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School Depatment to Cut $200,00 from Budget April 27 is new date for Center School Project forum
by Heather Kelley April 8, 2011 — At last night’s School Committee meeting, Director of Finance Ralph Dumas announced that kindergartners on the western side of town will be attending morning kindergarten next school year. This year, the western side has been attending the afternoon session. Next year, Route 85 will continue to be the dividing line between am and pm, only with the west attending in the morning, and the east attending in the afternoon. Mr. Dumas explained that at an earlier School Committee meeting, a parent had inquired about the possibility of having each side of town take turns attending the am and pm sessions. “We’re trying to think of a fair way to do it,” said Mr. Dumas. He recognized that most people prefer the morning session, while acknowledging that it is not possible to afford that opportunity to everyone because of space constraints. Mr. Dumas could not commit to what would happen in future years. One exception to next year’s geographic mapping will be the Charlesview subdivision, which this year is attending in the morning, and next year will go in the afternoon. Another section of town, the Mayhew and Meserve Streets area, will also attend in the afternoon next year. Mr. Dumas said that the school administration was able to provide this balance to the east and west sides of town since next year’s half day kindergarteners have already signed up, and the bus routes and stops could be considered. There will be 54 am and 52 pm kindergartners next year. Geographic dividing lines were created with an eye first to keeping these numbers as even as possible. Parents will be notified through many and various means.
Mr. Dumas also submitted a bus fee letter for review by the School Committee. New for this year will be a firmer deadline of June 17th to elect to request and/or purchase bus passes. This past fall, Mr. Dumas said, the schools collected around $6000 in late fees from parents requesting bus passes in the days leading up to the first day of school. The $50 late fee, Mr. Dumas said, was obviously not a deterrent to parents making last minute decisions. And the onslaught of parents at the business office requesting passes in late August created unnecessary craziness during a time when the administration is busy getting ready for the start of school, he said.
The goal, according to Mr. Dumas, is to collect no late fees. Instead, the administration is requesting that all parents meet the June 17th deadline. As a deterrent to late requests, bus routes and stops will be created based on June 17th data, with no new bus stops being created for pass purchasers who fail to meet the deadline, except for new students moving into town. It is possible, Mr. Dumas said, that a particular bus may be full, in which case no new passes for that bus route will be issued after the deadline.
The June 17th deadline for bus pass submissions also applies to those requesting a pass, but not having to pay to ride the bus.
In addition, the transportation department needs to speed up many routes, which they will accomplish by combining bus stops. The department will be reconsidering where they will go into developments, and where bus stops will be moved to intersections with more main roads. In cases where buses will continue to go into subdivisions, the stops will be prioritized at the homes of kindergarten students. This is being done, said Mr. Dumas, with an eye to efficiency and student safety. REST OF STORY: School Committee Chair Rebecca Robak recapped that at Special Town Meeting and Special Town Election, “the town did not support the new school.” Therefore, she said, the school administration is going to hold a forum to hear what the town would like to do. Center School, Ms. Robak said, does have work that needs to be done. The MSBA has not yet made a decision on whether money set aside for Hopkinton will remain reserved for the town, or whether it will be released for other projects in other towns.
Due to a scheduling conflict with the
library forum, a new date of April 27th is set for the school
forum. School Committee member Jean Bertschmann also encouraged phone
calls and emails. School Committee member Nancy Burdick said that she wanted to clarify expectations of what the forum would be like.
John Mosher, in attendance, came forward to the table. Mr. Mosher said that his goal was a “basic, achievable agenda,” saying that he wanted to focus not on why the school failed, but instead on “what will make it successful.”
The School Committee has been asked by the town to cut the school budget by an additional $200,000. “We believe that we can do so,” said Superintendent Phelan. After tallying about $150,000 of the amount, from disparate areas such as reduced Central Office rent, retirements with replacements being hired at lower salaries, and using a credit currently on the books with the ACCEPT transportation collaborative, the Committee agreed to vote the reduced budget amount. They plan to make their final decisions about where the full $200,000 will come from at a future meeting.
Aramark, the food service provider for all Hopkinton schools, gave a presentation to the Committee. Jay Gustaitis, district manager, and Kate Shepherd, regional dietician, represented Aramark. The food service program is running well financially, they said, and Mr. Gustaitis said that they anticipate ending the year with around $37,000 in profits for the district.
Mrs. Shepherd took the Committee through the proposed Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. One part in particular was puzzling to many members of the Committee. Section 205 of the proposed legislation would set a minimum price for school lunches, not just for Hopkinton, but for all districts that participate in the federal school lunch program. Currently, the federal government reimburses school districts when children in need are provided with free lunches. The reimbursement is $2.76, Ms. Shepherd said. This is despite Hopkinton’s charge of only $2.00 to children who are paying full price. Section 205 of the proposed legislation would require Hopkinton to raise its lunch price to around $2.76, so that federally reimbursed lunches would not be a source of revenue to the town’s school lunch program.
Ms. Robak asked if the new lunch price would be tied to the number of free lunches offered in the district. Ms. Shepherd said it would. Further, Mr. Gustaitis said that if Hopkinton stopped participating in the federal program, and instead funded all district free lunches itself, then the new minimum price for lunches would not pertain. “There is the option of evaluating whether that is the best move for a district” said Mr. Gustaitis.
Ms. Shepherd emphasized that this is all based on proposed rules.
The legislation is currently in public comment period, which ends next week, said Mr. Gustaitis.
Any profit created by such price increases would go into Hopkinton accounts, not Aramark corporate accounts, added Mr. Gustaitis.
The new legislation would also call for an increase in the portions of fruits and vegetables, the adding of more whole grains, and the elimination of more fats – “many of the things this district is already doing” said Ms. Shepherd.
The biggest change for students would be that “next year they will be required to take a fruit or vegetable,” the Aramark representatives said. Currently, fruits and vegetables are offered if students would like to take them.
In other food service matters, Mr. Gustaitis said that if a student has a gluten intolerance (or other allergy issue), the parent should contact Aramark to have a conversation about what modifications could be made to enable the student to eat lunch from the cafeteria.
Referring to recent news stories, Mr. Gustaitis stated that food expiration dates “are not an issue here” in Hopkinton.
Finally, Mr. Dumas pointed out that any delays in the posting of online payments is not a fault of Aramark, but is rather a Hopkinton technical problem, which is actively being worked out.
High School First Robotics Team faculty advisor Sterling Worrell came before the School Committee to present a request for the First Robotics Team to travel to St. Louis in order to attend the world championships. “We had a goal of going to three tournaments this year, and the third one was the Northern New England Championship, said Mr. Worrell. The team won that regional championship, which qualified the team to go to the world championship. “It’s an amazing accomplishment for a first year team to go to the world championship,” said Mr. Worrell. Seven students will be going on the trip, made possible by generous community donors including DCU, EMC, and an anonymous donor through the HPTA, as well as family contributions, said Mr. Worrell.
Resident Glen Layton appeared for public comment. He explained that his Ballot Question Committee conducted an exit poll at Special Town Election, and recently opened the box containing the surveys with School Committee member Nancy Burdick and Board of Selectmen member John Mosher present. While results are still pending tabulation, he was able to share that 561 exit polls were collected, representing 17.5% of voters who turned out for the ballot. Of those, Mr. Layton said, 170 respondents indicated that they had voted yes (30% of respondents) and 391 said that they had voted no (70%), ”which was very close to the actual outcome of the election” said Mr. Layton.
Mr. Layton also made it clear that he does not support a write-in campaign for himself in the upcoming School Committee election. He is not allowed to run according to the Hatch Act, which prompted him to retract his submission of papers. Also, he said, he is required by the same act to openly renounce a write-in campaign; to remain silent would be a violation of the act which prohibits federal employees from running in partisan elections.
The HPTA is holding an encore online auction beginning on Friday April 8th and lasting for one week. The encore auction will have new items, as well as items that did not receive any bids during the original auction. Their original auction raised about $32,000 in ten days, said member Jean Bertschmann.
Hopkinton Destination Imagination (DI) coordinator Linda Holly submitted a summary of the years’ accomplishments. Hopkinton had 18 DI teams involving 91 students this school year. A Hopkins team took first place with their “Triple Take Road Show” at the regional tournament in Douglas on March 26th and represented Hopkinton at the State Tournament in Worcester on March 26th.
The Metro Region of the Commonwealth’s Department of Developmental Services has recognized Elmwood School, EMC, and the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center for making “a difference in the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities.” A recognition ceremony will take place on April 11th at the State House.
Hopkinton has five National Merit Finalists this year: Chris Daniels, Stephanie Hadley, Elise Lecrone, Paige Phelan, and Matt Szczepankiewicz. “They’re the top 1% of all students in the nation” said Superintendent Jack Phelan. “This is a point of pride for the school, the families, and the students,” he said. The students are finalists based on their PSAT scores, and they are eligible for scholarships.
Based largely on community feedback, the
School Committee decided to not decommission their Policy ADA, which has
nothing to do with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but instead is
their philosophy of education for Hopkinton. Ms. Burdick suggested
changing the name of the policy to avoid confusion. For reference, the
policy is coded with letters just like all other School Committee
policies, such as Policy JICH Student Drug and Alcohol Abuse
(which separately, unanimously passed this evening). The Committee will
be working in the coming months to substantially rewrite the policy. The School Committee also voted on the Mary Roach award recipients. The award recognizes the top student achievers in Hopkinton. Once given to an Elmwood student, back when Elmwood used to house older students, the award is now given to a student in the senior class who has the highest GPA and who also was a student at Elmwood School. The identity of the recipient was kept secret, and will be revealed at graduation time. |
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