USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > Town of Lynnfield, Essex County, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, annual report 1961-1970 > Part 89
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HUCKLEBERRY HILL SCHOOL
Charles A. Wolski, Principal
A new spirit enlivens education at Huckleberry Hill School - a spirit of innovation ,experimentation, . venturesomeness. Wth the completion of the new addi- tion, the old educational molds are being broken. The new environment is designed to meet the diverse needs and capacities of the intermediate-aged children.
There are two wings set up with conventional classrooms, with six classrooms in each wing. In the new addition, operable partitions link the different teaching areas so that class activities can move easily. Even though the two old wings with their conventional classes do not have movable partitions , these classes can use the multi-purpose room for large group instruction to attain flexibility.
The library-resource center called the Media Cen- ter is the heart of the building, physically and philoso- phically. It is centrally situated so that it is easily ac- cessible to teachers and pupils. Readily available books, magazines, and audio-visual resources, visual displays - everything the library has to offer is presented out in the open, inviting students to partake at any time, all the time. It is an intellectual supermarket. "The Cen- ter" has diverse furnishings, including carrels which students can use as their independent study headquar- ters.
Another aspect of our new building shows several small rooms used to provide special services for young- sters: private instrumental lessons, guidance counseling, speech therapy, remedial reading and tutoring the per- ceptually handicapped.
The physical education program is enhanced by a full gym, equipped and used expressly for this purpose.
The new building offers numerous possibilities for improving the organization of instructon. It is now eas- ier to deploy staff time, energy, and talents more ef- fectively than was the case in the past. The end result striven for is competent instruction, cultivating in stu- dents a respect for knowledge, as well as teaching them the skills essential to obtaining and using the knowledge.
The Huckleberry Hill Faculty wishes to commend the people of Lynnfield for providing such modern faci- lities to meet our various educational objectives .
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Media Center
SUMMER STREET SCHOOL
George E. Caswell, Prinicipal
Highlight of the year for the Summer Street School was the completion of the addition to the building star- ted in May of 1968. Beyond providing more elemen- tary school space, the expansion offered an excellent opportunity to modernize our plant. Added to the ori- ginal twelve classrooms, multi-purpose room, kitchen, and administrative suites were six classrooms (two of them possible future kindergarten rooms), three spec- ialist rooms, a Media Center, a new gymnasium, and an expanded kitchen area. Opening of these facilities en- abled school officials to transfer third grade children living in the center of town from the Junior High School Annex to an elementary school environment. A slight reduction in class size was also possible with the completion of added space.
The Media Center is a large spacious area located in the center of the building and used to house books, filmstrips, filmloops, tapes, and a variety of audio-visual equipment. Available for study purposes are a number of tables and several electrified study carrels designed specifically for individualized instruction. A media spec- ialist is in charge of the center and provides specific times for instruction on how to locate and use the var- ious resources available. The media specialist works closely with the teaching staff to apprise them of the resources and services available, to suggest ways of using these resources, and to help determine new pur- chases which are directly related to our curriculum or to special student interests.
The three specialist rooms are small areas designed for: instruction in music, speech therapy, learning dis- abilities, reading, or guidance counseling and test- ing. Personnel in the specialist areas share the available rooms on a scheduled basis and are particularly grate- ful that they no longer must search out stage, basement, or closet areas to perform their important functions.
Two of the classrooms constructed in the new ad- dition are slightly larger in area and may be readily converted to kindergarten use if needed in the future. Adjacent to the parking area, the rooms have common toilet, cloakrooni, and storage areas as well as a sınall play area at the rear of the school. The two rooms are currently used as fourth grade classrooms.
Summer Street School now serves children in grades three though six. Staffing requirements liave in- creased to accomodate the nearly five hundred pupils and include a principal, eighteen classroom teachers, a media specialist, a school secretary, two custodians, four kitchen personnel, and two part-time school aides. Specialists shared by the elementary schools and avail- able at specific times are a reading specialist, four music teachers, an art teacher, a physical education teacher, a guidance counselor, a speech therapist, a learning dis- abilities teacher, and a school nurse.
Parents have continued to serve the school in a variety of ways. Many parents have served in our media center helping to check out materials and equipment. Others have been "Resource People" for specific areas of our curriculum. Through the Parent Teachers Associa- tion, many parents have been active in the sponsoring of Cub Scout Pack 52 by offering twelve weeks of art classes on Saturday afternoons, or by helping to re- cruit children interested in the Youth Symphony Con- certs.
Our pilot program in Language has now been adopted for all classrooms, whicli means all children are ap- proaching the study of language through a linguistic approach. We have made a start on providing learning aids in the mathematics area as a result of recommend- ations of a former workshop. Purchased for classroom use were such items as number lines, geometric models, fractional parts, filmstrips, and transparencies.
Several of the teaching staff participated in an in- service course in the spring dealing with the uses of a Media Center. The teachers were also concerned with the available and potential resources that could profit- ably be used in our curriculum. We are becoming more convinced that Marshall Mcluhan is correct when he says the medium, or process, of our time-electric tech- nology is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our social life. We must make the new technology available and perti- nent to our learning activities in school. Parental and student reaction to our Media Center and to the work possible through activities there has been highly favor- able and encouraging.
We continue to be grateful for all the support given us by individuals and by the townspeople as a whole as we try to find the basis for effective learning. We need this support as we continue to have new as- pirations and to formulate new goals and new ways to implement them.
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CENTER SCHOOL
Dr. Nancy C. Santeusanio, Principal
If you were a resident of Lynnfield in 1913, you would have read the following description of the Cen- tre School: "Among other attractions is our Centre School. It is situated on Main Street not far from the Common. The building contains two rooms on the ground floor and an unfinished room on the second story reserved for a laboratory for future generations. The rooms are well lighted, well heated and well fur- nshed. The chairs and desks are adjustable, thus allow- ing large-sized gigglers to occupy front seats and small- sized saints the back seats."
For a resident of Lynnfield in 1969, over half a century later, the number of classrooms has increased to ten. The building is well lighted and heated, and the adjustable chairs and desks have now become moveable furniture permitting a flexible room arrange- ment which varies from room to room.
In 1913 forty-two pupils were divided into nine grades varying from two to twelve in a grade. Today's class size and pupil enrollment has increased to 263 pupils divided into ten classrooms.
In 1913 people moving into town were requested to bring "Rooseveltian" families since more enthusiasm could be generated in large classes. The Rooseveltian families have arrived, and the 1913 teaching corps of two women "fast growing gray in the service" has been increased to ten teachers with two school aides, a school seceretary, full-time supervising principal and special- ists in many areas.
The original school library was set up in 1962 with a collection of 488 volumes given in memory of Mil- dredth Parkhurst Rourke, a former teacher at Center School. The library has now been transformed into a Media Center with many innovations. The Media Cen- ter is staffed with volunteer workers, and children are free to go to the Media Center to browse, select books, to listen to stories on cassette tape recorders, and to view filmstrips and film loops. Over one hundred child- ren spent some time in the Media Center each day.
Parents are involved in the school program on a daily basis. They serve in varying capacities ranging from collecting lunch money in first grade classrooms, working in the Media Center, and volunteering as aides in the preparation of materials for teachers to use in the classroom.
Pupils in grades one and two at Center School are using The Bookmark Reading Series, a new basal reading program with a strong Word Service or phonics program. Sound-letter relationships are learned through carefully developed sequence and applied immediately to reading. One of the major goals in teaching reading is to help children understand what reading is and to
Folding wall permits flexible use of space.
transfer their newly acquired reading skills into more opportunities for reading on their own. In addition to the Media Center, classrooms are equipped witha var- iety of supplementary readers and story "rugs" for children's reading pleasure. From the beginning, child- ren learn that the purpose of reading can be for pure enjoyment as well as for getting information. They be- gin to understand the reading process and that learn- ing to read leads to reading to learn.
Probably the most exciting day of the 1969 school year was April 17, the day of the Center School Pet Show. The Show was sponsored by the Center School P.T.A. under the presidency of Mr. and Mrs. Barry Plunkett and Pet Show Chairmen, Mr and Mrs. Ber- nard Caniff. Entries ranged from dogs, cats, and horses to turtles and chameleons, to a boa constrictor and an ant farm! This was a true "blue ribbon" day which will be long remembered as a highlight of the 1969 school year.
Team teaching project in U.S. History.
40
SOUTH SCHOOL
Richard W. Cogan, Principal
Perhaps the only constant in education is that it is always changing. Here at South School we have in- stituted several changes this past year which we believe have increased the quality of our service to the child- ren.
There has been a big change in the school library program. As in past years many P.T.A. mothers have generously given their time to run the library three mornings each week so that each class at South School can have a weekly library period. This year we are al- lowing individual children or small groups to come to the library to return and take out books at any time during the week. We have found that even first graders can go to the library by themselves, pick out a book and return to class unaided. The use of the library has greatly increased and as the room is next to the office it can be easily supervised.
Another aspect of improvement in the library pro- gram is the addition of the services of Miss Janet Bishop, Huckleberry Hill Media Center Specialist, who gives South a few hours each week. She has taken the third grades to Huckleberry hill School on a regular bas- is to use the Media Center there, and has begun a story hour for the second graders. Her services have also in- cluded reorganizing the library card system and obtain- ing materials for teachers, and arranging to take the second graders to the town library to celebrate Child- ren's Book Week.
Another important change at South has been the use of space. The art classes have been moved to the gymnasium where the youngsters work standing up at the lunch tables or even on the floor if they are pre- paring a large project. As there are nine specialists coming into the building each week to serve the child- ren, including art, music, physical education, guidance, library, reading, and tutoring of children with learning disabilities, every inch of the school is used to capacity. Even the nurse's and principal's offices are used for tu- toring and counseling; so are the halls and the stage; and children sometimes use the halls to practice their partner reading. Yes, the school space is well used.
Another important change this year has occurred in the area of speech instruction. Mrs. Wallace has changed her program in an attempt to meet the very large number of children with speech difficulties. She is teaching speech to each first grade class once a week and is giving instruction to five South School teachers
after school each week to help them help their young- sters. We are also planning a future meeting with the parents of children with speech difficulties to show them how to help their boys and girls at home. The above innovations are attempts to adjust the program to the exact needs of the children. If the children's speech needs are different next year then the program will change accordingly.
The South School Science program also has been in a process of change. This year, with the financial backing of the P.T.A. we invited a naturalist from the Ipswich Wildlife Sanctuary to our school. One day she took teachers through the woods behind the school to explore the ecology of the area. On another day she and another naturalist took the second graders in groups of about twelve through the woods to learn as much about the environment as possible. We hope to make exploration and study of the space around the school a regular part of the school science program.
There have been several physical improvements at South School this year. The hall lighting was improved through the installation of fluorescent fixtures, making the hall light enough to display some art work and to use for limited instructional purposes. Also, the area in front of the asphalt parking lot was filled and seeded to prevent erosion. Finally, the retaining walls behind the school were completed protecting the playground and the walk to the upper field from erosion and covering many outcropping rocks which formerly were a hazard to the children.
The P.T.A. has again made a fine contribution to the improvement of the school. The carnival was a grand success and enabled the Association to give the school some needed audio-visual equipment. Again P.T.A. mothers have operated the library.
The P.T.A has also established a telephone chain to inform parents during snow emergencies if the youngsters must be dismissed before the normal closing time. This year the Association held an especially in- teresting program: Mrs. Freyda Seigel, a state P.T.A. official, gave a presentation which consisted of a series of short plays (in which the audience participated) each of which described a parent-child situation. After each performance Mrs. Seigel and the audience dis- cussed the best way to resolve the apparent conflict.
We have had an interesting and challenging year at South School. We look forward to next year's op- portunity of serving the children of Lynnfield as ef- fectively as possible.
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SECONDARY GUIDANCE
William J. Coughlin, Director
The adolescent perhaps as never before is being buffeted from all sides by the effect of mass media and by being integrated into a society which is rapidly un- dergoing a change in values. This transformation is having its effect upon the emerging student and ad- justment is becoming an even more difficult transistion.
In addition students are no longer satisfied with many of the old thoughts concerning learning and edu- cation. Dress codes, teaching methods, and student free- dom are common topics of conversation among our youth. Acceptance of the values of youth is being preached by many student activist groups and high schools will soon feel the blows which have struck the college scene.
What effect does student involvement have upon guidance in our schools? A prime function of guidance is to be familiar with student dialogue and to interpret these ideas to faculty and administration in order to help effect any necessary change in our curriculum and organization. Counselors must be constantly alert to the shifting trends in education and values of youth.
Guidance is directed to the needs and future growth of the student as the student perceives his role in a dynamic society. The role between counselor and stu- dent must be one of mutual repsect for the responsibili- ties of each.
The adult must exhibit great patience and under- standing today to allow youth to develop their own image and to take their proper place in society. At Lynnfield we have a trust in our youth and feel that provided with the proper stimulation and encourage- ment they will become productive members of the com- munity.
MUSIC
Michael E. Cooney, Jr., Director
The year 1969 was marked with many new direc- tions not only in musical thought and sound but also in the areas of equipment and physical facilities.
In the High School the most apparent addition was noted early in the year by the arrival of the new uni- forms for the Senior Band. They consist of a modified suit of tails in royal blue (furnished with skirts for the girls) complete with a cummerbund and bow tie which serves as a concert dress. The Marching Band, however, adds an overlay of metallic gold mylar that covers most of the jacket, slacks for the girls, and a ten inch white fur busby hat and blue plume to complete a very snappy military type outfit.
The area of classroom music was sparked this year by the renewal, after a lapse of four years, of "Music Theory" and a basic history and appreciation course entitled "Music of the Western Man". While "Music Theory" presupposes some basic musical know- ledge and requires the approval of the music faculty be- fore enrolling, the listening course is geared to the musically uninitiated and is presented with a musically oriented humanities approach.
Music teaching through the medium of large group instruction was initiated this year by the Music De- partment through the cooperation of the Social Stud- ies Department of the High School. Two full hour lec- tures on music in America have been scheduled along with the regular lecture series in U.S. History. The first session entitled "The origins of American Folk Music" and the second "The Birth of the American Sound" have been prepared and presented with live music as an interesting addition to the U.S. History program.
Instrumentally speaking, the new direction at the High School was the establishment of a regularly sched- uled percussion ensemble. This organization gives all percussionists a chance to perform something soloistic in nature, as well as generating a feeling for the im- portance and independence of their section as opposed to their traditional role of accompanists. This group made their debut at the New England Solo and En- semble Festival for which performance they won a second place award.
The Marching Band, this year under the direc- tion of Carl Lerario, used for the first time a combina- tion of Junior High and High School youngsters select- ed on a voluntary basis and membership in the Con- cert Band did not carry a Marching Band requirement. While the effectiveness of this procedure cannot be evaluated in one short season some significant benefits have already been derived.
Music in the Junior High which has felt the squeeze from lack of classroom space found welcome relief this fall with the opening of the new elementary wings at Summer and Huckleberry. As the result of this, the Music Department has been assigned a classroom (for- merly High School Technical Drawing) in order that Seventh Grade Music, a basic classroom course, can have a permanent home. Also this year the Junior High Band under the baton of Mr. Edward D'Amico combined forces with the Junior High Band at Concord, Massachusetts, for a day of musical and social exchange in each of the two towns. The Junior High Chorus, after two years of Mrs. Maifeld's tutelage, reversed the age old problem of interesting Junior High youngsters in singing by swelling their ranks to 163 members, thereby making it a problem to find a stage large enough to accomodate them - a unique and pleasurable problem to say the least.
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As was mentioned before, the most welcome event of the year especially in the elementary schools was the opening of the additional wings at the Huckleberry Hill and the Summer Street Schools. Provision was made at both of these wings for "specialists" rooms or small cubicles for individuals and small group work. After years of instrumental teaching in paper supply closets, these rooms are used for all of our individual instruction, some small ensembles, and are most ap- preciated.
The elementary school musical was presented in April by the Summer Street School at the Jun- ior High School Auditorium. The production was entitled "Vignettes of Musical Comedy" which traced very briefly the musical from the days of Gilbert and Sullivan through the more popular Broadway Produc- tions and up to the current Bachrach and Webb.
Summer music in 1969 provided opporutnity for some 51 youngsters to study and play their instruments 5 days a week for 6 weeks as a part of the regular sum- mer program.
Lynnfield was well represented in District, All- State and New England organizations with students chosen for each of these groups. Especially noteworthy is the December Solos and Ensemble Festival of the New England Association where Lynnfield students were awarded a total of 41 red and blue ribbons.
The activities of the Greater Bostn Youth Sym- phony have always been a source of great prid eto our community in that from its founding we have had ex- cellent representation from Lynnfield. In the summer of 1969 a signal honor was bestowed on this group in the form of an invitation to perform in Switzerland at the International Festival of Youth Symphonies. Rich- ard Kravetz of Lynnfield, percussionist with the orches- tra, was chosen for and participated in this wonderful musiacl experience.
In conclusion I would be remiss in negelecting to mention our "resident composer" Mr. H. Robert Ayasse who has, since his arrival in Lynnfield, composed no less than seven works for different musical organizations within the school system. Christmas Concert 1969 pre- miered still another work by Mr. Ayasse, this one writ- ten for A Capella Choir and entitled "Joy, A Child!" This choral offering enjoyed a well received first per- formance and is presently in the hands of a publisher. It is indeed an honor to present this new music premiere performance.
AUDIO VISUAL EDUCATION Robert A. Cox ,Coordinator
The activities of the Audiovisual Department this past year have not been of a spectacular nature, nor
do we strive to make them so. Instead we have had a steady growth based on solid educational values. In line with this goal, much of our time has been involved in the everyday pursuits of providing maximum services to our administrative and teaching staff and to our students. We have continued to provide technology in the use of audiovisual equipment, to manufacture dupli- cate masters, transparencies, slides, to provide copy services, laminations, to provide films and to acquire new materials and equipment. We have also continued to provide services in gaining federal aid for Lynnfield.
Last spring and this fall much planning went into the selection of facilities and the purchase of equip- ment for the Media Centers at the Summer Street and Huckleberry Hill Schols. In addition to books, pamph- lets, flat pictures and magazines, each center is equip- ped with filmloops, filmstrips, records, recorded tapes, cassettes and transparencies plus equipment to make ef- fective use of these materials. As a result of complete cooperation of all the people involved, Lynnfield now has two Multimedia Centers as good as any in the state.
It is the purpose of each center to provide opportu- nities for individual study and reference using as many varied forms of communication as possible .To supple- ment this goal a Media Skills Curriculum was pre- pared this past summer designed to teach the proper use of media equipment starting in grade one. With this curriculum as a guide all students will be well versed in library skills and the use of media by the time they reach the 8th grade.
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