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MINUTES
WATERTOWN BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING
Monday, December 8, 2008 – 7:30 PM
Watertown High School
Technology Center
Members Present: Joseph Apicella
Gina Calabrese, Chairman
Mary Colangelo, Secretary
Kevin Killeen
Thomas Lambert
Janice Pond
Richard Mazzamaro, Vice Chairman
Others Present: Karen Baldwin, Superintendent of Schools
Thad Hasbrouck, Director of Curriculum & Professional Services
Shirley Oliver – Interim Director of Budget
Gary Miller – Interim Director of District Operations
Richard Mastroianni, Student Council Representative
Andrew Lees – Interim Director of Special Services
Michele Y. Telash – President, Watertown Rotary
John Martineau
Sarah Martineau
Rachel Martineau
Lisa Squillace
Julia Squillace
Miranda Squillace
Lianna Squillace
David Squillace
Fran Palmer
Richard O’Neal
Diana O’Neal
Linda McKee
James Perrucci, “Town Times”
Absent: Todd Griffin
Mary Dzioba
A. Convene Regular Meeting - 7:30 PM
B. Salute to the Flag
Ms. Calabrese led the Pledge of Allegiance.
C. Recognition
The Board wishes to recognize the first and second place winners in the 2008 Holiday Greeting Card Contest. Each year, the contest is held in a different grade level. The seventh grade students participated in this year’s contest.
The first place winner is Sarah Martineau, Swift Middle School.
The second place winner is Miranda Squillace, Swift Middle School.
Ms. Michele Telash, President of the Rotary Club, is here this evening to present the first place winner, Sarah Martineau, with a $50.00 savings bond.
The Board would like to present the second place winner, Miranda Squillace with a $10.00 Gift certificate to The Barnes & Noble Book Store.
Ms. Baldwin: It is my great pleasure this evening to introduce two seventh grade students from Swift Middle School who participated in an annual contest that the Board of Education conducts and this contest is to have students create a holiday greeting card that can be used through the Board of Education to send out good wishes during this holiday season. No one told me that I would have this very hard task of reviewing greeting cards that were created by our students. It was probably one of the hardest decisions I had to make thus far because it is so subjective. Wonderful, wonderful artwork, tremendous care and talent went into these designs and illustrations and so I’m very pleased to present two students this evening who created wonderful greeting cards and I want to be able to acknowledge them. The first place winner of the greeting card contest is Sarah Martineau of the Swift Middle School and this is the card that she designed and illustrated for us. We do have a special savings bond for Sarah if she would come up here, please so that we can introduce her. I would also like to introduce Michele Telash, president of the Watertown Rotary Club to present this savings bond to you.
Ms. Telash: Sarah, on behalf of all the members of the Watertown Rotary Club, we’d like to present you with a gift certificate to, we hope, continue your great endeavors. Thank you so much.
Ms. Baldwin: Thank you, Sarah. I’d also like to ask Miranda Squillace to come up. She’s a seventh grader whose greeting card was the second place selection. Congratulations. I have for Miranda, gift certificate to Barnes and Noble Book Store so that hopefully you can find something that you can enjoy there and either read or illustrate using that and I just want to thank both of you for your effort and fine contributions, and I want to acknowledge your parents who are here with you this evening. You have wonderfully talented and positive children, and I’ve appreciated the opportunity to review their artwork and certainly acknowledge them here this evening so thank you and congratulations.
D. Report from Student Council Representative – Richard Mastroianni
Mr. Mastroianni: As the holiday season is upon us, so is the act of giving. Ladies and gentlemen, during this economic hardship for us, doing good things for others is not only something special, (inaudible) it is imperative that we work together, and I am more than happy to report to you that the students of Watertown High School are acting this way. For instance, the Interact Club is holding a warm clothing drive December 18th. A great effort is being made to gather clean clothing and warm blankets to benefit those who cannot say, like you and I that they have a home to go to. In addition, DECA is having a toy gift drive until December 19th. Toys are already being received and it is great to know that each toy is needed. As we all hear people say, it is better them than me, the students of Watertown High School would like to ask the question of what if, what if you need help, who could you call upon for a lending hand? We would like to be that lending hand, especially when it is most needed. Now on a different note, the jazz band held a 1920’s style speak easy last Thursday. Students dressed in formal 1920’s wear; the pool lobby was transformed into a candlelit beta fish. Jazz music played as bartenders poured soda and water for visitors and fake candles flickers next to fish bowls beta fish. Around the room were posters explaining the different aspects of the 20’s such as daily life, clothing and even information about speak easy’s themselves. An I-pod nano was raffled off and the winner was one of our art teachers, Mrs. Bartholomeo. Another great success was homecoming. The dance itself was Saturday night, the turnout was fantastic, and personally, I think the dance was one of the best that I’d ever been too. I’m glad that this year, unlike last, I was able to attend. Overall, the students at Watertown High School continue to go above and beyond their potential and it is more than a pleasure to you these good deeds and creativity (inaudible). Thank you.
E. Public Participation
None
F. Budget Summary – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Ms. Calabrese: Are there any questions regarding the budget summary?
Ms. Colangelo: I just have one question on the telephone line item, I assume that the (inaudible).
Ms. Baldwin: Mr. Miller, do you know what that revision was from in terms of the budget summary report?
Mr. Miller: Well, we’ve done a number of things. We’ve met with sprint Nextel to go over all the wireless phones that we have, and they took some corrective action for some charges that we received that we shouldn’t have. We’ve reshaped that to get a little better handle on it. We’re just looking at all the phone accounts all together and partly, we’ve gone ahead and adjusted some of the (inaudible) of where we think we’ll likely end up at the end of the year. We’ve got some purchase orders overlapping. You may see this account go in and out of the red in the course of the next couple of months until we get things nailed down. (inaudible) We’ll do that if we need to use some of the erate funds to pay the phone bill if not, (inaudible).
G. Committee Reports:
1. Advertising Committee – Mary Colangelo – no report
2. Athletics Committee – Joseph Apicella –no report
3. Budget Committee – Thomas Lambert –
Mr. Lambert: Happy to report, Wednesday, December 10th, 6 pm, will be our kickoff first budget committee meeting. We’ll be discussing the overview of the 2009-2010 budget developing process, budget timelines and discussion of all the work to date. I hope anybody that wants to attend our meeting will be there.
4. Curriculum & Instruction Committee – Kevin Killeen – no report
5. Facilities Committee – Richard Mazzamaro – no report
6. Policy and Labor Committee – Mary Colangelo
Ms. Colangelo: Yes, Madam Chair, the Policy and Labor committee met on December 3. We discussed waiving the personnel policy, which the full board will discuss later this evening and the second item on the agenda was the transportation contract extension which is on our agenda this evening.
7. Cablevision – Mary Dzioba – Ms. Dzioba is absent this evening.
8. PBC Representative – Richard Mazzamaro – no report
9. Education Connection Representative – Janice Pond
Ms. Pond: We did have a meeting, which is very unique in December. It’s a telephone meeting, so basically what Education Connection discussed was simple things and internal issues that they’re trying to keep everything the same because of the economy. We have no January meeting and we’ll pick up again in February.
H. Communications - Secretary
Ms. Colangelo: Yes, Madam Chair, I’d like to share with the Board an e-mail I got today from a former co-worker of mine who’s a resident of Cheshire and the father of six. His name is Tom Hernowitz and he writes: With a son on the Cheshire High School football team, I was in attendance of the championship final held in New Britain. Just before the start of the second half, I met two young men wearing their Watertown High School football jackets. I learned from them that they came because they wanted to see such a game as well as their desire to play in the championship game themselves. We ended up in a delightful conversation for most of the second half of the game. I learned a bit about them and their team and came away with a very positive impression. I want to pass this along to you and if you could pass this along to their coach, as it is important to know that people do know that people do notice good young men.
Ms. Calabrese: That’s really nice.
Ms. Baldwin: That’s great. I will pass that along.
I. Minutes
1. Regular Board of Education Meeting – November 24, 2008
MOTION: Ms. Colangelo, sec. by Mr. Mazzamaro
Text of Motion: To approve the minutes of the Regular Board of Education Meeting of November 24, 2008.
ABSTAIN: Ms. Pond
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
J. Superintendent's Recommendations and Report
Ms. Baldwin: Item #1 is simply appointments and the Board; you are familiar with seeing this format. There are 3 appointments, all to athletic coaching assignments for the upcoming season.
1. Appointments – (Information Only – No Action Required)
a. Mr. Keith Borkowski to the position of Boys’ Basketball Coach at Swift Middle School for the 2008-2009 school year, at a contractual stipend of $2,217.00 payable at the end of the season.
b. Mr. Joseph Giannelli to the position of Girls’ Basketball Coach at Swift Middle School for the 2008-2009 school year, at a contractual stipend of $2,217.00 payable at the end of the season.
c. Mr. Robert Good to the position of Boys’ Soccer Coach at Swift Middle School for the 2008-2009 school year, at a contractual stipend of $1,691.00 payable at the end of the season.
2. Three School Project Update – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Administration will present an update on the three school project.
Ms. Baldwin: I think most significantly in terms of the three schools project is that your drive into Watertown High School this evening may have been a little less bumpy and smooth, and I know that the public had tremendous interest in finding out when in fact we would put a sealer and paving down, and I think this will make a big difference especially as we move forward in our winter season. Other than that, both projects continue to move forward with the phasing work that we’ve been reporting to you all along. We continue to have a good relationship with Joe Vetro from O & G, and so, we’re pleased with his supervision on site here and we’re optimistic over the course of the next couple of months. We’ll be able to make up a little bit of lag time that is present here at the high school, specifically on the project.
Next, I’d like to present to you Andy Lees who’s here tonight. He’s our Interim Director of Special Services. He’s joined by Allison O’Hara who’s the supervisor of special services in Watertown, and the two of them have been doing very fine instructional leadership work throughout the school system, really helping to improve the outcomes and opportunities for all of our children, and with a specific focus on identifying goals and activities within the special education department that will align to our overall goals of continuous improvement. Mr. Lees does have a PowerPoint for the board to inform you of the work that we’re doing thus far.
3. Special Education Dept. Goals & Activities – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Mr. Andy Lees, Interim Director of Special Services, will provide the Board of Education with a presentation on departmental goals and initiatives to improve student learning for all children.
Mr. Lees: Good Evening. It has been a pleasure. I’ve been here for three months and it has been a pleasure getting to know the students here, the staff and the programs in Watertown. Every morning when I come to work, I have the pleasure of my office being right next the pre-school, so it’s a good way to start the day with a lot of smiling faces. I really appreciate the work that the two secretaries in our department, Marion Murolo and Marilyn Ebreo. Really appreciate the continuity that they provide because we’ve had some changeover in the department and they’re very helpful in keeping me on tract in telling me what was and why and helping with a lot of the day to day work that we have to do in the department. Certainly working with Allison over here, who’s been here herself a relatively short period of time, just over a year. We worked together to formulate some department goals for the department based on our discussions and review of various state and federal statistics that are forming within the department. There’s a lot of statistical information that is kept, that keeps us in line with the federal regulations and state regulations. In formulating these goals, we’ve spent some time going over those. For the most part, you’ll find that the information contained in those statistical packages is very positive. The other part of our time that we spent, was actually interviewing staff and reviewing programs and talking to the administrators and district to get their ideas and their focus to narrow our goals and objectives for the coming year. We’ve had the opportunity to present that information to the staff and to the administration group, so now we’d like to move on to presenting it to the board of education.
A little bit of background, those of you are probably very familiar, some of you not, what we do in our department is regulated quite a bit by the IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and there are a lot of regulations and outlines of mandates that we need to follow and we also have to comply with section 10-76 of the state law, which follows very closely the IDEA component, so that’s just a little background. But most importantly, we need to respond to the students that we have and there are 383 of those young students in our department, pre-school through 12th grade and beyond. Because of the law, we do continue to work with some of our students through age 21. You can see that the disabilities that some of the youngsters have are broken down accordingly (inaudible) the learning disabilities, impairment, emotional disturbance, other health impairment, autism, intellectual disability, which is the new term for mental retardation, not so new, but maybe new to some folks. Other disabilities, which include hearing impairment and multiple disabilities and orthopedic problems. That breakdown that you see up there is the percentages of the 383 youngsters that we’re working with in those various disability categories. Once again, if you look again, as this is broken down and the number of students that we have, we’re very consistent with the rest of the state on all of these things which is assuring that we’re working in the right direction.
Just so you know, what the department is consisting of, I have special services staff, this doesn’t include all of the staff. This really focuses on the special education and related services part of the staff, but we have 33 teachers and 6.4 speech language pathologists, SLP’s and obviously you can read the rest of that slide. Physical therapist for PT and Occupational therapist for OT. The folks that aren’t on the slide that fall in our department are the nurses and the guidance folks. Those are the folks that we’re working with and those are the folks that we consulted with to come up with our goals. We’ll go to goal number 1. Being consistent with what the focus of the rest of the district is our first and primary goal is to improve the educational and academic performance or our students. That, of course, is measured by the CMT and CAPT. One of the things that we found out through a number of studies that have been done is the districts that are successful with their special education sub group are those districts that focus and spend a lot of time aligning their instruction with the state standards that are being assessed. That’s true for special education sub group as well as the entire district, cut certainly something that we’ve seen in a lot of the research that’s been focused on special education subgroups. So that’s one of our biggest focuses. This first slide refers to a sub group within the sub group. These are youngsters that take the skills checklist if you see up there on the slide and that skills checklist is for youngsters who have significant impairments and aren’t able to take the regular CMT or CAPT test. What we know from this is that first of all, it’s important to know that the skills on that checklist are important. It’s not just a test that someone put together. All of the skills that we’ll see on the checklist are some that will help our youngsters move forward in gaining functional skills and also basic understanding of the all the academic areas. It’s a checklist that’s filled out by the teachers. My past experience in working with this portion of the population is that if the teachers are well aware of what the checklist is and how to guide their instruction based on that, that we’re going to see an improvement in the performance of the youngsters that we’re working with. That’s where we’re going with goal number 1, this first sub group. We’re going to work with the staff members. We have a user’s network that’s in the process and we’re going to and have been reviewing the performance of each student and making sure we’re aligned.
Let’s go to the second part of goal #1. And again, the focus is for the larger group of students within the sub group of special education is to focus on that alignment of the IEP, which is secret code for Individual Education Plan, for those of you who aren’t aware. Each youngster who is enrolled in special education services has an individual education plan and that’s a very good instrument that we can use to look at their performance on these standardized tests and revise that IEP to make sure that we’re focusing in the right direction. What we’ve noticed overall of our special education students, is that the general trend is that they mirror what the rest of the district is doing in terms of instruction. If our third graders are having difficulty with math or reading, our third graders in special education do that because most of their instruction is in the regular education environment. There is a very close relationship between special education and regular education and it’s not as separate as perhaps it used to be in the past. That’s what we see. We do know by virtue of the fact that there are youngsters who are identified as youngsters with disabilities that their performance isn’t going to be as high. You’re not going to find as many of youngsters in the proficient group buy by and large, our goal is to get as many, if not all our students within that proficient group. We’ll certainly focus instruction in that direction.
There has been a lot of discussion over a number of years in the special education and regular education community with regard of inclusive educational practices. Inclusive education means that we want to have our youngsters in special education working as closely on the general education curriculum as we possibly can. We want to have them with their non-disabled peers as often as we possibly as we can. That’s inclusive education practices and there have been a lot of discussions back and forth. By and large, the discussion is over with this because the research is really indicating that youngsters do better in an inclusive educational environment. Without exposure, and obviously, there’s a balance because these are youngsters with disabilities and you need to include other special pieces to their program, but by and large what we’re seeing is that youngsters do better in that kind of educational environment. We’re going to be doing soon, a walk through process where we go through the classrooms and look at how youngsters are being included and whether we feel that we’re following best practices in that area. We’re also embarking on; we should be starting after the year, working on a professional development plan that includes both special education teachers and regular education teachers learning how to differentiate instruction and how to do good behavior management techniques.
Our second goal, again, in special education, we love the letters. TWNDP means time with non-disabled peers and by and large, ID means intellectual disability. This all ties into the inclusion concept. The state is monitoring carefully as a result of some lawsuits and consent agreements that have occurred over the last few years. The amount of time that our youngsters with intellectual disabilities are included in a regular education placement as defined by 80% of their school day. We are doing well with this compared to the state. We’re not near the 80%, but the state isn’t either. Everybody’s working on it, everybody’s thinking about it and everybody’s trying to make this a reality. This is a process of aligning the IEP, looking at the general curriculum and making certain that we’re following the best practices for special education for these youngsters. That’ something that’s a goal for us as a community of educators, but it’s also for the state of Connecticut. Just as a side note, the state of Connecticut has moved on this particular issue to the forefront of the state. It used to be quite near the bottom in terms of their performance with including youngsters with ID and regular education and now they’re right near the top. I believe they’re number 6 or 7 within the nation in terms of moving forward with this particular goal, and so we will be moving forward with this particular goal as well.
Goal #3 – When we reviewed the statistics for the department, we noticed that we do have a high level of youngsters, and again, we’re talking about special education students here, who have been suspended for a variety of reasons for more than 10 days and the regulations indicate that a suspension of 10 days or more constitutes a change in their educational placement. What we will be doing is reviewing our data, school by school and developing a process for reviewing suspensions and looking at suspension alternatives. This is something that’s good for every student, not just special education students because we’d much rather have our students in their seats and learning, than home. By and large, we also want to maintain a positive atmosphere in the school and it will take some work to do both of those things in moving forward.
Goal #4 is to improve the early intervention process. This is a process by which, it’s really a cooperative effort between special education and regular education to assist students in the regular education process. We know that youngsters don’t all learn in the same way, and so this process focuses on looking at a youngster before they’re referred to the special education process and to see what different methods can be tried within the regular education program to make those youngsters successful and that’s something that, again, as a state initiative and an initiative that we’re going to continue to follow.
Goal #5 is to improve the staff’s ability to manage students with problematic behavior. We have engaged the staff in large scale training. This was initiated prior to my coming here, but it’s an excellent method of helping folks to deal with youngsters with problem behaviors before they become significant problem behaviors. It talks about how you can de-escalate a situation and it’s called psychological and physical management training. By and large, we have a number of folks who are trained in this and it is certainly going to continue to benefit to building a nice positive atmosphere in our schools.
Our last goal, we need to improve the accuracy of our IEP paperwork and compliance with timelines. This again, is a something that actually, the timeline issue is all but taken care of. We’re looking at statistics for this year and it looks like we’re very positive way for that. We are implementing a new database system called IEP direct and Allison is the black belt of the special education department with regard to this IEP Direct and sheparding us forward. With this program and Allison’s help and meeting with staff and principals over the course of this year, we hope to make sure that we’re doing things just as we should be doing them.
Any questions that anybody has, I’d be happy to answer.
Mr. Apicella: In terms of a checklist for the regular master test, what percentage of our special needs students (inaudible)?
Mr. Lees: I don’t have the exact number this year, it changes from year to year, but the state has a guideline of 1% of all the students in a given grade level. This year the state has introduced a new concept where we’re going up to a total that will be 3%. There’ll be another alternative assessment modified assessment, I’m trying to think of the acronym, it’s MAS, Modified Achievement Standard is another test that we’re looking at and we’re working with the state and we will be up to, more than likely, the 3% kids who are taking alternative assessments.
Mr. Apicella: Do you anticipate the modified (inaudible) for March?
Mr. Lees: Yes, it should be in place.
Ms. Pond: I have a question with your first goal and I’m just wondering who is specifically going to be responsible for aligning of the individual IEP to the CMT and CAPT? I know it’s the PPT’s responsibility, but is there something on the IEP where that’s written in, because it’s a great goal, but how are we accountable for that?
Mr. Lees: How do we accomplish it? That’s a great question. The way that you start is by looking at each youngster’s IEP, rather each youngster’s performance on the CMT and look at their performance on each of the strands that are there and what we’ve done, is we’ve given each of the case managers and teachers a copy of that information. They have it available in the school as well, but that was our initial foray into this approach. Then they are sitting down with the IEP’s and keeping in mind that this is not a new idea to this district and I would say that the majority of the IEP’s are aligned, but we’re just making sure from the get go that they are in tuned and in sync and are working with that information and they also have access to working with Allison and myself as the year progresses.
Ms. Pond: (inaudible) the teacher of record would be overseeing that particular aspect.
Mr. Lees: Right and it’s not a unilateral decision because if there are significant changes on a youngster’s IEP, then you come back to the table and have a meeting with the parents because, the parents are key to this whole process and so we would do that.
Ms. Pond: One other question, collecting the data on the co-teaching being involved in other committees, this is an eye opener. Listening to feedback from teachers, both special ed and regular teachers and so I was wondering who was going to collect the data on this co-teaching and hopefully it goes forth very positively.
Mr. Lees: Right, that dynamic team of Allison and Andy. We’ll be working with the administrators in each of the buildings. We have been getting feedback from the administrators, and hopefully, we’ll be moving ahead more vigorously with the actual time in the classroom.
Ms. Baldwin: Thank you very much, Mr. Lees and Allison for being here and sharing this information. It’s very helpful to us.
4. Class Size Report – (Information Only – No Action Required)
Next on the agenda for the board is I think a very important presentation. It is class size report. In my former district, this was annual information that was presented to the board and it would be my hope that we can in the future to present this every fall you. It’s an opportunity for us to take a look at trends over time. Certainly this year, this is our first run at it in Watertown, but I think as we move forward into budget deliberation and preparation, this will become an important resource document to the board as we anticipate program needs and try and wrestle with decisions relative to programming and so Mr. Hasbrouck did a lot of work with the building principals to compile this information and so I will turn it over to Mr. Hasbrouck who will walk you through the finer points of this class size report.
Mr. Thad Hasbrouck, Director of Curriculum & Professional Services, will provide the Board with a report on the 2008-2009 class size enrollments across the district. (See Attachment A.)
Mr. Hasbrouck: Thank you. I did not prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Attachment A in your board packet is the report that I’ll be referring to and I’ll try to make some sense of page after page of numbers and help bring some meaning to that. I would also like to echo what Karen said and that is to thank the principals and their support staff for their assistance in pulling together a considerable amount of information. What you have in the packet is information at every grade level in each school throughout the district and is based on the October 1st report. It’s basically a snapshot in time. Attendance and enrollments reports are submitted to the state on October 1st and so it’s just an opportune date to use because there’s some consistency from year to year.
At the elementary level, the information is broken out to you by grade level. At the middle schools, it’s by team at each grade and at the high school; it’s by courses within the department areas. If we can move to page 5 of the report, what we do have in a five year history of each grade level throughout the district. In the right most column, 2004-2005 school year, the left column, the current school year. If you look at the totals for each of the schools from right to left, from 04-05 to 08-09 you see a small decline in numbers and that is a trend that is not only in Watertown, but generally speaking statewide. We just received today a report from (inaudible) which provided for us a ten year projection of enrollments and it will be interesting for us to have an opportunity to analyze that information to see if that slow decline in enrollment continues and I believe in a quick (inaudible) of it, it does do that in about 1% – 2% a year. On each grade level, you’re talking about 5 students. It’s not as though we’re talking about huge numbers, but over time those numbers accumulate. Polk and Judson represent grades 3, 4 and 5 on the right side of the page; you’ll see a combination of the two grade levels. And again, if you’ll look at the totals going from 04-05 on the right to the left you see through the middle section, a continuation of that reduced enrollment as you look at 3 to 5. And then we break it down by grade level. Table 2 on page 6 has the elementary school class sizes. The format for the report from here on out, on the left column you have grade levels or subject areas and then in the second column is the number of students in each class in the elementary level. You’ll have it by team broken up in the middle school, and by subject areas and course in the high school. But you’ll see each of the classes and their size. Over the right side, the total and then an average of class sizes. If you focus on the right column, from the full day kindergarten, through grade 5, you’ll see a fairly consistent class size, numbered 21, 21 ½ in that range. The one blip on this screen is grade 5 at Judson and the class size there is slightly larger, in part, it was a budgeting and staffing issue that we were forced to create that. Are there any questions on the elementary level? If not we can move onto table 3.
The first of the middle school pages is grade 6. Of course, this is the first year that grade 6 is at Swift, on that five year history, while grade 6 shows up at Swift, previous to that it was at Heminway Park, but for the sake in integrity of the report, they are at Swift, we want to certainly include them in every way possible in our reporting. There are three teams in grade 6. There were 4 teachers on a team. At the grade 7 and 8 level, there are 5 teachers on a team, but there are 4 at this level. Each of the teachers may specialize in literature, language arts, math or science, and each of them teach a social studies section. And again, when you look down at the right column in terms of the average section size, you see a fairly constant set of numbers. I’ll talk a little bit about what these numbers might mean.
Mr. Apicella: It seems like (inaudible).
Mr. Hasbrouck: Some of that is driven by course sectioning, for instance, in the Math area, you start to get into some specialization. Students who are stronger in math or a more advanced section than another. And so that begins to drive class sizes. Students with special needs might have particular sections they need to be in because of the cooperative teaching that’s taking place with the special education staff. So you’ve got with the inclusion model, there’s going to be some variation on that theme.
On table 4 with grade 7, as I mentioned a moment ago, we have 5 teacher teams. Of course, with so many things, there are exceptions. The navy team at the bottom of the page is actually a split team for grade 7 and grade 8. Part of that is enrollment driven. We don’t have the numbers of students and the staff to be able to offer a stand alone 3 teams at each grade level, 2 ½ if you will. And again, class enrollments are fairly stable throughout the period. One thing to note when you hit grade 7 and grade 8 and I’m not sure about grade 6 when the final scheduling was done, is that in Math, students can be off team. They’re not necessarily wrapped in the same team. So that begins to drive some of the numbers in those fluctuations and sections.
Ms. Pond: Is reading part of language arts?
Mr. Hasbrouck: Yes, adolescent literature. As you’ve raised that question, in many districts, language arts is a 2 period, a double class. At the middle school here, there is the adolescent literature and language arts and while they meet separately, but in effect, language arts is offered for 2 periods. There’s a strong focus on the literature on the reading and developing and enhanced with the reading. I think the fruit of that effort shows in our rising CMT scores in that area.
On grade 8, again the navy team leads the way. They kind of tie in with end of the page before with their split and again for grade 8 we’ve got 2 other full teams of 5 teachers and again, you start to see some consistency with numbers. If you look at grade 8, you’ll see some slightly larger class sizes. The 8th grade class is somewhat larger than the preceding classes and the classes that follow it.
On table 6, the unified arts page ties together the three grade levels. One of the things that we spent a lot of time on in last year in planning for in anticipation of the 6th grade class coming to Swift Middle School was the development of the unified arts program across all three grade levels with a constraint that we had the same staffing as was existing before. So we were basically taking the unified arts program for two grade levels and trying to create a program for three grade levels and I think we were pretty successful in doing it. We’ll always continue to tweak and refine the process. In the sixth grade, students are exposed to foods, music, art, library skills, developmental guidance, computer, exploring tech, enrichment section and a sustained silent reading. It’s all part of their unified arts program in addition to their physical education and for a large number of students, the specified music programs of band, chorus and strings. In 7th grade, they have exposure to food, music, art, exploring tech in the graphics area, computers, developmental guidance, and sustained silent reading and then in 8th grade there’s a focus on computers and woods in their program. As well in 8th grade, students begin to pick up a language and we offer French and Spanish and you have all of those numbers before you. If there are no questions for the middle school, we’ll move onto the high school which begins on table 7 and continues on through table 15 if memory serves me correctly with all the different departments.
Beginning with English, you see kind of an ascending order of English I for grade 9, English 2 is for grade 10, 3 for 11 and 4 for 12. The American Studies program is a junior program. It’s a co-taught social studies and English class and the one thing if you will, is offered for the first time this year, last the year the Curriculum and Instruction committee and the Board of Ed approved introducing that course for students who have taken American Studies and had perhaps passed the history segment of it, but not the English, (inaudible) out of sync and as well for students who have moved into the district from a school which may have had a different sequence of course offerings. It provided an opportunity for students to be able to continue in their program without disrupting their entire schedule. The one anomaly that you’ll probably see is at the very first line, English I, level 3, you’ll see one section of 11. That is our honors cohort. You’ll see that number kind of bouncing up in some of our other subject areas as well. Down at the bottom of the page for English, you’ll see that theatre arts and extended writing were not offered this year. The first two, theater arts were not offered because primarily we don’t have an auditorium to perform and it’s been the front wide open to the spaces at this point and extended writing was one of the casualties of last year’s budget process. We had to reduce our English staff. In the social studies area, again the first line, you’ll see the honors cohort in the World History is the one small section. What we have been able to do in the past year to 2 years is to begin to expand our electives. About halfway down the page, when you see AP Psychology, we had a Psych program for honors students but it is now in an advanced placement level. Behavioral studies are a psychology program as well as child psychology. That was formally in the family and consumer science area. It had not been offered with staff reductions years ago. It’s been folded into the social studies program in an attempt to address some of the NEASC concern which was to expand our elective offerings. That was the curricular nut that we had to crack. This is one area which we begin to face that. The board has heard reports about including civics into the 2 year US History sequence. If you look at the bottom of the page, civics and fundamentals of government, they’re semester courses. They add up to .8 full time equivalency. Any that’s rolled into history that really opens up the staffing to continue to expand the elective programs that we have. In mathematics, again it’s pretty self-explanatory. The typical sequence is algebra, geometry, algebra II, and then pre-cal, calculus. Some students have come into the high school having already taken algebra I and moving right into the geometry sequence. There are some other avenues that students can take as well. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a number of computer offerings that a significant number of our students have taken. Advanced computer applications, again the number is small, it’s our commitment to NEASC and the continuing to offer electives so that students can continue to progress through particular strands of courses. In science, we have the integrated biology is honors cohort science course for freshmen year. Most of our students come in taking integrated science. They used to take earth science; this is our first year with integrated. But the integrated biology incorporates bio, some of the themes of the other sciences that they’ll need for CAPT testing. It also sets them up so that sophomore year they can take AP Chem, junior year, AP Physics, AP Bio and some of the other science areas we can continue to expand on the offering of advanced placement course for our students.
Biology level I is new this year. It’s small in number, but that’s by design. It’s for a number of students, particularly as we looked to an inclusive model for students who would just struggle with the concepts of another level. This provided another avenue for them to take biology and meet the graduation requirements and spend greater time with peers.
In world languages, we begin to see some combined sections. Again, if you look at French II, those are actually sections that are combined. They meet at the same time so there’s a total of 15 students in one section. In French IV and V, they, too are combined for a section of 15 Part of that is staffing driven. We just don’t have the staff to be able to break it down in smaller numbers, but we want to continue to offer the strands to our students so that they continue through to the highest level possible so that they can be competitive with their colleagues from other high schools as they apply to colleges and universities for their post high school planning. And again, at the bottom of the page, in addition to French and Spanish, we offer Latin and again, it’s a numbers driven issue that Latin II and III are combined.
In Voc Ed, on table 12, there are a number of course that we’re offering and again, not as many as we would like and staffing is what it is. One note to make, is that in family and consumer science as you see the class sizes there, if you follow some of the courses and the guideline for that, there should be 16 students in the class. Ms. Blunker has very creatively redesigned the room to the extent possible to allow 18 students in there, to try to provide an opportunity for more students to get into some elective courses. Career connections, we didn’t offer this year. It’s been offered in some other years, however, there’s an additional section of Marketing I, and so that’s where that teacher’s teaching time went. And also a note for medical careers, students can take the intro to and when they take medical careers, it’s a significant amount of time that they dedicate to that. It’s a double period class that meets every day, instead of one period every other day so they have a double period in the classroom and they have double periods where they’re off to a hospital setting, a lab setting where they’re applying the skills that they’ve learned. At the end of the year, they take the licenser exam so that they can become a nurse assistant. Just about every student in recent memory has passed that exam and graduated from high school with that certification in hand.
In technology, again, for safety reasons, we look at 16 as the class size. So when you look at some of these numbers and they appear small, keep in mind they’re in a lab setting, whether it’s a wood lab, metals, graphics, etc., so we also have a commitment to a series of strands so that students who follow the graphics or woods or metals, they really have job entry level skills when they complete that strand. We’ve made a commitment to continue those strands as much as we can.
Table 14, with fine arts, you begin to see asterisks jumping all over the page. And again, it’s a staff issue in an attempt to provide as much opportunity as possible for every student to continue in the art strands. So students start with the art I and then continue on where they can begin to specialize. Drawing and Painting, Drawing and then Painting and then Sculpture is a new strand which we’re expanding and Photography can then break out into darkroom as well as digital photography and again taken to the point that when they’re done, they have a portfolio that allows them to be competitive in the application for an arts college program. The music program can be pretty much self explanatory in terms of band and chorus and strings and a variety of ensemble groups which the board has been supportive of expanding in the past number of years so again we have a greater number of elective offerings for our students. For students who are interested in pursuing music in college, we have a music theory for them and because that is an essential course for them and again, small in number, but these are students who are very serious about pursuing music in the post high school plans.
The last page is the health, phys ed and because it’s two lines, virtual high school is included there. The health program is required of all students, In PE, students are required to take physical education in grades 9 and 10 and in 11 and 12, it is an elective and a fairly sizeable amount of our students continue in that. The virtual high school, as you’re aware, has some limited seating and we’re just about maxed out already for the school year.
Those are our numbers and just to try to bring a little bit of closure to that, the reality is with those numbers, in particularly at the elementary and middle level; our class sizes are larger than the state average. They’re larger than our (inaudible) our reference for educational reference group. At the high school, we are at generally speaking, about at average with our (inaudible). Some subject areas a little bit larger, some a little bit smaller, but we’re able to hold our own there. The one concern that continues with the high school is the ability to expand our elective offerings.
Ms. Pond: I really think we have too many students in our science. Our enrollment is too high in science and in social studies. (inaudible) for open ended experiments and I think that (inaudible) Not the English, but more of the science and social studies. It’s probably a budget thing, but I think we should look at that. That all goes together with the (inaudible) and the CAPT.
Ms. Hasbrouck: One of the advantages of preparing a report like this is you have data in front of you to look at and help make decisions that make sense.
Ms. Pond: The middle school has a pretty high enrollment.
K. Report from the Chairman
Ms. Calabrese: For my report this evening, I’d like to report that at its regular meeting on Monday, December 1st, the Town Council postponed action on the Board of Education’s request to use Heminway Park School in 2009-2010 as swing space for Polk Elementary School. They also postponed action on terminating the construction management contract for the project. Superintendent Karen Baldwin will be present at the Town Council’s meeting on Monday, December 15th to further clarify the Board of Education’s rationale regarding these two issues. Also, as reported by Mr. Lambert, there will be a Budget Committee meeting this Wednesday, December 10th at 6:00 p.m. at the John Trumbull School Library and on behalf of the Board of Education, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and peaceful holiday season.
L. Action Items – Adoption of Items to be approved by Consent
1. Consideration of the Approval of the High School Graduation Requirements – Second Reading
MOTION: Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Pond
At a joint meeting of the Policy & Labor Committee and the Curriculum & Instruction Committee on November 10, 2008, the Committees approved of revisions to the Watertown High School Graduation Requirements, and presented it to the Board for the first reading at its meeting on November 24, 2008. It is presented for the second reading tonight and for full Board Approval. (See Attachment B.)
It is recommended that the Board approve of the Watertown High School Graduation Requirements effective with the Class of 2013.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
2. Consideration of the Approval of Family Medical Leave of Absence
MOTION: Ms. Colangelo, sec. Mr. Mazzamaro
At the Board of Education meeting on January 28, 2008, the Board approved of a childbearing leave of absence, under the Family Medical Leave Act, commencing on or around May 23, 2008, until January 5, 2009, with use of accumulated sick time and then leave without pay for Ms. Stacey Payne, grade 5 teacher at Judson School.
Ms. Payne is requesting an extended Family Medical Leave of Absence from January 5, 2009 through June 30, 2009, without pay and without benefits.
It is recommended that the Board approve of an extended Family Medical Leave of Absence from January 5, 2009 through June 30, 2009, without pay and without benefits, for Ms. Stacey Payne, grade 5 teacher at Judson School.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
3. Consideration of the Approval of Resolutions for the Adoption of a Deferred Compensation Plan
MOTION: Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Colangelo
Mr. Gary Miller, Interim Director of District Operations, presented information to the Board at its meeting on November 24, 2008, of new IRS 403(b) regulations. The Policy and Labor Committee also reviewed the new IRS 403(b) regulations at its meeting on November 10, 2008.
It is recommended that the Board approve of the Resolutions to adopt a deferred compensation plan pursuant to Section 457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code for the purpose of providing a tax-deferred retirement savings vehicle to its employees. (See Attachment C.)
ABSTAIN: Ms. Pond
MOTION CARRIED: (6-0-1)
4. Consideration of the Approval of the Joinder Agreement for Connecticut Association of School Business Officials 457 Deferred Compensation Plan
MOTION: Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Colangelo
It is recommended that the Board approve of entering into an agreement between the Watertown Board of Education and the Connecticut Association of School Business Officials for a 457 Deferred Compensation Plan. (See Attachment D.)
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
5. Consideration of the Approval of the Watertown Board of Education Employee 403(b) Plan
MOTION: Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Colangelo
It is recommended that the Board approve of the Watertown Board of Education Employee 403(b) Plan. (See Attachment E.)
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
6. Consideration of the Approval of Transportation Contract with First Student
MOTION: Ms. Colangelo, sec. Mr. Mazzamaro
The five-year contract with First Student to provide transportation services for the students of the Watertown Public Schools ends on June 30, 2009. Mr. Gary Miller, Interim Director of District Operations, has provided a written analysis of a new transportation contract with First Student. (See Attachment F.)
It is recommended that the Board approve of the extension of the Transportation Contract with First Student for a period of four (4) years, through June 2013.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
7. Consideration of the Approval of Superintendent’s Goals for 2008-2009
MOTION: Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Pond
It is recommended that the Board approve of the Superintendent’s Goals for 2008-2009 as presented. (See Attachment G.)
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
8. Consideration of the Approval of the Acceptance of Gift
MOTION: Mr. Mazzamaro, sec. Ms. Colangelo
The Oakville Watertown Youth Athletic Association / Pop Warner Football wishes to donate to the Watertown Public Schools a check in the amount of $800.00 as proceeds from the concession stand for 2007, and a check in the amount of $1,500.00 for the 2008 season.
It is recommended that the Board accept this donation and a letter of thanks to be sent to the donor.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
M. Future Agenda Items and Board Members’ Comments
Mr. Mazzamaro: I had a discussion with Superintendent Baldwin before the meeting started in regard to the pick up situation at Heminway Park School. The Police Commissioner recently asked us to switch from picking up students from the top to the bottom now. I think the office has done a great job with jersey barriers, but I’ve had the pleasure of dropping off and picking up on top and the bottom. I picked up twice last week at the bottom and I just want to say, this is no disrespect to the board of ed, but I think it’s a disaster on the bottom. The parking lot is full. There are kids flowing in and out of cars everywhere, looking for their parents. You can’t move around this parking lot. It takes one car to block off that route and cars pulling in can’t go anywhere and they just start backing up into the main road. Kids are looking for parents. I think it’s far more dangerous. I’ve dropped off on top, it was very orderly, two crossing guards, people are always careful on the road and I just wanted to comment and say that it is much more dangerous. I think that somebody from the police commission ought to come in and take a look at the situation at the bottom. I think it’s far more dangerous now than it was ever at the top.
Ms. Calabrese: This is just an ongoing issue.
Ms. Baldwin: We continue to monitor this. It is a challenging situation. As was mentioned, the jersey barriers were installed last week and we thought that that would help provide for a safer walkway for students there. The department of public works is going to stripe or paint, I believe it amounts to about 33 parking spaces down there, but nevertheless, it’s all about timing and people coming in and being able to park and children being able to discern where their parents are and whose parked and whose not. This is at best, a work in progress that we are sort of an all hands on deck trying to make this work. Mr. Mazzamaro’s experiences are not all that different from other parents that we heard from so we are trying our best to be responsive of the concerns of the police commission and are very appreciative of First Student’s support of changing the bus transportation and the ease with which they work with us on these matters. It doesn’t appear that there is much more we can do if we keep it this way. I’m not sure what else we can do with those 33 parking spots.
Ms. Colangelo: What is so different with Judson at Heminway, than Heminway at Heminway? Is it because of the age of the children?
Ms. Calabrese: I think so. I would tend to think that because they were sixth graders, more of them took buses. There are parents that would prefer to drop off their 4th and 5th graders. I think that’s what the issue is.
Ms. Hasbrouck: You didn’t have as many students. You really had grade 6, if you take two grades 5 from the two schools, now you have 3, 4, 5 from the school, you have more students being picked up and dropped off either by parents or by bus.
Ms. Baldwin: It’s a difference of either 70-100 children at Judson. And remember as we anticipate the approval of putting Polk there, there are even more children at Polk. I do believe though, we will be putting more children on buses, just because of the Polk side of town; it’s a considerable distance to Heminway. So we are working on this and I will be back in touch with the police commission and the town manager and Mr. Cavanaugh from public works to see what we can do to try and ameliorate this.
Ms. Pond: I see Diana O’Neal in the audience. I just wanted to say I’m glad we gave First Student the contract. She’s always been such a wonderful leader at the helm of First Student and a professional. I just wanted to say that to her while she’s sat through our whole meeting. Thank you, Diane.
N. Public Participation
none
O. Executive Session
Personnel Matters
MOTION: Ms. Colangelo, sec. Mr. Mazzamaro
To enter into executive session with the Board of Ed Members and the
Superintendent at 8:43 pm.
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
P. Regular Session
The meeting returned to regular session at 9:45 p.m.
MOTION MADE TO ADD 2 ITEMS TO AGENDA – L-9 and L-10 at 9:45 p.m.
1. MOTION: made by Mr. Killeen, sec. Ms. Colangelo to add L-9 to the agenda.
SUBJECT: Consideration of Waiver of Personnel Policy as it relates to the appointment of Supervisor of Financial Services.
Opposed: None
Abstained: None
Vote: MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
2. MOTION made by Ms. Colangelo, sec. Mr. Lambert to add L-10 to the agenda.
SUBJECT: Consideration of the Appointment to the position of Supervisor of Financial Services.
Opposed: None
Abstained: None
Vote: MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
__________________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: L-9
SUBJECT: Consideration of the Waiver of Personnel Policy as it relates to the appointment of Supervisor of Financial Services
MOTION: Made by Ms. Colangelo, seconded by Mr. Mazzamaro
Opposed: None
Abstained: None
Vote: MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
___________________________________________________________________________
Agenda Item: L-10
SUBJECT: Consideration of the Appointment of Shirley Oliver to the position of Supervisor of Financial Services, effective December 9, 2008, at an annual salary of $52,000.
MOTION: Made by Ms. Colangelo, seconded by Mr. Mazzamaro
Opposed: None
Abstained: None
Vote: MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
Agenda Item Q:
Subject: Adjournment
Motion Presented By: Mr. Mazzamaro
Motion Seconded by: Mr. Killeen
Text of Motion: That the meeting be adjourned at 9:55 pm.
Opposed: None
Abstained: None
Vote: Motion passed unanimously
The meeting was adjourned at 9:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Colangelo, Secretary
Board of Education
Patricia A. Berber,
Board Clerk
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