A tight ship on a tight budget

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 1997 by Ian Elliot

Teaching K-8 visits a Basic School in Massachusetts and learns that you don't have to be wealthy - or "computer friendly" - to be outstanding

What does it take to be a blue ribbon school in today's fastmoving society? If you think it's money you're wrong. If you think it's technology, you're wrong again. And if you want a shining example of why neither cash nor computers are the decisive factors in how well a school does its job, you've only to look at St. Ann School, a K-8 parochial school located in Somerville, Massachusetts.

This doesn't mean that St. Ann is computerless and destitute. Rather, think of it as a school on a tight budget - a school that manages to do an outstanding job without having a computer in every classroom. (It should be noted that St. Ann does have a computer lab, but it's a small one.)

Outstanding? Well, St. Ann is one of 16 model schools in the nation to be designated a Basic School by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Obviously, you don't get that kind of recognition simply by showing up for work.

Road to the top. Teaching K-8 paid a visit to St. Ann last January and came away more convinced than ever that, as far as schools are concerned, the road to excellence begins with the principal and teachers.

We were greeted upon our arrival by Sr. Eleanor Daniels, who has spent the last 11 years as principal of the 83-year-old school. Before taking us on a guided tour of the school, she provided us with some incidental intelligence about St. Ann.

The school, she told us, has a present enrollment of 255 children, 10 below the school's capacity. There are from 20 to 30 students in each class, with an average class size of 27. Sr. Eleanor believes that 20 students to a classroom would be ideal, but finances make this impossible.

Regardless of class size, the school does a first-class job of preparing its students for high school. Not every child succeeds academically after leaving St. Ann, of course, but the vast majority of them do. More than that. Many of them are highly successful.

Sr. Eleanor noted that the school serves 184 families in St. Ann parish - the church is next door - and that some non-Catholic parents send their children to the school. Tuition for one student is $1,245 a year. What if a family falls on hard times and can't afford to keep a child in St. Ann? Tight budget or no tight budget, the school makes sure there's a happy ending. "Nobody has ever left St. Ann for a lack of funds," Sr. Eleanor said.

A feeling of family. "We are a family." It's a theme that's expressed over and over in large, illustrated posters in classrooms and hallways throughout the school.

But at St. Ann, the theme is more than just words and pictures. The teachers, students and parents really do think of themselves as one big family, and there are several good reasons why they do.

First, it's a very small school - one preschool class, two kindergartens and one class at each level from grades 1 to 8. This makes it easier for teachers, students and parents to get to know one another.

Second, students tend to stay put once they're in St. Ann. According to Patricia Centrella, who teaches kindergarten, "It's not unusual for students to stay at St. Ann all the way from preschool through junior high. Naturally, we get to know them and are able to follow their progress over the years. It's fun to watch them grow."

Third, about 75 percent of the children's families are members of St. Ann parish, which is a family in itself. One woman waiting outside the school put it this way: "I was married in this church 50 years ago and now I'm picking up my granddaughter here."

Finally, St. Ann is very much a "neighborhood school." Kids walk to school since there are no buses; parents live nearby, which simplifies the problem of getting them involved.

Where there's a strong feeling of "family," parental involvement is rarely far behind. Take first grade teacher Luci Spinale, for example. Luci has almost as many parents helping her as she has students.

"I have 18 parents behind me. Some of them come for only an hour a week, but they come fairly regularly," she said. "They do everything - even correct papers. It takes a lot of weight off me and allows me to be more creative."

One of Luci's parents owns a flower shop, and each week she brings in a flower for the children to paint. Luci told us that she hopes to have the students' watercolor sketches exhibited at an upcoming Boston art show.

Granted, 18 parent helpers for a single classroom may be a case of "gilding the lily" (to borrow a flower painting phrase), but at St. Ann, it seems to fit right in.

Teaching the commonalities. Each of the nation's 16 model Basic Schools has its own distinct personality; no two are quite alike. Nevertheless, there are some fundamental beliefs Basic Schools have in common.

One belief is that there are eight "commonalities" (experiences that all human beings have in common). St. Ann deals with the commonalities on a schoolwide basis, with the primary and middle grades each studying different topics. Here are the topics St. Ann teachers covered during a recent exploration of two commonalities.