Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

Dear Families & Staff of SRHS: What an emotional week it has been! I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the events from last Friday. This, combined with the emotional strain that many of our families are experiencing at this time of year with our economy, the holidays, and the uncertainty of what may be yet to come in our future has added to the tension. This week was a perfect storm that brought many of those feelings to the surface in a way we don’t normally see. As you know, Dr. Blake made the decision to request additional police presence in our building today. Local new agencies are reporting that several other NH schools took a similar precaution. Like many of these communities, rumors were circulating about potential safety concerns over the last few days. I can assure you that at Sanborn we had no direct threats made against our school. We took the time to debunk any rumors that did surface. In conjunction with the police and the school district, we felt that ...

This year, Sanborn Regional High School will cease using a special "final exam schedule" with two-hour blocks of time for students to take final exams in each fo their classes. With the change over to a competency-based grading and reporting system over the last few years, the purpose and structure of a "final exam" has evolved.    Here is how things will operate this year: Quarter 2 (semester 1) ends on Friday, January 11, 2013. For courses that are coming to a close, students may be required to complete a final summative exam or a final summative project at the discretion of the teacher. There will not be a specific "final exam bell schedule" that extends classroom periods as there has been in years past. Instead, classes will meet at their regularly scheduled times and all students are expected to attend all of their classes just like any other regular school day. For teachers who will be administering in-class final summative asse...

Words cannot express the shock and horror that has gripped school communities all weekend in response to the most recent senseless act of school violence this past Friday in Newtown, CT. It is a natural human response for us to go through a period of grieving and loss as we try to make sense of this news. In the coming days and weeks we will all experience in our own way the stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. For everyone, please remember that school counselors will be on hand for those who need someone to talk to. At this time, I would like to ask that we conduct a moment of silence for the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting this past Friday. … (Ring Sanborn Bell 26 Times) … Moving forward as a community, we need to do our best to look out for each other, to care for each other, and to treat each other with respect. We can’t change the past or reverse the awful events that happened in Conne...

Words cannot express the shock and horror that has gripped school communities all weekend in response to the most recent senseless act of school violence this past Friday in Newtown, CT. It is a natural human response for us to go through a period of grieving and loss as we try to make sense of this news. In the coming days and weeks we will all experience in our own way the stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. We fully expect that parents, children, and staff will be in different stages of this grief in the coming days and we want you to know our school is prepared to respond accordingly. All week (and beyond), school counselors will be on hand for those who need someone to talk to. In anticipation of this return to school, I urge you to spend some time today talking with your children about these events at an age appropriate level. It is important for them to debrief and reflect as part of the healing process.    In...

This week, I have had the privilege of spending two days at a Rick Wormeli differentiated instruction and assessment conference in Manchester, NH. Wormeli is a leading expert on grading reform and the need for standards-based grading and reporting systems. If you haven’t had the opportunity to hear him speak live, I strongly recommend it as an educator or as a parent. Wormeli has a unique ability to use humor to gain a sense of trust with his audience so that he can have the difficult conversation with them about why a major reform is needed in schools for grading practices. One of many “pearls of wisdom” that I took away from my time with Wormeli was this video from Dr. Tae. The YouTube description of this video states this: Dr. Tae is a skateboarder, videographer, scientist, and teacher. Contrasting his observations of his own learning while skateboarding with the reality that is the current education system, Dr. Tae provides some insight as to how we might better educate...

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This article will appear int he December edition of the student newspaper the Sanborn Voice: In the spirit of the holiday season of giving, I am offering all of you my “wish list” of items that I would like to see for Sanborn Regional High School. You’ll notice that none of these items actually cost money – the true meaning of the holidays isn’t necessarily about spending money on each other, but there are lots of ways that we can still give to each other. Here are a few: 1. I’d like each of you to practice one random act of kindness to a peer or staff member. How cool would it be to pass through the lunch line and discover that the student in front of you bought you your lunch for the day? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a card from a classmate with five positive things about you written on the card? I’ll bet a teacher would be thrilled to take you up on an offer to clean their white board for them before class starts. Random acts of kindness remind all of us about the si...