Tiverton Schools: Back Tuesday with Lots of Changes

TIVERTON, RI— When Tiverton High students go back to school Tuesday, they'll find a new high school principal, Christopher Ashley, according to Amy Donnelly-Roche, the assistant superintendent.

The new principal is already a bit of a familiar face at school, she said. He started on the job in July and has been holding open houses and welcome events for the school community. But tomorrow's still a red letter day, she indicated.

Also, students in all the grades will find many new educational offerings and high tech tools, she said.

"We're rolling out student Google accounts," she said, so the students can save and share documents and collaborate on assignments. Eighth-graders and older will be assigned e-mail addresses, so they can access the network and consult with their teachers, as well as classmates. The younger children will not have e-mail addresses, but they'll learn word processing and other computer skills.

The schools are also bringing on Chromebooks, the Google-powered device increasingly being used by school districts for teaching. The district has purchased more than 450 Chromebooks, she said. Students will find five carts at the high school and four carts at the middle school. The elementary school has brand new labs with Chrome on the desktops.

The teachers have also updated the science instruction, from kindergarten to eighth grade, and beefed up the engineering offerings.

Last year, she said, Tiverton High had one engineering class, but this year, students looking for classes in this popular subject will find a whole pathway, with three courses. They can choose from Principles of Design, Principles of Engineering and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, which includes Computer Aided Design (CAD) or Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD).

For the seventh-graders, the engineering focus will fall on design, with projects such as Design a Better Hairbrush, she said. And the third-graders and fourth-graders also will have some engineering prep, with instruction that calls for problem-solving, she said.

The whole K-8 science program has been retrofitted to be more inquiry-based and focused on problem-solving, she said.

In October, parents and students can expect to follow the school district on Facebook and Twitter, she said. That's all part of a new communications plan, which was approved with the strategic plan.

Finally, she said, the school community is hopeful Tiverton voters will approve a construction bond to renovate the middle school and high school.

"They need infrastructure upgrades," she explained, such as new roofing and new electrical and heating systems. With the state offering 40 to 45 percent construction rebates, she said, the time is right to do the work.