Credit: Ainsley Jay

Last Wednesday, the Wayland School Committee gathered to discuss a number of topics regarding the health curriculum and Innovation Career Pathway course. Another large topic of conversation was the ways to potentially mitigate distracting cell phone usage. “These [phones] are going to distract your learning and social relationships,” Superintendent David Fleishman said. “That’s concrete right there.”

On May 28, a Wayland School Committee meeting took place at the town building. This meeting ran from 6:30 p.m. to approximately 9 p.m.. Superintendent David Fleishman, Assistant Superintendent Betsy Gavron and Wayland High School Principal Allyson Mizoguchi were present, along with three out of five school committee members.

The meeting revolved around updates on the Innovation Career Pathway (ICP), the health curriculum and the issue of cell phone usage at WHS. Furthermore, the school committee approved the eighth-grade fall science trip to New York.

Quick Hit One: Innovation Career Pathway
English Teacher and Coordinator of the ICP Edmund DeHoratius presented information to the school committee on updates in the ICP. The ICP is a set of courses at WHS that give students experiences in different career fields, such as journalism, engineering and business.

The ICP is a state sponsored course, meaning it was started by the state. The ICP at Wayland has received grant money from the state for a five year cycle, allowing students to fund projects.

“The state kind of saw a lot of kids [that do ICP] having opportunities over the summer where their families could pay for them to do certain things,” DeHoratius said. “[The state] wanted all kids to have the opportunity to benefit from such programs, and so they started the innovation career pathways.”

During the presentation DeHoratius mentioned that he is considering starting a healthcare and nursing pathway since more students have had an increased interest in nursing.

DeHoratius said another one of his goals was to give job experience in internships over the summer.

“Firming up off campus opportunities [is a goal of mine],” DeHoratius said. “I want to see more students sort of getting out into the real world, whether it’s internships or jobs. One of my longer term goals is to get those opportunities in place.”

Quick Hit Two: Health curriculum
Health Education Specialist Jenny Flynn and WHS Wellness Teacher Scott Parseghian delivered an update to the health curriculum.

Parseghian opened his remarks by stating that the high school curriculum on domestic violence received a grant from Wayland Health Services and Wayland youth and family services.

During the presentation Parseghian discussed starting Unified Sports at WHS, which is a part of the Special Olympics. It will be led by Wellness teacher Chris Fay, and will start up in the fall.

“We also have met with the Special Olympics and are looking to bring unified sports here to Wayland for the first time ever, ” Parseghian said.

Quick Hits Three: Cell Phone Policy
Since the start of the school year, the school district has been finding techniques to mitigate distracting cell phone usage.

The Wayland Middle School will implement a system called YondR at the start of the school year. WMS students will leave their phones with their homeroom teachers in the morning and won’t be able to access their phones for the rest of the day.

The school committee, along with Mizoguchi and Fleishman, discussed how the cafeteria and library could become more phone free. One way that was considered was to have adults supervise the cafeteria, aiming to get students to participate in social activities.

“[We] have talked about different ways of ensuring that there’s more adult supervision in the library,” Mizoguchi said. “Re-forming the library in general as a whole, but just the structural element of collecting cell phones and making sure cell phones are not in students’ hands in the library will require some continued imagination and creative thinking.”

At WHS there are currently several spaces students can use their phone, including the cafeteria and eating area outside the cafeteria.

“There’s no staff member at the high school who thinks that cell phones are a great idea when it comes to learning,” Mizoguchi said. “It is a shared belief that cell phones are a distraction to the learning environment.”