Pembroke '07-'08 Board Minutes

Superintendents’ Message

Welcome to SAU #53

Serving the school districts of Allenstown, Chichester ,
Deerfield , Epsom, and Pembroke

Welcome to the SAU #53 website! Take some time to explore and to learn about SAU #53 and the five districts it serves. The five districts of Allenstown, Chichester , Deerfield , Epsom, and Pembroke provide the pre-K -12 educational experiences for approximately 3500 students. Pembroke Academy provides the high school experience for the communities of Allenstown, Chichester , Epsom, and Pembroke, while students in the Deerfield community travel to Concord for their high school program.

Staff in SAU #53 will be involved in a number of initiatives during the 2008-2009 school year. A few of these initiatives include:

Professional Learning Communities

Our work in the area of Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) was started at our SAU #53 Summer Leadership Retreat. When schools function as PLC’s, the educators within them understand that the mission of all schools is to see to it that all students learn at high levels. Educators work collaboratively to help all students achieve, focus on results to guide their practice and foster continuous improvement.

As part of the Leadership Retreat, the following shared commitments were developed:

Shared Commitment #1: Our SAU #53 Professional Learning Community will strive to strengthen collaboration among all SAU #53 educators, utilize all available resources, and implement intervention/enrichment strategies to meet each student’s immediate learning needs.

Shared Commitment #2: Our SAU #53 Professional Learning Community will strive to connect our professional learning to student learning, performance, and achievement.

Evidence of these shared commitments will be seen throughout the schools during the year. These commitments unite us toward common goals.

Literacy Task Force

Our SAU #53 Literacy Task Force continues it efforts this year. As a result of work done in previous years, the focus throughout the SAU has been on “Lasting Literacy”. Each building has a literacy team that focuses on initiatives aimed at improving student achievement in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. A preschool literacy initiative will be started in each district. During the 2008-2009 school year, this Task Force will expand its work to include an emphasis on “Numeracy”.

Response to Intervention

Response to Intervention (RTI) is also an area of focus. RTI is the practice of providing high-quality instruction and/or interventions matched to student needs and using learning rate over time and level of performance to make important educational decisions. A three-tiered approach to providing intervention for students based on data-driven decision making is underway in each school. Intervention strategies for the three different tiers are being developed and utilized daily. Individual student progress is monitored on a regular basis for each student with a variety of assessment tools.

In addition to all of the above initiatives, we have made a commitment to visit schools on a regular basis. Please check the Superintendents’ Visitation Schedule link to find out where we will be visiting each day. We are excited about spending time in our schools and classrooms to see “learning in action”.

We invite you to get to know more about our schools and the achievements throughout our SAU. Please feel free to e-mail us at pwarburton@sau53.org or gpaludi@sau53.org or stop by our office and visit. Our doors are always open!


Mr. Peter Warburton
Superintendent


Dr. Gail Paludi
Assistant Superintendent