Live reporting - Closing

5. Information Matters

Superintendent’s Report
a. Parmenter – Wachusett Street Construction
The front access loop is currently impassible, meeting with DPW and Town Administrator on Wednesday


There are 153 new students in the district, there was a line down the hall at the high school today, students who had been at the private high schools are returning


The bus routes are being posted, 
there were three buses eliminated per the budget discussion to save $120,000
Stops were added other bus routes
Some routes will be longer than last year due to the additional stops

• Remington, bus 29 eliminated, stops added to buses 1, 10, 11, 14
• Horace Mann, bus 30 eliminated, stops added to buses 15 and 22
• Parmenter, bus 5 eliminated, stops added to bus 22 and 23
• Keller, bus 24 eliminated, stops to bus 2 
• Jefferson, bus 21, stops added to buses 15 and 26

middle school buses are at about 95% capacity
elementary buses are at 75% capacity
bus counts will be taken the third week in Sep
bus counts will be taken more frequently
Late bus will be up and running for the middle and high school students


Pay to ride, currently just about where they were last year about 1591, expecting an increase but only where capacity exists.


Cafasso - can we utilize the existing media to communicate to the PCC's? We need to keep the parents aware. I would like to see in Oct.


Ridership mostly middle/high school for the pay-to-ride

School Committee Sub-Committee Reports 
budget subcommittee met to start discussing FY 2012
if there is any input, like to see things different from last year, let Sue know


policy subcommittee continuing to work through the manual
will be bringing forward


School Committee Liaison Reports
none
6. New Business
To discuss future business that may be brought before the School Committee.


Roy - received a book from C Geromini "The Death and Life of the Great American School System"
Trahan - wishing a safe new beginning to the new year to all the students, faculty, etc.

7. Executive Session
Contractual Negotiations


moving to executive session, passed 7-0

8. Adjourn



Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Action items

4. Action Items
a. I recommend acceptance of the Franklin High School’s Handbook as presented at the last meeting.

motion to accept, passed 7-0

b. I recommend acceptance of the District Improvement Plan as presented at the last meeting.

motion to accept, passed 7-0

c. I recommend acceptance of the Horace Mann, Remington and Annie Sullivan Middle School’s School Improvement Plans as presented.

motion to accept, passed 7-0

d. I recommend approval of the Budget Transfers as detailed.

motion to accept, passed 7-0

e. I recommend acceptance of the Middle Schools Handbooks as presented at the last meeting.

motion to accept, passed 7-0

f. I recommend acceptance of the Elementary Schools Handbooks as presented at the last meeting.
motion to accept, passed 7-0


Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Discussion only items

Added charge to the Space Needs subcommittee

Have the district changes in population shift the district has seen sufficient to re-district
are the changes sufficient to consider going to a half-day kindergarten

We are talking about a possible re-districting for the next school year 2011-2012

Sabolinksi - The kindergarten committee will be prepared for input to the Space Needs Subcommittee

Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Middle School Improvement Plans

2. Guests/Presentations
a. Middle School’s School Improvement Plans

Annie Sullivan - Principal, Beth Wycoff
a continuation and update of items from prior years, continuing what is going well
adding and adjusting to areas that need to be to continue to make progress
Made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) with hard work, continuing to devote effort to maintain that progress
added the bullying policy to the handbooks and to the objectives

Horace Mann - Interim Principal, Michael Levine
Speaking to the effort although not from direct and detailed exposure due to his new role
Gave thanks to those who helped prepare him for this

Remington - Principal, Paul Peri
Did meet AYP in math subgroups but did not meet AYP in the English areas
There are six performance ratings, all the schools in Franklin are in the highest category
Due to this high category a drop of a few points is not doom and gloom, there is work to be done and efforts are underway to provide the progress to meet AYP

Cafasso - looking at the enrollment for the middle schools, enrollment overall is down at all three schools but there are spikes in specific grades. Can you talk to us about class sizes and where you have concerns? Where are the pain points?

Wycoff- I am concerned about by 6th Grade class sizes. We lost a position so the class sizes are going up to 28-29. That is a deep concern for us. Took every class list and even out the classes manually. I think the other grades are managable but not what we had when I came here. I'd like to get back to the class sizes where we could have 18-22.

Peri - You can get in to the low 30's in the Unified arts classes. We are looking for additional furniture from one room to move to another where needed. We are relying on everyone in the building to come together.

Levine - 32% have class sizes over 25, the bulk in the 6th grade; 26, 27 ... The teachers change their strategies to accommodate the individualized instruction. As this gets to the heart of our success, this is an issue.

Glynn - With the changes in class size, how does this affect the performance?

Peri - there is a correlation between class size and goal performance. The goal is to hit 100% in 2014.
Wycoff - something gives at some point. We have all of these other factors, students in warning but not making progress, are we moving the advanced up as much as we are capable of. At some point, when you have these numbers in the classroom, something gives. We have done quite well here in Franklin. The dam will break but not because there is a valiant effort. To accommodate three extra bodies, you can't understand unless you are in the room with them.
Levine - I'll just add that when I started teaching, this was the discussion. I won't say when I started. There was evidence to suggest that smaller class sizes do create better performance. We need to do as much as we can to decrease class size.

Franklin, MA

Live reporting - School Committee

Present: Douglas, Cafasso, Rohrbach, Mullen, Roy, Trahan, Glynn

Absent: none

1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments - none
Review of Agenda - added Space Needs Subcommittee report to Discussion Only Items
Minutes: I recommend approval of the Open and Executive Session minutes from the August 10, 2010 School Committee Meeting. Motion to accept, passed 7-0
Payment of Bills Mr. Glynn Motion to accept, passed 7-0
Payroll Mrs. Douglas
FHS Student Representatives-  none this meeting, next time
Correspondence - none

Franklin, MA

the opportunity is now

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana 

Why am I on this kick about the School Committee/Administration and the District Improvement Plan?

And if by chance, you missed that, I talked about it here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/08/school-committee-say-it-isnt-so.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/08/well-take-money-thank-you.html


I worked with wonderful folks on the Steering Committee to develop the Strategic Plan for the Franklin Public Schools. That overall strategy plan is now being further detailed with specific actions and follow up items to bring us toward the vision of what the schools should be.

The history of Franklin voters funding education is terrible. One operational override has passed of the seven offered. The one that passed was clearly a town-wide effort to save operations across the board (fire, police, Library and schools). Each one that failed was essentially for the schools. Although there were other departmental effects, the bulk of the funding for the six failures was for the schools.

Hence, one could argue that Franklin doesn't fund the schools.

Hence, given the opportunity to put together the details for the strategic plan, one would expect a considerable focus on communications, outreach, etc.

As I have outlined already, the bulk of the work on the District Improvement Plan is there. The issue is relatively minor in that the parents, the PCC organizations were left out of the District Improvement Plan in the key section to increase awareness of the school funding priorities. The community is included in the high school renovation project. It had better be. The community is excluded from the budget process and that is where I raise the issue.

Given the history of Franklin funding education, given the methods the School Committee and Administration have used to communicate, something needs to be changed.

Hence the George Santayana quote.

The time for change is now.


Franklin, MA

We'll take the money, thank you

As a follow up to the School Committee's action item on the District Improvement Plan, I went back through the agendas for the calendar year 2010. (Yes, the calendar year as opposed to the school year.) The PCC donations to the School Committee resulted in 22 separate actions for a total of $49,549.85.


The full listing of the 22 donations according to the published agendas for the period from Jan 1, 2010 through Aug 24, 2010 can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1WPDUuqdM2Aa5etpgqRKkNIxGUljx7vYIwwmPpYxat_A&hl=en#


Will the School Committee/Administration modify the District Improvement Plan to include the parents, especially the PCC organizations? Come to the meeting, or at least tune in to see what happens.


The School Committee meets Tuesday, Aug 24th at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers at the Municipal Bldg, East Central St.


You can tune into either Comcast or Verizon to see the cable broadcast or from your PC follow this link to view the broadcast.


Franklin, MA