Before the football was
played and the turkey eaten, the School Committee met twice in November! Check
the minutes for the official version, but here are my notes of the highlights:
November 15th
·
Supt. Taymore
announced formation of an Elementary Music Working Group to provide
recommendations regarding vision, status, structure, and plan. The group is
expected to report back to her prior to the presentation of the budget to the
Committee in case there are any fiscal suggestions.
·
The Dept. of
Public Works (DPW) provided a report on completed work in the schools.
·
Interim Director
of Finance and Administrative Affairs Ms. Farrell provided a summary of the End
of Year Report, which is submitted to the state annually. Total school-related
costs in FY16 were $54.4M, with the biggest line items being teacher salaries
($16.3M), insurance for active and retired school employees ($6.4M), payments
on debt ($3.9M), and tuition to charter schools ($2.6M).
·
Ms. Farrell’s
title was changed from Interim Director to Director of Finance and
Administrative Affairs after Supt. Taymore confirmed Ms. Farrell’s licensure
with the state.
·
Enrollments
were presented with these highlights:
o
Enrollment
continues to trend upward. We now enroll almost 38oo students.
o
149 English
learners are now enrolled, up from 116 last year.
o
The minority
population has increased from 18% to 20%.
o
The low income
population continues to increase.
o
The homeless
population is down from 23 in FY15 to 18 this past year.
o
We currently
enroll 30 school choice students and four foreign exchange students.
o
Future
implications:
§
Pre-fabricated
classrooms will be added at two schools.
§
Additional elementary
specialists (art, music, PE, etc.) are needed.
§
Increases in
the number of student social/emotional/behavioral issues is challenging.
§
Additional
high school and middle school staff is needed to address increased enrollments,
academic requirements, and student interests.
·
The FY17-18
school calendar was approved. School will start on August 30th, 2017
and end on June 14, 2018 if there are no snow days.
·
School choice
numbers were approved by opening ten seats each in Grades 7 and 8, and five
seats in Grade 9.
November 22nd
·
The MHS
Science Dept. has received a grant to participate in the Mystic River Watershed
Association Herring Monitoring Project. Student work will occur from Fall 2016
– August 2018.
·
A new
five-year agreement to rent the Ripley and Beebe buildings to the SEEM
Collaborative was approved, with rental increases and more tenant
responsibility for maintenance and repairs. It was noted that SEEM has been a
good neighbor for many years and that there was agreement by both parties that
the relationship was mutually beneficial.
·
A waiver was
granted to the MHS girls hockey team to allow 8th graders to play in
order to fill out an undersubscribed roster.
·
City Solicitor
Van Campen presented an element of the recently passed Municipal Modernization
Act that allows school districts to appoint one Committee member to sign
warrants (school bills) on its behalf, and report afterwards. Both Mr. Van
Campen and Melrose CFO Mr. Patrick Dello Russo (in conjunction with the outside
auditors) recommended against adopting this practice and continuing with the
current practice that requires a majority of Committee members to approve and
sign the warrants. Their counsel was taken and no change was made to the
process.
Last meeting of the calendar year
coming up on December 13th at 7:00 at City Hall when we expect to
take up dollar maximums for student checking accounts, Internet safety
measures, the hiring of legal counsel, and annual data presentations that the
Committee expects to see from the administration. We will also conduct our
annual self-evaluation.
