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Notes provided by: SPOT Representative School Committee Meeting September 9, 2003 WELCOME Welcome back – I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing summer – we are back, the children are back. I would like to take a few minutes to give a review and update everyone on the work we did this summer. I would also like to recap and summarize some of the changes in our schools from how we were able to operate last spring compared to this fall.
Our subcommittees were quite busy this summer – the BSC (Paul), the Specialized Student Services(Marty) and the Community Relations (Joani) Subcommittees all met. I would like to thank all of you for the time and effort you put in this summer – it certainly helps the full committee start the school year running. The SC also worked with APEF on the emergency fundraising effort – I know Jeff used his fundraising experience to help structure the mechanics of the effort and Barbara helped with the phone banking. With the full committees approval, Kay and I worked with APEF on the funding priorities. Finally, I know some of our members Paul, Barbara, Joani and Sue attended some of the meetings held by the June 15th Coalition to help educate that group. I would like to thank all of you for your hard work this summer, and particularly Superintendent Donovan for the countless hours she and her staff put in so that we would have an exciting and fruitful school year. At the end of June things looked pretty grim, but we had some pleasant surprises in August in the form of Fed grant that the Superintendent will tell you about. II. I would like to speak briefly on how this year will differ from past years – OVERALL IMPACT - school has been open for 4 days, and I have heard the comment, “well things are not that much different from last year” – well I am here to tell you that things are different, but it is a credit to our super, this SC, the quality and dedication of our teachers that we could make almost 3M in cuts and have some people not observing the differences. But believe me this is a different school system than last year - First
I will give you the numbers – Total
151 Net
104 fewer adults in our schools than last school year We were not able to fund our Human Resource Officer – this was a fairly new position created to bring us up to date with hiring, particularly minority hiring. The cost of school lunch went up from $1.75 to $2.00 per day. The number of traffic supervisors was reduced by 6. An area that may not be obvious immediately, but we had to eliminate 5 custodian positions and 2 maintenance positions and their corresponding supply budgets. We eliminated 3.5 clerical positions – which may not seem like much but those are the people who check records and attendance, answer questions and get back with parents on a timely manner. All supply and textbook budgets were reduced. At the Elementary level – we have 9 classes which have 25 students or more, the largest class is 28. Last year we had 3 classes with 25 or more students, the largest class was 27. We were not able to fund the visual arts program. Physical education instruction ( I know the highlight of my childrens day) was cut in half to one day per week. The Science Coordinator position was eliminated – that position was responsible for coordinating consistent science lessons and teacher support in k – 5. The Academic Challenge and Enrichment has been eliminated for grades 3 –5 but replaced with an enrichment period for all 3 – 5 students. Kindergarten fee went back up to $1500 from a low of $500 There are no Social Workers at the elementary ( we had 2 and ½) level to help children and families cope with serious social issues. We
were not able to fund our professional library staff. Parent volunteers
will work to keep the collections organized and so children can check
out books. OTTOSON Larger class sizes in the 7th and 8th grade clusters Elimination of ACE program Theatre and Drama is only offered to 8th grade students not to 7th graders The health program has been reduced. Music – seems to be a lot of confusion, same as last year Concert Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra and a Chamber Orchestra a Chorus and a Select Chorus and yes Ms Demetrio is still with us. AHS STEP and REACH-up at a reduced level Fewer teachers – so reduction in class offerings and more study halls and larger class sizes. Although I have not heard of any excessive number of directed studies students have more than last year. 2 house deans responsible for 1100 students rather than 3 which we had last year. Super Donovan will report on the high school class size and course offerings in her report Close on a positive note – we did get some last minute grant monies (to continue our Spanish program and the Kindergarten grant, I will let the Super update us on that in her report. When we contemplated working with APEF it was important for both the SC and APEF to raise money for areas that were a priority for the system. This school system and SC should feel a lot of support from this community knowing that community members donated money to the fund knowing that their money may not directly benefit their child. APEF raised $270,000 in 6 weeks for programs in which this committee and this superintendent set the priorities – thank you very much. SPOT
offers these notes as a service to the community. |
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