Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

  Officer Manny Fardella, SRO   Cheyenne, WY Police Dept. It is just another typical day at work for police officer Emmanuel “Manny” Fardella , a member of the Cheyenne, Wyoming Police Department . Fardella serves as the School Resource Officer (SRO) at Cheyenne’s South High School . His day, like many who serve in similar roles in schools across America, begins by being visible as kids first enter the school in the morning. He walks the halls, saying hello to staff and students, working to develop positive relationships. Once students are in class, he starts on some of his other daily duties such as meeting with students and teachers, helping school administrators with some special projects, teaching, etc. Each day he seeks to bridge the gap between police and our youth, through building relationships, and being a positive role model for students. In his role at South High this year, Fardella has set two major goals. First, he wants to increase membershi...

Recently, program directors at the Teaching Systems Laboratory at MIT reached out to Sanborn Regional High School Principal Brian M. Stack to find out if they could include Sanborn in an upcoming free online course called Launching Innovations in Schools . The Teaching Systems Laboratory at MIT's primary goal is to help future teachers thrive in the student-centered, personalized learning classrooms of the future. They see Sanborn as a great case study for their course, and at Sanborn, we are happy to collaborate on this important project with them. Anyone can register to take this free course by clicking here . This is the course description for the course: Every great teacher and every great school constantly work towards creating better learning conditions for students. Just as we hope our students become lifelong learners, we as educators should be constantly learning and improving. This education course is for school leaders of all kinds (from teacher-leaders to pr...

This article was written by: Ann Hadwen, Assistant Principal, Sanborn Regional High School Brian M. Stack,Principal, Sanborn Regional High School Michael Turmelle, Assistant Principal / Curriculum, Sanborn Regional High School   Video: Sanborn's Journey to Competency-Based Learning   For a better part of this past decade, Sanborn Regional High School has received local, state, and national attention for its innovative approach to teaching learning, a system known as competency-based learning. When we are asked to explain what competency-based learning is and what it provides for our students, particularly to new-comers in our school, we often start with an example that everyone can relate to – driver education. When the state issues someone a new driver license, it has verified that person has demonstrated successfully their ability to perform the critical skills necessary to operate a vehicle – things like following traffic rules, making appropr...

President Trump’s recent controversial executive orders impacting both refugees and immigrants have raised concerns for educators on how their students view their global world, and more importantly, what teachers can do to raise the global awareness of their students to help them become better informed, empowered, and compassionate citizens of the world. According to their website the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21), a group that works to develop collaborative partnerships between schools, the business community, and government leaders, defines the term global awareness as follows: Using 21st century skills to understand and address global issues Learning from and working collaboratively with individuals representing diverse cultures, religions and lifestyles in a spirit of mutual respect and open dialogue in personal, work and community contexts Understanding  other nations and cultures, including the use of non-English languages The P21 website goes o...

** The views reflected in this article represent my personal views, not those of the School District that I work for. ** What is a Blizzard Bag, Anyways? You may have heard of the term “blizzard bag” because there are some school districts near us that use them as a way to “make up” for lost school days due to snow cancellations. Blizzard bags have been in New Hampshire for about a decade and were first proposed by the Kearsarge Regional School District as a way to solve a problem that they were facing after a really bad winter left them with too many snow days to make-up that year. Kearsarge worked to get this language into the New Hampshire Minimum Standards for School Approval , language that has become known as the blizzard bag option for schools: A school district may submit a plan to the commissioner that will allow schools to conduct instruction remotely for up to 5 days per year when the school has been closed due to inclement weather or other emergency. ...