HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-12-09 RMHS School Council Minutes-,,4,6 C.
ftry CLERK E ,1 1 N G ` ` School Council Meeting
- December 9, 1996
2 PEI ~ , ,s i
The meeting was brought to order and the minutes were reviewed.
Tom attended the Change game. There were three sections, with different types of people
in each group (playing different roles). Each person was given money to pay for things.
You earned points trying to make your system ready and in favor of change. A handout
was given at the of the game that talked about different models of change. The handout
advised starting with a vision and then building support throughout the different
constituencies. Frank said he's interested in how we should build constituency support -
who are the important people (power brokers) and important groups. This is how the
council can help the school.
Frank talked to Ms. Dresser who said that the Board of Ed. will be making a decision on
Wednesday to determine how the G.E.D. will be utilized. The minimum passing score is
35 (national norm). On Jan. the passing score will be 40. In Massachusetts the
requirement is 45. There is a bell curve being used so that 30% of the kids in MA will fail
the test (below 35). When they raise the standard to 40, 32% of MA students will fail..
The expectation here is that about 90% of the kids in Reading will pass. Those who fail
will probably come from the large inner city schools. The fear is that this could increase
the dropout rate at lots of schools. The question to be decided is should a 7 hour test
make or break graduation? Issues: financial - the test costs $40.00 / student ($10,000
here in Reading); ethical - how can you make this decision in Dec. for this year's seniors?
Managerial - are there enough tests for all MA seniors, can they each be individually
scored as they must be? Legal - this test will be legally challenged when someone doesn't
pass the test but their transcript shows that they just had a bad day. Also, what about
those kids who have IEPs? Must these tests be written into the IEPs? The board of
education is currently split over the issue. Questions asked: what do kids do who don't
pass but are accepted in college? What about schools who are accredited highly, is there
an alternative so performing schools aren't penalized and all this money spent. There are
rumors that if the school is non-performant, than the state dept. of ed. would come in and
take over the high school.
Hal Croft was elected teacher/coach of the year! Saturday and Sunday he'll be shown on
the Disney channel. We think he gets $25,000 and so does Reading High.
New Course Review - Frank passed out the draft form which has gone out to the staff for
the Presentation Course. There's a goal statement, rationale, course requirements,
materials, considerations, implementation, recommendations, course description, and
number of course units described. Frank hasn't met with the group who produced it yet.
The name of the course is Senior Inquiry course. It would meet every other day. The
every other day schedule was recommended to accommodate the science lab schedules.
Wellesley is working in a 7 day schedule with four 60 minute classes and one 100 minute
class a day, each day dropping 2 classes. Mrs. Mirkin is sending this schedule to us as one
of the options we can consider. If we have any concerns about this new class proposal,
we should call Frank before Wednesday afternoon when this will be fin ali zed. This is the
new procedure for setting up/proposing all new courses. The question came up about
students who are already doing this in other courses? Can some kids test out or present
out? Frank sees this as a one year phenomenon to fill time and learning requirements and
then it will probably be folded into other programs.
Budget update
Salary, curriculum initiatives, new staffing, and technology needs make the budget
1/2 million over what he wanted to present to Town Meeting. The superintendent wants
to show about 2 to 2.1 million increase. Frank met with him again today to help cut out
more, to only get 6 new staff position rather than the 6 1/2 being asked for now. The
new Director of Building and Grounds is Mr. Bandini His first problem is dealing with
the heating issues. (univents and ventilation system). Mr. Bandini and the newest
custodian are repairing and replacing all of the non-functional univents and then they'll
work on the temperature controls. The heat pipe let go Friday morning in the weight
room sending scalding water out all over the room. The Capital Improvement Plan for the
high school contains a 1.85 million dollar renovation plan. The School Committee has
voted that in 2005 or 2006 the town should construct a new high school If the land fill
gets sold earlier, than they want to move up the date of the new building.
The December 4th R.M.H.S. building tour pointed out esthetics, health and safety,
financial issues, and educational issues. The Finance Committee, Tom Stohlman, Bob
Hilliard from the Chronicle, Frank, and Chip Hines participated They started at the nurse's
station. There were lighting issues in the art rooms. The group noted on the dramatic
temperature changes. They never made it to the field house. The group was surprised
that educators were doing as well as they are with poor conditions. They couldn't believe
the girl's locker room. The coldest room in the building is Mr. D'Entremont's room which
is at the bottom of the staircase where the doors to the link corridors don't close and can't
be secured. The Commons dining area would be affected if the door was to remain
closed. Another idea is to punch out a single door out into the back. It is because we
haven't kept up on maintenance and cleaning, we're looking at such severe problems with
the physical plant. There are traffic problems at the orange lockers and freshmen hanging
out in specific hallways. It was brought up that upperclassmen are feeling that the
freshmen class seems to be less respectful this year. There are issues with the lunchroom.
The superintendent is concerned about the $180,000 holdback for special ed. and they've
already gone back into this amount for $170,000. What about an alternative program
which would bring kids back in who are placed outside for education to manage the
budget better? Take major subjects in the morning and then go to Northeast Regional
Vocational in afternoon for jobs or skill training/volunteering. Northeast Regional liked
the idea but they couldn't get this going until next fall. Reading has 132 slots that Reading
can fill. There are 14 Reading kids there ($94,000 cost) $4314/kid here with $6600. at the
vocational school. Bringing back 4 kids would save us $50,000.
Mrs. Porter, the new representative of the support staff had an emergency or she would
have been to this meeting.
Agenda next meeting
Restructuring and scheduling plans for Time and Learning
Building support in the constituencies
Results for the new math and sciences courses and NEAP scores analysis
Directed study halls next year
Respectfully submitted,
Carol S. Perletz
NEXT Meeting: January 13 at 7:30 PM