieving, with 65 percent of its 10th graders scoring "advanced" (and 33 percent proficient) on the English MCAS and 77 percent scoring advanced (13 proficient) in mathematics.

 

Tuesday also was the night to recognize the winner of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Academic Excellence Award. Senior Hope Willis was given the award by first-year Superintendent Douglas Dias.

 

Dias told the committee that he interviewed Willis, who was nominated by the faculty, and found her to be exemplary.

 

"For me, she typifies what a I think a Mount Greylock student should be," Dias said. "She is academically successful, a leader, someone who cares about the school."

 

Willis, a standout on the school's volleyball team, thanked her teachers and family members for helping her get where she is today.

 

"Mount Greylock has presented me with countless opportunities in leadership, athletics and rigorous academics," she said. "The school is a community of smart, driven students and faculty, and I'm glad to be a part of it."

 

Willis is a four-year top scholar, senior captain of the girl's lacrosse and volleyball teams, Girls State representative, and member of the Mount Greylock Peer Team, providing guidance and support to younger students.
 

In other business on Tuesday, the School Committee discussed the next steps in the building project.

 

At a Jan. 14 joint meeting with the School Building Committee, both panels will vote to approve a final budget for the planned renovation/expansion. Currently, the Massachusetts School Building Authority is reviewing the project budget submitted by the School Committee at the beginning of this month.

 

After MSBA's estimators take a crack at the numbers, they will come back to the district for a final vote before going to the MSBA Board of Directors on Jan. 27.

 

Assuming the board approves the final project, it will come back the district's member towns for voters' approval.

 

School officials had been operating under the assumption that approval would be a two-stage process: Town meeting votes in both member towns (Williamstown and Lanesborough) followed by a ballot vote on the debt exclusion.

 

On Tuesday, School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene explained that she has gotten clarification from counsel that there only needs to be a single stage: the debt exclusion vote, which is a full-day paper ballot election.

 

Given the window for town approval of the project after the Jan. 27 MSBA Board meeting, Greene has identified March 1 as the logical day to hold such an election, since both towns already will be holding elections for the presidential primary.

 

"My initial rational in scheduling the votes was to save the towns money and save everyone a lot of hassle," she said. "It also would obviously save the cost of a town meeting by not having a special town meeting."

 

It remains to be seen whether both towns will agree with the logic of holding both elections on the same day. At Monday's meetings of their respective Boards of Selectmen, the Williamstown board was amenable to the idea while Lanesborough's selectmen expressed concern that voters would be confused by having to check in for two separate votes at the polling station.