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Fruit Street Elementary School Still on Track for Special Town Meeting in March • Committee awaits ESBC decision on added cost • AP test scores improve over long term
by Heather Kelley
December 3, 2010 — At Thursday night’s
School Committee meeting, Superintendent Jack Phelan announced that the
MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation awarded a $59,500 grant to
the Middle School. Principal Alan Keller had applied for the grant to
“support a comprehensive approach toward reducing bullying” at the
Middle School. Surrounding towns, including Holliston and Hudson, also
received grants for similar programs. The Committee voted to bring 3 or 4 articles to the Annual Town Meeting. One definite article on the table will be to replace the audio-visual equipment in the Middle School auditorium. Member Troy Mick pointed out that the auditorium brings in a revenue stream. Another article will be to update the Middle School wiring in order to install phones in classrooms for safety purposes. The third article will be the school’s budget. Superintendent Phelan and Director of Finance Ralph Dumas will investigate the necessity of a fourth article, to replace a truck. Costs and benefits, members Mick and others agreed, needed to be weighed, in terms of putting more money into repairing and maintaining the truck, versus whether it would be more cost effective to replace the truck altogether.
Superintendent Phelan announced that the
Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) had opened the door for
new Statements of Interest, whereby school districts begin the process
of asking for money for school building projects. The Committee engaged
in a lengthy discussion on whether or not to apply for money for
renovations to Elmwood School. The majority felt that now was not the
time to be asking for more money for projects. But the minority,
including Member Nancy Burdick, made arguments for looking at the big
picture of the delivery of elementary education in town. Member Troy
Mick agreed with both sides, bringing up issues of school building
parity when pointing out the logic in Burdick’s point of view. “The
capital needs of a building don’t disappear just because you decide to
do a project,” added Phelan. “I would suggest that we get in line [for
the money],” concluded Burdick. In the end, the Committee decided to
defer getting in line until a later time.
Hopkinton’s deadline for its final
presentation of the Fruit Street School project to the MSBA has been
pushed out to February 9th. Despite this later date,
Superintendent Phelan said that the MSBA is still requiring the school
district to stand by its agreement with the MSBA to request a Special
Town Meeting in March to seek approval of the project. Member Mick added
that he saw two very good reasons for the March meeting: 1) this will
allow the project to be completed in time to start the September 2013
school year in the new school; and 2) this will allow Hopkinton to
obtain more favorable construction bid costs. Superintendent Phelan
agreed, noting that missing the start of school would result in an empty
new school building for the remainder of the 2013-2014 school year. This
would lead to the additional costs of security and heating for an empty
building. Chair Rebecca Robak also discussed the project delivery method, specifically whether or not to use Construction Management at Risk. She reported that the Elementary School Building Committee (ESBC) was divided in its thoughts on this choice, with those members knowledgeable about the construction business being in favor of the practice. According to Robak, Construction Management at Risk involves hiring a firm to oversee the project, and agreeing upon a set price that the town will pay the firm for the project’s completion. If costs go over the agreed upon amount, the hired firm experiences the exposure, and not the town. The down side to the town, of course, is that the cost of the entire project is higher than if such a firm were not hired. In effect, it is akin to taking out insurance on the cost of the project. The other half of the ESBC is hesitant, Robak said, about asking the town to spend more on the project than they might have to otherwise. The Committee agreed to let the ESBC come to consensus on the issue before taking up its own discussion of the decision.
Aramark, the foodservice provider to the schools, appeared before the Committee to present an update. The Committee learned that the freezer at the high school broke over the Thanksgiving recess, and the entire contents had to be discarded. Member Richard DeMont asked whether insurance will cover the loss. Superintendent Phelan asked Director of Finance Dumas to investigate. Ron Laverdiere, Aramark’s Food Service Director for Hopkinton, also said that he had to replace the ovens at an elementary school. Overall, Laverdiere and a representative from Aramark’s corporate offices said, Hopkinton’s bottom line in the foodservice department looked good for this year, despite the need to replace equipment, and also despite absorbing a 4.5% increase in labor costs from last year, due, Laverdiere said, largely to a 3% raise for foodservice workers.
Bertschmann also inquired about the progress on posting food allergy information on the website, noting that it would enable efficiencies since parents would no longer have to call Laverdiere directly to find answers to their questions on ingredients. Finally, Bertschmann asked for a timeframe for when online access would be available to parents to check their child’s lunch money account balance, and also to see the history of what their child had been purchasing in the cafeteria. This was also, Bertschmann noted, an item that had been discussed for implementation last year. Aramark hopes to have both allergen and monetary information available online by the end of the winter break. Chair Robak suggested that the decision to remove a 30-hour-per-week support staff position in Laverdiere’s office might need revisiting, in light of the amount of work to be done.
Superintendent Phelan shared Hopkinton’s
high achievement in Advanced Placement growth. In 2010, Hopkinton had
376 students taking a total of 737 AP tests, up from 55 students in 1998
taking a collective 109 AP tests. AP tests are scored on a scale of 1-5,
with 5 being the highest score; the percentage of students scoring a 3
or higher in 1998 was 76%, and that number rose to 86% in 2010,
according to statistics provided by Phelan. A Wood Street resident came to the microphone during the public comment section of the meeting to voice his and his wife’s concern about the new kindergarten schedule implemented this year. “We’re concerned about always being in the pm cycle,” he said, referring to the western half of town attending half day kindergarten in the afternoon all this year, and the eastern half attending morning kindergarten. Prior to this year, Hopkinton kindergartners shared the afternoon and morning time slots equally, with the western half of town beginning the school year in the afternoon, and then switching over to the morning half-way through the school year. Superintendent Phelan said that he would discuss the matter with Center School Principal Jen Parson, and that she would be in touch to explain the rationale behind the decision. (Previous Story) |
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