NEWTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING – SEPTEMBER 11, 2000

EDUCATION CENTER, FRAZIER ROOM, 7:30 P.M.

PRESENT: Chairperson Verne Vance, Vice-Chairperson Anne Borg, Susan Albright, Susan Heyman, Anne Larner, Nancy Levine, Andris Vizulis, Mayor David Cohen, Talya Bock, student representative, Newton North High School, Sharone Gilon and Solomon Israel, student representatives, Newton South High School

ABSENT: Rodney Barker

OPEN SESSION

At 6:00 p.m., it was announced that the Committee would entertain a motion to convene in executive session.

MOTION: It was moved, by roll call vote, to convene

in executive session for the purpose of

discussing matters related to collective bargaining. If passed, the Committee will

reconvene in open session at 7:30 p.m.

(Levine - Vizulis)

7 – 0 – 2

Absent for meeting: Barker

Absent for vote: Mayor Cohen

ROLL CALL VOTE BY WARD:

Ward I, “yes” (Vizulis); Ward II, "yes" (Albright); Ward III, "yes" (Larner); Ward IV, "yes", (Levine); Ward V, "yes" (Heyman); Ward VI, absent (Barker); Ward VII, "yes" (Vance); Ward VIII, “yes”, (Borg); Mayor David Cohen, absent for vote

CALL TO ORDER

Chairperson Verne Vance called the meeting to order at 7: 40 p.m. and welcomed everyone back to a new school year. He noted that Rodney Barker is out of town and sends his regrets that he will not be available for tonight’s meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Ken Hamilton, President of the Newton Teachers Association (NTA), thanked the School Committee for the position they took last June against the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam being the sole criteria for students to receive a diploma.

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES’ DISCUSSION

Verne Vance welcomed the new student representatives and encouraged them to participate fully in School Committee meetings. Representatives then introduced themselves.

RECOGNITIONS

The following high school students received the 2000 Stanley Z. Koplik Certificate of Master Award based on their 1998 MCAS scores:

Newton North Newton South

Carl Fleisher Julia Appel

Adam Sowalksky Matthew Aronson

Melissa Chin

Cyrus Chung

Laura Conrad

Madeline Fleisher

Lucian Iancovici

Benjamin Kooy

Michael Langer

Katherine Lau

Aaron Perlman-Price*

Polina Teslyar*

Daniel Tremblay

Evan Zucker

*Also received tuition waiver to attend a Mass. public college/university

APPROVAL OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

MOTION: It was moved to approve the following School

Committee meeting minutes: regular meetings

of 5/22, 6/12 and 6/26/00; executive session

minutes of 5/22, 6/12, 6/26, 7/13, and 7/20/00;

special meeting minutes of 8/2/00.

(Albright – Heyman)

8 – 0 – 1

Absent: Barker

SUPERINTENDENT’S PERSONNEL REPORT

Roberta Dollase, Director of Human Resources, discussed the personnel report. Over 3,000 resume¢s were received over the summer for the 100+ professional appointments. Every professional position is filled. There are still some areas of shortage, such as aides/ISS (instructional support staff) and substitutes and they hope to have these filled within the next few weeks. While Newton continues to be a highly desirable community in which to work, they need to constantly work on recruitment efforts, particularly in areas where there is a concern of shortages of well-skilled staff, such as physics, chemistry, special education and foreign language. Newton is not alone in this problem, as it is a national trend. They also discussed the teacher retirement bill and the need to determine how that will impact school systems, so that they can be prepared for the future.

FYOO FINAL BUDGET REPORT

Sandra Guryan, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Finance & Planning, explained how they were able to reach a zero year-end balance in the FYOO budget, with a combination of additional reserve aide, kindergarten grant, surplus funds and freezing some school instructional materials at the end of the year. She discussed the difficulty in their ability to manage this process with no reserve account from which to draw, if necessary. She concluded by introducing Linda Doliner, the new Business Analyst.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

DISCUSSION/APPROVAL OF PROPOSED SCHOOL COMMITTEE DOCKET ITEMS

DISCUSSION OF 2OOO/2OO1 SYSTEMWIDE GOALS

The Committee discussed these two items in tandem, made some suggestions for revisions and will vote on these at their next meeting.

HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING PROJECT UPDATE

Carol Bock, Director of Capital Planning & Operations, provided an update on the status of the high school building project. The Board of Aldermen approved the money for design and project management services on 8/14. The City received good responses to the Request for Proposals (RFPs) and the number of architectural firms chosen to be interviewed was narrowed to three. The Designer Selection Committee, joined by members of the school department and School Committee, has interviewed each firm. The Mayor will interview these firms and make the final selection. The Designer Selection Committee is also reviewing the proposals in response to the RFP for project management services and will discuss these following the selection of the architect.

The Committee discussed the impact of the delay due to the petition campaign initiated by the Newton Taxpayers’ Association to hold a voter referendum on the funding of the project.

Susie Heyman announced that Citizens for the Future of Newton, chaired by Jim Mahoney, is a citizens group that has formed to communicate to the community the need for this project.

James Marini, Assistant Superintendent for High Schools & Operations, updated the Committee on the status of the phone systems being installed at the two high schools.

DISCUSSION OF MCAS

Carolyn Wyatt, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction, presented the report that attempts to set forth both pros and cons of the issues surrounding MCAS. The concern lies with it being the single measure in determining graduation. It is her desire to have Newton be a role model in developing another model that would complement the State’s assessment.

Discussion ensued around the difficulty of assessing the Frameworks given the constant revisions being made to the documents and the fact that this results in inaccurate comparisons. They also discussed the high-stakes aspect of the test and its impact on at-risk students and drop-out rates. They talked about the need to develop a local assessment system in Newton that could be used as a role model for other communities and various assessment tools, such as portfolios, presentations and exhibits, that could be used in conjunction with the MCAS exams, so that students can demonstrate their knowledge of a particular subject matter with other methods. Concerns were expressed about MCAS’s impact on the bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) and special education population and the need for proficiency diplomas for students who may never

pass the exam but who can demonstrate their achievement in other fashions.

In addition to the concerns expressed around MCAS, discussion occurred about its positive aspects. School systems are becoming more accountable in assessing their curriculum and instruction, as they move towards the reform of standards-based education, in order to provide all students with a rigorous common core of learning. The Committee heard about the remediation efforts put forth this past year to help prepare the most at-risk students for the exam, which was very successful, but also very costly. The Committee also discussed the differences between the status of the Frameworks in each subject area and the fact that the issues cannot be generalized and have to be considered in three distinct areas: Frameworks, standards, and the test document.

Carolyn Wyatt will have further discussion with staff and develop a draft proposal based on the issues raised at tonight’s meeting.

ACTION ITEMS

VOTE TO ACCEPT DONATIONS

MOTION: It was moved to approve the donations of $300

from David Foster Photography and $100 from

the League of Women Voters, as outlined in

Attachment G.

(Larner – Borg)

7 – 0 – 2

Absent for meeting: Barker

Absent for vote: Mayor Cohen

VOTE TO APPOINT DELEGATE & ALTERNATE FOR MCAS/MASS CONFERENCE

It was decided to table this item until the next meeting, when the Chairperson has had a chance to discuss this with Mr. Barker, who has previously served in this role.

COMMUNICATIONS

None.

PUBLIC COMMENT

None.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.