No Fireworks At Board of Ed Meeting

So as BOE meetings go, last night's gathering was pretty tame and very short. BOE member Sally Boske was absent due to illness, so several agenda items that she would have been responsible for were tabled until the June meeting.

There was a very interesting presentation on the Balanced Literacy Program that is now in place in the middle schools and the high school. This program focuses on teaching reading skills, with the goal that all 8th grade students will be reading at the 8th grade level or higher by the time they reach high school. This focus is an outcome of the District Improvement Plan Middletown has in place to address No Child Left Behind requirements. Asst. Superintendent Barbara Senges commented, "not reading at grade level significantly impacts their [high school students] ability to perform well because most courses are textbook driven. If you can't read the textbook, you're going to have problems."

A key component of this program is the double instruction block in language arts for students identified as below proficient in language arts/reading. One of the middle school presenters told the BOE that she has seen a definite change in student attitudes toward standardized testing: "I heard students say they are going to really try hard on these tests because they don't want to have their schedules affected by not doing well and needing extra instruction...students are actually starting to take responsibility for their performance."

BOE member Renee Johnson-Thornton asked what is being done for the advanced readers, and she was told that teachers are differentiating their instruction, so these kids are being challenged at their specific levels. (Differentiation means to teach to a child's ability specifically, so there could be several different versions of the same assignment depending on where a child is at.)


There will be an Art Show in the Central Office this Thursday, May 13, from 4-6 pm (art done by Middletown students). Retirees will be honored at a function at the Central Office on June 17 from 4-6pm.


The award for the funniest-comment-of-the-night goes to MHS Student Rep Taylor Garboski. She was telling the board that the Student Council is thinking about having just Freshman attend school on the first day of school, Freshmen and Sophomores on the second, and so on. "We weren't sure how that would go over, so we're just thinking about it," she said. BOE member Bill Boyd said, "You know there is such a thing as state law that tells us what to do about this." "Oh, we know," she replied, "It says you have to be in school for 180 days, but it doesn't say everyone has to be in school." (Author's note: I wish I had recorded this meeting at home so I could play that again...I also have to add that the Student Council wants it to be OK for students to listen to their ipods while transitioning between classes and in class if the teacher says OK. Don't let me go there...)


There were only a few questions about the 2010-2011 budget:

• the travel line item has increased from last year, and this is most likely due to more staff trips between schools. Because the middle schools aren't next to each other anymore, staff that travel between the schools have further to go. While the reimbursement has fallen to $.50 per mile, there is more travel than the previous year.


• the substitute teacher line item is high, and the Superintendent said he knew that line would be short, but he's been able to make up the difference in the salaries line.

Jay Keiser is the Budget Committee Chair and he commented that the administration has two thoughts in mind when it comes to finances: "They know not to exceed their total appropriation and they have to make sure that money is spent appropriately." Keiser also commented that even if a particular line item is over budget, the money has to come from someplace to make up the difference. He pointed to the phone line item as an example and stated that fund is plus $38,000, so there is room to cover additional expenditures elsewhere. There was no discussion about the city's budget proposal and the possible effects of $200,000 less in next year's budget. (Author's note: I did not see the minutes of the budget committee meeting, so I don't know if the budget committee discussed this issue at Tuesday's budget meeting.)

The BOE voted to establish a Naming Committee to name the library at Spencer School. It also approved funding for a new playscape at Moody School. Facilities Director Ken Jackson said that his next step will be to meet with Moody's principal to decide on a design for the playscape, with installation planned for this summer.

Finally, the board voted to sign a Memo of Understanding (MOU) with the State Board of Education to be included in CT's application for the second round of the Race to the Top Competition. (CT was not selected in the first round, but the General Assembly passed educational reform legislation last week that is designed to make the state more competitive in the second round of this federal grant competition.) BOE member Corinne Gill pointed out a specific line in the MOU that caused her concern, and she asked her fellow board members to remember it for any future decisions about this grant process. The line reads: "Support the transition to and implementation of national common standards and high-quality assessments." Gill commented that "this opens the door for the federal government to tell us what to put into our curriculum, and we need to be careful about what we're agreeing to."