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School Committee - 10/08/13

Professional Status Staff Recognized
The Superintendent recognized teachers who received professional status after completing a “rigorous course of training”. They were each presented with a token to commemorate the districts desire to “keep you in Belmont”
Rebecca Carle – School Nurse CMS
Meaghan Clow – Grade 3 Wellington
Lindsey DoBello – Kindergarten Wellington
Lisa Dobey – School Psychologist - Wellington
Kimberly Elson – School Psychologist – Winn Brook
Alyssa Green – Reading Specialist Butler
Bhuvana Kaushik – Math CMS
Julia McClelland – Math BHS
Alison Murray – Grade 2 Butler
Danielle Pandolfo – Grade 3 Winn Brook
Alicia Safier – English BHS

Citizens concerns
Matt Sullivan - class size - Is it time to redistrict? Wellington is full to capacity. What is happening with other schools? Superintendent will talk later about enrollment.
Salaries - department heads & H.R. part time, buildings and grounds received large raises - Superintend responded that salaries are competitive to other towns.
Chris Doyle
1. 5th grades are much too large at CMS and hope 27 is not the district's baseline start for level service
2. Drop foreign language in 5th grade, how time would be filled in 6 day cycle dare, 4 days homeroom time, no language program and there should be teaching during that time
3. Elementary redistricting needs - there needs to be more equity of class size

Chairman's Report
Congratulate professional status staff
Welcome Lisa Fiore sworn in last week and SC is full with 6 members
10 Members Superintendent Screening group announced will interview & recommend by Thanksgiving
Screening Committee members include:
• Laurie Graham, parent and School Committee Chair;
• Anne Lougée, parent and School Committee Secretary;
• Lisa Fiore, parent, School Committee member;
• Ralph Jones, Vice Chair, Board of Selectman, former Belmont School Committee Chair
• Michael Libenson, parent and Warrant Committee Chair;
• John Sullivan, President of the Belmont Education Association, Belmont High School teacher;
• Janet Carey, Principal, Winn Brook Elementary School;
• Jamie Shea, parent and president Foundation for Belmont Education;
• Jane Feinberg-Kaplan, parent, founding member of Belmont After School Enrichment Collaborative; and
• Mary Jo Peterman, parent and co-chair Belmont Special Education Advisory Council.

Cancer Fundraising - Car wash, 20 student walk Making Strides 4 Belmont student recognized for raising $13,000 in activities last year
Walk to school day & College Fair Wednesday
Broadway Night 10/25

Superintendents report
Modeling groups
8 advisory teams identity critical trends and long term projection
Compensation, Sp.Ed, Enrollment, Operations, Instructional Modeling & Innovation, Supplemental Revenue Sources, Instructional Technology, Student Life, small group goal to come up with long term recommendation no deadline but hope to complete by begin of year hope to go along with town groups

Enrollment advisory group- identify why long term protections have been off, this year net gain 151 which biggest group - BHS 63 CMS 28 elementary 56 for a total of 149. Critical issue more sophisticated than redistricting and is alone not solution. All schools are full and will manage this year but there is implications long term. 4292 students arrive under 4,000 student when started, what is trend and how will we adjust to in scheduling. Wellington 5 students appear and within day students are reallocated accordingly. The district is generally topping guidelines or exceeding and breaking primary guidelines. Hitting space limitation will manage this year but problem cost to handling population. $12,500 per pupil expenditure an average single property tax does not offset the cost. Belmont only gets 4k back from the state. Possibility of 2/3 3/4 grade classroom combination need and will need to have planning and staff development in place
Belmont is a Tier One district which makes us a magnet district and we will continue to draw families infested in the learning
NEASC - relevance of working with group and action with lifting performance measures. Engagement with NEASE has been productive and they have responded to concerns about consistency and overlay compliance. Reading suspended self study for NEASC
Business & Finance Report
Accountant closing FY 2013 $1600 positive balance

Superintendents evaluation
Process educator appraisal system each member evaluates on 4 instructional standards and evaluate 3 goals. Each assigned a value and average derived proficient rating average of 3 Low moral on staff. Kevin exemplary in areas of not directing by knowing how to intervene and when not to what is your legacy leadership cultivation and not have to leave system. Exemplary management and breadth of knowledge need to work on community members feeling valued and heard


MASC vote representative at conference on Friday to vote on resolutions-
Subcommittee appointments - interest based bargaining with to association
Finance - Anne - Laurie - Kevin
Curriculum & Instruction - Lisa - Laurie
Policy Procedure - Cathy Miller- Elizabeth Gibson -Debra Mello - Laurie stay on naming rights
Student Representative
Max Dividowitiz
Smooth transition on the performing fall play Kings Stag Nov. 7,8,9
Matching band doing well grown 30 more - pep band last year unorganized and this improvements with new advisor
More positive school atmosphere - less stress with new library arrangement arteotk calming
School spirit high
Fine performing arts going well
International club
More and more creative Multi disciplinary interactive teaching methods
Transition smooth for students
Depression has not seen anything about and stress and school noting put forward publication, no speakers. Need to speak out about depression
S.C. question off handed said technology used inconsistently? Technology tends to be distracting variation - talk technology in November

September 24th minutes approved

Diane Ravitch @ Harvard - Oct. 24

Citizens for Public Schools is proud to present Diane Ravitch, speaking on her new book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Reign of Error picks up where Diane left off with her ground-breaking book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

When: Thursday, October 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Memorial Church,
Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Tickets: $12 (To register online today, click here.)

Come join us and learn how corporate reforms threaten public education as a cornerstone of democracy. Stay to hear Diane’s proposals for reasonable and achievable solutions to the challenges our public schools face. As Jonathan Kozol, our speaker from last fall, wrote in The New York Times, “Those…who have grown increasingly alarmed at seeing public education bartered off piece by piece, and seeing schools and teachers thrown into a state of siege, will be grateful for this cri de coeur — a fearless book, a manifesto and a call to battle.”

To become a sponsor of this event and/or register and pay online, click here.

Cecile Moskowitz and Rhonda Cherry ROC to support student learning.
For the past several years, our bulletin board was used to display photos of our students actively engaged in fun learning experiences that were taking place in our learning center. The students’ loved being reminded of the connections they were making by being able to see themselves with each other, with us, and equally as important, engaged with the material they were learning.

This year’s bulletin board was inspired the REACH OUT AND CONNECT (ROC) slogan. ROC seemed a perfect fit for our board this year and so with some regret we finally took down all of the pictures from the past 2 years, and decided to start anew. Not only do the students love seeing themselves surrounded by their teachers and peers but they are reminded each day of how much we value the human connections that we are all making with each other. There will always be a place to display student work but we feel that this ROC board displays something equally important, the power of human connections and the need for all of us to be part of a group.