Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

This past Thursday, we had a unique opportunity to host a session of the NH Supreme Court. The day was part of an annual trip that the court makes to a local high school for "Court on the Road." Sanborn was lucky enough to play host for this important event thanks to Deb DeBay, fourth grade teacher from Memorial Elementary School in Newton, who asked the court to consider our location last year. Ten local high schools sent student representatives to watch the two actual court cases. Sanborn had 150 students from Mr. Hurley's AP US History classes, Ms. Karcz's and Mrs. Jules's block 6 Democracy class, and Mr. Hatem's and Mr. Welch's block 2 Democracy class. Sanborn ran a live video feed to the UNH Granite State Distance Learning Network - this allowed high schools form the North Country to participate in the event as well (and this technology was a first for the court!) It was a busy week. Sanborn students were paid a visit last Tuesday by Attorney General ...

I had a difficult time writing the five-year textbook replacement plan this year for the high school. I found this to be a little ironic though, considering where Sanborn was just a few years ago - My first week on the job as assistant principal in 2006, I was attacked by a swarm of teachers begging me to order them some much-needed textbooks. The math department wanted to stop the practice of having just one set of classroom textbooks for each teacher (meaning no one could bring a book home). The science department was still using a biology book with a copyright date of 1984. The Social Studies department had ten different sets of US History books that they had accumulated over the years and none of them talked about the "War on Terrorism," the biggest news of the last decade. The problem was, by 2006 the textbook budget was grossly inadequate for the needs of the school and by the time books were actually purchased for a course or department, the information in them became...

Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with an admissions officer from Boston University. We had a great discussion about some of our Sanborn students who have expressed interest in the school, but more importantly, we talked about what BU is looking for these days in college applications. I'd like to share some of what I learned in that meeting with all of you. First, I asked her if there were any specific courses (above and beyond the obvious 4 years of English, 4 years of math, 4 years of science, and 4 years of Social Studies) that BU likes to see on the high school transcripts of applicants. She indicated that precalculus and physics were very helpful because they were one way to show a student challenged themselves. For the same reason, she said BU also likes to see at least one or two courses at the AP (Advanced Placement) or PRS (Project Running Start) level in high school. When I asked her about foreign languages, she indicated that 2-4 years in the same language was ...

This past week, the State of New Hampshire released the results from the NECAP Science test administration from May or 2010. Each year, grade 11 students take this test as part of a battery of NECAP tests (math, reading, and writing are done in the fall) that are used to determine if schools are making adequate yearly growth. These latest tests confirm that Sanborn's class of 2011 made some significant gains in each of the subject areas. Student scores are based on the following four levels: 4: Proficient with Distinction 3: Proficient 2: Slightly Below Proficient 1: Significantly Below Proficient The following chart show how Sanborn students have done over the past three years as compared to the State on this Science test. You should note that the State stayed at 24% of students scoring proficient or above, but Sanborn improved from 17% to 32% of students proficient or above. Our Science Department has already begun studying the data to determine what changes should be made to ...

There aren't too many schools in America that can say they have over 100 years of history - but at Sanborn, we are in our 127th year! Homecoming is an annual tradition that started many years ago as the "Indian Festival". It has always included sporting events, a dance or other social event, music performances, and of course, a parade. The pictures included in this post are from the 1960 yearbook - fifty years ago!!! Join us for homecoming this weeekend. Here is the schedule of events: Friday - Field Hockey Varsity and JV at Chase Field at 4:00pm Saturday - FOOD ALL DAY 8:00 - Parade down main street to the high school 9:00 - Skits in the high school gym 12:00 - Boys varsity and JV soccer at the high school 2:00 - Girls varsity and JV soccer 2:30 - Varsity football 7:00 - Semi-formal dance for all students in the cafeteria

Last night at our open house I showed the following video, entitled "Shift Happens": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwT_09boxE&feature=related This video demonstrates just how quickly our world is changing. To prepare our kids for this kind of a future we need to be able to change and adapt to meet the needs of twenty-first century learners. The key to success as a school will be our ability to teach twenty-first century skills like: self-directed learner, community contributor, complex thinker, quality producer, effective communicator, and ethical user of technology. We have identified these to be our six school-wide expectations for learning for all students and we are embedding these skills into each of our courses and programs at SRHS . As a new feature to our progress reports and report cards this year you will notice that each teacher will report out quarterly on these school-wide expectations for learning. These grades will replace the "effort" and ...

This week we reached another milestone with our Pinnacle system implementation - we activated the Parent Internet Viewer. Parents should have received a copy of their login instructions for this new system in the mail this week. Anyone who needs this information sent again can contact my office at 603-642-3341. The new Parent Internet Viewer will be an upgrade from our old system (Edline). Parents will now have access to more accurate and useful skill and assessment information, have the flexibility to set user-defined notification preferences, and have the ability to easily interact with teachers. This winter, students will use the system to complete their course registration for the 2011-2012 school year. You can learn more about how the Parent Internet Viewer from Pinnacle can benefit you by visiting the company's website below: http://www.globalscholar.com/Who-We-Help/Parents.html Please understand that when you log into this system now, some teachers may not have grades loaded...