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Town of Princeton, MA
Meeting Minutes
Thomas Prince Middle School Enrollment Study Committee
October 26, 2010
Town Hall Annex
Members present were Toryn Bright, Laura Gal, Larry Greene, Matt Lindberg, Larry Pistrang, Dawn Sulmasy, and Carla Volturo. Also: Selectman Edie Morgan, WRSD School Committee Member Robert Imber, and Town Administrator John Lebeaux. Chairman Pistrang called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM.
Acceptance of Minutes
The Committee accepted the minutes of October 12, 2010 by unanimous vote.
Members’ Reports on Research Topics
- Costs and revenue-Larry P. distributed and reviewed with the Committee a handout he prepared titled WACHUSETT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT COSTS AND REVENUES ANALYSIS. He also circulated an Oct.16, 2010 Worcester Telegram article titled “School Dept. seeks innovation footing”.
- Certification requirements and waivers-Toryn distributed and reviewed with the Committee a handout she prepared that summarized the licensing process. She also provided copies of three web pages from the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
- Legal requirements of regional agreement-Matt first reported on his examination of the WRSD Regional Agreement relative to transportation. He found that the Regional Agreement refers to Mass. General Law statutes. He will continue his investigation. Laura reported that if nothing were to be done, the population declined as predicted, and the Thomas Prince School still offering Grades 7 and 8 there likely would be a reduced number of highly qualified teachers. That, in turn, would likely lead to non-compliance with Federal standards and lead to restrictions to the District’s Title 2A funding. A decline in MCAS scores would lead to greater oversight by the state, restrictions by the state, and the requirement to develop an action plan to correct the problem. There was discussion of what would be more preferable: either very
small class sizes at Thomas Prince School with teachers working towards highly qualified status or having Princeton students in other towns with highly qualified teachers on staff. Bob explained that the District and the School Committee would take all available steps to prevent and if necessary correct any low performance at any district school.
- School choice-Larry distributed a handout titled School Choice FAQs from the WRSD website. He explained the differences between intra-district and inter-district transfers. Inter-district is the actual School Choice program. He reported that the district received 138 students with tuition of $746,350 and sent out of district 102 students with tuition of $569,264.
- Enrollment projections-Dawn distributed and reviewed a handout titled WRSD School Enrollment PROJECTIONS. She called to the committee’s attention the Committee’s attention national modeling concerning the large Baby Boom and the Echo Boom with the Smaller Generation X between the two. She offered that the present Princeton Grades 7 and 8 population is 95, will decline to a low of 46 in 2017 and climb to 60 in 2020. There was discussion of the small class that just entered Kindergarten and the prospect that it will be a one room class for grades K-8.
- Magnet/Essential/Theme curriculum models-Carla distributed and reviewed a document explaining several school models (charter, magnet, essential, etc.) and various approaches that may be employed within the various models. The Committee took particular note of the “magnet school within a school” concept.
Brainstorming Session
The Committee agreed to plan the session at its November 10th meeting. John will contact Mary Cringan to publicize the event via T Prince resources. He will put information on town website and as a Town News mass email. Laura will develop a poster.
Survey Development
The Committee will discuss the survey November 10th.
Other Business
As directed by the Committee, John will post the research reports discussed earlier on the website.
Public Comment
None.
Future Meeting Dates
The Committee will meet November 10 in the Annex, and November 17 at the Thomas Prince School for the Brainstorming Session. Both meetings will begin at 7 PM
The Committee unanimously voted to adjourn at 9:07 PM.
Respectively submitted,
John Lebeaux
Town Administrator
Referenced Documents
- WACHUSETT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT COSTS AND REVENUES ANALYSIS(L. Pistrang)
- Oct.16, 2010 Worcester Telegram article titled School Dept. seeks innovation footing
- Summary of Massachusetts teachers’ licensing process (T. Bright)
- Web page, Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, How Continuous Progress Is Defined
- Web page, Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Educator Licensure Academic (Pre K-12)
- Web page, Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL)
- Wachusett Regional School District Regional Agreement, May 2008
- Web page, WRSD, School Choice FAQs
- WRSD School Enrollment PROJECTIONS (D. Sulmasy)
- Descriptions of various school models (C. Volturo)
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