Seneca Valley Selected as National 'Lighthouse' School System with Dr. Tracy Vitale and Dr. Sean McCarty

The Seneca Valley School District is one of only four school districts across the country to be recognized as a 2023 Fall "Lighthouse System" by AASA, the School Superintendents Association. Listen as SV superintendents, Dr. Tracy Vitale and Dr. Sean McCarty discuss the details of this prestigious recognition and what it means to Seneca Valley.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW

• What is the AASA and AASA’s Learning 2025 Network? 
• What is the “Lighthouse” designation and how did SV earn such an award?
• What is the application process like?
• What this prestigious recognition means for Seneca Valley.

SPECIAL GUEST
Dr. Tracy Vitale, Seneca Valley Superintendent of Schools
Dr. Sean McCarty, Seneca Valley Assistant Superintendent for K-6 Instruction

Dr. Tracy Vitale proudly serves as the Superintendent of Schools for Seneca Valley, which is one of the largest public school districts in Western Pennsylvania. Prior to becoming Superintendent in 2011, she was an Assistant Superintendent, Principal and Teacher in urban, rural and suburban environments in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. She has a strong understanding and experience in community relations, public education advocacy, business partnerships and workforce development. She also has an extensive background in personnel selection, training & supervision.

Dr. Sean McCarty has held the position of assistant superintendent of elementary education, grades K-6, since 2012. In his role he has expanded the elementary curriculum and added unique courses for the K-6 student. Dr. McCarty has overseen the development and expansion of an elementary foreign language program and is also credited for introducing and initiating the District's Creativity, Innovation & Research Center (CIRC), which serves as a model program for K-6 schools all across the State.

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

 00:00:02:26 - 00:00:10:13

Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

 00:00:10:25 - 00:00:26:16
Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. Today I'm joined by two special guests, Superintendent, Dr. Tracy Vitale, as well as Dr. Sean McCarty, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education, grades K-6. Thanks for being here today. 

 00:00:27:19 - 00:00:29:04
Tracy Vitale: Thank you for having us, Jeff. 

 00:00:29:06 - 00:01:12:13
Jeff Krakoff: So we've got some exciting news that I want to talk to you about. Um, Seneca Valley School District won a prestigious national award, being one of only four school districts in the country. And it's through AASA the School Superintendents Association in the award is for the 2023 Lighthouse System. So first of all, congratulations. And, uh, you know, people are probably wondering, we just threw out a lot of information. We talked about the AASA and the award, but let's start with the AASA, which again is the School Superintendents Association. What is the organization all about and what does it do? 

 00:01:13:06 - 00:03:38:28
Tracy Vitale: So first of all, that is a national professional superintendents association that has been around for many, many years. And the way school superintendents would belong to that organization was typically first through their state. And then your state organization would link you up to the AASA nationally. And in the past, AASA has had great resources. They've had at least one conference a year, sometimes two, and they provided us with resources as we needed them and we could reach out to them, but they weren't as involved or engaged regionally or locally in smaller systems across the United States. And so, a member in Pittsburgh from the Grable Foundation, Gregg Behr, and two of his fellows, Dr. Billy Ron Darnell and Dr. Bart Rocco, who are Grable fellows, became heavily involved with AASA, and there's been some turnover in leadership, and they've really rebranded themselves and began to focus on what do schools really need from us at a national level, but also, more importantly, how can we remake learning and look at learning differently so that we are more learner centered and more future driven, so that we can be some of the innovation behind driving some of these initiatives across the United States. And they really did a lot of this process thinking during the pandemic. And so we're lucky because in western Pennsylvania, as I said, GregG Behr through the um, Grable  Foundation he is providing and his organization is providing a lot of the funding so that we can belong to one- the regional piece, which is called the Western Pennsylvania Learning Alliance, and then two - the national piece with AASA, this this involvement with AASA and learning 2025 has been an opportunity for our district to network with districts across the United States, both remotely and in person, but also to recognize districts that are doing really innovative things across the United States and locally and regionally. We have a lot of great public schools in the Pittsburgh region. So Gregg, Billy and Bart have connected us with those districts in site visits and in networking opportunities. 

 00:03:39:12 - 00:03:46:03
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Dr. Vitale, you mentioned the learning 2025 network being the national piece. What's that all about? 

00:03:47:04 - 00:04:56:18
Tracy Vitale: Learning 2025. They came together a few years ago. You know, they were gathering people from nonprofits like Grable, people who were interested in kind of reimagining education and preparing children for their future, not ours, and preparing students for the workforce in ways that, you know, we we knew the pandemic would change the workforce. We didn't you know, we had some ideas and some theories, but we didn't know exactly how it would. And so we want to make sure as schools that we're always looking ahead, not one or two years, but five, 10 years down the road. So a think tank came together at the national level, which included Gregg Behr and again, his influence in the Pittsburgh region, but also nationally about how can we best prepare students. And they settled on primary tenets like how can we be more learner centered? How can we give students a voice in their learning? How can we personalize that learning? How can we be more future driven, and how can we network in a better way, where we can steal good ideas from one another, not just locally, but regionally and nationally? 

 00:04:57:09 - 00:05:13:14
Jeff Krakoff: Okay, well, let's get to the good part again. Seneca Valley is one of only four schools in the entire country to have a Lighthouse designation. What does that mean? What is the Lighthouse designation and how did the district win this award? 

 00:05:14:11 - 00:06:53:15
Tracy Vitale: First of all, it's very competitive and it's a very lengthy application to apply. And you must include artifacts in that application. So our assistant superintendent, Dr. Marie Palano, who could not be with us today, I do want to give a shout out to her. She pulled together a majority of this application with our communications department. And so in that application, we have to choose a specific tenant that we have focused on. And there are many that we could have focused on different types of tenants. There were probably eight different areas social, emotional, cognitive growth, future ready learners, cognitive growth, learners as co-authors, diverse education pipeline, early learning technology, enhanced learning, community alignment. All of those things are important to the initiatives at AASA learning 2025, we had to pick one where we felt we had the strongest indicators, and that alone was difficult to narrow down to one because we we hit all of these topics in many different ways. We chose as a team to focus on the social, emotional, cognitive growth, because how are we best preparing children coming out of the pandemic? How are we catching them up in areas academically where they may be lacking? How are we as a district focusing on social, emotional, cognitive growth? Because we know that students don't - they can't learn unless they feel safe, secure, well-fed, and that their brains are in a position where they can then engage in the learning. 

 00:06:53:17 - 00:07:20:11
Tracy Vitale: And so we focused on that topic, and that's where the award came in, where we were chosen across the nation as one district that excels in social, emotional, cognitive growth. Now, I know from being a public educator for many years that there are many schools doing this work. So I want to point out that I don't think Seneca Valley is the only public school doing this work, but I'm proud that Seneca Valley is being recognized for this work. 

 00:07:20:27 - 00:07:30:25
Jeff Krakoff: Do you receive any specific feedback as to what about your application stood out to be one of only four school districts to win this? 

 00:07:31:03 - 00:09:04:19
Tracy Vitale: Yes, and we've received a little bit of feedback. We will receive more next month when we go to accept the award on the national stage. But at this point, um, they were impressed. And as a matter of fact, one of the lead administrators at AASA even came out and looked at our new Ehrman Crest Elementary/Middle School. But we did focus on not only why social emotional cognitive growth was important, but how we're using spaces, flexible furniture, our buildings to support the teaching and the learning, and then how that can be part of the whole picture of safety, security, social emotional growth. So they were impressed with, of course, the Ehrman Crest Elementary/Middle School, which was recognized by TIME magazine. We've done a podcast on that as being one of the best innovations of the 2023 school year, but also they were impressed with how we've taken our cyber school that has existed for 13 years plus, and we opened a drop-in center for students in our Cranberry Township for full time cyber students, hybrid cyber students to drop into that center. And how, you know, education just looks so different in so many of our buildings today. They were impressed with that, and they were impressed with the process that we've gone through as a district, with the front line, with our community and with our students to design new, appropriate, flexible spaces. 

 00:09:05:18 - 00:09:17:28
Jeff Krakoff: Okay, so, Dr. McCarty, tell us about you know, it sounds like an intense application process. What was involved? What were the many components included in that? 

 00:09:18:21 - 00:11:24:25
Sean McCarty: So, as Dr. Vitale shared, you know, there was a number of ways we could have approached this process. And one of the challenges I think we faced was looking at all of the things that we do. And how do you kind of narrow that focus, but it really provided us an opportunity to look at our system as a whole. And as we approached, you know, the number of things that we do that we know are, you know, good for kids, but how do they connect and how do you connect all of these systems in a manner that is cohesive, you know, K-12. So as Dr. Vitale just shared, when you looked at some of our physical spaces, part of the thinking behind how we created those physical spaces would how would that allow us to run the programs that we're either creating or have been in a place for a number of years to make them function at a higher level? So specifically, when we look now going through this process, we were able to identify how these things are all interconnected. And a couple examples of that very well may be is we have an MTSS process. And what that allows us to do, to oversimplify is to really identify the needs of the learners within our schools. And once we identify those needs, we're able to utilize universal screeners and determine specific areas as to where their strengths and where their weaknesses fall. And then, most importantly, what do we do about that? And how do we utilize our staff who are tremendously gifted and talented on how we approach educating children? Use their strengths. Combine that with the needs and strengths of our kids, and really do things a little bit different than maybe we've had in traditional schools, and our spaces have now allowed us through, you know, something as simple as flexible furniture that teachers can immediately change the structure of their classroom to meet the needs of our individual learners. So all of those pieces, I think, when you marry them together, gives us a holistic view on how we really focus on the individualizing education for each and every child. 

 00:11:25:04 - 00:11:39:03
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. So we've talked a lot about spaces, furnishings, the individual type of process for each student, how important were things like standardized test scores or the Report of Student Progress? 

 00:11:40:26 - 00:14:16:04
Sean McCarty: So I'll start with the where you ended with the report of Student Progress. And just to give some explanation behind the idea behind that. Report of Student Progress is what we've done here at Seneca Valley to evolve our communication system with not only families, but students themselves on the progress of their learning. And I'm going to focus on that word learning, because why this is different than a traditional grading system. Your traditional A, B, C. You know much of what we grew up with as kids. That grading system, why this is different is it truly focuses on the learning process for each individualized child. So an example might be in a traditional system that is an average by a number of points based on test scores, homework scores, all of that compiled to create an average percentage, which then shows up on your report card. What we've done with our Report of Student Progress is more of a standards based approach. By looking at the individual standards and skills necessary for kids to be successful, and then examining what are the elements that kids need to exhibit, what behaviors or what do they need to do to reach a mastery or a meeting of that actual standard? So that, in turn, allows teachers to dig deeper in the individual needs of kids to see if they've accomplished just that, the learning related to those specific areas. So again, what it has allowed us to do as a system is really put that focus of attention on all children across the board, our learners that are, you know, knocking out of the park and doing amazing things, and some of our learners that are doing amazing things but may struggle in an area. And how do we pinpoint that strength and help those kids move forward? So and again, to answer your question fully, when we look at our standardized scores, I would probably you know, grow that topic to be a little bit more of what data points do we utilize that are beyond just what's happening in the classroom, but utilizing standardized test scores, universal screeners, different points that are both nationally normed and state normed, and what we do locally, taking all of that information, knowing that every data point tells a story, but that story can't be told in isolation. So taking all of that information and then funneling it down to truly what's most important, the interaction between child and teacher and how that learning progression continues. 

 00:14:16:06 - 00:14:28:14
Jeff Krakoff: All right. I have to ask one question for each of you to answer. We'll start with you, Dr. McCarty. How did that feel? How did you react when you first heard the news of this great recognition? 

 00:14:30:22 - 00:15:42:25
Sean McCarty: Just, uh, beyond the. Oh, my gosh, we really did get this. How amazing is that? You know, beyond all of those components of anytime you're recognized. Sure that that feels great. But I think more importantly, there is a sense of affirmation. And as I mentioned, going through this process really forces you to look at it maybe from a 30,000 foot view to say, okay, is the work and effort that our teachers are doing every single day. Our administrators are doing every single day. How have all those efforts moved us forward as a complete system? And I think that affirmation of we'll never be perfect and we'll never totally arrive and get to that, oh, we're there now. But the idea of continually looking for that goal of how are we being innovative in a manner that allows kids to flourish once they leave our doors? And as we all know, the world is continually changing faster than it ever has in history. What are we doing as a system to support children as they leave our system, not only while they're here, but maybe more importantly, when they leave our doors and go out into the real world, if you will, and to whatever pursuits they may have. So I would say affirmation is probably the strongest word I could put with that. 

 00:15:43:00 - 00:15:46:27
Jeff Krakoff: All right, Dr. Vitale, how about you? How did you feel? How did you react? 

 00:15:48:02 - 00:16:57:10
Tracy Vitale: Well, I'm very proud of what we do here at Seneca Valley. And it's not, although my name is on it, it's not what Tracy Vitale does. I'm one person, so I'm proud that the team, the huge team that we have here at Seneca Valley is being recognized. And it's a nod to excellence. And so, you know, when you when you look at our tagline for this, um, award that we applied for, we called it creating bold spaces that support teaching, learning and student well-being. And that is very much what we've been doing over the last 5-10 years. And so it is nice to get kind of a head nod. Yes, this is good. We like what you're doing. It's amazing that we're only one out of four districts across this entire nation that was recognized. And so, you know, I just give great kudos, thanks, congratulations and accolades to our stakeholders in the district, teachers, especially students, our parents, our school board. This isn't Tracy Vitale's district. It's all of our district. It's a community effort. And because of the support of our community, we can do great things. 

 00:16:57:19 - 00:17:07:03
Jeff Krakoff: Well said. So what do you believe this recognition says about the state and where Seneca Valley School District is today? 

 00:17:08:08 - 00:17:47:19
Tracy Vitale: Well, I think undoubtedly, you know, we all want to see students succeed academically. That's our number one mission, right? Academics. But that we all recognize other things, support the academics. And if we don't have those in place safe, secure this time of the year, warm spaces, well-fed children, well, children both mentally and physically. If all those things aren't in place, we're not in a position to teach and and for students to learn. And so I think it it reminds us how important student well-being is to support teaching and learning. 

 00:17:48:14 - 00:17:53:06
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Is there anything else either of you would like to add before I let you go today? 

 00:17:55:23 - 00:19:13:09
Tracy Vitale: I would just add that, you know, Seneca Valley never sets out to win awards. In this case, we applied for an award, but we thought it was a long shot, honestly, to be recognized nationally. And I think the the reason Seneca Valley keeps getting awards is just because everybody pulls their weight and more here, you know, team is kind of an understatement for what everyone does and the amount of respect we have between administration, our teachers union, our school board, it starts at the top with our school board. If we didn't have supportive members, supportive leaders, volunteers on our school board the way that we do, I'm not sure any of the things that we do would be done with fidelity. So I do want to thank, starting with our school board and of course, our whole community, all of our townships, boroughs, municipalities, everyone that I meet during my time as a superintendent constantly says to me, what can I do to help? What do you need? What do the kids need? Especially coming out of this pandemic? So I'm grateful for that kind of support. I'm grateful that the taxpayers support what we're doing here, and I'm grateful for our school board. 

 00:19:13:23 - 00:19:17:12
Jeff Krakoff: All right. Doctor McCarty, any last thoughts? 

 00:19:18:00 - 00:20:08:15
Sean McCarty: Well, it's hard to follow that from a standpoint of I would agree with everything Dr. Vitale just shared, and I think it does give us a sense of optimism for the future as well. And I think that's, you know, wildly important now, especially in 2024, looking to the future, knowing that there's not a script as to what that's going to look like. I do feel confident that as we continue to evolve and stay innovative, we're preparing kids for the future, and I feel good about our future knowing as I walk into classrooms and seeing how kids think it's such a high level and how they can collaborate and how they can do all of those skills necessary to make our world, you know, an amazing place in the future. I do think there is a lot. We have a very good reason to feel optimistic about the future. 

 00:20:09:01 - 00:20:25:22
Jeff Krakoff: All right. Well, again, congratulations to the two of you. And as was said before, congratulations to every single person involved in the Seneca Valley School District. Um, that was Dr. Tracy Vitale and Dr. Sean McCarty. Thanks again for your time. It was a great conversation. 

 00:20:26:03 - 00:20:27:02
Tracy Vitale: Thank you. Jeff. 

 00:20:27:09 - 00:20:28:21
Sean McCarty: Thank you. Take care.