PEOPLE PROFILE: Kathleen Ellis fills new role in NT schools

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September 12, 2008

By Neale Gulley<br><a href="mailto:gulleyn@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Neale</a> The Tonawanda News Fri Sep 12, 2008, 11:58 PM EDT

Identifying weaknesses in student performance is the first step toward correcting them. Then comes the hard part — making it happen.

That’s why the North Tonawanda school board on Tuesday pulled Kathleen Ellis on board for the district’s new post, director of curriculum and instruction.

“Really I’m going to be looking at data provided by the state and taking a look at how I can help teachers (use it),” she said.

That’s how the former teacher, now Interim assistant principal at Tonawanda High School and adjunct professor of English method at Niagara University, described what she will be doing beginning Sept. 20.

The challenge: Specialization is a luxury, with educators bound to a curriculum dictated in large part by an unprecedented number of general standardized tests.

“I would say that’s a sentiment voiced by teachers across the state and probably across the nation,” she said. “But what we don’t want to see is a curriculum that’s an inch deep and a mile wide.”

With decades of experience as a teacher in North Tonawanda, and later a staff development specialist and administrator in the City of Tonawanda, Ellis is prepared to empathize with all parties.

But finding innovative ways to help kids learn has always been her calling, she said. As college professor, it is a must, she said. She also conveys that priority for her students about to embark on careers as English teachers — what she termed the “foundation of elementary education.”

“They have to get (at least) a B in my class before they are even permitted to go and student teach,” she said.

In June, 2007, the district’s administration was restructured to include the position — what used to be assistant superintendent, North Tonawanda School Superintendent Vincent Vecchiarella said.

The hiring of Ellis completes the restructuring, which he said was deigned to make administration more “efficient” and “constructive.”

Technically, she will work under Executive Director of Educational Services Greg Woytila, who will continue to address specific issues with regard to the services offered in individual schools, and also aid in curriculum modifications alongside Ellis.

As a go-between to assess testing data collected and compiled by the state Erie 1 BOCES, the aim is improving academic performance by the numbers.

“As part of our goal to improve student academic performance, we believe that we can do that by aligning our curriculum instruction and assessments,” Vecchiarella said.

Ellis is a lifelong Niagara County resident who earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Niagara University, along with two master’s degrees in Foundations of Teaching and Educational Leadership.

Among her accomplishments, she was awarded Outstanding Graduate Student in Educational Leadership from Niagara University, where she graduated summa cum laude.

She is entitled to a three-year probationary contract beginning at $70,000 per year and increasing to $75,000 by the end of that period.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to hit the ground running and do the best that I can to help teachers and instruction.”

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.

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