The first City Wide PTO meeting of the
year (September 13th) was very well attended, including representatives from every school in the
district.
Enrollments
If a registered
Kindergarten student doesn’t come to school after 15 days, the district may
enroll a registered student who was on a waiting list for the absent student’s school.
In the same manner, the district could release an absent secondary student’s
schedule to offer a seat in a highly desired class to an attending student. There
is still a K first-choice waiting list but it’s very small. Parents are
generally registering in a much more timely fashion than in the past. Districts
often see a return of students to traditional public districts from charter
schools after October 1st, when enrollment counts are required by
DESE and on which per student dollars are calculated. Charters often counsel
out students with more substantial needs so they do not have to educate them.
Learning Commons tours on September 10th were very well attended and
visitors were delighted with the outcome of the newly renovated spaces.
Ballot Question #2: Lifting the cap on charter
schools: Charter schools are
funded differently from traditional public schools, with the differences very
negatively impacting the City of Melrose which trickles down to the schools. Charter
schools are not held to the same standards as traditional public schools, like
for teacher licensure, their ability to hold 25% of their funds for capital
improvements (while traditional publics can’t keep any), less reporting, and less
oversight. Charters also have no representative oversight body (i.e. they don’t
have an elected school board, instead they have a board of directors). The charter
cap has not been met for Melrose.
Educator Retention
Retaining teachers is
problem in Melrose often due to the unavailability of affordable housing combined
with our inability to pay a salary that can support the housing. New teachers must
not only support themselves but the state requires they earn a Master’s degree within
five years of the start of teaching, so they must fund that too.
Pre-fabricated Classrooms
The plan isn’t finalized
yet, with remaining concerns including the siting of the classrooms on
property, adherence to laws around which municipal entity owns parts of
property, parking; etc. Construction could be phased in. Enrollment numbers
fall between those predicted by MSBA (which are usually lower) and NESDEC
(which are usually higher). There are 992 students enrolled at MHS and the
increase includes both students who have moved to the district and those who
have returned from private/parochial schools which is challenging because they
may have no experience taking MCAS and must do so to graduate.
SDM Foundation
“…is a nonprofit providing
free lessons designed to help people learn how to use computers. We have been
approached by parents who would like some extra help understanding the programs
that their children will be using in school. In particular, the Melrose Public
Schools are utilizing the Google suite, and some parents would like to become
more familiar with those programs. We will be able to provide both small group
and one-on-one help to people in this area. If you are interested, please let
us know which days and times are generally best for you, and we will try to
accommodate people in small groups. As always, all of our services are provided
free of charge.” SDM’s Executive Director is Kristin Thorp, former School
Committee Chairman and long-time Committee member. The fully equipped shop is
located at 465 Main Street and can be reached at 781.606.2621 or info@sdmfoundation.net.
Summer Work
This year, homework wasn’t
graded at the elementary or middle school levels except for 8th
grade math (which had some bearing on placements). AP students had prep work
that must be completed over the summer in order to start the school year well
prepared.
Special Education Funding: More or Less Than Other
Districts?
It’s been said that
special education comprises 33% of our budget and that it’s so much higher than
other districts. The fact is that many districts have a much higher overall
total budget because they include insurance, transportation, utilities,
building maintenance, and construction, but those costs fall on the City of
Melrose side of the ledger, not the schools’. (The Melrose funding philosophy
is that the schools should focus on educational programming and be relieved of
peripheral services.) If those costs were moved from the city’s budget to the
school budget to equalize the comparison, our special ed. funding percentage
would be near or less than other districts (e.g. if the special ed. percentage
is 33% of $28M then it would be less than 20% of $47M which is closer to what
our total costs might be; these are rough figures vs. exact amounts). Every
district’s budget includes different things, depending on how a city and its
schools divide expenses and making random comparisons is not meaningful. Melrose
has created many in-house special ed. programs (like our hard of hearing
program, Social Emotional Learning Program at Lincoln, Access, and others); and
we send very few students out of district (50-52 in a district of over 3800
students which can cost between from $40K - $350K per year). Keeping students
in house is expensive too and Supt. Taymore has a break point equation that
evaluates whether building a program or sending students out of district for
services is more cost effective. It’s hard to build more new programs now with
the space shortage. We are an inclusion district because we believe that every
student has the right to a standards-based education. Good special education
teachers say “our job is to put ourselves out of business” and Supt. Taymore
said that a student doesn’t “have to be on a 504 or IEP” to have student needs
addressed – all student needs should be addressed appropriately.
Update on Competency Based Education
With the Barr Foundation’s
$150K grant, Supt. Taymore and her team have committed to the next step in
exploring this model, including teacher training, public outreach, and building
general understanding. There is a “pyramid of competencies” that starts with
defining what graduation requirements need to be met. Some pilot programs have
begun and Melrose is ahead of many districts with our data teams, exam-based
exemptions, blended learning, etc. Teachers want to employ “habits of work” (like
putting a name on a paper) that are uncoupled from grading. Soon, the 4th
Grade report card will be standards based, followed the next year by the 5th
grade report card.
Media and Reporting
This year the school web
site will be re-designed for improved communication to families and the
community at large. John Guilfoil is helping high school staff understand the
types of information that should be communicated and the (ever-evolving)
platforms that are best, depending on the information.
Victorian Fair
In the past, all schools
had booths, but this year only the Lincoln and Winthrop had booths. The problem
is that they cost money and don’t make money. In the future, maybe consider
having one double booth for all the schools?
High School Suspensions
The school is working hard
in this area. Out of 900 students last year, there were only five suspensions.
Upcoming Dates
- Melrose Education Foundation’s
Annual Night out at the Beebe Estate is September 24th
- Parent University,
co-sponsored by the Melrose Education Foundation and the Melrose Public
Schools, will be held on Saturday, November 19th
- Melrose Energy Challenge
is still an opportunity for families. More here: http://www.cityofmelrose.org/2016/03/22/the-energy-challenge-is-on/
- Next City Wide meeting
is in October
