School Corner

In a continuing effort to engage the entire community in Westerly a community forum with Westerly Superintendent Roy M. Seitsinger was presented tonight.

The community forum presented by the  Westerly Parent Academy (WPA) was held at Kiefer Martial Arts (KMA) from 6 to 7 p.m. It was an intimate discussion with a handful of community members, parents, WPA, Westerly School Committee and Westerly Town council members in attendance.

The evening opened with a discussion led by Dr.Seitsinger. General information regarding the district finances and the direction of the district was the main focus of the community forum. Dr. Seitsinger shared that the Joint Financial Director the district shares with the town is going well. The informative discussion led by Dr. Seitsinger was followed by question and answer period.

A parent who home schools her child with autism was the first question of the evening. She raised questions about technology and where the district stands with that. Interest in Virtual Online Public School options, particularly where home school is concerned was discussed. She expressed concern that students with disabilities have access to the technology they need, whether it be for communication needs or just simply because they cannot learn any other way.

Mr. Seitzinger responded that the district is moving in that direction, as is the state. He clearly understood the need for technology as a district going forward for all children. He did not specifically address the needs that are being met for special education.

There is a 5-year plan and the district will be progressing to more of the flipped classroom model. There needs to be a plan in place before buying the hardware and software. There can be no more buying pieces as we have some funds," said Seitzsinger.

There was a pleasant exchange of information responding to the parents questions about technology until the facilitator of the forum hushed the parent. The facilitator commented that others need a chance to speak, although no other attendees had questions at this time. He even asked another parent if they had a question, which the parent responded that they did not.

He then proceeded to praise both the superintendent as well as the Town Council for all they have done for education in Westerly. It appeared that he may have perceived the parent's questions about technology and special education as something they wanted to steer away from.

Michael Kiefer, owner of KMA, asked a question pertaining to an offering of a class such as bullying prevention. His studio offers a free bullying workshop that he feels would be right in line with the Westerly School District. He mentioned when he previously tried to ask the school district to send a flyer home with students, he was denied. Mr. Seitzinger responded with the procedure to have such a flyer considered. He also noted that something like the free bullying class would be right in line with the school district.

Another parent posed a concern sharing her frustration with the district's web portal for parents to check on their child's progress or email the teacher. The parent shared that she had to make multiple clicks to get to the part of the portal she was trying to reach. The superintendent responded that it is being worked on to simplify that process.

There were only two times during tonight's forum that a direct question regarding education was asked by a parent. The first was the home school parent of a special needs child referring to the need for technology, which was hushed after a short time.

The second was a parent who addressed his concern about the senior projects. He expressed that in the past, when his son was a senior, the burden of the senior project fell to the parents. He asked if that has improved to be less on the parent. Dr. Seitsinger responded explaining that it needs to be more independent and actually the student doing the work. It was expressed that the parent needs to say no and not do the work for the student.

The community forum was a short intimate exchange of what was happening within the district, mostly focusing on the financial stability of Westerly School District. The event seemed to be under attended. It wasn't clear if the low attendance was due to improper advertisement or low concerns and questions in the community in regards to the Westerly School District.