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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-09-18 Cultural Council MinutesReading Cultural Council, September 18, 2002 Meeting r_1 CZ-1 Members Present - Allison DaSilva, Harold Bond, Judith Junker, Anne Hooker, Valerie Alagero, Karyn Storti nbers Absent - Anna Dixon - - Aspiring Member - Kathy Kelly Meeting called to order at 7:30 PM. s.r.a N X7 Reviewed June minutes. Made several changes to minutes which will be amended prior to next meeting. Officers were nominated, seconded and approved. They are as follows: Alilison DaSilva - Chair Anna Dixon - Co-Chair Anne Hooker - Treasurer Karyn Storti - Secretary Treasurers Report - Anne Hooker stated that the current balance is $5,100. This figure is for grants and Administrative costs. Our allocation this year was $3,760 which represents a 62% cut from last year. There are,2'outstanding bills to pay which Anne will take care of. Potential Associate Members - Allison is attempting to improve school involvement and has been having a dialogue With Dr. Harutunian to this end. Selectman Rick Shubert is the liaison from the Board of Selectmen to the Cultural Council. Grant Cycle for this year will be made easier by the availability of on-line paperwork submission, rni r1 >:~u v Cn 00 Representative Brad Jones would like to be included on the award announcements. Probably half the applicants this year won't meet our guidelines. Others we'll have to say no to due to the cuts. These are people who have qualified before and according to guidelines we can't use the "lack of Funds" excuse when we Deny their application. We need to come up with some other generic language At the next meeting, we'll have a 30 minute Q & A at outset for grant applicants. Allison will publicize. Meetings and Trainings Conflict of Interest - New members must attend (change our Oct. 2 meeting to Oct. 3 due to conflict of time) LCCC Training - Sept. 23 in Beverlly. Allison reserved 2 spots. She Anna and Val will likely attend. RCTV Organization Night - 9/26 Allison will present at TOOPM MCC Meeting - 2 spots reserved. Allison and another-memlie will attend. Wrap-Up Cultural Recognition Award - Pictures, articles, and thank you notes from Rita Galvin were perused. Last minute review of April Minutes -Allison, Harold and Judith voted to accept. Next meeting on Thursday, October 3 at 7:30 PM at the Police Station in the Training Room. Adjourned at 9:02 PM 'ectfully submitted. warm a 4Zmrt9 9/18/2002 Allison DaSilva Chair, Reading Cultural Council I support the process to renovate and improve the Reading Memorial High School facility. In this brief statement, I cannot address specific design issues, but in my opinion, there is clear need for appropriate building reconstruction that addresses the concerns of space, safety, health, and educational considerations, as well as community needs. My perspective on the RMHS renovation comes from the many different hats I wear: as Chairperson of the Reading Cultural Council (RCC); as a 6 year representative to the Reading Memorial High School Council; as a member of the Board of Directors of a non-profit independent film award organization; as an employee of the Reading Library; and as a parent, citizen and community member. The RCC guidelines require that cultural organizations have a venue in Reading to offer their programs to the community. The RCC is concerned that there must be versatile space in Reading for groups to use. I was introduced to the RCC when our film awards organization received a grant to bring the first film festival to Reading. The library meeting room did not provide appropriate space and there were limited alternatives. The film festival was held at the Parker Middle School auditorium. In addition, the RCC has helped fund author and artist visits, writing workshops, musical productions and art exhibits. Each requires a public, accessible place to meet. The RCC also held the first Cultural Recognition Award ceremony at the Parker School auditorium. That space is in high demand for community use. The need for premium meeting and community event space in Reading is evident. As a library employee, I can confirm that coordinating the schedule for town organizations that wish to reserve the two meeting rooms in the library is a demanding process. Meeting space at the library is so much in demand that library departments compete with each other to find room for library programs! Accessible, modern meeting, program or presentation rooms at the high school would be well used for school programs, town organizations and by community groups. And certainly not the least of the considerations, I believe we must offer a properly designed room in which the entire high school population, from 9`h-12th grades, can meet together. As a parent and a parent representative to the RMHS Council, I advocated for adequate space for school programs in any new high school design. Three years ago, my daughter was on the Committee for the Senior Day Program. She was upset that her younger brother, who was a Freshman, would not be able to attend the Senior Day Program because there was not enough room in the high school auditorium to. accommodate the entire school population. Finally, the pride of Reading and the RMHS are our award winning drama and band programs, yet the facility for theatre productions and concerts woefully inadequate. Thank you for the opportunity to express my support for inclusion of versatile meeting room space to serve the needs of the schools and the community groups in any redesign of the RMHS building. MISER Enrollment Forecasts The enrollment forecasts developed by the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research (MISER) at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst benefit from the latest capacities in forecasting. The Markov models used by MISER separate future states of student activity as moving to the next grade, migrating or dropping out of school. The individual components depend heavily on the prior grade attained by a student, economic conditions in the town of interest, and grade level of prior attainment. Most importantly, because of the innovative methodology, MISER is able to simulate the future conditions of a school as might be influenced by any of these conditions, migration, retention and standard progress among grades. MISER's work is always evaluated by checking to see how the methods will forecast a specific town looking one year ahead. It does this by taking historical data up to a year prior to current, forecasting the last historically known year and evaluating the errors that were made in such forecasts. This shows the different variation in actual outcomes from historical record. The result can be quite different depending on the community in question and reflect less on the methods used for forecasting and more on variation in actual results from year to year with regard to the three components. The error of forecast is largest in kindergarten, but excluding these errors that depend most on utilization of kindergarten classes versus other pre-school programs in the community, the mean absolute error is 1.47% versus 2.15% if kindergarten is included in the evaluation. These are reasonable errors compared to errors that might be made in other school systems. Migration is calculated as the shift in numbers of students enrolled in school in grades 3 through 6 in any given year compared to the numbers enrolled in grades 2 to 5 in the prior year. These grades are picked because they are less susceptible to the higher drop- out rates in higher grades and the potential shifting from one school system to another (private, parochial for example to public) that often occurs between elementary and middle schools or between middle school and high school. Once calculated, the retention of students in the system is calculated as the difference between the progression rate, the movement of students from one grade level to another and the migration rate. This appropriately reflects that the only two things that in fact can influence movement among grade levels is whether students stay in the area (migration) or stay in the public schools of the area (progression). The model can be run with or without shifts in migration, or retention in the public school system. If it is, it is tantamount to suggesting that progression rates among grades are held at a constant. However, importantly, the model can develop forecasts that differ by rate of migration and since migration rates for school attending children from the region are calculated for each year in the historical period for which actual enrolment data are available, the model can then be run as simulations of holding migration constant at its historical average or at 1 standard deviation above its mean and 1 standard deviation below its mean. This attempts to consolidate all of the range of future possible experience most common to 69% Of the historical experience, throwing out only those years of migration when the rates were at their very highest or lowest. Births are forecasted as the logical extension of the historical past, making the future path of births reflect the average growth of births previously occurring within the region to suggest that growth will continue as historically observed.