As part of long-running sustainability initiatives, Pioneer team to observe schools in Kentucky

Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield.

Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield. Staff File Photo/Paul Franz

By CHRIS LARABEE

Staff Writer

Published: 09-20-2024 5:14 PM

NORTHFIELD — How can a school’s institutional practices and physical spaces position a district to better serve teachers and students alike?

A team from the Pioneer Valley Regional School District is taking a trip to Kentucky in October to see how schools there have implemented organizational and physical structures in service of education.

Principal Annie Scanlan-Emigh, Director of Teaching and Learning Kate Messmer, four teachers and three students will head out on Oct. 21 and return on Oct. 24, as they observe these practices first-hand.

“We want to think about the trip as a jumping-off point for work that will be done here,” Scanlan-Emigh said. “The trip is a lot of learning through observation.”

The excursion to Kentucky will see the Pioneer team visit high schools in the region, where they will be able to sit in on classrooms, speak to teachers and students about how those schools progressed to where they are today, and observe school cultures while talking to peers.

It is the second excursion for Pioneer, as it sent a team up to Vermont this spring for a similar purpose. Scanlan-Emigh, who was not part of the Vermont trip, said the team focused on “thinking about how you create school culture around belongingness” and how to create opportunities for students to see themselves in school culture.

Both trips are funded by a competitive grant from the Next Generation Learning Challenge and the Barr Foundation, covering all expenses.

Upon their return to Massachusetts, Scanlan-Emigh and the team will present their observations at a School Committee meeting and then begin internal work on how to adapt what they saw to serve students and staff at Pioneer.

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Scanlan-Emigh emphasized her hope that the “School Committee holds us accountable” to the action steps that will be shared during their presentation. Each member of the team, she added, is expected to be “comfortable taking on a leadership role” because the goal is to explore which “instructional practices and building structures we can put into place this year.”

While action is desired by the end of the school year, the excursion also ties into some longer-running initiatives at Pioneer, centering on the district trying to carve out a sustainable position as a small, rural school district.

Pioneer is in the process of exploring potential changes to the configuration of its buildings, with the School Committee approving the pursuit of a one-campus facilities plan in January 2024. However, the district is currently working through the early stages of the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s grant process before taking any financial steps on what would be a massive capital project.

The district also earned inclusion in the state Innovation Career Pathways program, which has brought environmental and life science courses to the high school. The district has added an environmental educator position and been integrating outdoor education opportunities at Bernardston and Northfield elementary schools.

“It ties in perfectly when thinking about outdoor learning and the [Innovation Career] Pathways designation, because all of that is looking at how do we make Pioneer a place where education is really intentional and grounded in the space we’re in,” Scanlan-Emigh said. “Learning about how districts have been able to take their student interests and their particular surroundings and make them central to their education will be really great for us when thinking about our initiatives.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.