(Reminder: official minutes of the Melrose
School Committee can be found on the melroseschools.com web site following
approval by the Committee. My notes are below, and edits and errors are mine
alone.)
The sunny morning of March
5th found Melrose education leaders at City Hall’s Aldermanic
Chamber before the Committee speaking to their budget requests for FY17. It was
an opportunity for the community to hear directly from our leaders about their
needs and requests related to improving student achievement.
The latest budget is here:
http://d1868cr0a5jrv6.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/FY17-Budget-Draft-1-revision-2-3-6-2016.pdf.
Curriculum and Instruction: begins on
p. 45
Dr. Adams: Difficult choices need to be made in the area of
curriculum materials. Melrose will meet its second payment (of three) of $88K
for the elementary reading materials called Reading Street. However, no social
studies materials (recommended by the Social Studies Program Review), or science
materials that would begin to align the district with the new science
frameworks are included. There is also no line item to set us on a cyclical
path for replacement materials in all content areas. (Previous comment from Supt. Taymore: curriculum materials should be
replaced about every seven years.) A needed Scantron data collection
machine and testing materials are added to the budget this year. Course reimbursements for teachers (who are
contractually able to access and increase their knowledge) continue as do
mentoring memberships. A .5 teacher for ELL (since we currently have 120 ELL
students including 64 students at Lincoln and 24+ at Roosevelt) is added. We
would likely be cited by DESE if we don’t employ this new teacher.
Notes based on
questions to Dr. Adams: * Partnerships
with Salem State allow for low cost or free professional development (PD); *
staff is still developing technology skills but the use of technology is
increasing; * memberships allow teachers the opportunity to bring what they’ve
learned back to the district and share it; * Melrose has done a huge amount of
PD and has opened that option up to other districts (and it’s good for teachers
to hear another voice); * the ten SEEM districts are using Election Day for PD,
and teachers can travel to different sites where different learning options
will be offered; * our pay scale is not the most competitive, but many
opportunities for PD allow teachers to move based on the contract’s lane
schedule providing a financial benefit.
Elementary: begins on p. 14
Elementary Principals: The goal is to maintain what we have and meet our
financial obligations. Curriculum materials that are consumables must be replaced
and a new cohort of K students will need materials. One question is how to fully
reap the benefits of the new technology without Library Media or Academic
Facilitator services. The Instructional Coaches have done 70 sessions of PD,
just at the elementary level. In terms of staffing, we’ll need to add a 5th
grade at Winthrop (housed in the computer lab which is a smaller space). At
Lincoln this year there are 19 classrooms so classes need to be divided and
recombined into 27-30 students in PE/art/music since there aren’t enough teachers
for a smaller class size (and paras are very helpful in the buildings because
they can accompany classes to the specials during teachers’ Common Planning
Time).
ELL services continue to
be a challenge.
Notes based on
questions to the Principals: If
possible, the district tries to buy curriculum materials ahead (for the coming
year); * additional administrative help is needed in buildings – especially Roosevelt
and Lincoln which both house 400+ students; * if K’s are added, they may have
to go to HM or Hoover, moving art/music; * NAEYC Accreditation is held for K’s
at all the elementary schools and is needed to qualify for the K grant so it’s
a good investment; * consumables are purchased by the district and not parents
(as often happened in the past); * K tours were very popular this year, often
with over 60 people per tour; * one way teachers support Social Emotional
Learning is by employing classroom routines that the students know and use, and
building the independence of students is a challenge at the beginning of the
year but once employed effectively, also helps classroom workability; * there
is one Integrated K in each building with 18 students vs. 25; * there is no
social worker for elementary built into the budget; * as a country, schools are
seeing more students enter with behavioral health needs like anxiety, trauma,
and refugee situations and ultimately without a social worker, there may come a
time when we have to outplace some students.
Coming up: More on the 3/5
session including Secondary, Athletics, Special Education, Technology, and
Administration!
