July 19th School Committee Meeting
I missed the first 15 minutes of the meeting, but tuned in to catch various motions as well as subcommittee reports. They certainly had a full agenda for a mid-July meeting, but the next school year is fast-approaching, so, here goes...
John Leahy asked that the district homework policy be reviewed to make sure that there is consistency across all schools with a special concern for children transitioning from elementary to middle and from middle school to high school. He also made a motion to ask that the city council restore the $330,000 that was cut during budget deliberations, this in light of the fact that the State provided the higher number out of the range of expected Ch. 70 funding (recall that the House had only appropriated an $800,000 increase for Lowell, while the Senate number, which prevailed, had an increase of $3.2 million). Mayor Martin did not support the measure because the $330,000 was equal to what was cut from the city budget and because if the Senate number had not come through, the City would have had to make up any shortfall on the schoolside, which he would have supported. The rest of the committee voted to support the motion. Leahy also motioned to review the position of Housemaster at LHS to make sure that it is in line with the school's mission statement. He also wanted a review of discipline policies at the high school. Jackie Doherty added it is important to review the role of the housemaster and how they fit in with the new academies that have been added and that this issue was mentioned by the reaccreditation team. Regina Faticanti suggested that the motion be amended to include a joint meeting of the high school and the discipline sub-committees. Leahy motioned that the policies and procedures in place for showing movies at school be reviewed and that all movies be approved by school principals.
Regina Faticanti made a motion that policies be created that would (1) prevent any student who was arrested on school grounds from participating in any school activities (including graduation), (2) that the school committee be informed of any student arrest on school grounds and (3) that student age be limited to 22 years old. The motion was passed to create such policies that will then be voted on. (Isn't there a law already in place that determines up to what age children must be accepted and educated by public schools?)
Kevin McHugh reported on the School Building sub-committee that a project manager has been hired for the two new schools that are to be built.
Connie Martin reported that the curriculum sub-committee voted to go forward with planned interventions for students who are reading below grade level; these will consist of daily 30 minute sessions to help bring these students catch up. (Who will provide these services? Are tutors being hired?) She also noted that a discussion was held about whether or not each school should have a reading teacher, but added that each principal was given the leeway during the budget "trade-offs" to make those decisions at the school level and that it wouldn't be right to override the principal's recommendations. She also added that the new Scott Foresman reading program which will be used in every school (except the Washington which is having success with its current program) will allow for more detailed tracking of student achievement. Each school will have the flexibility to add tutors and reallocate internal resources as needed, but there is not likely to be more funds for adding reading teachers during the year. Finally, there was a motion to adopt the new Wellness Policy as submitted, which will require that all food services during the school day adhere to the Stalker Institute nutritional guidelines (this will not affect PTO or Sports events).
Connie Martin also reported that the Personnel Sub Committee had refined the evaluation process for the superintendent, keeping 7 Priority Goals and using a 5 point scale rather than a 3 point scale.
Jackie Doherty reported that the Special Ed sub committee had received data that 1/3 of IEPs were not filed within the required 45 days last year. Per the Director of SPED, there were not enough psychologists; the increased funding to the department should relieve this problem. They will also begin to track the number of reevaluations of students done before the required 3 year timeframe and try to address the issue of more time spent on testing than on student services. The data shows that more than 50% of students receiving Failing/Warning scores on MCAS are special needs students. The new intervention model proposed by the curriculum committee should help, since the students will not have to go through a lengthy process to get extra help as soon as it is needed. Students who are released from SPED, are no longer tracked by the department, which led to some concerns about whether these students have enough of a safety net once they are returned to the mainstream. By February, the department should have enough data to evaluate progress made with new staff and tracking of students.
The LHS revised handbook was submitted for review to the committee with members having a week to propose changes. The attendance and tardiness policies have been tightened up so that each incident must have a parent note. (I didn't quite follow what the new rules are, so I'll have to wait and see what the handbook says. There are definitely some consequences for missing more than 5 days, but I wasn't sure if that counted documented and undocumented absences and whether or not it was for the quarter or the semester).
Dr. Baehr noted that the increased Ch. 70 funds to Lowell were partly a result of allocating more per pupil dollars to ELL and low-income students and partly a result of uncapping the inflation rate that had been held to an artificially low percentage in previous calculations. She also remarked upon the Shannon Community Safety grant that the city of Lowell received of $900,000, with $300,000 of that going to the schools. $94,000 of the school portion is going to the Adult Ed Alternate Diploma program.
Dr. Baehr also gave statistics on teacher attendance, noting that the trend over a 4 year period has been a decrease in short-term absences from 4% to 3% (which comes to about 5.4 days). It was asked whether or not we can compare this to other cities, but not all districts make this information as available as Lowell does, by putting it on the district report card.
John Leahy asked that the district homework policy be reviewed to make sure that there is consistency across all schools with a special concern for children transitioning from elementary to middle and from middle school to high school. He also made a motion to ask that the city council restore the $330,000 that was cut during budget deliberations, this in light of the fact that the State provided the higher number out of the range of expected Ch. 70 funding (recall that the House had only appropriated an $800,000 increase for Lowell, while the Senate number, which prevailed, had an increase of $3.2 million). Mayor Martin did not support the measure because the $330,000 was equal to what was cut from the city budget and because if the Senate number had not come through, the City would have had to make up any shortfall on the schoolside, which he would have supported. The rest of the committee voted to support the motion. Leahy also motioned to review the position of Housemaster at LHS to make sure that it is in line with the school's mission statement. He also wanted a review of discipline policies at the high school. Jackie Doherty added it is important to review the role of the housemaster and how they fit in with the new academies that have been added and that this issue was mentioned by the reaccreditation team. Regina Faticanti suggested that the motion be amended to include a joint meeting of the high school and the discipline sub-committees. Leahy motioned that the policies and procedures in place for showing movies at school be reviewed and that all movies be approved by school principals.
Regina Faticanti made a motion that policies be created that would (1) prevent any student who was arrested on school grounds from participating in any school activities (including graduation), (2) that the school committee be informed of any student arrest on school grounds and (3) that student age be limited to 22 years old. The motion was passed to create such policies that will then be voted on. (Isn't there a law already in place that determines up to what age children must be accepted and educated by public schools?)
Kevin McHugh reported on the School Building sub-committee that a project manager has been hired for the two new schools that are to be built.
Connie Martin reported that the curriculum sub-committee voted to go forward with planned interventions for students who are reading below grade level; these will consist of daily 30 minute sessions to help bring these students catch up. (Who will provide these services? Are tutors being hired?) She also noted that a discussion was held about whether or not each school should have a reading teacher, but added that each principal was given the leeway during the budget "trade-offs" to make those decisions at the school level and that it wouldn't be right to override the principal's recommendations. She also added that the new Scott Foresman reading program which will be used in every school (except the Washington which is having success with its current program) will allow for more detailed tracking of student achievement. Each school will have the flexibility to add tutors and reallocate internal resources as needed, but there is not likely to be more funds for adding reading teachers during the year. Finally, there was a motion to adopt the new Wellness Policy as submitted, which will require that all food services during the school day adhere to the Stalker Institute nutritional guidelines (this will not affect PTO or Sports events).
Connie Martin also reported that the Personnel Sub Committee had refined the evaluation process for the superintendent, keeping 7 Priority Goals and using a 5 point scale rather than a 3 point scale.
Jackie Doherty reported that the Special Ed sub committee had received data that 1/3 of IEPs were not filed within the required 45 days last year. Per the Director of SPED, there were not enough psychologists; the increased funding to the department should relieve this problem. They will also begin to track the number of reevaluations of students done before the required 3 year timeframe and try to address the issue of more time spent on testing than on student services. The data shows that more than 50% of students receiving Failing/Warning scores on MCAS are special needs students. The new intervention model proposed by the curriculum committee should help, since the students will not have to go through a lengthy process to get extra help as soon as it is needed. Students who are released from SPED, are no longer tracked by the department, which led to some concerns about whether these students have enough of a safety net once they are returned to the mainstream. By February, the department should have enough data to evaluate progress made with new staff and tracking of students.
The LHS revised handbook was submitted for review to the committee with members having a week to propose changes. The attendance and tardiness policies have been tightened up so that each incident must have a parent note. (I didn't quite follow what the new rules are, so I'll have to wait and see what the handbook says. There are definitely some consequences for missing more than 5 days, but I wasn't sure if that counted documented and undocumented absences and whether or not it was for the quarter or the semester).
Dr. Baehr noted that the increased Ch. 70 funds to Lowell were partly a result of allocating more per pupil dollars to ELL and low-income students and partly a result of uncapping the inflation rate that had been held to an artificially low percentage in previous calculations. She also remarked upon the Shannon Community Safety grant that the city of Lowell received of $900,000, with $300,000 of that going to the schools. $94,000 of the school portion is going to the Adult Ed Alternate Diploma program.
Dr. Baehr also gave statistics on teacher attendance, noting that the trend over a 4 year period has been a decrease in short-term absences from 4% to 3% (which comes to about 5.4 days). It was asked whether or not we can compare this to other cities, but not all districts make this information as available as Lowell does, by putting it on the district report card.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home