G. Ray Bodley to Implement New Seminar Course

FULTON, NY – A unanimous decision by the Fulton City School District Board of Education will allow district leaders to move forward with the implementation of a new course at the high school.

Seminar, a graded half credit course, will be held every other day for 40 minutes following similar guidelines of a former advisory program in which students meet with one teacher for the duration of their four years.

The course will be implemented for incoming ninth and tenth grade students in its first year although the goal of district officials is to eventually phase it in for all grade levels at G. Ray Bodley High School.

The program had been thoroughly discussed and laid out to board members in recent months.

Board president, David Cordone shed light on concerns he had heard from some families throughout the district as far as seminar not fitting into a student’s already full schedule.

“We do a lot to support our students that need the most assistance – students with disabilities, students that are socio-economically challenged in terms of their home environment, but yet our data also shows that we have students who have supportive parents and who are engaged and those students maybe don’t need all the skills offered through seminar. Those are kids who are typically in advanced placement courses, so they’ve already got high school credits under their belt and the notion that they may already have the skills that seminar would offer. I wanted to make sure those kids still have those other opportunities that seminar might get in the way of in their schedule,” Cordone explained.

Superintendent of Schools Brian Pulvino assured that students who are carrying a full credit schedule, currently a very small amount in the ninth grade at GRB, will have the option to sit with a school counselor and high school principal Donna Parkhurst to decide whether seminar would fit or benefit in the student’s schedule.

“The board wants to ensure we maintain a sense of individuality for kids. It’s not one size fits all, there are some kids that want to take more than six and a half credits so we would have them sit with a counselor and map that out. Same process for seminar, just sitting down with a counselor and making sure the schedule fits the individual needs of the student,” Pulvino said.

With this option, Cordone feels his concerns have been addressed.

“The superintendent’s team has been very responsive to that concern and so we have options and that’s great because it just benefits all kids,” he said.

Similar to the former advisory program which was hailed as very successful but forced to discontinue after four years due to funding, seminar will emphasize on facilitating a strong mentor relationship between students and their teacher.

Last month, teachers and students alike shared their experiences with advisory and stressed their belief that implementing seminar would facilitate similar experiences for students.

Former advisory teachers said that components of advisory that they saw a big impact from, such as Options Day and student led conferences, would be replicated in the new seminar course.

Students who formerly participated in advisory said the course allowed them to facilitate friendships they may have otherwise not formed as they also developed a meaningful relationship with their teacher.

The seminar course will closely follow the former advisory program with the addition of a stronger focus on an academic component that was not as firmly addressed through advisory.

For freshman the seminar curriculum will consist of team building, transitioning to high school, goal setting, study skills and time management.

For sophomores the seminar curriculum will consist of true colors personality testing, conflict resolution, and the history of Fulton.

Additionally, seminar will provide students at both grade levels an in depth training and regular use of Naviance, the school’s career and college planning program, as well as visits to several local colleges.

District officials will measure the success of seminar by tracking data hopeful to indicate a decrease in chronic absence, increase in number of students on track to graduate in four years, increase in parent involvement through student-led conferences, increase in student voice and ownership of their learning, and increase in the number of two and four year college graduates as well as trade programs.

Unlike advisory, seminar will be implemented at no cost to the district by repurposing positions.

“Now the work begins to continue addressing the needs of all of our students,” said the district’s executive director of instruction and assessment, Betsy Conners.

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