2012-02-27 School Committee Minutes

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February 27, 2012 2. Liaison 3. Director of Student Services Ms. Elmer reminded the Committee of the upcoming Parent Workshop series beginning March 7`h at Coolidge. 4. Superintendent Dr. Doherty updated the School Committee on the RMHS Principal search. He handed out a compilation of qualities that had been gathered as a result of meetings held with several groups. He went on to review the timeline. The Screening Committee has its first meeting on Tuesday. Dr. Doherty also cautioned the Committee that there are 3 communities in the area that are also conducting searches for high school principals. Dr. Doherty reviewed the projected 2012 -13 elementary enrollment. He shared that the kindergarten placement letters had gone out. He feels that we have been able to balance the kindergarten class sizes across the district. Dr. Doherty also said that the middle school letters had been sent out. This year twenty -nine requests were received. In an effort to balance class sizes the administration allowed the transfer of siblings only. Dr. Doherty pointed out that the board has been given a copy of the School Committee Approved budget that was sent to the Town Manager. This is also the budget that will be presented to the Finance Committee. The Taste of Metro North takes place Wednesday evening. Twenty -two restaurants will be participating. There will be student performances by Reading and North Reading High Schools. Proceeds will benefit the Reading Education Foundation. B. Continued Business Elementary Report Card Update Mrs. de Garavilla provided an Elementary Report Card update after the first marking period. She explained the differences between a standards based report card and a traditional report card. The standards based report card provides consistency, clear information to parents on students' progress over time regarding proficiency, elements of learning for each subject and student awareness of their own learning and strengths and weaknesses. She went on to review the feedback received from parents. Most parents felt the standards were clearly written and understood the grading system. Assistant Superintendent de Garavilla reviewed the feedback from the teacher survey. Teachers would like to see agreement on definition of "progressing" vs. "mastery" across grade level and schools. Specialist would like to have rubrics for their areas and have continued discussion on how to support all students to reach mastery. Continued areas of focus include student motivation, communication, student support and report card refinement. Student motivation should emphasize the importance of effort and quality in level of work, clarity of expectations through rubrics, intrinsic motivation as a factor for ongoing leaming, not just for report card and continue to challenge students and support those students