District looks at expanding pre-K

Company pitches published before Town Hall Meeting

Expanding pre-K education is “one of the greatest investments” Lorain City Schools can make for future success, according to a consulting firm analyzing the school district.

Meanwhile, the district could hire a consulting firm to measure “socialemotional learning” in scholars and use another company to monitor online communications and social media use by scholars.

The proposals were published on Lorain Schools’ website as Chief Executive Officer David Hardy Jr. prepares to discuss five major initiatives to improve the district.

Hardy will host his monthly Town Hall Meeting at 5 p.m., Feb. 8, at Lorain City Hall, 200 W. Erie Ave.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place in the first floor City Council Chamber.

Lorain Schools remain in the state’s academic distress category.

The district’s Academic Distress Commission has adopted The Lorain Promise turnaround plan, with five commitments to the scholars, their families, staff and the community.

Expanded pre-K

The second commitment in The Lorain Promise is to invest in Lorain’s early scholars.

TNTP is a Brooklynbased nonprofit firm that specializes in unique problems in education.

The firm worked with Hardy to create The Lorain Promise.

TNTP has proposed an “Early Childhood Education Support” program that would explore adding pre-K classrooms across the district.

The project as proposed would cost $278,522 for work from March to December.

“Right now, scholars are not getting the support they need early enough,” said the TNTP proposal, which is posted at the Lorain Schools website.

“By the time they enter kindergarten, LCS scholars are already behind their peers in neighboring school systems,” the proposal said.

In Lorain, 12 percent of kindergarten students demonstrate the language, literacy, math, motor skills and social skills for success, according to the proposal.

“This is, in part, a result of the fact that only a third to half of Lorain scholars attended prekindergarten – a critical opportunity for growth that supports scholars with the academic and character development they need to be prepared for a joyful experience in school,” the proposal said.

In spring, TNTP would conduct a quality audit of existing prekindergarten classrooms in Lorain, according to its proposal.

From April to June, TNTP would develop “a shared vision for excellence in Lorain’s prekindergarten classrooms” to prepare the scholars for kindergarten, the proposal said.

There would be monthly training sessions for district, community and school leaders to train on the new vision of the expanded prekindergarten; that would last from May to December.

From March to August, TNTP would advise the Lorain Schools’ director of early childhood education on expansion and reorganization efforts for the prekindergarten classrooms.

From May to December, TNTP will support the pilot implementation of the new program, apparently in six schools, according to the proposal.

Watching student progress

The Lorain community wants transparency from its school district, Hardy said, so Lorain Schools will use a computerized data dashboard that displays information about progress in the district.

Panorama Education has proposed two versions to measure social-emotional learning with research and data reports.

The consultant defines that social-emotional learning as the critical skills and mindsets that enable success in school and in life.

Panorama Education’s website lists 22 measurements, including student competencies; student supports and environment; and teacher skills and perspectives.

The first proposal, priced at $26,375, would feature Panorama’s student, faculty and family surveys and the social-emotional learning measures of students.

The second proposal, priced at $65,125, would include the same features while adding the company’s “Student Success Tool” that displays scholar competencies in attendance, behavior, academic and social emotional learning.

Internet safety

For scholar and staff Internet safety, Hardy said he is looking for a partner to protect the district from harmful social media and alert leaders to any disagreements or harmful communications.

West Interactive Services Corp. would supply SchoolMessenger SafeMail.

It is an email monitoring system that would flag student messages containing pornography, “harmful profanity, talk of suicide, planning of fights or crimes, and other troubling situations.”

The program would cost $13,750.

Hardy