Marshwood Middle’s Growing Hawks pilot teaches executive‑functioning skills, board hears

Marshwood Middle School staff presented the board with Growing Hawks, a new allied‑arts pilot that teaches executive‑functioning skills to sixth graders and aims to prepare students for high school and beyond. Barbara Mandel, an educational technician and Growing Hawks instructor, told the board the course is organized into five units—executive functioning, time management, communication, study strategies and collaboration—and that each student completes a personalized resource binder to use going forward.

"It is our hope that every student in middle school will have taken this course before entering high school," Barbara Mandel said, describing the program's goal of building a long‑term toolkit. Tracy Le Point, who co‑developed the curriculum and teaches one of the sections, said the course focuses on practical skills such as time blocking, note taking and self‑advocacy that students can apply across classes.

Sixth grader Evelyn Randall addressed the board about her experience: "This class has truly changed how I approach my learning," she said, citing learning‑style inventories, Pomodoro time blocks and an Eisenhower matrix for prioritizing work. Randall said small class sizes and teacher mentoring helped her engage and build strategies she expects to use through high school.

Board members and parents praised the pilot as "individualized" and urged expansion. Presenters said the current model prioritizes small groups—two sections daily, morning and afternoon—and that they are planning to offer additional seventh‑ and eighth‑grade cohorts in subsequent quarters. The presenters described a referral process for students and said they aim to include every sixth grader this school year where feasible while preserving the small‑group format.

Administrators asked the board to receive an update in the fall and to consider tracking the current cohort through high school to measure outcomes. The board thanked the presenters and student speaker and tied the program to the district’s strategic goals and portrait of a graduate.

The board did not take a vote on program expansion at this meeting; presenters were asked to return with follow‑up information, including participation numbers and a plan for scaling while maintaining small class sizes.