What You Missed at Tuesday Night's Board of Ed Meeting

A big thank you to my fellow EYE contributors for their coverage of the first two hours of Tuesday night's BOE meeting. Many parents spoke and many Ad Hoc Committee members were there as well, and I deeply appreciate everyone's time and dedication to the cause.

I also applaud all the Ultimate Frisbee Varsity Players who dressed up in suits and spoke before the board about the need for a JV team: they were well-spoken, passionate, and serious about using process to bring about change. Great job!!! You'll be pleased to know that BOE Chair Ted Raczka said after the short recess (when most of the public left) that the "athletic director is working on it [a coach for the JV team and official JV team status]," and he [Raczka] "is sure there will be a positive resolution." BOE member Ryan Kennedy pressed for a more specific explanation, and Raczka replied, "he [Athletic Director Michael Pitruzzello] said he's going to fix it." To me, that sounds like the JV Ultimate Frisbee Team is going to happen, so stay tuned for an official update.

So as this article's title suggests, there was more to Tuesday night's meeting than the flurry of emotion and excitement over redistricting. In fact, I'd argue what the board talked about AFTER everyone went home was as important if not MORE important than the details of redistricting. I'll give you a brief summary first and then some commentary after:

• There are still lingering issues at MHS as Facilities Director Ken Jackson attempts to close down the construction project. A large retaining wall has to come down and there are problems with the stage. BOE members expressed much frustration with these lingering issues, but there's not much to do except to hold contractors accountable for their work.
  


• BOE member Sally Boske attended "Day on the Hill" in Hartford last week and informed her fellow board members of the "doom and gloom" that is coming out of the State Capitol. Specifically, State Legislators are looking at seat belts on school buses and a possible 50% decrease in State Funds coming to towns between now and 2014. Boske also said that "if we don't start making changes to the way we do business, the state will mandate those changes for us." BOE member Corinne Gill expressed frustration at the agenda's lack of specifics about what "State Legislative Issues" meant: "if parents knew that our state representatives want us to send them a letter stating our views on school bus seat belts, there might have been some public comment tonight about that issue." Gill also asked Boske to be more specific about what "changes" meant, and Boske pointed to accelerated high school as a possible example (meaning kids could graduate in less than 4 years if they wanted to).
  
  
• The BOE voted to send our state representatives a letter stating the Board's view on school bus seat belts. The BOE does not support seat belts on school buses. (A draft copy of the suggested letter will be posted in separate EYE article in the next day or so.)
  


• The BOE meets with the Common Council on Tuesday, April 27 at 7pm to discuss the 2010-2011 school budget.
  


• Transportation Director Mike Milardo has been sick for some time, and Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges had a meeting with DATTCO on Wednesday, March 10 to make sure busing is running smoothly. One of the issues on the agenda for that meeting was school bus seat belts.

Commentary:

You've already read much on the subject of redistricting, but do you really see the larger context at hand? In two year's time, we will have a $4 million dollar gap in the school budget because the federal funds we received from the stimulus package were INSTEAD OF state and town funds we should have received. Now add in the mumblings from Hartford that state funds may be reduced up to 50% of what we're expecting over the next 2-3 years. Now add the fact that DATTCO Vice-President Chris Gibson told me in a phone interview a few weeks ago that a retro-fit on school buses to add seat belts would cost roughly $22,000 per vehicle. If the State mandates seat belts, the District would be responsible for 1/2 that cost (let's agree to side-step the debate over seat belt necessity for the time being). There are 60 school buses listed on DATTCO's website for Middletown, so that's a possible $660,000 that we'd have to pay to add seat belts.

The point: traditional funding for education is evaporating right at the time that we need to commit MORE resources to solving the systemic deficiencies that have put us in a place we don't want to be. Our kids must have a solid educational base to be able to negotiate and conquer the "new" economy that is developing right now.

Then there was the very real fear in the voices and arguments of the parents who spoke before the BOE on Tuesday night. More than 400 children will leave a known community for an unknown one. I know that fear and it is a valid one. It is also a crippling fear, and it might cause us to choose what is easy over what is right. And, in the absence of clearly defined goals and strong leadership that outlines the steps to those goals, we turn to fear as something to grab onto because it's known.

BOE member Sheila Daniels told her fellow board members, "It's time to develop some sort of proactive approach to education in Middletown. I couldn't agree more. But what does that mean, exactly? Let me make a few humble suggestions...

• We have to stop teaching the CMTs. A test is an assessment tool, not a teaching method. Yes, test results currently drive our educational process, but it shouldn't be that way. A test is a snapshot of a child's understanding in that moment. It was designed to measure how well our children are learning the curriculum they are being taught. Poor test results mean children aren't digesting what is coming their way. Now, we can argue the WHY that's the case, and we should. The most obvious reason is that there are too many kids who can't read at their grade level, and so that's where our attention and our resources should be. What if Middletown's number one goal was for ALL children to be reading at or above grade level by third grade? How much money would be saved on support services in middle school and high school if all children consistently read at or above grade level?
  


• We should mean we, not "us" and "them." I have followed the Board of Ed for over a year now, and I have perceived an "us v. them mentality" between parents, the administration and the BOE. I will conceed that I think this attitude is slowly changing for the better (the Ad Hoc Feasibility Committee was an amazing example of partnership and a process that worked), and I have to point to greater community awareness of the issues as a contributing factor in this improving relationship. But we can do better. There should always be a room full of parents at BOE meetings, and not just because some program is about to be cut out of the budget. Likewise, the flow of information home from the central office should be more regular and more encompassing. Yes, we have a large district. This fact makes it critical for the Superintendent to ensure parents are aware of the issues at hand and clued into important decisions coming up.
  


• By their own admission (and the "they" is the school board and the superintendent), Middletown schools ought to have a more challenging curriculum and longer schools days. The Superintendent also wants an elementary foreign language program and more PE time. Guess what...that costs money and there isn't much of that coming our way in the near future. Guess what else...it's what our kids need. So let's add those specific things to our goals and prioritize our budget to get what we want. Don't financial advisors tell their clients to save first and then construct a budget from what's left?


• Can we think outside the traditional school year model? It was designed for a farming calendar and it forces us to let expensive buildings sit for 3 months in the summer. (Cheers, though, to the administration for finding a way to let other city programs use the space for the summer.) But what if we had school all year long with students on staggered vacations? Could we use less building space for the same amount of students?


• Macdonough as a magnet school is a fantastic idea for our town for more reasons than racial balance. Let's not drop the ball on this opportunity!

In the end, though, I think our chance at changing the way we do "school" in Middletown rests on the way we each perceive our responsibility to each other and to our town. We can blame the BOE for a lack of leadership, and the BOE can blame parents for lack of involvement, and the Administration can blame teachers for not teaching and the BOE for not paying and parents for not parenting, and we could all blame the State for creating mandates that make us crazy.

We could also decide that now is our moment to change our collective destiny, and we could take Macdonough's recent success and run with it on a district-wide level. We could set trends instead of chasing them, and we could focus on community building as a critical tool to support the parent/teacher relationship. I think we are starting to do these things already, but we need Middletown behind our efforts and not just the few parents here and there who actually go to PTA meetings. I just spoke to a parent who attended Farm Hill's PTA meeting tonight. She said there were roughly 25 parents there instead of the usual 6, and while many are still struggling with the sheer number of children affected by the redistricting, the meeting ended with "how do we make these new families welcome in our school?" Bravo - that sounds like community building to me!