- Live reporting - closing
- live reporting - action items
- Live reporting - general Q&A
- Live reporting - High School
- Live reporting - Middle Schools
- Live reporting - Elementary Q&A
- Live reporting - Elementary schools
- Live reporting - FY 2010 overview
- Live reporting - FY 2010 Budget
- Live reporting - Strategic Planning update
- Live reporting - Capital projects at FHS
- Live reporting - presentations
- Live reporting - School Committee 3/24/09
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
School Committee Meeting 03/24/09
The collection of posts from the School Committee meeting held 3/24/09
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
SchCom Letter to FEA
The letter as read by School Committee Chair Jeffrey Roy during the meeting 3/24/09:
Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io
Live reporting - closing
nothing else on the agenda was needed, they are going into Executive Session on one matter not to return.
live reporting - action items
4. Action Items
- I recommend approval of the remington recurring field trip to Providence Place Mall for Remington Middle School students as detailed. Approved 7-0
- I recommend approval of the Budget Transfers as detailed. Approved 7-0
- I recommend acceptance of a check for $136.67 from Target’s Take Charge of Education program for Horace Mann Middle School’s in-house enrichment. Approved 7-0
- I recommend acceptance of a check for $188.30 from Target’s Take Charge of Education program for Annie Sullivan Middle School’s gift account. Approved 7-0
- I recommend acceptance of a check for $107.18 from Target’s Take Charge of Education program for Remington Middle School’s scholarship fund. Approved 7-0
- I recommend acceptance of a check for $3,600.00 from the Parmenter PCC for the following field trips: Gr. 2 - Stony Brook; Gr. 3 – Plimoth Plantation; Gr. 4 – Museum of Science; and Gr. 5 – Freedom Trail. Approved 7-0
- I recommend approval of the FHS Girl’s Lacrosse Team recurring field trip to Guilford, CT for a Scrimmage and Dinner on April 4-5, 2009. Approved 7-0
- I recommend preliminary approval of the FHS Track Team’s trip to Philadelphia, PA/Mt. Laurel, NJ on April 22-24, 2009 for the Penn Relay track meet if they qualify for the event. Approved 7-0
- I recommend acceptance of the donation of 50 disposable cameras from CVS for the Davis Thayer 5th grade graduating class. Approved 7-0
Live reporting - general Q&A
Trahan - To summarize, the time line is still unclear, how the revenue will be distributed amongst the Town departments is still unclear? And you mentioned the survey amongst the high school teachers, so have others been duly involved, informed, etc.
Ogden - yes, the principals have been talking with them, Maureen and I are also cycling around to the schools and PCC's.
Armenio - I am worried about "finding money". These stimulus funds are one time funds, they are not in the revenue base.
Ogden - yes, the Federal stimulus is two years, the state portion is coming, the answer as to whether it deducts from Chap 70 or not is unknown.
Ogden - the late bus is not in this budget
Sabolinski - we stopped protecting class size about two years ago, the educational gaps are growing, the last bastion of curriculum and instructional support is within the elementary level. There is no district wide instructional support.
Ogden - this is totally new and potentially devastating to the budget (covering for the unemployment within the school budget), it spirals down a hole
Cafasso - I am not convinced about the half day kindergarten. In order to keep class sizes reasonable (albeit high) we have to short change the kids in their initial year? I am not convinced of it at this point. I am not convinced that a school closure and a re-districting might not be a solution.
Mullen - we haven't had the conversation yet about what are the "sacred cows"? We still need to discuss those things. You haven't made the asst superintendent change and that is not in the presentation but should be.
Ogden - the vendor has offered a package that would cost the district $250,000 less if we did several things, 1 - larger co-pay for tier 1 and 2 drugs, 2 - some doctor visits.
Sabolinski - we also got a reduction as our claims were down. We have a healthy group.
Mullen - can you look at the high school fees?
Light - we are still in discussion on this, I think it would double the fees for sports. There would also be a simialr increase in activity fees.
Slight - we are $125/sport. Doubling would be $250. Compared to other towns, Canton for example is $350, we are lower.
Roy - I want to guauge the committee's feeling on fees? I would like to keep an open mind on fees. Other consessions might be out there.
Roy reads a letter to the school teachers union president: a copy of this will be made available later. Formally asking the union for a wage freeze, the freeze would be applied to saving teachers.
Ogden - yes, the principals have been talking with them, Maureen and I are also cycling around to the schools and PCC's.
Armenio - I am worried about "finding money". These stimulus funds are one time funds, they are not in the revenue base.
Ogden - yes, the Federal stimulus is two years, the state portion is coming, the answer as to whether it deducts from Chap 70 or not is unknown.
Ogden - the late bus is not in this budget
Sabolinski - we stopped protecting class size about two years ago, the educational gaps are growing, the last bastion of curriculum and instructional support is within the elementary level. There is no district wide instructional support.
Ogden - this is totally new and potentially devastating to the budget (covering for the unemployment within the school budget), it spirals down a hole
Cafasso - I am not convinced about the half day kindergarten. In order to keep class sizes reasonable (albeit high) we have to short change the kids in their initial year? I am not convinced of it at this point. I am not convinced that a school closure and a re-districting might not be a solution.
Mullen - we haven't had the conversation yet about what are the "sacred cows"? We still need to discuss those things. You haven't made the asst superintendent change and that is not in the presentation but should be.
Ogden - the vendor has offered a package that would cost the district $250,000 less if we did several things, 1 - larger co-pay for tier 1 and 2 drugs, 2 - some doctor visits.
Sabolinski - we also got a reduction as our claims were down. We have a healthy group.
Mullen - can you look at the high school fees?
Light - we are still in discussion on this, I think it would double the fees for sports. There would also be a simialr increase in activity fees.
Slight - we are $125/sport. Doubling would be $250. Compared to other towns, Canton for example is $350, we are lower.
Roy - I want to guauge the committee's feeling on fees? I would like to keep an open mind on fees. Other consessions might be out there.
Roy reads a letter to the school teachers union president: a copy of this will be made available later. Formally asking the union for a wage freeze, the freeze would be applied to saving teachers.
Live reporting - High School
Peter Light, High School principal
Still referencing the presentation posted earlier here
Estimating an additional 92 students at the high school for next year
Science safety dictates 24 as class size, schedules were then worked to accomplish this
Net reduction of 17 staff at high school
4 support (1 asst principal, 1 guidance, 1 secretary, 1 librarian)
8 core academic
5 non-core
Avg class size grows to 47 and 45, numerically that is how it works out, we can't physically fit that many in a room
A reduction from 1017 hours of instructional time to 890 hours, which would be below the state requirements
Adverse impact of Scenario B, lowers the avg class size but increases the case load for a teacher up to 200!
Important slide maps the critical considerations according to this year and each of the scenarios, A and B
If we go with Scenario A, we would likely go from "warning" status to "probation".
Scenario A with 8 teachers added back...
Armenio - I can understand 30 elementary in a classroom, at the high school these are adult size bodies, where do they fit?
Light - not easily
Armenio - there is an issue at the high school with text books, with 92 coming in, where do we stand?
Ogden - we did put in requests for capital to purchase the additional books, per Jeff Nutting the Council will be acting on the capital requests shortly.
Cafasso - how does NEASC work with class size?
Ogden - NEASC doesn't get into the specifics, they are looking at the overall performance
Cafasso - I am struggling with some avg class sizes being lower at the high school than at the elementary level where they should be lower
Rohrbach - what is the avg class load for the high school?
Light - I believe it is 80-100 student class load
Mullen - Would you keep the three languages?
Light - yes, with either of these.
Cafasso - what if you did cut one language?
Light - that would affect anyone with the language requirement to go on to college.
Still referencing the presentation posted earlier here
Estimating an additional 92 students at the high school for next year
Science safety dictates 24 as class size, schedules were then worked to accomplish this
Net reduction of 17 staff at high school
4 support (1 asst principal, 1 guidance, 1 secretary, 1 librarian)
8 core academic
5 non-core
Avg class size grows to 47 and 45, numerically that is how it works out, we can't physically fit that many in a room
A reduction from 1017 hours of instructional time to 890 hours, which would be below the state requirements
Adverse impact of Scenario B, lowers the avg class size but increases the case load for a teacher up to 200!
Important slide maps the critical considerations according to this year and each of the scenarios, A and B
If we go with Scenario A, we would likely go from "warning" status to "probation".
Scenario A with 8 teachers added back...
Armenio - I can understand 30 elementary in a classroom, at the high school these are adult size bodies, where do they fit?
Light - not easily
Armenio - there is an issue at the high school with text books, with 92 coming in, where do we stand?
Ogden - we did put in requests for capital to purchase the additional books, per Jeff Nutting the Council will be acting on the capital requests shortly.
Cafasso - how does NEASC work with class size?
Ogden - NEASC doesn't get into the specifics, they are looking at the overall performance
Cafasso - I am struggling with some avg class sizes being lower at the high school than at the elementary level where they should be lower
Rohrbach - what is the avg class load for the high school?
Light - I believe it is 80-100 student class load
Mullen - Would you keep the three languages?
Light - yes, with either of these.
Cafasso - what if you did cut one language?
Light - that would affect anyone with the language requirement to go on to college.
Live reporting - Middle Schools
Library would be cut K-12
Many labs are not done this year at Annie Sullivan. 30 students in the lab does not create a safe environment for the lab to be conducted. This will spread to the other two middle schools with the increase in class sizes.
Math class size could be as high as 38!
Middle school is the foundation for the high school in math and science
The emotional needs of the 6th graders were considered. The effects are no less devastating across the school classes.
Between 0-3 years and between 11-14 years, the growth is critical.
Armenio - I did not understand case loads until about six weeks ago. If you are looking at an essay driven test or report, how long is that?
Ogden - for a 120 students, 10 minutes per student, would be 20 hours outside the classroom.
Armenio - without the proper feedback timing, the student would be continuing to make the mistakes.
Cafasso - foundational decision, with the cuts as they are, how were they allocated?
Ogden - 50% of the students are in the elementary by population, with the other 50% split between middle and high school.
Cafasso - no one wants to pit one level against another, how do we explain this?
Ogden - The worst scenario in the elementary school teacher would have 36 students to deal with, papers, etc. Compared to the middle school teacher with 120, and from 120-150 at the high school.
Cafasso - cuts were apportioned according to where the students are.
5 minute recess
Many labs are not done this year at Annie Sullivan. 30 students in the lab does not create a safe environment for the lab to be conducted. This will spread to the other two middle schools with the increase in class sizes.
Math class size could be as high as 38!
Middle school is the foundation for the high school in math and science
The emotional needs of the 6th graders were considered. The effects are no less devastating across the school classes.
Between 0-3 years and between 11-14 years, the growth is critical.
Armenio - I did not understand case loads until about six weeks ago. If you are looking at an essay driven test or report, how long is that?
Ogden - for a 120 students, 10 minutes per student, would be 20 hours outside the classroom.
Armenio - without the proper feedback timing, the student would be continuing to make the mistakes.
Cafasso - foundational decision, with the cuts as they are, how were they allocated?
Ogden - 50% of the students are in the elementary by population, with the other 50% split between middle and high school.
Cafasso - no one wants to pit one level against another, how do we explain this?
Ogden - The worst scenario in the elementary school teacher would have 36 students to deal with, papers, etc. Compared to the middle school teacher with 120, and from 120-150 at the high school.
Cafasso - cuts were apportioned according to where the students are.
5 minute recess
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