June 20 Update

 Dear McCall Families,

 

I hope this message finds you well.  I entered this school year with cautious optimism about returning to normalcy, but this year has been more challenging for me in a lot of ways than previous years.  The negative impact of the pandemic on the students’ academic progress and all our physical and mental health cannot be understated.   Although our conversations about the pandemic have often been about what it has taken from us, I think it is also necessary for us to think about what it has given us.  I am reminded of the commencement address Chief Justice Roberts delivered to the Cardigan Mountain School graduates in 2017.  During that speech he talked about the relationships between fairness and justice, pain and compassion, loneliness and friendship, and bad luck and chance. I think it is fitting to extrapolate what he said during that speech and apply it to our circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The impact of the pandemic has caused us pain.  However, it is in pain that we gain a better understanding of what it means to receive and give compassion.

 

The pandemic treated us unfairly - some more so than others.  However, it is when we receive unfair treatment that we understand the value of justice.

 

The isolation during the pandemic forced us to experience loneliness.  However, it is when we are lonely, we learn the value of friendship.

 

All of us experienced bad luck during the pandemic.  However, having experienced bad luck means we better understand our successes may not be completely deserved, while other people's failures and suffering may also not be completely deserved.  

 

This past school year has been a hard year for many of our students, families, and staff members.  We cannot change what the pandemic has done to us, but we all can take this experience, learn from it, and help ourselves and each other grow.

 

Lastly, I would like to congratulate Mr. Tom Awiszus, Technology and Engineering Teacher, Ms. Pat DeVries, Digital Literacy Teacher and Instructional Technology Specialist, and Ms. Anna Kerkorian, Digital Literacy Teacher, for concluding their careers.  All three colleagues decided to retire at the end of the current school year, and I wish all of them well as they head off on their new adventures.  

 

Thank you, and I hope everyone’s summer is one that includes a lot of fun, rest, and reflection.

I am looking forward to a great 22-23 school year with all of you!

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

June 5 Update

Dear McCall Parents and Caregivers,

 

This weekend was a celebratory one for my family.  My daughter and first child joined many seniors across the country to from high school.  We are proud of her and all her classmates who overcame so many obstacles during the last three years to get to this point.  The graduation ceremony was particularly special for my wife.  She was a special education teacher in the junior high that my daughter attended and taught some of the beaming young adults who walked across the stage Friday evening.  It was almost like having my personal color commentator during the presentation of the diplomas as my wife whispered in my year comments like the following:

 

“That kid couldn’t even write a paragraph when I had him and now look at him heading off to UMass-Amherst.”

 

“She was so good at asking for help when she could not get her work done so she could help mom take care of her younger sisters – she so deserves the full scholarship to Gettysburg College”

 

“That kid is so awesome with the way he handled his dad’s death in 7^th grade”

 

Although we did not have to manage the craziness of hybrid, remote, and the full return like last year, this year in many ways was much more challenging than 20-21.  I know many of you came into this school year with the hope of having a normal year.   I also know many of your dreams were dashed when this past winter showed us just how unrelenting this pandemic can be.  Listening to my wife talk about some of these graduating seniors who struggled during their middle school years reminded me that the trajectory of a person’s development is never linear.  It is made up of ebbs and flows and progressions and regressions.  Those of us who had a difficult year should remember we all can bounce back if we are wise enough and courageous enough to self-reflect and make the necessary changes so we can do better.  Just as Maya Angelou taught us when she wrote, “when you know better, do better”.

 

It is my hope that everyone - including students and McCall staff members - will take some time to reflect upon our school year during the summer.  Whether your experience was positive or negative, you will find ways to learn from it and use that learning to make 22-23 a better year.

 

I wish you a great week!

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

 

May 8 Update

 

Dear McCall Families,

 

I hope everyone is well.  Happy Mother’s Day to everyone.  For those of you who know me, you know my childhood is an atypical one.  My family traveled a lot due to my father’s work, and there have been times when all three members of my family were living in three different countries.  Although my mother is not always by me physically, I am always connected to her in many other ways.  I am also fortunate to have other adults like my aunt and uncle who served as maternal figures for me.

 

We live in a society that is increasingly diverse, so the words “family” and “mother” have different meanings for different folks.  Therefore, I would like to wish everyone who are mothers in the most conventional sense and everyone who serves as caregivers for our students a Happy Mother’s Day.  The pandemic has made mothering, parenting, and care-giving more complex and challenging than ever.  I hope everyone will take a moment today to congratulate yourselves for the hard work you have done to raise and care for a middle school student.

 

I wish you all the best!

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

 

 

 

 

March 27 Update

 Dear McCall Parents and Caregivers,

 

I hope this message finds you well.  As you know, the student body submitted a petition advocating to amend the Locker Policy to allow for students to choose between using their lockers or their backpacks to me this week.  I am impressed with the fact that the students are taking the initiative to advocate for themselves and to do so with well thought out arguments.  I do not agree with everything that the students brought forth, but I do see this as an opportunity to make sure their voices are heard and to teach them about how to advocate for their needs in manners that are consistent with our processes, policies, and values

 

My thoughts about the petition are as follows:

 

Most of the concerns that the students raised in the petition are those many past students have experienced when they first transitioned to using lockers.  Those concerns include figuring out how to go to and from lockers to retrieve belongings in a time efficient manner, accidentally dropping belongings in the hallways, fitting large amounts of belongings into their lockers, and securing valuables in the lockers.  It is important for all of us to remember that lockers are new to our 6^th and 7^th graders.  Even our 8^th graders who learned how to use lockers two years ago are now out of practice with those skills.  They will need time to adjust, and they will need the teachers and staff to help them negotiate these challenges.  McCall teachers and staff are experienced with these matters, and I am confident they will assist the students now just like they have done prior to the pandemic.

 

Our Handbook currently includes a policy that requires students to store their belongings in their lockers.  Changes to any Handbook policies require the approval of the School Committee.  The process we follow is to first bring any policy change proposal to the School Council.  The Council determines whether to bring the proposal to the School Committee.  The School Committee will determine whether to bring the question up for discussion and then whether to vote to determine if the policy will be changed. 

 

My plan is to meet with the students who initiated the petition right before April Break.  This will give students enough time to adjust to using lockers and for our teachers and staff to help them overcome the challenges they are currently facing with this transition.  If the students inform me at that time that using lockers remains to be a major problem despite the support adults have provided them during these upcoming weeks, I will invite them to attend the April School Council meeting.  The Council can discuss at that time whether to bring this matter to the School Committee. 

 

The students did bring up some good points that we all should consider.  For example, how do we uphold the dignity of students who are biologically female and help them carry around menstruation products during the school day in a discreet manner if they do not have access to backpacks.  My hope is we can all work together to figure out how to better implement the policies that are currently in place instead of reverting back to the ways we always do things without considering students’ concerns or throwing away the policies only to have to endure the problems that they were designed to address such as hallway and classroom congestion.

 

I have written a response to the student’s petition.  It has been emailed to the students, and you can find it here.

 

I know several students who had trouble adjusting to using lockers had figured out how to use them effectively by the end of last week after a few days of practicing.  I am also certain there will be students who will need more time to sort all of this out.  I recommend you reach out to the teachers or the counselors if your student continue to struggle with managing their belongings with the lockers.  I am sure our staff will help your students as I mentioned earlier in this message.

 

Thank you,

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

March 6 Update

Dear McCall Parents and Caregivers,

 

I hope this message finds you well.  As Superintendent Hackett noted in his update sent out this weekend, the District is currently negotiating with the WEA, the teacher union, on the issue of making masks optional.  The day to make that transition has not come yet, so it is important to remind all students that although masking is no longer required in other schools or in other public indoor settings, it is still required when they are in McCall Middle School.

 

Although the decision about the transition to a mask optional learning environment is yet to be made, it appears the move toward that direction will be coming.  Therefore, I would like to share with you this Boston Globe article that I believe does a great job of outlining the complications about this transition for students and their families that you may or may not have considered (please click here). 

 

As the author of the article noted, many students may have little trouble adjusting to a mask optional environment.  However, some students will struggle adapting to yet another change.  I think it is important for adults to check in with their own students to probe their thinking and feeling about this this matter and not assume every child is feeling okay with this transition.  When the time does come for us to move to a mask optional environment, the message my staff and I will emphasize to the students are the following:

 

·      We all have different needs, and we may not completely know or understand what are driving people’s masking decisions.  Therefore, we should all remind our students to refrain from making judgments about other people’s decisions and pressuring them to take steps they do not feel comfortable taking. 

 

·      Our goal is to create an environment where everyone is free to make their own masking decisions.  Our goal is not to make everyone agree with or even fully understand other people’s decisions.

 

·      I also encourage everyone to remind students about the idea of intent versus impact.  For example, I can foresee situations where behaviors such as asking others about their masking decisions were intended to fulfill feelings of curiosity.  However, the way that the questions are asked and the persistent way those questions are being asked may create a negative impact on those who are receiving the questions.

 

Thank you, and I hope I can count on everyone’s support as we transition to yet another “new normal”.

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

February 24 Update

Dear McCall Parents and Caregivers,

 

I write this message with a heavy heart as I watch TV news reports covering the war that is breaking out in Ukraine.  The misery and human suffering that is resulting from this crisis is heartbreaking, and I offer all of you who have connections to Ukraine my best wishes.  Even though we are far away from Eastern Europe, we are still affected in one way or another by this terrible event.  This is particularly the case with our students who may be getting bits and pieces of information about this war from various forms of media and drawing their own conclusions about what may or may not be happening.  My own children are asking questions about the invasion of Ukraine.  Some of them are coming from a place of curiosity such as “What is NATO?” and “What is the Soviet Union?”  Other questions are signs of legitimate worry such as, “Will the US institute a military draft if we get drawn into a war with Russia?” and “Is a nuclear war likely?”  Your children may be having similar thoughts whether they are talking about it or not.  I would like to offer you the following blog post from the organization Common Sense Media which provides good information about how to speak with children at various developmental levels about war, crime, and other violent events.

 

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-violence-crime-and-war

 

It is important to remember middle school aged students will find out information from different sources, and there is always chance what they gathered on their own are incomplete or come from unreliable sources.  Therefore, I encourage you t to check in with your children about what they are thinking and feeling about this event and make sure the information they have is factual.

 

As always, our staff are available to help if you believe we can assist you and your students navigate through what may be difficult conversations.

 

Thank you, and I wish you peace and comfort.

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

February 13 Update

 Dear Parents and Caregivers,

 

I hope you are well.  I would like to share with you some information about our Child Study Team (CST) process.  This process may be called other names such as Student Support Team, Intervention Team, or School Based Problem-Solving Team in other schools and districts.  Despite the different terms used to describe this team and process, the purpose and function are the same.  The goal is to bring together a group of teachers, school administrator, and staff regularly to examine and address problems that may occur with a particular student or a group of students.  The CST process existed at McCall prior to my arrival four years ago, and one of the goals I set for the school is to create a formalized structure focused on data collection for this process to occur.  COVID delayed our progress toward meeting this goal during the last two years, but this year we are able to consistently follow the CST structure we have put in place three years ago.

 

The core team of the CST is comprised of an administrator (i.e, Assistant Principal) who chairs CST meetings, a school psychologist, our school’s Instructional Coach, our school’s Social Emotional Coach, and a consultant who is social worker and advises our staff who works with students with high levels of social emotional and behavioral needs.  A guidance counselor is typically the staff member who becomes aware of a problem with a student.  Therefore, the first step of the CST is for that staff member to bring the case forward to the CST core meeting.  The counselor will bring to the meeting a problem statement that summarizes the student’s struggles and pertinent data related to it.  The data may include, but is not excluded to, student’s current grades, performances on standardized tests, attendance record, and past interventions that have been put in place to support this student.  The core CST members will examine the problem statement and the accompanying data and take one of the two following steps:

 

·      Determine that additional data needs to be gathered and decide what is that data, the appropriate mechanism to gather that information, and who to gather that data.  The CST may also recommend other professionals (e.g., nurses, EL teacher, Speech and Language Pathologist) to consult on the case if the problem matches those colleagues’ expertise.  The team will reconvene and take the step described below.

 

·      Determine an intervention that would support the student and decide what data needs to be collected to determine whether progress is being made.

 

Once an intervention has been put in place, the CST will hold follow up meetings to examine the data collected.  If the problem is resolved or the student is consistently making gains, the case may be closed out.  If no progress is being made or the problem worsens, the CST may make a Special Education evaluation referral or consult other professionals.

 

It is important to note that parents and caregivers will be notified once the initial CST referral is made.  The team members will work collaboratively with the families to address the problem that was put forth for consultation.  The CST will not proceed with any data gathering or intervention if the parents do not consent for the school to do so. 

 

Another frequently asked question about the CST process is its relationship with the Special Education evaluation process.  The school will begin the Special Education testing process based on the timeline and process established by the special education regulations once a parent or caregiver formally requests the school to do so.  The CST process may cease if the Special Education evaluation is going to gather the same information that the CST members recommend to the gathered.  Conversely, the CST may continue alongside the Special Education evaluation process if the CST recommends interventions that can help the student while the evaluation process is proceeding.  CST will not replace the Special Education evaluation process unless the parents request that to happen.

 

The CST is designed not only to support our students, but it is in place to advance the practices of our school, teachers, and staff.  This year several cases that were put to Child Study involved school refusal and school avoidance.  The work of the CST resulted in the determination of several strategies that helped our students who struggle with anxiety to consistently attend school and their classes.  We are in the process of compiling those strategies and intervention in one document that can be used as a “go to guide” for future students who may experience similar struggles.

 

I am pleased with the progress of our CST process, and I am impressed with the work that CST core members have been doing.   I am hopeful that the CST will continue to support our struggling students and also to improve our school and staff’s practices.

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School