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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-02-10 Coolidge School Council MinutesQ:.. Coolidge Middle School School Council Minutes February 10, 1998 P 4: s Attendance: Diane Blume, John Carpenter, Larry Chomsky, Jbli6 Volh rty, MaryAnn Kozlowski, Marge Pacino, Marie Pink Meeting called to order at 7:37. Minutes of last meeting approved after adding Marie Pink to the list of those attending. Lou Adreani Update: As the weeks pass improvement has been seen. Lou will be starting radiation and chemotherapy this week. Building Project Update: Review of packet which was handed out 2/ 1 /98. • when presented with the million dollars worth of cuts list, which they requested, the building committee decided that none of the cuts were viable • the capital plan the was rebalanced and approved last night by the school committee and made the cuts unnecessary • Plan A is the plan being considered since it causes the least amount of disruption and is the most cost effective • proposed schedule for this plan would occur in three stages ...stage 1 would involve all the new building that will occur ...stage 2 would be the renovation of a delineated part of the current building... stage 3 would be the renovation of the remainder of the building • during the building process we would always have the same amount of space for the school to operate out of and there would be no disruption or interruption of services • at last Thursdays meeting (school committee and school building committee) Russ Graham voiced his support for the Coolidge Building Project ...the school committee directed him to put the project on the warrant (although they do not yet support it because they are waiting for the enrollment committee report which will be presented tomorrow night) • school council members expressed concern that a shoe horn approach to the building project would limit the schools flexibility • brief discussion on how charter school decision will affect Coolidge building project ...it was brought to the council's attention that the individuals who are proposing the charter school will not be running it that it will be run by a management company-the charter school has used the high school space in the application as their location ...if the charter school gets approval the list of student who will attend must be made available to the superintendent by April 1...state will make its decision on February 28...many letters against the charter school have been sent to the state (four school council members sent letters) town meeting members need to be there on March 9 to support this project ...it appears that the only school council member that is also a town meeting member is John Carpenter as a school council we need to bring the parents together to discuss a phone campaign to call all town meeting members prior to the 9th to get their support example types of issues town meeting members need to be aware of are: science lab in Ed technology room ...major program upheavals, junior high program vs. middle school program...what will need to be done at Coolidge out of necessity if the building project falls through Brief discussion of handout detailing program changes at Coolidge which have decreased its' capacity... John D. brought up the point that it has been documented that teachers who move about a building to instruct are 20% less effective than those who remain in one place... additional handout generated in October displaying Ensmingers Projections vs. NESDEC for enrollment PY 99 Budget Update • approved by school committee • cuts probably to be in the area of 1/2-1 million dollars Analysis of Handout of Sixth Grade Math Heterogeneous Grouping • grades have improved when compared to first quarter • the content has remained the same although they are about a week behind in the book due to block scheduling • next year two levels of math will be kept for the seventh grade (not going to heterogeneous grouping in grade seven or eight) • this is the first year in five years that the D's and F's have gone down in second quarter Discussion of Blue Ribbon School Application • we were passed on from the state to the national level for consideration, the response we received came from the national level • John thinks that the fact that we are not yet a true middle school contributed to our not being considered for a site visit • we do not have enough teaching across the disciplines occurring at Coolidge, although it has improved • we can now use this report as an assessment tool... what comments from the report should we include in our school improvement plan • curriculum and instruction seems to be the area where the report pointed to inadequacies • all agreed that it was a good learning, experience and we will apply again in the future for consideration Textbook Choices the group looking at math textbooks has seen several presentations, they have one additional scheduled and hope to make a decision on February 25...the money to purchase these texts is available the group considering science texts is still hanging, they are going on a site visit to see the FAST Program on March 5 and will hopefully make a decision School Improvement Plan • we need to consider "are we doing too much?" or "are we not doing enough?" • we need to develop an assessment tool for our school improvement plan • John presented us with two drafts derived from the PALMS Leadership Committee to help us develop our own assessment tool • brief discussion on possibilities to include this year ...loss of department heads will affect social studies and science because we have moved away from having a person with content directed knowledge... inconsistency within the building among teams is seen to be a big problem Meetings scheduled February 24 meeting rescheduled, prior to distribution of minutes, to February 26 {Thursday} 7:00 Tentative meeting scheduled for March 10 at 7:30 Coolidge Highlights March 19 (Thursday} John Carpenter presented handouts for the council to consider Meeting Adjourned at 9:45