This week’s City Wide PTO
covered some pretty wide-ranging topics!
·
Instructional
Coach Paula Jones talked about a free program for elementary students called
Crazy 8’s Club that she’s supporting. According to the web site
(bedtimemath.org) it is “…not a serious, competitive-worksheet club, but a club
where you explore numbers by building things, making music, and making a mess.”
Volunteers run the clubs, setting the day/time (before or after school). Prep
is user-friendly with lesson planning taking about 30 minutes for a total
commitment of about 1.5 hours/week. The cost for the program is free to
students, with a $50 materials fee that is covered in principals’ budgets. The
Horace Mann club is up and running, with Roosevelt starting this week.
Volunteers are needed at Lincoln and Hoover. If you are interested, please talk
to your principal!
·
Given that
voters did not approve the override, there are negative consequences to the schools.
Here are a few we talked about:
o
There will
remain 35+ students in many art/music classes at the elementary level.
o
Some high
school classes will continue to contain 30+ students (especially challenging in
art classes where materials take up significant space).
o
A great deal
of technology has been purchased to support teaching and learning but there is
no administrator (Director of Instructional Technology) to help teachers use it
in the classroom, support its use in library media centers, or manage the
networking/systems.
o
The average
life of textbooks and materials is five-six years but we don’t have a
continuous replacement cycle, so we’ll have to find that money in the budget or
extend the life of materials.
o
The School
Committee builds a budget each year for which $750K is not yet guaranteed to
the City, and the Aldermen approve that practice and the budget. We know by
October whether the money will come (and in past years, it has come). Elected
officials know that not including that amount would decimate school staffing
(since 86% of the budget is salaries), so the practice continues although it’s
agreed that it is not fiscally sound. The override would have allowed the
budget to guarantee the $750K when the budget is passed, and then when funding
comes in October, it could be used for other city services, like maintenance to
municipals buildings, etc. (Now, those projects are left undone and other city
services receive less support.)
·
A question was
posed around how policies are determined and communicated, in general, and as
related to the lice policy. Discussion centered around policy being a function
of the School Committee and the fact that there are three ways that policy gets
determined: changes to state/federal law; challenges brought to the attention
of the Committee by the Superintendent or the community where policy can guide
the Supt., or as part of a regular policy review. The Superintendent develops
administrative guidelines and/or procedures either as a response to policy or
as a best practice. (All policies and administrative guidelines are on the
school web site.) In the case of the lice protocols, the applicable policy
relates to wellness (ADF) as well as the Student Handbook. (Since the Committee
approves the Handbook, it’s considered policy.) This year a page of changes to
the Handbook was not developed and presented at the time of the Handbook’s
approval and the Committee agreed that it should be presented next year. City
Wide PTO members also recommended bolding changes in the Handbook for easy
designation by parents. It’s the responsibility of the parent to read the
Handbook and understand it prior to signing the form indicating such, but the
district should ensure that changes are easy to find. Regarding lice, the protocols
are based on new regulations from the state (“no-nit policy”) and are now
consistent among elementary schools, with notification going to parents if
three cases are detected in the same grade at a school.
·
Parent
University is November 14th from 8-12 at MVMMS and features a wide
variety of sessions, free to parents and community members. More info at http://melroseedfoundation.org/2015/10/12/save-the-date-melrose-parent-university-sat-nov-14-2015/.
(….submitting a shameless plug for the Inside
MHS session, where I get to sit on the panel and hear what you think about
MHS and you get to be a student-for-an-hour while learning more about MHS
offerings. )
·
An MHS career
fair is in the organization stage. It will be designed to help primarily 10th
and 11th graders learn about careers so they will have more
information as they begin the college search process. Bridge Director Jenn
McAlister will get involved to help find residents in different fields and
request their participation in this event. For more information, contact Jenn
at the Bridge office in Melrose Public Schools.
·
The iRaiders
Annual Kitchen Tour is scheduled for this Sunday, November 15th. To
learn more about the iRaiders, check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/IRaiders-124984927631595/timeline.
More info on the Kitchen Tour here: http://www.cityofmelrose.org/2015/11/12/check-out-the-iraiders-kitchen-tour-on-november-15/.
·
Mark your
calendars for November 20th-22nd and plan to catch our
talented middle schoolers perform Elf Jr.! More info here: https://melrosedrama.wordpress.com/shows/mvmms-fall-musical-15/
·
Thinking
spring already? Graduation is planned for June 3rd, 2016.
·
Next meeting
is December 8th at 8:45 a.m.
