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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-01-11 School Committee MinutesA N OFF? 03 Town of Reading .� Meeting Minutes a 639.INcBRp� Board - Committee - Commission - Council: School Committee Date: 2018-01-11 Building: School - Memorial High Address: 82 Oakland Road Purpose: Open Session Attendees: Members - Present: TOWN CLERK READING, NIA. 2818 FEB 12 PM 4:-15 Time: 7:00 PM Location: Superintendent Conference Room Session: Open Session Version: Final Chuck Robinson, Sherri Vanden Akker, Nick Boivin, Jeanne Borawski, Linda Snow Dockser, and Elaine Webb Members - Not Present: Student Representatives Cutone & Coumounduros Others Present: Superintendent John Doherty, Director of Finance Gail Dowd, Assistant Superintendent Craig Martin, Director of Student Services Carolyn Wilson, RPS Administrators Sarah Leveque, Joanne King, Sarah Marchant, Ricki Shankland, Brienne Karow, LisaMarie Ippolito, Heather Leonard, Adam Bakr, RPS Budget Liaisons, Selectmen Barry Berman, John Arena & Andy Friedmann, Fincom members Mark Dockser, Peter Lydecker, Paula Perry and Vanessa Alvardo, Al Sylvia - Reading Chronicle, Bob Holmes - Patch Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Linda Engelson on behalf of the Chair Topics of Discussion: I. Call to Order Chair Robinson called the School Committee to order at 7:07 p.m. and reviewed the agenda. Chair Robinson opened the public hearing on the FY2019 budget. RTA president Eric Goldstein spoke on behalf of the teachers on the devastating impact the proposed cuts will have on the students of the Reading Public Schools. He encouraged the community to support the override. Birch Meadow teacher Heidi Murray followed up echoing the previous speaker's sentiments and described how it is harder and harder to teach with the budget cuts and lack of planning time. Parker ELA teacher Julie Merrill spoke on the impact the reduction of the ELA instructional block will adversely affect the students. The reduction of 7 teachers will reduce the opportunities for supportive adult interactions and the ability for teachers to connect with students. She feels three goals of the District Improvement Plan are Page 1 1 in jeopardy because of the proposed cuts in this budget. She urged the community to come together and support the override on the behalf of our students. Casey Vieira, 8th grader at Parker spoke in favor of keeping the foreign language program explaining what a positive impact being able to take a foreign language in middle school has had on her. Parker grade 8 students Smirtha and Sarah also spoke about the impact the ability to take foreign language in middle school has had on them. They both felt it is important for middle school students to have the opportunity to take a foreign language. They have had opportunities that younger students will not have until high school. RMHS Director of Guidance Lynna Williams spoke as both a parent and an educator asking the community to support our schools. She shared the impact of past cuts at the high school with increased class sizes, fewer classes, and longer turnaround from teachers returning work. Our kids are being negatively impacted in all academic areas. treading needs to stay competitive with neighboring communities. The high school staff will feel the effect of these cuts as the younger student come from the elementary and middle school levels. She feels there will be an increase in special educational services due to the reduced resources because students are not getting the supports at the elementary and middle school levels. School is not just about tests and papers, quizzes, and projects, it is a place to develop relationships, learn to make healthy choices and learn from your mistakes. Teachers will have less time to connect with students because of higher class sizes. She asked the community to step up and financially support the schools. RMHS Social Studies teacher Jeff Ryan next spoke and wanted to focus on a aspect that would be negatively impacted by the proposed cuts. He spoke of college recommendations for the seniors. This activity is not contractual but teachers write them because they love the students and want to help them out. With higher class sizes, time to write these recommendations for seniors will become limited. This will have an adverse effect on college acceptances and the quality of the schools our students get in. He implored the community to do what it takes to support the schools. Parker ELA teacher Andrew Spinali spoke about the loss of the double ELA block. The ramifications of this cut will be felt right up to the high school. The double block at the 6th grade level allows for pacing of curriculum and the ability to revisit concepts in which students are struggling. 6th grade students come into middle school with limited skills in inferencing, identifying main idea and theme and developing plot needed for writing. These skills are developed at grade 6. With the loss of the double block there will be a loss of direct teaching time for these focus areas. This will result in more basic skills being taught at the higher middle school levels and slowing down of instruction/curriculum at the upper grades. Parker 7th grade Spanish teacher Leah Cristi spoke on behalf of her colleagues beginning by saying how disheartening it is to stand here again addressing the cut of middle school foreign language and implored the Town to do what is right for the public school students. Language based learning supports academic achievement. Students that study foreign language score higher on standardized tests and outperform students that do not study foreign language, especially in math. As stated Page 1 2 by other speakers the impact of this reduction will impact students at all levels. This reduction does not support the mission of the Reading Public Schools of instilling a joy of learning and inspiring the innovative leaders of tomorrow. She pointed out that our community will be the only one in our area not providing instruction in middle school foreign language. Students are being robbed of what they need most and will not be able to reach the AP level in high school. Reading is headed backwards and to an antiquated system, the time is now to act, this budget is unacceptable and our talented young students deserve better. Resident George Kachen likes Reading and supports the school system. He feels that it is important to receive instruction in more than the 3 "R's pointing out that creative thinking, collaboration and communication are important skills to develop to live and compete in this global society. He urges fellow senior citizens to tune in to hear the passionate speeches and the need to preserve property values and our schools. A Reading kindergarten parent shared that her family moved to Reading partly because of the school's reputation. She supports the override and does not want teachers to lose their jobs. She wants her children to have an opportunity to succeed with a diverse curriculum and educational opportunities. RMHS students Rebecca Carmo, Caroline Ray, Kelley Travis and Casey Waldman all spoke on behalf of Guidance Secretary Lynne Clark sharing how she has impacted their lives providing support and comfort to them. They also spoke about the effects the cuts will have on their peers at the high school. Parent Rebecca Liberman spoke on behalf of her children, in support of keeping the middle school foreign language positions and the impact the ability to take foreign language from middle to high school has impacted their live. She also supports keeping the foreign language program and the tutor positions. Mr. Arena called the Board of selectmen to order at 8:22 p.m. Selectman Andy Friedmann urged the School Committee to attend the .Selectmen's meeting on January 30th Budget Liaison and YES for Reading member Michele Sanphy urged attendance at the upcoming Financial Forum and Selectmen meetings. The community needs to have its voice heard as the Selectmen discuss the override number and ballot question for April 3rd Chair Robinson closed the public hearing at 8:30 p.m. and called a brief recess. The meeting was called back to order at 8:39 p.m. Il. Recommended Procedure A. Public Comment There was none. B. Consent A eg nda Page 1 3 Mrs. Webb asked if the committee wanted anything be removed from the consent agenda. There was none. Consent A eg nda - Approval of Coolidge Field Trip Mrs. Webb moved, seconded by Mrs. Borawski, to approve the consent agenda. The motion carried 6-0. C. New Business FY 19 Budget — Reconstruction Plan/Override Budget Cost Center Dr. Doherty began the presentation by commenting on the public hearing saying he was proud to lead this district after hearing from the teachers, parents and students and their impassioned pleas to save positions and programs. He reviewed the renewed vision for the school system which addresses challenges (providing first-class education & alignment with fiscal parameters of our community with a financial sustainable structure), difficult decisions (restructuring of existing expenditures to address new needs & keeping our goals streamlined and focused to yield maximum impact) and shifting from reactive to proactive in our approach. The Superintendent said that over the last five years the community has not been able to support a level service budget for the district and budget cuts have had to been made each of the years, resulting in a decrease in federal and state aid, increased costs in mandatory areas such as transportation and special education resulting in nearly $4 million dollars of reductions over the last 5 years, primarily in Regular Day. Moving forward we will need to create a new vision in which we must prioritize and restructure in a way that is both effective for our district's goals and more sustainable for our community. There are three areas to the plan which include: Teacher/Student Personnel; Learning and Teaching/Instructional Leadership and Support and Operations/Facilities/Athletics. Teacher/Student Personnel The majority of this funding request will be devoted to classroom teachers and personnel who directly support students, provide financial resources to retain and attract excellent educators and the restoration of several key positions. Funding would restore 6.0 FTE high school teachers, 7.0 FTE middle school teachers, 4.0 FTE elementary teachers, 1.0 FTE elementary tutor and salary adjustments for retaining/attracting staff. Instructional Leadership and Support Mr. Martin and Mrs. Wilson reviewed this area. Mr. Martin said that we are in an era of tremendous change in public education with 3 new curriculum frameworks, 3 different state assessments, more rigorous SAT, MCAS and AP exams, the increasing and more important role of technology and an increased emphasis on Page 1 4 social emotional learning. He continued by saying that during this time of change it will be necessary to reconstruct the structure so that we are more proactive, less reactive to reflect the demands of new educational standards and to effectively address the challenges our district has faced with successfully meeting the needs of all students — especially students with disabilities. Mrs. Wilson continued addressing areas of focus including the implementation of the MTSS for students, using the Walker Report to methodically and strategically improve special education in our school district, having consistency of common practices for both Special and Regular Education, collaboration and training for staff focused on these areas, effectively identifying students eligible for special education and appropriate services, a more comprehensive understanding of effective instructional practices and review our language based special education program and our literacy practices. It will be important to keep expenses as low as possible, some other administrative expenses and positions have been restructured and reallocated. Restructured positions include the RISE Preschool Director/Assistant Director of Special Education, the existing team chair positions will be restructured to create full time Assistant Principals/Team Chairs at each elementary school to better support staff and students. Two K-8 District Wide Curriculum Coordinators are proposed to address major challenges that our district has been facing with curriculum changes. Teacher training for curriculum/instructional shifts and technology replenishment and technical support for classrooms are also proposed in the reconstruction budget. Mrs. Dowd reviewed the reconstruction Plan in the areas of operations/facilities/athletics which include a need to improve recruitment, training, and induction practices to attract the best candidates possible for all positions, improving our district operation in all personnel related matters, restoring of cleaning to appropriately maintain RMHS, and reduce costs in future years and restore full game schedules for all levels in all sports. The addition of an Payroll/HR Generalist position, the restoration of the RMHS vacation cleaning and restoring the full athletic schedules. Dr. Doherty reviewed the list of items not included in this proposal. He said this is a 30,000 foot view and once the Board of Selectmen hold their deliberations on the direction the Town will be going he will come back to the Committee with more information. In conclusion, the Reconstruction Plan/Override Budget recognizes the need for fiscal stability, effectively addresses the challenges of our school system, revises current practices for existing positions, explores new partnerships with both business and higher education and serves the entire community and all its residents. He reviewed the summary of the funding amount ($2,495,000) included in this plan. D. Reports There were no reports. Old Business Page 1 5 III. Routine Matters a. Bills and Payroll (A) P1813 12.29.17 $1,555,799.54 P1814 1.12.18 $1,449,394.50 b. Calendar IV. Information/Correspondence V. Future Business VI. Adjournment Adjourn Mrs. Webb moved, seconded by Mr. Boivin, to adiourn. The motion carried 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 10.32 p.m. NOTE: The minutes reflect the order as stated in the posted meeting agenda not the order they occurred during the meeting. Page 1 6