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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-02-26 Coolidge School Council MinutesASS. Coolidge Middle School Thursday, February 26 h at T OOPM : ~ 09 ~ w School Council Minutes Attendance: Diane Blume, John Carpenter, Larry Chomsky, John Doherty, MaryAnn Kozlowski, Marge Pacino, Marie Pink. Also in attendance for the first half of the meeting were Russ Graham and approximately 18 parents and/or community members who support the Coolidge building project. The first meeting was called to order at 7:05PM. (This first meeting was attended by both parents and community members and the school council.) The purpose of this meeting: John Doherty began by stating that the pupose for the meeting was to reach out to parents and community members to support the Coolidge building project. John had invited all of the above who could attend so that he may address any concerns or confusion that there may be having to do with the building project. Those in attendance were asked to call Town Meeting members and ask for their support and their vote at the Town Meeting on Monday, March So. The following concerns, confusions, recommendations and issues were brought forth. Russ Graham explained that there was some confusion and concern about the enrollment issue, the elementary expansion, and the quick time table of the Coolidge building project. The following statements were made by Russ Graham. • There has been a lot going on all at once and there is concern that the Town Meeting members may be very confused as to which of the items above is the number one priority. • Dr. Harry Harutunian believes that the School committee will endorse the School building project at their next meeting on March e. • The Finance Committee is to meet on March 5 h. • A series of letters are going out to Town Meeting members in order to get them prepared for the March 9'h vote. John Dohery gave the following plan or outline for the parents and community members to follow in order to gain the most support for the Coolidge building project. • Important to attend the March 4t' meeting. • Parents should write letters to the Editor of the Chronicle in support of the building project. • Town Meeting members are being personally invited for an Open House on Saturday, March 7r''. Ouestions raised and answers given as well as suggestions to be stated: • How long will the building project solve the problem for? SBAB says the school structure will laast 50 years. The enrollment projections are good for ten years. • Educationally the Coolidge school would be able to do the same programs as Parker school if the building project is supported, if it is not, we can not run the same programs as the other middle school. • The Coolidge Project was started long before the elementary project the elementary enrollment issues came up as a result of the NASDAQ numbers that were determined for Coolidge. • Going through with the Coolidge Project is not going to stop elementary expansion. • When talking with Town Meeting members on the telephone and asking for their support, DO NOT BE COFRONTATIONAL! • The elementary schools are in the Capital Plan for 7 million dollars. • The Letter to the Editor about moving the 8u' grade to the high school is not a valid argument and Dr. Harutunian met with the letter's author and convinced him/her of this. • The high school feasibility study showed that RMHS has plenty of space and is structurally sound. The town will have to come up with 30 million dollars to re-do the high school. This is NOT in the Capital plan and it will go in to override. This override could be as much as $2000 per household. • In the last 10? Years, the town of Reading has seen a new Dept. of Public Works, a new Town Hall, a new Library, a new Middle School, a new Fire Station and now most likely a new Police Station and there has not been an override. • The METCO program is not large enough at the Middle School level to make a difference in enrollment. Time Frame of proposed Coolidge building project: • The architect has an aggressive time table that the superintendent wants to slow down... it is said to be completed by Dec of 1999. A better estimate would be June of 2000. The start of the project would begin perhaps in October of 98. • Half of the Town Meeting members will vote for and the other half against spending money on schools no matter what they are told, but there does exist some members who are in the middle, and we need to reach this percentage. • The Police Department building project is article #1 at the March 9t' meeting, the Coolidge building project is article #6. • It is important that Town Meeting members stay late enough to vote for the Coolidge project and/or come the second night if there is no time remaining the first night. The parents and community members divided up the phone numbers of all of the Town Meeting members and were told to call and ask for their support and vote on March 9''. Regular School Council Meeting Meeting called to order at 8:40PM. Minutes were accepted from the February IO h meeting. _Restructuring committee report: John reviewed the report highlighting that the 6"' grade team had the most positive results. The 6t' grade staff has supported whole grade teams and heterogeneous groups. They have also enjoyed working with block scheduling. The teachers have been able to go into material in more depth and yet cover slightly less material overall. • The same positive results were noted by ?a' grade teachers. • Teams want SSR back, but the State says that SSR is not active learning. • John feels that getting rid of SSR has benefited because teams have more academic time. The academic period enable a team to decide what group will go where and what they will do. School Improvement Plan: The council talked about waiting to make changes to the School Improvement Plan until after finding out if the Coolidge building project was to take place. • The council agreed that there was a need to assess what has been accomplished in the SIP and what has yet to be done. • There is a need to tighten up "action tasks" in the S.I.P. School Improvement Plan and The Blue Ribbon Application: Connections were made between the failure to receive the Blue Ribbon award and ways in which to tighten up the S.I.P. • Coolidge is not a true middle school because it is lacking a common theme, interdisciplinary lessons, team leaders etc.. The lack of team leaders has been a major problem this year. John has had no support group with the absence of Department Heads. The model of rotating team leaders makes it very difficult for him to communicate and dialogue with one group of people and then to infiltrate ideas throughout the building is even more difficult. With 5 Team Leaders in the building, John can set themes and help with interdisciplinary ideas. • Leaders are needed to implement Middle School concepts. • There is concern about assigning Team Leaders because of the possibility of grievances during a contract negotiation year. • The suggestion was made to provide teachers with Professional Development on Team Leaders and interdisciplinary units. • There is a concern that if the building project goes through, the faculty may have the attitude that they might as well wait to implement more changes and Middle School concepts. • At the next meeting we plan to tighten up the SIP by being more specific on restructuring. The next School Council meeting will be March 10'' at 7:30PM. Meeting adjourned at 9:40PM.