School summit held

Scarborough’s first-ever ‘community dialogue’ draws more than 360 residents.

SCARBOROUGH — To inspire the 360 people who turned out for the Scarborough School Department’s first-ever “community dialogue,” newly installed Superintendent Dr. George Entwistle III played a video about Canada geese.

The point of the piece was that geese work together to fly further than any one could alone, and whenever one drops out of formation due to illness or injury, two others also land, to stand guard and lead it back to the flock. The film was a metaphor for the night’s event, said Entwistle, and, to drive home to point, a great goose honk went out over the sound system, whenever it was time for the crowd to face front.

Entwistle called the open forum, entitled, “Charting the Future of Scarborough Public Schools,” to “engage the public to shape the future for this school department.”

“This event will basically provide a direction and articulate our priorities for 18 months,” said Entwistle.

Throughout the night, discussion groups spread out at 32 tables in the high school cafeteria. And everybody, it seemed, had idea for the top priority.

“It was chaos, but controlled chaos,” said Christine Massengill, a member of the Wentworth School building committee, and a candidate for the school board. “It was really an amazing, amazing night.”

By most accounts, about half of the turnout consisted of taxpayers, parents, and students. “About 80” were school staff, with the remainder consisting of town officials – elected, appointed and paid – and area business leaders.

They started by raising concerns about the school department, Jeopardy-like, in the form of questions. By the time the first hour was over, 68 questions had been raised, far greater, said Entwistle, than in any other school system where he was tried this approach.

The questions were as varied as the crowd, from a teacher’s concern that the arts could get lost in the budget shuffle, to one man’s complaint that the school curriculum lacks practical skills. “Who do we graduate that can fix my car?” he asked. 

A few, reflecting the concerns of staff, asked how the school can balance the need to teach with the mandate to test. Others, submitted by youngsters, asked how to control bullying, or deal with the stuffiness of Wentworth Intermediate School. A fair number dealt with budget and technology concerns.

Once the questions were set, the crowd broke out into groups, gravitating to whatever topic concerned them most. That, said Entwistle, helped him to determine which issues warranted the most attention.

Perhaps the busiest table of the night was the one on bullying, led by eighth-grader Andrew Paradis. Because he was the one to pose the question, he was drafted as facilitator for the discussion.

“He did a really wonderful job,” said Massengill, who took notes on the laptop provided to each group.

“I have to tell you,” she said, “I was typing just fast as my fingers would go.”

At another table, Hall sat with a smaller group, puzzling out how to attract the best teachers to Scarborough.

“I have to tell you,” he said, “at my table, at least, it was a very diverse group. There was hardly one viewpoint that prevailed.”

“Our job now, for me and my administrative team, will be to collate the data,” said Entwistle.

Taking the notes compiled by each group, detailing the problem, the available tools, and the solutions, Entwistle will look for “trends” among the topics and conversations, in an attempt to tease out those educational issues that are of most concern to Scarborough residents.

“The turnabout time on this is going to be very quick,” said Entwistle, suggesting that a report should be ready in time for the school board’s first meeting in November.

By that time, Massengill, who is running unopposed, should be a sitting member of the board.

“I can’t wait to hear the results,” she said, with barely concealed excitement. “It should be very enlightening.”