Salem Public Schools
l School Committee Meeting
Monday, November 2, 2009
7:30 p.m.
STUDENT ADVISORY BOARD MEETING AT 6:30 P.M.
- Call of Meeting to Order
- Approval of the Agenda
III. Deliberation on the Approval of the Minutes of the October 19, 2009 Regular School Committee Meeting
IV. Questions and Comments from the Audience
V. Student Representative Report – Zach Broughton
VI Superintendent Report – Dr. William Cameron
- Curriculum Report – Mrs. Alyce Davis
Presentation on the SHS Freshman House System – Andy Wulf
a. Budget Transfer Requests
Amount: $10,000 Salem High School
From: 13571021-5514 Instructional supplies
To: 13571021-5511 Textbooks
Reason: Principal Angeramo needs to replace paperback novels and other books used by the English Department. The books last only a few years and replacements were not purchased in the last two years due to the financial crisis and subsequent budget cuts. Historically the textbook account at the high school has been much higher than this year’s allocation of $15,000.
Amount: $3,000 Collins Middle School
From: 13570921-5511 Textbooks
To: 13990941-5317 Consulting services: educ training
Reason: Principal Manning decided to send more math and science teachers than planned at budget time to the Collins Writing Workshop and needs to increase the balance for future needs for the remainder of the year.
Amount: $1,850 Bentley Elementary School
From: 13570321-5511 Textbooks [$1,300]
From: 13570321-5320 Contract services [$550]
To: 13570321-5514 Instructional supplies [$1,850]
Reason: The Business Office recommends this transfer as the materials requested are consumables, and should be charged to instructional supplies rather than textbooks.
b. Deliberation on the School Department Warrant:
October 22, 2009 in the amount of $309,198.89
- Action Items
- Deliberation on the approval of the recommendation of the Superintendent to hire a Special Education Paraprofessional for Salem Prep - 6.0 hours per day/ 5 days per week at a rate of $13.37 per hour.
- Deliberation on the approval of the Salem High School JROTC trip to Maine Maritime for a two day leadership course – November 30 – December 1, 2009
- Deliberation on the Report of the MASC Resolutions Committee Report on the following recommended resolutions for consideration at the MASC Annual Meeting on November 18, 2009:
Resolution 1 – School Funding [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS in the current economic crisis, school finance
has become a more critical component to ensure that students
receive a public education that helps them reach high
levels of achievement and meet the state’s highest-in-the nation
standards,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Massachusetts
Association of School Committees reaffirms its advocacy
positions on funding of the public schools:
• The legislature should ensure that all districts receive sufficient
state financial assistance so that all municipalities and
regions receive adequate funding, meaning that all districts
are able to budget public schools at or above the state’s
foundation budget.
• The foundation budget should be adjusted to meet the
true costs of providing an adequate public education.
• In order to determine genuine adequacy, the legislature
should authorize a formal “adequacy study” to determine
the true cost of providing an appropriate education, including
the innovative provisions of the Readiness Project, for all
students.
• In order to generate additional funding necessary to
finance the public schools and the range of social services
necessary to support children and their families, the legislature
take the following actions:
• Restore the state income tax to 5.9%.
• Explore the possibilities inherent in expanding casino-style
gaming, including, but not limited to expansion of gaming
devices at state race tracks or other approved venues.
RATIONALE: This sets out MASC’s proposals for revenue,
including restoration of the sales tax and exploration of
gaming. It also calls for an “Adequacy Study” to determine
the true cost of a genuinely adequate Foundation Budget.
Resolution 2 – METCO [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS for more than four decades, the METCO program
has provided opportunities for students at economic
risk to attend public schools in other districts, and
WHEREAS the history of METCO is full of examples of students
whose lives were enhanced significantly by the opportunities
provided in the program, and
WHEREAS METCO is funded by the Commonwealth in
order to make these opportunities possible, and
WHEREAS METCO funding has not increased significantly
nor has it allowed the program to keep up with demand
and the willingness of “receiving” districts to enroll METCO
students,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that MASC support allocations
in the state budget that will allow METCO to increase
enrollment and services to children, restoring funding levels
to original FY 2008 levels with adjustments for inflation since
that time, and, further,
MASC support continued expansion of METCO funding for
FY 2011.
RATIONALE: This resolution restates MASC’s longstanding
support for the METCO program and for expanding its
services. METCO has suffered modest cutbacks in FY 2009,
but has not been able to expand, despite demand for more
opportunities. Expanding funding will make it more viable for
districts to host METCO students.
Resolution 3 – MEDICAID [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS the Medicaid program provides a critical safety
net of health services to students with disabilities or who
are at economic risk, and
WHEREAS the Medicaid program may reimburse public
schools for the costs of providing services to students
receiving services for their special education needs, and
WHEREAS reimbursements to providers under Medicaid
are made directly to municipalities or regional school districts,
and
WHEREAS municipalities do not always return these
Medicaid reimbursements to their municipal public school
department,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that MASC file legislation to
require that 100% of Medicaid reimbursements billed for
services provided by the public school district be returned
to the school district by the municipality for use in funding
public education.
RATIONALE: This resolution would allow municipal school
districts to retain all reimbursements for Medicaid services to
covered students in special education programs. Municipal
government, which receives the reimbursements, will not
always share the full amount with the school department.
Regional districts are able to keep all revenues.
Resolution 4 – Readiness Schools [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS Readiness Schools, as envisioned by the MA
Executive Office of Education, provide an option to allow
parents and students with the potential for innovation and
choices, and
WHEREAS Readiness Schools have been identified as a
viable public option for the current charter school model
implemented in Massachusetts, and
WHEREAS Readiness Schools can represent alternatives
with local oversight, fair financing, and higher levels of
accountability, and
WHEREAS the “Readiness School” model in Massachusetts
appears to be virtually identical to what most of the rest of
the country calls a charter school in that it is locally authorized
and subject to a significant measure of local oversight:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that MASC supports the
concept of Readiness Schools and encourages the legislature
to move forward on this innovation, provided that:
• Legislation to enact Readiness Schools does not extend
to the Commissioner of the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education (DESE) or the Board of Education
enhanced power to take over local public schools or districts
by authorizing new authority to declare districts as
chronically underperforming.
• That no superintendent or school district be stripped of
their authority to oversee any of its public schools, nor any
employee of a school district be involuntarily terminated by
any “receiver” appointed by the Commissioner without due
process of law.
• Readiness Schools of all forms are subject to review and
approval by the local district superintendent and the School
Committee.
• Readiness Schools may be both authorized and de-designated
by the School Committee based on legislated standards
and procedures, as opposed to regulations issued by
DESE.
• No authority shall be granted to DESE to implement a
Readiness School program without a full audit, analysis, and
explanation of regulatory implications having been performed
that will identify the costs, staff time, and ongoing
expense of such rules or regulations.
RATIONALE: Readiness Schools are being proposed as
more palatable alternatives to charter schools. However,
there remains concerns that some policy makers will use
some formats of these schools as an opportunity to limit
local authority or to grant to the Commissioner of
Elementary and Secondary Education or to the Board of
Education broad and expansive powers to take over schools
and districts that are classified as “chronically underperforming”
and reclassify them as hybrid readiness units.
Resolution 5 – Charter Schools [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS Charter Schools have been one of the state’s
more controversial elements of education reform, and
WHEREAS Charter School enrollment is currently capped
at a percentage of student enrollment in each community,
and
WHEREAS some advocates have advocated for lifting the
enrollment cap in order to provide more charter options
for students, and
WHEREAS recommendations to reforms the state’s charter
school policy remain unaddressed, thereby presenting
adverse implications for other municipal and regional public
school districts, and
WHEREAS to this date, the Commonwealth has not linked
a change in the charter school enrollment cap to meaningful
reform:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the legislature should
make no changes to charter school enrollment caps until
the following reforms are enacted:
• Restructuring of the confiscatory charter school funding
formula that diverts Chapter 70 funding from municipal and
regional school districts;
• Requiring charter schools to recruit, enroll, and maintain a
student population that reflects the overall community population
of students at risk, including moderately and severe
special needs, economic disadvantage, and limited English
speaking capacity.
• Requiring charter schools to demonstrate and implement
innovation that is beyond that of the capacity of the municipal
or regional school district.
• Auditing of charter school enrollments to ensure that
“sending districts are not penalized for over-enrollment
projections given by charter schools to inflate initial funding.
RATIONALE: This restates the ongoing call for reform of
charter school policy including recrafting of the funding system
and accountability standards. Several MASC members
have questioned whether MASC’s stated positions accurately
reflect the will of the membership. The members can
have their say, once again, in November.
Resolution 6 – District Restructuring [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS school districts may elect to reorganize themselves
into superintendency unions or regional school districts,
and
WHEREAS various state policy makers have urged districts
to consider various economies that may be achieved
through district restructuring or reorganization, and
WHEREAS districts currently participate in educational Collaboratives
which are another vehicle for delivering services
effectively and efficiently, and
WHEREAS many options remain open to school districts
and municipalities for making their operations more efficient
or more effective in supporting students including but not
limited to multi-district collaboration, multi-municipal collaboration,
and restructuring:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the legislature should
not extend to any state regulatory agency the authority to
impose upon any municipality or regional school district any
form of district restructuring without the consent of the
school districts involved, and, further,
MASC urges the legislature, in exploring and considering
public policy options for school district restructuring and
reorganization, to allow school districts and municipalities to
explore and determine for themselves the best alternatives
for their district structures and operating protocols and, further,
the legislature should consider incentives to expand
collaborations among districts and the best use of educational
collaboratives in order to make possible more efficient
and effective operating practices that will allow school districts
to improve student achievement and provide efficient
and effective public schools.
RATIONALE: This addresses the current debate over district
structuring and efficiencies and sets out key principles
of reform, allowing districts to plan and reach mutually
agreeable solutions, rather than permitting state agencies or
administrators to force consolidations, regionalizations, or
other district governance changes.
Resolution 7 – School Improvement [Submitted by the MASC Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS prior to April, 2004, it was the responsibility of
the School Committee to approve school improvement
plans submitted by school councils and the school principals,
and
WHEREAS approval of the school improvement plan is a
critical element of the oversight responsibility to ensure that
school administrators are working to meet the goals and
objectives set by the School Committee as part of its policy
making responsibilities,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the legislature restore
to School Committees the right which they exercised until
April of 2004 to approve School Improvement Plans.
RATIONALE: This would return to School Committees the
authority granted them under the original Education Reform
Act to approve school improvement plans. Currently,
boards may review these plans, but the approving authority
has been given to the superintendent. This takes an important
policy monitoring tool away from the School
Committee.
Resolution 8 REAUTHORIZATION OF ELE-
MENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT
[Submitted by the Reading School Committee and MASC
Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA), also known as “No Child Left Behind,” is the subjection
of reauthorization by the U.S. Congress, and
WHEREAS principled critics of the original legislation, including
many Massachusetts educators have discussed and
debated the merits of various elements of the bill, and
WHEREAS several important reforms have emerged that
will create an improved federal education policy,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that MASC endorses the
following recommendations to guide the reauthorization of
ESEA:
Accountability
Improve state accountability systems to more accurately
evaluate the performance of schools and districts by establishing
vertically aligned state content and performance standards
that permit using either adequate yearly progress as a
measure of success or benchmarks for student progress that
establish annual expectations for growth in achievement,
based on progress of a sample of other students across the
State. These accountability systems should measure the academic
growth of each student using a comprehensive battery
of various assessment tools.1
Proficiency must be redefined as possessing the skills and
knowledge necessary to be productive, informed, independent
citizens in a global society. These skills and bases of
knowledge should be defined at the state and local level and
include ELA, math and other academic subjects such as the
STEM subjects as well as 21st century skills that students
need to be competitive in the global job market such as creativity,
collaborative and interpersonal skills, tolerance, technology
and media literacy, and problem-solving skills.2
Adequate Yearly Progress 3
Maintain reporting on student achievement by subgroup
without giving schools numerous ways to fail and only one
way to “make” AYP.
Offer students with disabilities an alternate assessment for
the purpose of determining AYP, provided that any such
assessment is reflected in the student’s Individual Education
Plan and is based on the IEP team’s evaluation and the services
to be provided for that student and meets parent consent
requirements for IEP’s.
Allow students with disabilities alternate assessments to
include out of grade-level tests and base AYP on
gain/growth or adjusted scores.
Judge the success of districts and schools based on the
achievement of students served under Title I of ESEA and
limit sanctions only to those served under Title 1. In the
alternative, allow drastic school-wide sanctions such as
school choice to apply only to schools who have not met
AYP in the aggregate for three consecutive years based on a
"growth model" method of determination of AYP.
Count the performance within the subgroup, for an appropriate
period of time, those students who recently transitioned
out of an applicable student subgroup in the subgroup
accountability determinations.
High School Graduation
Extend graduation rate to within five years of entering high
school and to 21 years of age for special education students
who complete high school with a state-approved exit document.
4
Educator Credentials 5
States should set the appropriate educator standards, not
the Federal government.
The Federal government should encourage states to adopt
reciprocity agreements with other states to allow educators
to easily transfer employment across state lines.
Funding 6
Require all public schools, charter schools and nonpublic
schools receiving federal funds to use the same state assessment
and meet the same state criteria for determining AYP.
Allow states to authorize a cessation of Title I support to a
nonpublic school whose Title I students as a whole do not
make AYP and perform at lower levels than the area public
school(s) for three years or more.
National Standards
The Federal government should encourage states to adopt
voluntary national standards developed by professionally
qualified national organizations and practitioners. 7
Data Systems and Reporting
Target federal funds on upgrading test delivery and scoring
technology to yield quicker and more accurate data to districts,
parents and schools.8
Best Practice Districts 9
Grants should be available to districts willing, able and capable
of becoming Best Practice Districts. Such districts must
be demonstrating high quality practices that improve student
learning and are able to be replicated in other districts.
Furthermore, the district must possess the requisite capacity
to promote the dissemination and implementation of the
practices to other schools and districts.
Footnotes
1 The “growth model” of accountability measurement is
viewed as more helpful to educators in measuring real student
progress as opposed to more standardized tests that
offer snapshots of specific students at a specific point in time.
2 Recognizes the importance of 21st century skills including
creative, collaborative, and social skills in addition to those
curriculum mastery skills now required.
3 This addresses complaints that the current AYP measurements
are rigid, punitive, and unreflective of more important
measures of success. Currently, it is virtually impossible for
schools in Massachusetts, with the highest proficiency standard
in the country, to escape sanctions and, eventually, to
suffer penalties under NCLB.
4 Recognizes that districts should not be penalized for students
who graduate eventually, rather than in four years.
Advocates for students note that some students require
more time.
5 Asserts state rights to set teacher credentialing standards
and encourages states to accept credentials of educators
certified in other states.
6 Addresses the federal mandate to use ESEA funding for
private schools and applies pressure to private schools
receiving federal money to perform at higher levels.
7 Requires involvement of actual educators in setting of voluntary
national standards applicable at the state level.
8 Addresses delays in reporting of scores. Currently, students
tested in May may not receive scores until after the start of
the school year, delaying important remediating services.
9 This would be an expansion of the US Education
Secretary's "Race to the Top" grant process.
RATIONALE: Section by section explanations are provided
in the footnotes.
Resolution 9 – Charter School Reimbursement
[Submitted by the Everett School Committee]
BE IT RESOLVED that Commonwealth Charter Schools
who have students enrolled from districts which are funded
below Foundation Budgets for FY 2010 and in any future fiscal
years because the Commonwealth is unable to meet its
Chapter 70 commitment will receive tuition from the sending
district at the same percentage the sending district is
funded in comparison to its Foundation Budget.
Resolution 10 – Resolution in Support of Educator Excellence
[Submitted by the Canton, Dennis-Yarmouth and Concord-
Carlisle School Committees]
WHEREAS a Working Group for Educator Excellence comprised
of organizations and individuals with experience as
teachers, administrators, school committee members, academicians,
union leaders, business leaders, and community
leaders has developed a comprehensive framework for supporting
educator excellence in Massachusetts; and
WHEREAS the Massachusetts legislature has filed legislation
in support of educator excellence consistent with the comprehensive
framework and essential processes developed by
the Working Group for Educator Excellence; and the legislation
is designed to connect the processes that grow educator
expertise:
• preparation with standards,
• comprehensive induction that stops the huge turnover in
new teachers who otherwise are left to sink or swim,
• a fair and strong teacher evaluation system that incorporates
intensive support for those who are struggling,
• teacher leadership positions that provide opportunities
for teachers to grow and advance throughout their career,
• systemic professional development,
• administrative leadership that builds schools that are
committed to results, and
• structures that enable effective teamwork and joint
responsibility for student achievement and collaboration
between school districts.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Massachusetts
Association of School Committees shall work with the
Working Group for Educator Excellence to refine and support
efforts to enact legislation in support of educator
excellence that is consistent with the association’s core values
of local governance and accountability; and
FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the Massachusetts
Association of School Committees joins the other 19 organizations
in formally endorsing efforts to enact legislation in
support of educator excellence in Massachusetts.
RESOLUTION 11 - INCLUSION OF SCHOOL COM-
MITTEE MEMBERS ON STATE TASK FORCES,
SPECIAL COMMITTEES AND COMMISSIONS
[Submitted by the Advocacy Committee]
WHEREAS the legislature establishes boards, task forces,
special committees and commissions that study and make
recommendations for various matters of public policy, and
WHEREAS these boards, task forces, committees and commissions
frequently deal with matters of public education,
children’s services, and other areas of public policy that concern
public schools,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that MASC petition the legislature
to request that any board, task force, special committee
or commission with implications for public education
and for which non-legislative entities are represented include
a representative of the Massachusetts Association of School
Committees or a school committee member.
Further, that the legislature lift all barriers to the appointment
of a school committee member to the state Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education.
Personnel
Curriculum
Policy
Finance
Buildings and Grounds
Special Education
X. School Committee Concerns and Resolutions
XI. Questions and Comments from the Audience regarding the
11/2/09 agenda
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