NEWTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006

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

PRESENT: Chairperson Dori Zaleznik, Vice-Chairperson Marc Laredo, Gail Glick, Susan Heyman, Anne Larner, Reenie Murphy, Claire Sokoloff, Jonathan Yeo, Mayor David Cohen, Superintendent Jeffrey Young

ABSENT: Jocelyn Rice, student representative – Newton North High School, Matthew Shea, student representative – Newton South High School

CALL TO ORDER

Chairperson Dori Zaleznik called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Tony Mastantuono, Government Access Coordinator for New TV, expressed concern about the elimination of the 1,350 square feet allocated for the television production studio in the revised space program. He expressed his opposition to this decision and urged the Committee to reinstate this cut. Newton is known for its wealth of program offerings so that there is something for every student. If this cut becomes a reality they will no longer be leading other communities but falling behind. Currently the TV production class produces a 30 minute program called Tiger Magazine which has been in the school for nearly 30 years. Students learn script writing, set design, shooting, editing and directing. This hands-on experience, which cannot be taught from a textbook, prepares them for the real world upon graduation. Were it not for this program he would not be in his current position and the countless programs that people watch on local cable access would not be produced by the many former Newton North graduates. People constantly refer to their vision of the new high school as “state of the art,” and technology continues to be get better, faster, easier and cheaper. Students entering school today often have more of an understanding of technology than what is being provided at school. Newton Public Schools needs to embrace this vision and support the rich, instructional program as stated in the design criteria approved in September, 2004.

Cheryl Turgel, President of the Newton Teachers Association (NTA), spoke on behalf of the many members present this evening from all of their units, as well as parents and colleagues from other City unions, to express disappointment about the lack of a contract being in place. They have been working cooperatively to come to a settlement and have come a distance from where they started back in January, but they continue to be separated on two very important issues – the time to be able to provide vital parent conferences, especially at the elementary and middle school levels, and appropriate compensation for their delivery of excellent quality of education. They continue to hear the School Committee talk about how they respect and value their work and they would like to see this reflected in appropriate compensation that keeps up with the higher cost of living as indicated by the Consumer Price Index. They would like acknowledgement of the stress they face due to continuing reduction of resources and increased demands and urged the Committee to pay the reasonable wage that the NTA put on the table on 8/29.

Nicholas Palm, media teacher at Bigelow Middle School, talked about the importance of the TV studio program and his hope that this item will be reinstated in the plans for a new high school. Bigelow’s morning announcements are delivered to the student body in the form of a newscast, which is run by students under his supervision. This is also true at Day under the leadership of Tim Teelin. Over 40 students have approached him to volunteer and this number grows daily. The sign-up sheets to participate have become more of a waiting list. The professionalism and knowledge these students demonstrate in this area is unheard of at the middle school level. He also teachers video production and media literacy, which are invaluable skills in this communications driven society. These programs instill in students creativity, confidence and responsibility.

Gail Glick, chairperson of the School Committee’s contract negotiation team, stated that the School Committee is eager to settle the contact with the NTA. They have been diligently negotiating and have made substantial progress on many issues. It should not come as a surprise that with limited financial resources available to public education for the past four years that it continues to be a growing challenge to strike a proper balance among the competing needs within the system. The faculty/staff of the Newton Public Schools are among their highest priorities and they endeavor to reach a fair and equitable agreement.

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES’ DISCUSSION

Matthew Shea commented that the teachers and staff are what make the Newton schools excellent and he would prefer money be spent on their contract because if they are content they will do a better job teaching.

Jocelyn Rice stated that it is the unique programs at the high school level that make it a special place, so she hopes they will keep the television studio in place.

RECOGNITIONS

The following National Merit Scholarship semifinalists were acknowledged:

Newton North Newton South

Daniel Catomeris Benjamin Cotton

Mary Jiang Andrew Greenspon

Lyudmila Kovalchuke Robert Hass

Daniel Lurie Alana O’Brien

Corinne Mitchell Alexander Olesker

David Smith David Plotkin

Rebecca Wright Amy Radding

Olena Tsykynovska

APPROVAL OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

MOTION: It was moved to approve the School Committee

regular meeting minutes of 5/8/06, special meeting

of 7/26/06, executive session of 9/11/06, regular

meeting of 9/11/06, and executive session of 9/13/06.

(Larner – Murphy)

unanimous

REPORTS

SUPERINTENDENTS’ PERSONNEL REPORT

Paul Stein noted that this is the first report of the year, which shows all the activity that has occurred over the summer. He stated that there are 120 new Unit A members and 56 staff that attained professional teaching status, which attests to the quality of teachers they have in the system.

Anne Larner commented on the number of part-time retired teachers returning to teach.

Paul Stein responded that because retired staff are limited as to the

amount of compensation they can receive, they are most often used at the high school level to teach one or two courses. This is a tremendous value for the system to have their expertise and specialty in some of the higher-level courses.

Clare Sokoloff asked if there are any trends in terms of the rate at which teachers leave the system.

Paul Stein replied that they developed a survey and asked teachers who were leaving the system to complete the questionnaire so that they could obtain this type of information, but very few people responded to this request. They are trying to determine if there is another method by which to obtain this data. This is a huge issue nationally, where over 1/3 leave in the first three years of teaching and ½ leave the schools they began in by the 5^th year.

REPORT ON NEWTON TEACHER TRAINING INITIATIVE (NTTI)

Jonathan Bassett, History & Social Sciences Department Head at Newton North High School, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the NTTI program. Massachusetts State regulations now encourage school districts to create their own site-based teachers preparation programs that emphasize practical training in pedagogy. In the summer of 2005, a group of teachers and department heads from both high schools received a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education to design such a program, which was approved by the State. NTTI will employ Newton teachers as faculty to teach candidates and the State approval allows them to grant initial teaching licenses in history, English, math, and three sciences (biology, chemistry, physics). Graduates will receive the same teaching license that they would if they were taking a university program. Candidates will spend a year at the school site learning to teach under the guidance of experienced Newton teachers, who will be employed by NTTI as instructors of Methods of Teaching courses. They will have student teaching experiences, a pre-practicum and a practicum. It is anticipated that NTTI will improve performance of student teachers in Newton’s classroom, recruit a high quality and diverse teaching staff for the high schools, and retain the most talented and energetic teachers who can advance themselves by teaching in the program. Newton is the first community outside of underserved urban areas to be accredited by the State to offer this kind of program. They are working towards partnerships with Tufts and Brandeis that would allow NTTI graduates to use their coursework towards graduate degrees at these institutions. NTTI can also be used to recruit minority teachers both in Newton and across the State. Since it will be a lower cost alternative than university programs, it will be attractive to a variety of people who might find those other programs more financially difficult to manage. The benefits for Newton students are obvious in that they anticipate these candidates will perform at a higher level than typical student teachers, who are dividing their time between a university campus and the schools and who do not receive the same type of intense focus that these candidates will be experiencing. He wished to thank the Newton Schools Foundation for their generous support of this work and Susan Linn and Paul Stein, who were crucial in guiding them through this process. He also thanked the steering committee members who are listed in the report.

Gail Glick asked about the cost aspect of the program, if it has already been launched this year, and if there is any thought to extending it to other levels.

Jonathan Bassett replied that they have designed the program to run on the cost of the tuition, which will be $5,000. The only comparable program that they are aware of in the State is at Shady Hill School, which charges $9,000. They are currently in the process of recruiting faculty and preparing their publicity, with the goal of beginning in the fall of 2007 with two candidates in each field. They want to start small, with highly qualified candidates, to be sure they can run the program effectively. There is no reason that they could not replicate this at other levels in the system in the future.

Marc Laredo asked how faculty would be compensated and if they are accounting for the use of resources in the system.

Jonathan Bassett stated that NTTI will pay a $1,500 stipend to participating staff. Aside from the use of classrooms, they do not anticipate a tremendous demand on the system’s resources, but that is something they will be thinking about as they move forward.

Dori Zaleznik asked if they have a target number of candidates for when the program is in full swing.

Jonathan Bassett stated that if all goes well the first year with the eight candidates, the easiest way to increase that number would be to simply replicate the program on both sides of the City for a total of 16. They feel it is very important that the people who teach the classes be the same ones who observe the student teachers in the classrooms, which is a big difference between their program and those offered at universities. That decision will naturally limit the size of the program.

Dori Zaleznik asked how the teachers will get the experience necessary to teach these courses.

Jonathan Bassett stated that they had to actually write the syllabi in order to get State approval, so they have a very complete draft of what the courses will contain. The program calls for a board of directors to select the faculty and there are certain minimal levels of experience that they will look for in this process. The application process requires teachers to videotape their teaching and submit clips with annotation describing their methods. They will be looking for experienced, capable and reflective staff.

Jeff Young asked if someone could comment on the long-range perspective of this program in terms of its value and what makes it special.

Burt Weiner, English teacher at Newton North High School, talked about the tradition of teaching training that has been ongoing in Newton since the late 1950s. At one time there was an office of student teaching but, as with many of these type of programs, funding eventually evaporated. They currently train approximately 40-50 full-time interns at Newton North on an annual basis and it is a core piece of the professional development program for teachers. They have collaborative relationships with Simmons, Boston University, Boston College, and Framingham State. It also enriches the instructional program for students, particularly those who benefit from having additional and often younger adults with whom to make personal connections. The teachers receive vouchers from these institutions and can use them to gain higher training levels and advanced degrees. He views NTTI as a natural extension of this long-standing work.

Dori Zaleznik hopes that as the program rolls out and is successful they can use it as a model to expand into the elementary schools and beef up the background of teachers in math and science.

Gail Glick asked if other communities have adopted a licensure program.

Jonathan Bassett stated that many are in the urban districts that have special challenges of recruitment, such as Brockton, Springfield and Lowell. Boston has a similar program to NTTI, where it runs for a full year and the expectation is that graduates will commit to three years. In terms of the western suburbs, Newton is the only one with this type of program in place.

UPDATE ON SCHOOL COMMITTEE WEBSITE

Reenie Murphy stated that the website subcommittee has been working with the Information Technology staff in designing the site, which will be a link on the Newton Public Schools site and no longer a separate entity. It was noted that this was an opportune time for change as the Newton Public Schools’ URL will change as of January 2007 from www.newtonpublicschools.com to a single address for both sites - www.newton.k12.ma.us. They plan to contract short-term services to assist the district in designing a template for uniformity and formatting for all users. A target date of 10/15 has been set for this transition, but the old site will be accessible through the end of the year. The School Committee’s site will be a link on the school system site and will focus on their purpose, their membership and subcommittees, meeting information, key topics, the budget, policies and archives. They will also need to develop a process to upload the archived documents that exist on the old site realizing that this may take months to transition every document to the new site. Documents will be accessible during this time on CD. She wished to acknowledge and thank Andy Vizulis, who for the past six years has maintained the site voluntarily and has provided a wealth of information for people and kept it consistently updated. She then referred to the draft template of the site which Committee members received at their places this evening.

Dori Zaleznik echoed Reenie’s comments about the work of Andy Vizulis, who got the initial website up and running at a time when nothing was in place and who included a great deal of helpful information for people. The goal now is to review the information and make sure everything is in its appropriate place and easily accessible to the public.

Anne Larner asked what will happen after 10/15 if someone goes to the old site.

Carolyn Wyatt, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction, explained that there will be a transition period through the end of the year, as there currently is with the old URL for Newton Public Schools, where it will bring them to the new site.

Anne Larner asked if people will be able to access the archives during the transition period.

Reenie Murphy stated that after 10/15 the archives will only be accessible if they have been downloaded to the new server.

Anne Larner asked if there were plans to eliminate some of the archives or if they will all remain in some location.

Reenie Murphy stated that the plan is to distribute the material to the appropriate central administration office and give people the option of whether or not they want to save the archive.

Anne Larner requested that if anything is not going to be saved it be brought back to the Committee for discussion. She uses the archives frequently and it is a great source of information for research purposes.

Dori Zaleznik suggested there be a back-up copy of everything even if there are decisions made not to post certain things.

Marc Laredo is pleased to see that they are addressing their goal of public engagement through this venue and he thanked the subcommittee and staff members for their hard work.

Susie Heyman suggested posting a notice in the school newsletters to help people through the transition.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

CONTINUED DISCUSSION RE: SHORT-TERM SPACE NEEDS – CAPACITY/DATABASE

Dori Zaleznik noted that tonight’s material includes the inventory of elementary school space that the administration did over the summer. At the next meeting they will have the enrollment figures and can put that information together with this material in order to determine where the classroom space problems are for September, ’07 and what options they might have to address those issues.

Michael Cronin, Chief of Operations, talked about the inventory process and the involvement of the principals in the discussions. They measured the spaces in each building and then updated the floor plan layouts with those numbers. They identified 22 categories and then notated which buildings had what type of space and the size of those spaces. A larger version of the material will be provided to the Committee for ease of reading.

Sandra Guryan, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Finance & Planning, added that the inventory is helpful in getting a perspective of what the elementary facilities look like and for making some comparisons among the buildings. They were careful in tying back to the instructional classrooms currently in use (251) and when they report on the enrollment it will provide the class distribution, which will also tie into this figure. The chart includes information on art and music rooms, cafeterias, and libraries, to name a few of the categories.

Mike Cronin noted that they will continue to make edits to this database as physical changes occur and usage changes in the buildings.

Susie Heyman asked if the #1 in a column indicates that the space being used is a full-sized classroom.

Mike Cronin replied in the affirmative.

Sandy Guryan explained that the chart was prepared in this way so that they could easily see the number of full-sized classrooms being used for regular instruction, as well as for other purposes.

Mayor Cohen asked how they are describing full-sized classrooms.

Mike Cronin replied that it is described as a comparison to other classrooms in the particular building and not a standard systemwide.

Anne Larner asked why libraries were included in the count.

Mike Cronin stated that former classrooms that were converted into libraries are listed as possible classroom space that could potentially be reconverted.

Anne Larner does not feel it is fair that a school that may have been fortunate enough to have a library built into the facility should benefit because of the nature of how they obtained the library. Every school needs a library and somehow that should be treated the same.

Mike Cronin stated that they had no preconceived judgments about how space should be used, but were simply trying to identify and catalogue similar types of space.

Susie Heyman agrees with Anne that the libraries should not be included in the count with regular sized classrooms.

Dori Zaleznik agreed. The count should add up to rooms that could potentially be used as classrooms and libraries should not be considered in that equation.

Reenie Murphy stated that it would be helpful to know what spaces have been subdivided because there are many instances in which an area has been rearranged several times in order to accommodate programs.

Mike Cronin stated that the way they approached this work was to take a snapshot of what is in place today and catalogue the space as it currently exists. They can certainly go back and do a historical survey if that is the desire of the Committee.

Dori Zaleznik believes if it is easy reasonable and easy to notate this information she would agree that it might be helpful, but she noted that principals were involved in the development of this material and have indicated that it accurately reflects what is in place in their buildings.

Reenie Murphy mentioned that it is the quality of the space that is of most concern.

Susie Heyman believes the type of information Reenie is requesting is better left to the larger facility study, because there are a lot of undesirable spaces being used across the system to house offices and programs. This information is supposed to provide a current picture of what is in place, with the short-term goal of determining what they need in order to provide enough classrooms for next year.

Mike Cronin mentioned that one thing they struggled with was the definition of basement spaces. There are some schools with space at ground level that one has to go down stairs to reach, which feels like basement space, but technically is on the ground floor.

Dori Zaleznik mentioned that this would also be something that would probably be reserved for the long-term facilities study.

Susie Heyman mentioned that this information could be useful for this study in instances such as where an art room is in a regular size classroom but in a basement space, where they might not want to consider housing it in that type of environment for a year.

Jeff Young mentioned that as they get closer to making decisions they are not going to be based solely on a chart of information. They will need to look very closely at individual schools and available options, so this should only be viewed as a planning tool.

Claire Sokoloff noted that in looking at the chart in conjunction with the floor plans there appears to be some schools that have spaces that could be configured somewhat differently. She wondered about the possibility of having an architect look at the information and provide some input on what might be possible to change short-term without a great deal of difficulty.

Dori Zaleznik stated that she does not view the hiring of an architect as part of the short-term process. First they need to see the enrollments so they can determine which schools are in the most need. Another option is to adjust the location of citywide programs and programs that may not be using all of a classroom space.

Claire Sokoloff suggested having the Building Commissioner and other City staff with expertise review the space.

Dori Zaleznik added that sometimes things that seem simple are not always as easy as they appear. However, that does not mean they are not worth exploring.

Marc Laredo commented that they need to be cognizant of the cost and timeline of improvements, but should not be afraid to explore any option. He hopes the Committee can receive alternative recommendations so that they can weigh the various possibilities.

Anne Larner suggested they start thinking about ways to simplify what is obviously a lot of information that is only going to increase. It might be helpful if the subcommittee can pick out key elements and summarize things with a less complex matrix that translates the information into some standards that will be helpful as they move toward making decisions.

Dori Zaleznik suggested relabeling the second to last column from “total number of regular sized classrooms in use” to “total number of available classes in school” for better clarity.

Susie Heyman thought it would also be helpful to move that column next to the column listing the number of instructional classes for ease of reading.

Anne Larner mentioned that Williams is listed as not having an auditorium which is incorrect.

Sandy Guryan noted that they found that error but apparently the correction did not make it onto the chart.

Claire Sokoloff requested they review the square footage of Williams’ library and also noted that in the floor plans Ward’s first floor is duplicated and the second floor drawings are missing.

Reenie Murphy asked about the next steps going forward.

Dori Zaleznik stated that the subcommittee will continue to meet, refine the materials, and attempt to develop a simpler spread sheet to accompany the enrollment figures, which will be presented at the next meeting. Once they have defined the number of schools that have problems based on enrollment they will examine the various options and present those to the Committee.

Jeff Young clarified that the enrollment figures they will receive at the next meeting will be actuals as of October 1^st and the projections will come several weeks later.

Dori Zaleznik noted that the actuals will show them whether they met this year’s systems’ projections vs. the principal’s numbers and they will then have two years of this data to review.

Claire Sokoloff added that not only will their conversations evolve around enrollment projections and space, but also the values and priorities they will need to discuss in ranking the priorities for their decisions making. The open forum with the public will help in this regard. Given the tight timeline in which they have to get the modulars in place, if needed, these conversations need to move along quickly.

Dori Zaleznik noted that they created the schedule of meetings by working backwards from having the modulars in place in order to be sure that they had sufficient time if this was the direction they would be taking.

Susie Heyman mentioned that the timeline for the Design Review and Board of Aldermen process seems ambitious. They are all aware of how things can get bottled up in those places. She would suggest they continue to revisit this schedule and if they get to a point where they believe modulars may be one of the solutions, the sooner they can get that process moving the better.

ACTION ITEMS

CONTINUED DISCUSSION/VOTE ON 2006-2007 PROPOSED SCHOOL COMMITTEE CALENDAR/DOCKET ITEMS

Dori Zaleznik noted that they included in this revised version most of the suggestions for additions that were requested by members at the last meeting. She mentioned that they did not include a discussion of the school calendar given the climate of negotiations.

Jeff Young talked about the long-term facilities discussions that will be commencing in April and continuing through the last meeting in June, when the Committee will vote to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the Statement of Interest, which should flow easily and naturally from the consultants report.

Dori Zaleznik added that a prerequisite for submitting a Statement of Interest is conducting a long-range facilities study, so in absence of that they would not be eligible for submission.

Reenie Murphy hopes they will reconsider putting the calendar discussion back on the agenda once contract negotiations are settled.

Anne Larner suggested that as they head into the budget guidelines discussions they might want to consider having pre-budget discussions around some of the areas of concern, similar to what they did last year, so that they are not overwhelmed with information during budget deliberations.

MOTION: It was moved to approve the 2006-2007 Proposed

School Committee Calendar/Docket Items, as

presented (Draft #2).

(Larner – Glick)

unanimous

COMMUNICATIONS

None

PUBLIC COMMENT

There were no members of the public who wished to address the Committee at this time.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.