THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, February 28, 2025 Page 13 SUPERINTENDENT| FROM PAGE 1 along that path Tuesday evening when he hosted a well-attended, informative Feedback Session with caregivers from around the district. Fittingly, that session was held at one of the most inclusive spots in the Malden Public Schools district, The Gallery at Malden High School, where every country of origin from all students attending MHS — and most, if not all, in the district in general— are represented by that nation's flag. Supt. Sippel, who certainly "hit the ground running" when he assumed his post in July 2024, told the audience he has visited over 400 classrooms in every one of the seven schools in the district since he took the reins. well on his way to his stated goal of hitting all of them in the Malden Public Schools. "It has been exciting, memorable and inspiring to see all of our educators and students in their classrooms," Supt. Sippel told those in attendance Tuesday night. "That is where all of the good work happens, every day." The first-year Superintendent, who detailed a regimen of many listening and data collection visits all across the city, with all levels of stakeholders, when he first came aboard, on Tuesday night shared some of the findings with the audience and once again, solicited their input via a state-of-theart, interactive format. Audience members could easily access the system through their personal cellphones and were able to instantly access the system. Superintendent Sippel said he was pleased with both the attendance and the degree of engagement from the audience, comprised nearly exclusively of FEEDBACK SESSION— Many caregivers from across the district turned out Tuesday night. (Advocate Photos) caregivers from across the district, representing nearly all of the city's seven schools. "It was one of our best sessions, if not the best," Dr. Sippel said. "The combination of the interactive comments with the questions the audience asked aloud covered a lot of topics and a lot of areas of interest. There was a lot of engagement and just what we are looking for from the caregivers in the district." To that end, Dr. Sippel spent time in the session on a number of areas, explaining the sources of the finding he described throughout the course of the presentation, which was made to between 30--40 attendees for just over 90 minutes. — Listening to stakeholders: The Superintendent hosted 9 town halls with caregivers and others across the district since August 2024; Multiple sessions held with educators and staff at all schools; Focus groups held directly with students; Several online surveys of parents and Learning programs; School enrollment; School culture and climate — Observing Schools in Action: 38 school visits in 22 weeks (September to February); 402 Classroom observations (and counting); 36 school events (August to February) — Building Shared Understanding: Projects with educators and district and schoolbased administrators; Discussions with the School Committee and subcommittees; Collaborative meetings with labor unions (Malden Education Associations- Teachers and some administrators, paraprofessionals and SEIU) Some of them of the many topics discussed Tuesday includpointing to one of his core values established now in the Malden Public Schools, said, "It is not up to us to determine how far a student is going to go in their educational and life journey when they are 7 years old, 11 years old or 17. "We have an obligation to provide opportunities for them to achieve their goals, whatever they may be, whether it involves college or a university, or not, whatever they need to thrive," Dr. Sippel said. "Our obligation is to ensure we help make sure their expectations are obliged with their talents." To that end, Supt. Sippel outlined the "Six Areas for Collective Action" which were identified through the months of data collection. — Affirming high expectations for all students — Adapting instruction to meet diverse needs — Ensuring fair access to opportunities —Partnering with families effectively —Nurturing a strong workMALDEN'S STRENGTHS— Supt. Sippel outlined some of Malden's top strengths identified during data collection. (Advocate Photos) caregivers; Educator and staff surveys; More than 50 meetings with individual community members — Reviewing Data: The Superintendent and his staff have been immersed in the review of Malden Public Schools date on the following areas: Student achievement; Graduation and dropout rates; Enrollment in college after graduation; English ed inclusivity and targeted educational improvements and enhancements with special education students; the Malden High School class schedule; provisions and plans for educating advanced learning students; transportation needs; and a movement to address equity in extracurricular offerings at all of the five K-8 schools. Superintendent Sippel, in force within the district —Building district strength and stability Supt. Sippel said these core findings would guide him and his team moving forward as they continue to build collaborative relationships with everyone in the district, including educators, administrators, staff and caregivers. He urged all to continue to use the Malden Public Schools website: www.maldenps.org, which has full language translation abilities, to stay updated. A virtual, ZOOM feedback session similar to the one presented live Tuesday is coming at a time and date to be announced, he said. U se caution when hiring a home improvement contracBBB Scam Alert: Home improvement scammers take money, don’t complete work How the scam works:Home imtor, especially following a major storm, flood or weather event when many homeowners are trying to repair their homes. However, contractor scams can happen anytime, so be wary of high-pressure sales tactics, upfront fees and fly-by-night businesses. Con artists will take homeowners’ money and deliver (or not deliver) less than quality work. provement scams can start with a knock on the door, a flyer or an ad. The contractor might offer a low price or a short time frame. One common hook is when the scammer claims to be working in your neighborhood on another project and has leftover supplies. Once started, a rogue contractor may “find” issues that significantly raise the price. If you object, they threaten to walk away and leave a half-finished project. Or they may accept your upfront deposit and never return to do the job. Following a natural disaster, scammers persuade homeowners to sign over their insurance payments. In a recent BBB Scam Tracker report, one consumer shared this experience: “The person knocked on our front door and estimated our driveway job. They offer $4000 and did their work next day. Their job was sloppy and [incomplete]. They even use our household items without our permission. They continued to ask our payment with either check or cash. The guy, he self claimed ‘Billy’ went to the bank our check and rejected with some reasons. He came back and get another check. They vanished without cleaning the asphalt debris or other material. I tried to contact them but the phone was disconnected.” One consumer shared the following experience with BBB Scam Tracker: “He requested for cash to purchase the materials. He came to pick up the cash and said he would schedule the day & time to do the job. After numerous exchanges of text messages promising to find me a schedule he couldn’t come up with one. If BBB | SEE PAGE 18
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