Scituate+High+School+Fall+2013

 Scituate High School  A Context Statement By Raylyn DiPaolo Introduction

Scituate High School, home of the Scituate Spartans, is the only public high school in the Scituate district of Rhode Island. Serving grades 9-12, most of the students come from the three main villages within the town, which are Clayville, Hope, and North Scituate. The building serves as both the high school and the middle school, but I will be focusing on informing students, parents and educators about the performance of Scituate High school, and how the school is serving the district. According to the Scituate School Department website, “The Mission of the Scituate School system is to provide all students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become responsible, contributing citizens in an ever-changing world.” ( __http://www.scituateri.net/mission.htm__  )



The school is located at 94 Trimtown Rd, North Scituate, RI, 02857, right around the corner from the heart of the Scituate village. The school is well known for its band program and good academics. At a relatively small size, the average amount of students enrolled is about 540. The school website is __www.scituatehighschool.com__  . Their phone number is  (401)647-4120  . When giving the school a phone call, you are sure to be greeted with by the famous Mrs. Gallahger, the longest staff member remaining at Scituate High School. She joined the Scituate school system in 1979 as an aid, but for the past 31 years she has served at the main secretary. When you’re in the view of ‘Gal,’ you better be on your best behavior or you can accept to receive a loud shriek.. “NO RUNNING DOWN THE HALL!” Gal started the same year as the former principle Mr. Light, who retired in 2008 after a long 29 years at Scituate High. The current principal, since fall 2008, is Mike Sollito. Former principle of (what school?), he was in for a pleasant surprise when joining the more well-behaved, Scituate Dirstrict. Assistant principal David Sweet has been working at the High School since 2004. As assistant principal, Mr. Sweet primarily deals with the discipline of the students. Since the start of his reign, it has become a Christmas  time tradition that he dress up like Santa Clause the day before break and takes pictures with the students in the cafeteria. This man, looking quite naturally jolly with his white beard and rosy cheeks, has always had the best interest of his students in mind. Attending as many sports events as he can, with his well-known wife Mary-Ann, These are just some of the many staff and faculty members that work hard to make the learning environment safe and fun for all the students.

Community Background  (economic characteristic- income chart, race and ethnicity) Scituate has played an important role in many of the United States wars. During the Revolutionary War, 76 cannons were forged at the Hope Furnace. During World War II, Scituate was the site of a radio monitoring system that intercepted enemy signals. Because of this, in 1946, the Chopmist Hill area was considered as the headquarters of the United Nations… In //1915,// the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to take 14,800 acres of land in Scituate (38% of the town) to create a reservoir to supply fresh water to greater Providence. This project resulted in the condemnation of "1,195 buildings, including 375 houses, seven schools, six churches, six mills, thirty dairy farms, eleven ice houses, post offices, and an electric railway system, the Providence and Danielson Railway system" ( __http://www.scituateri.org__  ). The beautiful and rich agriculture in the town makes for great farming lands, allowing the Scituate High School to take part in the FFA (future farmers of America) program.

Every year on Columbus Day weekend, the town of Scituate holds the Scituate Art festival in the village, an annual weekend long event the town is known for. There are delicious foods like the world’s best kettle corn, their famous apple dumplings, and several food booths ran by the Scituate Music Association, the Scituate sports teams, and Boy Scout troops in the community. Members of these groups volunteer at the booths, making delicious food for the people and raising money to fund our extra-curricular programs that mean so mean to these students. On the last day, the schools marching band, concert chorus and select chorus perform for the people of the festival. Every year, you can look forward to seeing the old lady in the puppy custom outside of the library raising money for the local animal shelter.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Economic Characteristics

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Scituate is primarily a higher middle class community, with the median household income standing at $81,798, almost $30,000 a year more than the median household income in Rhode Island. Scituate is mostly suburban, yet has rural portions as it is only about 10 miles from Providence. When you are driving through Scituate, you’ll notice that most of the homes are pretty nice looking. There are few apartment buildings in Scituate, it mostly consists of houses surrounded by beautiful greenery.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Table 1:
 * || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Scituate || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Rhode Island || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">US ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Median household income || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$81,798 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$55,975 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$52,762 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Median Family income || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$85,259 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$72,724 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$64,293 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Per capita income || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$33,585 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$29,685 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">$27,915 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">All families below poverty level || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">4.7 % || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">8.9% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">10.5% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">All people below poverty level || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">4.5 % || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">12.8% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">14.3% ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Table 2:
 * || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Scituate || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Rhode Island ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Children in families receiving cash assistance || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">1% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">5% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">School breakfast program participation || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">6% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">35% ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Table 3: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Race/Ethnicity in Scituate <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">District Summary (compare to two other schools, or one school and RI in general. Teacher to student ratio, Barrington is Rhode Island’s strongest public school, Central falls is considered weakest performer, teacher characteristic, NECAP scores, evaluate on each chart, test scores aren’t the only way to evaluate school performance- attendance rate etc., <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">School Analysis (maybe compare to more reasonably matched school, <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Conclusion
 * || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Scituate || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Rhode Island ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Child Population || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2,272 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">223,956 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Children in single-parent families || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">16% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">31% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Children living in families below the poverty threshold || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">4% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">17.9% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Households with grandparents financially responsible for grandchildren || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">6% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">6% ||
 * || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Scituate || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Rhode Island || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">US ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">White || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">97.4% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">81.4% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">72.4% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Black/African Americans || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">0.1% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">5.7% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">12.6% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Asian || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">0.1% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2.9% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">4.8% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Hispanic or Latino || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">0.8% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">12.4% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">16.3% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">American Indian and Alaska Native || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">0.1% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">.4% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">.7% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2 or more races || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">1.9% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2.4% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">97.5% ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">1 race || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">98.1% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">97.6% || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2.5% ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">References