HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-11-19 Coolidge School Council MinutesA. W. Coolidge Middle School
School CouncilNoes
November 19,199G
st. -4 3 a
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. in the Coolidge Media Center by.Marge
Pacino.
Present: John Carpenter, Marge Pacino, Marie Pink,_ Renee Sbaschnig,, Roy Welsch, and John
Doherty
Documents Distributed: None
Previous Minutes Approved: October 8/October 29 minutes approved as submitted after the
following discussion.
Question was asked if the Chicago math questions clarified? Elementary school curriculum will
be directing our focus. The math study group is directing what we do but they have not made any
decisions. The money has been place marked but this issue is still hanging. We do not have a
choice but to go with the math study group's.direction but we will have a choice over the
textbooks we purchase.
Update on Budget:
John presented budget we reviewed on October 29 to Cindy_ Conti, Dennis Richard,. Valerie Ardi,
Richard Foley, and Harry Harutunian.
Changes Made:
*Foreign language teacher is in/tech ed is out.
*Curriculum initiatives:$150-200,000 set aside we should see about 85% of this funded. It
appears that the language arts will not get funded.
*No money set aside for new furniture or equipment request.
*Basic building request: Harry said building will be done in 18 months so he is not approving any
of Coolidge's building fund requests.
*Marge expressed concerned over cleanliness of building.
*Many outside groups are using the buildingJohn. tried to get custodians to work duringthese
times but it is against their contract.
*Building is being kept as clean as possible with the number of custodial hours we have.
*Harry assured John that if we do not get building renovation accepted we will go to the top of
the list.
*The building burglar alarm is currently being held together with a rubber band if it fails (which
we will not know unless building is broken into) it will have to be replaced.
*All request on Noble are on hold until phase one is complete.
*Technology money request:$ 25,000.00 approved.
*John's goal is to get a computer in every room.
*Number changes on per pupil: percussion cabinet has been added in here, other numbers were
shifted around but the bottom line..is..still.thc-same.
*We can get our funding because of enrollment numbers.
*Our feasibility study was approved at town meeting.
Old Business Discussion:
TAP Discussion:'
Question was raised about the origin of TAP. Council was told that it came from the state.
Question was raised about tenure, there is no more tenure. Teachers now achieve professional
status in their third year. If a teacher is on a remediation plan and achieves no growth in the
process they are out after two years. The pay discrepancy looking at years of service was brought
up. The question was asked "What is the difference with professional status?"-answer given-with
professional status your teaching is evaluated-with tenure you had to do something morally
wrong. Department heads have been allowed to take substitute time to evaluate staff. There are
now standards to go by which will make it less subjective, but it still is subjective. This is not a
tool to get rid of teachers, this is a tool to help teachers grow. If you don't like your evaluation
what do you do?: you fill out the optional teacher comments and refute those issues that concern
you. TAP is going to be evaluated at the half year point.
Noble Project:
The hardware is in, bar coding is getting done- Stage„ One
Stage two- add more equipment/machines
The light department will be hooking everyone up to fiber optics. Hopefully new technology
director is working with everyone in town to update and coordinate the schools systems
technology. John C's feeling that community support of technology should not be lost by Harry.
Inclusion Plan:
John would like to make a proposal that the staff members who are in the inclusion class (Andrea
Bruno, Kate McClaren, Marie Pink, Renee Sbaschnig) put together a new inclusion plan looking
at a three to five year plan.
Two issues with inclusion:
*recognizing diversity
*giving the teacher the tools to deal with this diversity
This also needs to be done for building plans. Perhaps, this group can come back to report. on this
by March or April.
Middle School Restructuring:
On December 5 at our staffmeeting__we are going-to look at the four questions on the sheet and
have groups of staff look at answers to different questions.
It seems Harry has some support form the finance committee for his 10% increase [an extra 2
million dollars].
School Profile: very old [dated)
What is it for? real estate agents, library, fifth to sixth grade transition, state demanded we have
one. Committee decided that for next meeting to come up with questions a document like this
should answer. Members should bring these- questions to the December 3rd meeting
and submit to Renee.
Review of document that compares School Committee Goals to Coolidge School Improvement
Plans.
New Business Discussion:
John attended three day meeting at Harvard last week. He wanted to see if our school and
community had shared leadership with all stake holders.
Roland Barth-presenter asked where do you see shared decision making in your, building?
Dick Balser-consultant on facilitating meeting- presenter. John wants to make sure that we (the
school council have a focus) He wants-to make sure he does not become a diseminator of
information. Renee suggests we break into smaller groups to work on projects. John C thinks its
important that the feedback on John D. information get noted. Other school councils have polled
parents perhaps we should ask more input from staff from parents, from community. It was
suggested that we focus on a policy analysis of what groingrhappen in the future. Question was
raised whether the school council has ever met with the student council. The answer was "no".
How about teachers/staff meetin " Should we schedule a meetin& with. faculty in,Feb
when we are putting together our school improvement? Not decided. Can we make our school y
plan more useful more apropos?-Marge.
On December 3 the school committee will be here to view a 20 minute presentation by_students of
the language based program which they approved for this year. They are going to open the floor
for discussion We should bring up building„needs, .we need to communicate to them that we
need the space for instructional purposes. In 1993 we had 426 students we are now up to 467.
We need to bring to light all these statistics. The council stronglxfeels the need to bring uQour
floating teacher issue. Larry and Roy will not be here.
Meeting Dates Approved:
December 3 - school committee
December 17 - tentative (do we need to get together to discuss school profile before Jan.?) 7:30
January 21- 7:30