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School Committee Ponders School Choice Teacher's assistant, stuck in elevator with 2 kids for an hour, receives award
by Heather Kelley May 13, 2011 — Last night’s School Committee Meeting opened with a hearing on School Choice. Chair Rebecca Robak explained that saying yes to School Choice would allow students not from Hopkinton to attend school in Hopkinton, staying through graduation. Their home districts would pay tuition to Hopkinton. Students from Hopkinton may choose to go to school in other school districts that accept School Choice students whether or not Hopkinton chooses to accept School Choice students, Mrs. Robak explained.
Another resident also came to the mike to speak. She expressed her appreciation that Hopkinton has not said yes to School Choice in the past, given the space constraints in the schools. She also noted that Hopkinton students are leaving the district to attend other schools. Since 2006, she said, more and more students are choosing to attend out of district, at both School Choice and charter schools. “Some people are thinking that something is lacking at the middle school,” she said, noting that it was a long way to drive to Marlboro, where many students are attending the math and science charter school.
School Committee member Nancy Burdick said that Fire Chief Ken Clark was impressed, and issued the civilian award.
Superintendent Dr. Jack Phelan did not attend the meeting, so Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mary Colombo gave the strategic plan update. Many priority initiatives of the strategic plan have been met, Dr. Colombo said, including evaluating the entire Middle and High School Programs of Study. High School math and science requirements have been strengthened, raising graduation requirements to 4 and 3 years, respectively.
For want of funds, however, the Middle School was unable to move towards the stated district goal of increasing foreign language offerings. Principal Alan Keller had asked for 3 foreign language teachers and the requisite textbooks to bring foreign language to the 6th grade, but it was not possible due to budget constraints.
Dr. Colombo said that Hopkinton compares very favorably with other TEC districts with regards to class sizes. TEC stands for The Education Cooperative, a regional partnership among 16 MetroWest school districts in which Hopkinton participates.
International student tuitions brought in $98,600 this year. Nine F-1 visa students, 6 from China, 1 from Germany, and 2 from Italy, have been living and attending school in Hopkinton. By Friday, said Dr. Colombo, the district will have accepted 13 students for next year, at a tuition rate of $12,500 for the school year. The goal continues to be 15 international students.
Mrs. Burdick expressed concern with the F-1 students, specifically with the spots they’re taking in classes at the High School.
Mr. Dumas said that he has put the district’s transportation contract out for bid. This time, he has made a request for a 3 year contract, with the option of two 1-year extensions, to enable us to align our contract renegotiation times with those of neighboring towns. He said this will allow for group bargaining. And, unlike previous years, Mr. Dumas thinks we will have some competitive bids this time, perhaps from a company that has the contracts for the Framingham and Worcester schools.
Director of Buildings and Grounds Al Rogers gave a facilities update. A “safer, smaller footprint playground” has been installed at Center School, he said.
At Elmwood, crews made necessary roof repairs. The biggest problems, Mr. Rogers said, were from ice dams caused by the near constant snow cover beginning in December. However, he said, as repairs barely reached the $1,000 level, no insurance claim was filed since there is a $1,000 deductible.
“It was an eyesore, but we left the ceiling tiles out to make sure that everything was thoroughly dry before we put everything back in,” said Mr. Rogers. He and his team hired a consulting firm to inspect and confirm that there was no mold before replacing the ceiling tiles.
Summer projects for the buildings in the district include a number of ADA retrofits, major rekeying of door locks in the middle school, and door fixes at the High School.
Mrs. Robak asked about the problems this past winter with temperature levels in certain classrooms at Center. She asked if the plastic sheeting placed on some windows had been effective.
Mr. Rogers said that the only real solution would be to replace the windows.
Mr. Rogers also said that one of the major problems at Center School this winter was that a blower was broken, and his team couldn’t find a replacement because the unit was so old. They had to pull it out and ship it to be rebuilt, he said. Their interim spare replacement wasn’t big enough to blow enough air into the classroom to heat it. Since the unit is now fixed, said Mr. Rogers, one classroom’s main issue is resolved.
Mrs. Geary presented a summary of her trip to China over spring break. Eighteen educators from around the area went together on a study tour, with a visiting professor from UMass along to answer questions and facilitate discussion.
“It was great” said Mrs. Burdick of Mrs. Geary’s travel blog. The pictures and narrative can be found at http://gearytochina.blogspot.com/.
While visiting 1 of the 3 schools on the tour, Mrs. Geary met Brookline High School students on an exchange program. Mrs. Geary plans to discuss the exchange program with the Brookline administration, since she feels their model could work well for Hopkinton students going to China in the future.
Principal Alan Keller of the Middle School presented his school’s improvement plan. This year, they worked towards increasing math proficiency, improving MCAS open response writing, revising the student handbook, beginning the three-year anti-bullying program made possible by a grant from the Metrowest Community Health Care Foundation, and implementing more technology in science teaching.
Mr. Keller pointed out that the school is seeing a lot of bullying taking place online, especially accessed via cell phones – the devices are really computers, he said, with no filters in place, unlike traditional desktop or laptop computers.
For the 2011-2012 school year, Middle School goals include improving the work of professional learning communities for teachers; building digital and media literacy in students, especially in the area of online safety; creating consistent and streamlined communication between home and school; improving student writing; and boosting school enrichment offerings. Mr. Keller said he wanted to increase the academic after school offerings, such as Destination Imagination, Wordmasters, and other academic endeavors such as First Lego Club, a precursor to robotics.
The high school improvement plan has similarly made great strides, said Mrs. Geary. Of the 30 students in the first year of the Mandarin Chinese program, 23 have signed up for Mandarin 2 next year. The international students integrated well into the High School. They felt challenged in math and science AP classes, she said, although they only took AP classes in chemistry, physics, and calculus since the language barrier was too great in other subjects.
The School Committee considered their policy regarding dissemination of information by non-school groups. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Amy Ritterbusch, Communications Chair for the HPTA, spoke to this policy.
Currently, flyers may only be stuffed into backpacks if they contain a form that must be filled out at home and returned to school. All other flyers may only be transmitted electronically.
Mrs. Ritterbusch said that she thinks the importance of the flyer should determine the mode of conveyance, instead of the presence or absence of a form. The current version of the policy allows for a loophole that many organizations exploit, she said. Forms that could be filled out online are instead printed on paper, necessitating the need to return the forms – and also allowing the flyers to get into backpacks.
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"The News Starts Here!"
One
resident questioned the school district’s decision, this year, to accept
tuition-based children in the special education department. Her
eighth-grade daughter, she said, had been “severely impacted” by this
decision. She did not provide any further specifics.