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Schools

'What Makes a Good School Principal?'

With Three Vacancies to Fill, BoE to Solicit Comment From Parents Next Week

If you’re the parent of a child at Juliet W. Long, Gales Ferry, or Ledyard Center schools, Assistant Superintendent Cathy Patterson would like to talk to you.

With the retirements this year of principals Mary Porter-Price and Mary Fort Boyle, and the departure of Assistant Principal Shane Winters, school administrators are looking to fill three leadership positions within the district. Patterson will hold public forums to find out “what attributes parents are looking for in a principal,” she said.

The forums will be held May 11 at 7 p.m. at the Ledyard Center School and May 12 at 7 p.m. at the Gales Ferry School library.

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The search process is well under way. Applications have been rolling in for a month, and a search committee, made up of administrators, school secretaries, and a teacher from each building, will interview candidates next week. Four to six finalists from that process will go on to the next step – interviews with Patterson and schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Graner.

The next step is a site visit. “We go to their school to meet with their people and talk about them,” explained Patterson. Afterward, candidates are invited to a walk-through of the Ledyard district schools.

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Once final selections have been made, the new principals and assistant principal will be introduced to members of the school board.

Strategic profile

In other Board of Education news, members reviewed the district’s Strategic School Profile for 2009–2010 at its regular meeting Wednesday. The Strategic School Profile is a standardized state document that compares a town’s demographics, diversity, performance, resources, expenditures, and special education data with statewide figures, as well as figures from similar towns.

Graner highlighted certain figures from the profile. He noted that Ledyard spends about $1,000 less per student than the state average, and about $250 less than other towns in its district reference group. He also said that 91.3 percent of the town’s students with disabilities graduate with a standard diploma, versus 81 percent statewide. “This is a nice thing,” he said.

After learning that the town used 4 percent more of its budget for special education last year than either the state or other towns in Ledyard’s reference group, the board decided to gather more information regarding special education expenses generally. “Has this number gone up or down over time?” asked Chairwoman Sharon Hightower, noting that each year’s student body is different and has different needs.

The board will seek further information concerning the identification of gifted students. The strategic school profile says Ledyard has not identified gifted students (versus a state average of 4.1 and a DRG average of 4.8). Towns are required to identify, but not necessarily provide services for, their gifted and talented students.

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