McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient
Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann.
The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication.
"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."
LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates.
"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.
The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.
"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back.
"It's nice to be able to explain the basic process in less than five minutes, to be able to walk away without much worry."
Kratz said that was very telling about LeClair, who has always strived to be the best version of himself, from his commitment to doing his best academically, to improving his skills on the golf team, to being a role model and leader in the student body,
"Landon personifies the very best what can be accomplished as a McCann student," he told the School Committee.
LeClair plans to attend Western New England University in Springfield and study mechanical engineering.
"You lead by example, and that's one of the most critical factors that anybody can have, and at your age, to be able to lead by example as a senior in high school is noteworthy," said Brosnan. "So keep that up."
In other business, Kratz updated the School Committee on what little he had been able to glean about new competency standards that the state is trying to institute in place of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests.
A citizen's petition last year ended the use of the 10th-grade test as a graduation requirement.
"The long and the short of it is, the state is looking for commonality across departments to be able to say all of our kids have sort of met a threshold in algebra, in history, whatever it might be in math, science, English and history," Kratz said. "They've given us a list of courses that could qualify, and then we choose from that."
He said all students will be evaluated on the same set of standards and this is what will be supplied to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
"But then they're saying students will complete a capstone or portfolio that is defined by the state and designed, administered and scored locally," he said. "So those are some things that could be coming down down the pipeline. ...
"We've talked in the past in these meetings about how they're holding us accountable for MCAS performance, even though the kids don't need it to graduate, and how that's putting all schools in the bind. So maybe that's a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel."
However, McCann had dispensed with capstone, or senior projects, some years ago because the interdisciplinary aspect really didn't fit into the vocational education.
School Committee Chair Gary Rivers, former McCann principal, said some of the ideas coming out of DESE were similar to the curriculum deliberations that resulted in MCAS years ago.
Kratz acknowledged that some principals were thinking along the same lines.
Brosnan said they were looking at how vocational education and graduation requirements intersected. The state was saying the students' filling out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) was an important factor in gaining a high school diploma.
"Why is that a goal? Well, everybody has to go to college. So we're right back to where we were 40 years ago," he said.
Kratz said, "We've traditionally always prided ourselves on being able to say, like, yep, either one of these choices are equally awesome. We don't push one agenda or the other. We want to provide you both these paths and like, how do we continue to do that? It's going to be interesting."
In other business, Brosnan said the 40-50 contractors were expected that week for a walk through of the school in anticipation of bidding for the accelerated repair project with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Subbids are due Jan. 5 and general contractor bids on Jan. 12. The facility subcommittee will review the bids the next day before a meeting of the School Committee on Jan. 15.
"I would just like to extend my gratitude to each and every town have supported us through the process," said Rivers. "They were gracious, they were supportive. They had nothing but good things to say, and it was really quite enlightening to see how they support us behind the scenes."
Tags: academic award, McCann,
