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Farmington board hears plan for summer institute, dozens of curriculum updates
Summary
The Farmington Board of Education heard an overview of more than 40 summer curriculum projects, including a two‑day summer institute for grades 7–12 focused on ‘‘deeper learning,’’ and a district effort to refresh the long‑running Paideia middle‑school program.
Eric Martin, director of curriculum and instruction, told the Farmington Board of Education on May 12 that the district has budgeted more than 40 summer curriculum projects and will run a two‑day summer institute for grades 7–12 immediately after the school year ends in June.
"Summer is a really, really critical time for our district," Martin said, calling the institute a chance to "level up instruction, designing powerful tasks for deep thinking and deeper learning." He said more than 40 teachers have signed up and the institute will continue the district's work on making deeper thinking and authentic tasks a consistent part of instruction.
The projects were developed through the district’s curriculum coordinating committee beginning last fall and aim to revise curriculum maps, align academic expectations to the district vision of the "global citizen" and support the high school’s upcoming NEASC accreditation review, Martin said. He described summer work as year‑long projects: teachers receive half of their compensation at the end of summer and the remaining half, along with coaching and feedback, by May 1 of the following school year.
Board members asked about timelines and particular items on the project list. Martin said the scope and stipend for each project vary with compensation tied to scope; some projects are piloted and continually refined — for example, new culinary curriculum maps are treated as a pilot year and will be refined if the board approves new course proposals later in the meeting.
The board also heard that Paideia, Farmington’s long‑running middle‑school tradition, will be reviewed by a committee operating under "Lisa at IAR" to expand student inquiry, connect student identity with local history, and strengthen civic‑minded projects. "It's not going away," Martin said of Paideia, but added it needs "new life breathed into it."
