Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-05-21 School Committee Minutes N CLED CLERK READING SCHOOL COMMITTEE HiADiNG, MASS. Reading, Massachusetts 2001 JUN 14 A 11: 2l Regular Session Mav 21 2001 CALL TO ORDER Vice Chair Dahl called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Present were School Committee Members Dahl, Griset, Keigley, Russo and Twomey. Also present were Superintendent Hanutunian, Associate Superintendent Richards and Town Manager Hechenbleikner. EXECUTIVE SESSION Mr. Griset move to enter into executive session for the purpose of conducting strategy sessions In Preparation for negotiations with the Teachers' Association, Custodians and Maintenance Workers, Cafeteria Employees Association of Secretaries and Clerks Educational Assistants Nurses and to discuss the possible lease of real estate with Verizon and to discuss pending litigation to return to regular session at approximately 7.30 p.m. Mr. Russo seconded the motion The vote was 5-0 Mr. Dahl,Mr. Griset Mr. Keigley, Mr. Russo and Mr. Twomey CALL BACK TO ORDER At 7:40 p.m. Vice Chair Dahl called the meting back to order. Committee Members Dahl, Griset, Keigley, Russo and Twomey were present. Also present were Superintendent Harotunian, Associate Superintendent Richards and Board of Selectmen Liaison Mr. Cummings. Vice Chair Dahl stated that Chair Cavicchi was not able to attend this evening's meeting due to a death in her family. - PRESENTATION OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE CHAIR Vice Chair Dahl presented Dr. D'Antona with a School Committee chair in appreciation for her years of dedicated service with the Reading School Committee. Dr. D'Antona stated that it was an honor and pleasure to have served on the School Committee. She stated that her nine years on the Committee had been a wonderful learning experience. The members of the School Committee and Superintendent Harmunian thanked Dr. D'Antona for her service and her dedication to the children of Reading. They stated that Dr. D'Antona's entire career has been dedicated to children and having been able to serve with Dr. D'Antona has been a pleasure for them. Regular Session 2 May 21 2001 INTRODUCTION OF STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Dr. Harutunian introduced new student representative Laura Hardin. SUPERINTENDENT/LIAISON REPORT Vice Chair Dahl stated that the Coolidge Middle School Science Olympiad Team competed in the national competition last weekend and placed 7th in the country. BILLS PAYROLL There are no bills and payroll. CITIZENS INPUT There was no citizen input. CURRICULUM PRESENTATION (OUT OF ORDER) Mr. Richards stated that the Curriculum Leadership was here this evening to give a curriculum update to the Committee. English Language Arts Ms. patella, Ms. Barnes, Ms. DiNapoli and Ms. Kwiatek updated the Committee on the English Language Arts Curriculum K-5 and asked for questions from the Committee. Mr. Russo stated that over the last 10 years there has been controversy regarding whole language versus phonics. He asked Ms. Banios to describe the new curriculum. Ms. Banios stated that the curriculum is a balanced approach to literacy and included decoding, comprehension and syntax. Mr. Russo asked if the program meets the Massachusetts Frameworks. Ms. Banios advised that program does meet the frameworks. Regular Session 3 May 21,2001 Mr. Twomey asked the English Language Arts Committee when they look back at last year is there anything that they thought would have been implemented that has not. Ms. Banios stated that implementation is on track and the English Language Arts Committee feels good about where they are. Vice Chair Dahl asked how integrated units are determined. Ms. Banjos stated that she works with instructional specialists in social studies and science and they come up with an agreed upon integrated piece. Mr. Twomey asked Ms. Barrios to define how differentiated learning is provided with this program. Ms. Banjos stated that although there is a common text for all children there is also a second level to the program and children are looked at on a more individual basis. Mr. Scarpitto, Mr. Howland, Mr. Doherty and Mr. Hart updated the Committee on 6-12 English Language Arts and asked for questions from the Committee. Mr. Russo asked how much the curriculum has had to change in the last few years to address the MCAS issue. Mr. Howland stated that one focus has been on writing across curriculum to assist students with responses to open-ended WAS questions. Mr. Howland stated that he admires the way Reading has said the MCAS are an important component in education but will not narrow their teaching and teach only to the MCAS test. Mr. Twomey stated that he is pleased with the curriculum team that has been put together for English Language Arts and is pleased with the objectives they articulated this evening. Dr. Harutunian stated that the MCAS is only one benchmark and ERB's and Stanford tests are other indicators used by the district. Foreign Language Mr. DiSanzo updated the Committee on the Foreign Language Curriculum and asked for questions from the Committee. Mr. Griset asked the breakdown of students between French and Spanish. Mr. DiSanzo stated that approximately three times more students take Spanish than French. Regular Session 4 May 21 2001 Mr. Russo asked for the total number of students taking French or Spanish. Mr. DiSanzo stated that approximately 200 students take French, 500 students take Spanish and 160 take Latin. Social Studies Ms. Callan, Mr. Huston, Mr. Finigan and Mr. Darrin updated the Committee on the curriculum and asked for questions from the Committee. Mr. Griset asked how many students are taking the AP history course. Mr. Darrin stated that there are approximately 22 students enrolled this year and it is estimated that 17 students will be enrolled next year. Mathematics Mr. Guerrette, Mr. Finigan, Mr. Moscariello, Ms. Redford, Ms. Macari and Mr. Orlando updated the Committee on the mathematics curriculum and asked for questions from the Committee. Mr. Dahl stated that this group of tenth grade students are the first group who wilt need to pass the MCAS test as a requirement of graduation. He asked if the DOE would be providing scores back to our students in any manner that will allow us time to assist students in passing the test. Mr. Orlando stated that there is an MCAS remediation course at RMEiS and he is working with local colleges to create a plan where students could leave RMHS and take courses at a local college until they are proficient and then matriculate. Mr. Russo stated that there is sufficient data on both sides of the Chicago Math issue indicating one way is better than the other. He stated that he pledged in his campaign to support only tried and true curriculum. He asked how the curriculum is using the best of the new math and the best of the old math and how they are blended. Mr. Guerrette stated that the state curriculum frameworks is the guide used. He stated that the tools used by the district to provide curriculum that match the frameworks are evaluated. He stated that we want children to be proficient in mental calculations and to be able to use technology. He stated that there needs to be a balanced approach. Mr. Russo asked what the results of the Stanford 9 tests have been. 4 Regular Session 5 May 21 2001 Dr. Harutunian advised that the Stanford 9 testing has been moved to the 61h grade in an effort to evaluate students who have been taught using Chicago Math K-5. He stated that the 6°i grade continues to do extremely well and that the Stanford test is based on national norms. He stated that Chicago math has been here 8 years and if funds were available we would probably be doing a comprehensive review but funds are not available. He stated that Reading's MCAS scores for math and science continue to be high while Reading's English language arts scores continue to be just above stated average and given limited resources available the money needs to go to the language arts curriculum. Mr. Griset stated that looking at the MCAS scores it appears that Reading is weakest in English language arts and that curriculum needs to be updated. Mr. Keigley stated that he has been impressed with this evening's presentations and is concerned that Reading's curriculum continue to move forward and not be allowed to fall behind. Dv Harutunian stated that like a capital plan there needs to be a renewal cycle for curriculum. Mr. Russo asked if any of the 10'x' grade students taking the WAS test have been exposed to Chicago math. Dr. Harutunian advised that the students in the 10" grade did not have Chicago Math. Science Ms. O'Brien, Mr. Doherty, Ms. Galvin, Ms. Harney and Mr. Davidson updated Committee and asked for questions from the Committee. Mr. Twomey stated that there is something special with Readi a 's science program when the Science Olympiad Team does so well each year and when 9' grade RMHS students do so well in the science fair when they are up against students 9-12 at other districts and other districts have special funding for the program.. Mr. Russo stated that only 8% of the 10th grade MCAS scores are in the top category. He asked how such great results are achieved yet not as many students are in the advanced category. Ms. Galvin stated that this year there were no 10`h grade science MCAS tests and the science frameworks are changing. She stated that we would follow the state's lead when the frameworks are completed. Regular Session 6 May 21 2001 Mr. Griset stated that on the advance category for the science WAS we are further above state average, as a percentage, than we are in math or English language arts. Mr. Twomey stated that looking at our MCAS results we can see that our weakness is in English language arts. He stated that we have a challenge to improve in this subject area and maintain in the other subject areas. Ms. Galvin stated that with increased enrollment next year we will need books and may have problems with lab space. Mr. Keigley stated that education is never stagnant and we must keep investing in order to keep our curriculum up to date. Mr. Griset thanked all of the staff for the presentation and he thanked Superintendent Harutunian and Associate Superintendent Richards for coordinating the presentation. Superintendent Harutunian and Associate Superintendent Richards thanked all staff members for their time and dedication. Vice Chair Dahl advised that the Committee would take a short recess. At 11:02 p.m. Vice Chair Dahl called the meeting back to order. MINUTES (out of order) Minutes (out of order) Mr.Twomey moved to approve the minutes of May 7 2001 Mr. Keieley seconded the motion. The vote was 4-0-1 Mr. Dahl, Mr. Griset Mr. Kei ley and Mr. Russo voted yes Mr. Twomey abstained SCHOOL CHOICE Dr. Harutunian stated that, as in past years, he would be recommending that Reading not participate in school choice because of enrollment issues. Vice Chair Dahl opened the meeting to a public hearing on School Choice. Ms. Phillips asked if school choice also included METCO. Dr. Harutunian advised that METCO was a separate program. School Choice allowed students from any town to request to attend Reading Schools. Regular Session 7 May 21 2001 Vice Chair Dahl asked if special education students could apply under school choice. Dr. Harutunian advised that they could and districts cannot discriminate on how they select students. He stated that most districts select via a lottery system. Vice Chair Dahl asked for any further public comment and none being heard the hearing was closed. Mr. Russo moved pursuant to the provisions of GL c76 & 12B the School Committee of Reading, following public hearing hereby withdraw from its obligation to enroll non-resident students in the Reading Public Schools during the Julv 1,2001 school year for the following reasons: Programmatic Reasons, Class Sizes and General District Enrollment. Mr. Twomev seconded the motion 5-0 Mr. Dahl, Mr. Griset, Mr. Keigley,Mr. Russo and Mr. Twomey. SUPERINTENDENT"S REPORT OUT OF ORDER Mr. Griset stated that he had received a letter from Ms. Phillips over the weekend regarding two School Committee meetings held in January. He stated that Ms. Phillips took exception to what was said at the meeting and that he wanted to respond to Ms. Phillips. He stated that he hoped Ms. Phillips would agree that at some point in the life of a meeting and a discussion of a particular topic that the discussion must end and the meeting must move forward. He stated that both he and the Chair of the meeting felt that the meeting should be moved forward. He stated that he was sorry if Ms. Phillips took exception to his response at that meeting but hoped that in the future, if she had an issue or felt that her question was not answered that she would either call the Superintendent or him the next day to discuss the problem and not wait five months to have the issue addressed. Ms. Phillips thanked Mr. Griset for his response. Mr. Griset stated that he, Mr. Keigley and Mr. Russo attended a meeting on Saturday at MASC. He stated that the meeting was very informative and a wonderful guide. Dr. Harutunian responded to a letter to Vice Chair Dahl from Ms. Phillips. He stated that Ms. Phillips stated in the letter that the Superintendent solicited principals for PTO parents to have special private budget meetings in addition to the School Committee meetings_ Dr. Harmunian stated that there were absolutely no private budget meetings. He stated that there over 250 budgets are sent to members of the community and that there is one training session for budget parents so they are familiar with the budget process. He stated that he informed the School Committee publicly that he would be meeting with the budget parents, as there is each year. Dr. Hanitunian stated that Ms. Phillips also stated in her letter that she was told she would have to pay for a budget. Regular Session 8 May 21 2001 Dr. Harutunian stated that he had investigated the matter with his secretary and that he was informed that Ms. Phillips came in and requested a copy of the budget. Budgets at that time were still being copied and the extra copies were not yet ready. He stated that he was not in the office at the time and when Ms. Phillips asked if she would have to pay for a copy of the budget she was told that my secretary would check and get back to her. Ms. Phillips asked why there was no mention of the budget training meeting in the PTO minutes. Dr. Harutunian advised that he did not have control over the PTO minutes. Ms. Phillips stated that the date and time of the budget training meeting was never given publicly at the School Committee meeting. Dr. Harutunian advised that if she needed more information regarding the meeting she could have called him and he would have been happy to provide her with the necessary information. Dr. Harutunian discussed the reimbursement to the Town of Milton for the building of schools. Dr. Harutunian asked the Committee to check June 18°i as an available date for the School Committee's reorganization meeting. ADJOURN At 11:12 p.m. Mr. Twomey moved to adjourn from regular session and reconvene into executive session for the reasons previously stated. Mr. Griset seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 Mr. Dahl, Mr. Griset, Mr. Keigley, Mr. Russo and Mr. Twomey. Respectfully submitted, K Harry K. Harutunian, Ph.D. Superintendent of Schools 4