South Fayette Middle a school to watch
Incorporated into the South Fayette Township School District logo is a ribbon that reads “Tradition, pride and excellence.”
South Fayette Middle School exemplified that motto after being selected as one of just five Pennsylvania Don Eichorn School to Watch recipients for 2016, honored for academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity and organizational structures and processes.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald joined administrators, teachers, alumni and students Monday to celebrate the award, named for the originator of the middle school concept in the 1960s.
“It’s just a matter of continuous advancement,” South Fayette Superintendent Bille Pearce Rondinelli said. “It’s a culture and philosophy where there is a lot of collegiality. Every teacher has the opportunity to be a leader. We are really trying to teach our students to become the innovators of tomorrow.”
According to Bruce Vosburgh, director of the Pennsylvania Schools to Watch Program, setting apart South Fayette from the competition was the accessible technology provided to students on a daily basis.
“All schools are very different at how they address their criteria,” Vosburgh said. “They do a really good job with technology, and I was really impressed with the connection they had with the high school. They have a couple of programs where they bring a couple of high school students down to do tutoring. There are some great programs.”
Heading the programs in the middle school is the state-of-the-art digital learning studio, installed as a part of the HP and Microsoft’s Reinvent the Classroom initiative. The studio, which is equipped with advanced computers, printers, software and educator guides, was the first of 65 schools in the world to have a learning studio research hub.
The studio corresponds with South Fayette’s STEAM program – an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics – implemented within the district. It also blends educational technologies with instructional approaches to create adaptive learning situations.
“We have advanced in a lot of areas,” said Rondinelli. “In our technology, the resources have been able to be provided. Teachers and students have embraced the new learning.”
To help decide which schools merit an award, Vosburgh relies on nearly 150 members of a leadership team to not only validate the self-evaluation provided by staff members of schools, but also to observe every classroom in the building during their visits from September to December to assure the school meets the 37 criteria requirements.
“With every change comes new possibilities,” Rondinelli said. “We have a whole dignity and respect campaign throughout the district teaching them to be kind to one other and to think before you act. When children are respectful to one another and to adults, it leads for better learning opportunities.”
South Fayette Middle School becomes one of just 35 schools in Pennsylvania and about 400 around the nation to receive the Schools to Watch honor since its incpetion.
Even though only one school was being honored, South Fayette Middle School Principal David Deramo was quick to acknowledge that it was an award for the entire district.
“We are a product of the hard work done at the elementary school, the intermediate school and the efforts of leaders before us that have made South Fayette what it is today,” he said. “This is not a celebration of an event. This is a celebration of a process.”