Board of Ed Hears Proposal Tonight

On Tuesday evening, the Board of Ed will hear a proposal for redistricting the attendance boundaries of Middletown's eight elementary schools, as recommended by the ad hoc committee which the Board established last December. The meeting is at 7 pm at City Hall, and a public hearing will precede the presentation.

Because this is such a big issue, the ad hoc committee has recommended that the Board schedule a special meeting before March 22nd, to hold an additional public session and vote on the proposal.

The proposal contains a town-wide redistricting, with a new elementary school for 438 of the town's roughly 2,600 Kindergarten through 5th grade students. The purpose of the plan was to create contiguous attendance boundaries for each school, while improving the racial balance of the school system and better distributing the students throughout the schools.

The proposal also advises that the administration provide support and guidance to the schools in welcoming new families, and it allows for current fourth graders to opt to stay at their current school for 5th grade, as long as they provide their own transportation and provide adequate notice to the system. In addition to the new attendance boundaries, the ad hoc also recommends that a new committee continue to review the JCJ study, with the goal of helping the Board understand and address any disparities between the schools in terms of facilities, programs, materials and other resources.

Although the list of streets affected is not yet available electronically, here's the map of the new attendance boundaries:


View Attendance Boundaries in a larger map


In case you are interested in my opinion on the subject, as a member of the ad hoc committee, you can read it here.

A Return to Neighborhood Schools

If you've neglected your reading of the EYE this weekend, then you've got some work ahead of you. This is third post in 24 hours on the subject of the new attendance boundaries for each of Middletown's eight elementary schools. If you want to make any sense of this, read Ed's first, and then Izzi's, and then come back here!

Now that we're all on the same page, I wanted to offer some "commentary" as a community representative on the Board of Ed's ad hoc committee on this topic.


COMMENTARY

Redistricting has always been a dirty word in Middletown.

Politicians avoid it as long as they can. Homeowners worry about property values. Parents don't want their kids to change schools.

So I know it won't be a popular comment when I say this: This redistricting is a very good thing for Middletown -- and it is long overdue. There will undoubtedly be many cases when it would have been better for a particular child to leave well enough alone -- but for the community as a whole, this is the right direction.

"Redistricting" is just eduspeak for the need to shift the streets that attend any particular school. Population patterns are always changing in town. One neighborhood might be stable, where people don't move away after their kids grow up, so eventually there are fewer students in the school. Another neighborhood might see an influx of new condominiums or subdivisions. The Sheff v. O'Neil court case meant that schools have to track the racial balance of the students, and make adjustments if they stray more than 25% up or down from the town average.

I've heard people in the biz say that redistricting should be expected every 10 years or so. But back in the late 1990's when Middletown last needed to face this issue, the Board of Ed and the Superintendent adopted a cowardly policy of "spot redistricting." That meant they didn't have to risk the ire of parents all over town if they just picked up a few streets here and there and moved them to where they needed them. The fact that the children who were moved were typically low-income kids, often with high minority rates, made it easy to avoid political consequences for redistricting.

After a dozen years of continual "spot redistricting," things are a mess: Within three blocks from the corner of Main & Washington, there are kids who attend Moody, Spencer, Farm Hill, and Snow. And of course, some go to Macdonough, which is walking distance to all of them. I think we can all agree that's a ridiculous amount of busing.

The current map of school boundaries looks like a bowl of spaghetti, with little bits of streets going every which way. The irony is that Middletown is still out of compliance with racial balance laws, and all these changes have meant that some schools have more kids than seats, and some have empty classrooms.

Our Board of Ed recently spent something like $130,000 on a study by JCJ Architects to learn about how the sizes and locations of our school buildings matched up with where the kids live. As part of that study, they surveyed what people want from the school system. Believe it or not, "Neighborhood Schools" was the #1 priority.

The new map which will be voted on by the ad hoc (Monday) and then presented to the Board of Ed (Tuesday) was based on JCJ's recommendation to move 19 clusters of streets back to a neighborhood school. The JCJ report was issued last Fall, so it would be hard to argue that Middletown citizens couldn't see this redistricting coming.

The Board gave the ad hoc committee the task of deciding which of JCJ's recommendations were practical, and how to create school boundaries that made sense with regard to race and the capacity of each school. Along the way, the ad hoc committee also looked at the economic balance of each school, and (except for Macdonough) none of the schools are proposed to be more than a few points over the town average for poverty rates. The racial balance of the schools is also distributed so that none of the schools are more than a few points higher than the town average, again except for Macdonough. The proposal should pass muster with the state Dept of Education because the adjustments bring Macdonough just into compliance with the racial balance law. In terms of capacity, with a projected average class size of 20 kids per room, the schools with the lowest poverty ratio have the highest number of filled classrooms, leaving a little extra room in the schools with higher poverty rates to provide space for extra services.

The key to understanding the new redistricting plan is this: every elementary school will now have a single, contiguous attendance zone. In a few cases, that will mean that families don't go to the nearest school, but they do go school with their neighbors. That's a big difference from the way we now do things.

The new map resembles a big patchwork quilt instead of a bowl of spaghetti. It's a return to neighborhood schools and it should have been done a long time ago. Why? For transportation reasons, for a sense of community, for helping parents be involved in their child's education, and for an increased commitment to the quality of education in your neighborhood. It's not that every school will or can be the same. But with the new attendance boundaries, our schools would have a better chance of taking advantage of their natural assets and reaching their potential.

I'm not going to argue that it's perfect - in fact I personally voted against the current proposal at the last committee meeting because I have long been in favor of resolving racial balance by creating a choice or magnet school at Macdonough. But the majority of the committee voted in favor of using attendance boundaries to create racial balance.

So my opening statement was that this redistricting is a "very good thing" for Middletown, and I do believe that. It is not, however "the best thing" for Middletown.

In an ideal world, there would have been enough leadership on the Board of Ed or at Central Office to understand that these recommendations should have been formulated last Fall, so that there would be plenty of time for community input before a vote from the Board. And all that would have been done before the February 1st deadline that the State Dept of Education gave us (and remember - that was after they gave us a generous extension.) Instead, our school district submitted a report that was inadequate, and we'll need the Board to act before the community really understands the proposals. There will inevitably be resistance and a loss of trust that could have been avoided with better planning and communication. Personally, I'm disappointed that the Board of Ed will not get the chance to publicly consider and vote on a choice or magnet school, since the concept has been killed twice "in committee" in the past six months.

But in spite of my reservations about the process, I don't want to lose the chance to fix the long-standing wrongs of "spot redistricting" and what it has done to our community. So I'm hoping that the Board of Ed accepts the ad hoc committee's recommendation. Then we can get back to the business of trying to ensure that every school in town is one that parents would be willing to have their child attend.

Board of Education December Meeting

The Board of Ed held their regular meeting on Tuesday night. Amid other business, the discussion covered the new student enrichment program and the proposal for redistricting the elementary schools. The meeting was held at the council chambers at City Hall, in front of an audience of a few dozen people, including parents, students, and district employees -- it was not televised.

PROBE vs. SCHOOL-WIDE ENRICHMENT
Many parents have been wondering about the future of special programs for top-tier learners. When the school budget was trimmed for this year, the PROBE program was eliminated. PROBE had long been the district's gifted and talented program, focusing on 4th and 5th graders who were identified by state standards. After the retirements of key PROBE staff, the district decided to review their methods of enrichment. According to Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges, the elementary principals and teachers decided they would like a school-wide enrichment model that could serve all the students in a school. Central office has been working to design the new program, and schools will begin to see new enrichment activities starting in January.

The basic outline of the program includes:
•the part-time K-8 Enrichment Coordinator Hank Stockmal (he also serves as the part-time middle school MIST -- that's Math Instructional Support Teacher). Mr. Stockmal will visit each elementary school twice a month to work with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, and to offer some afterschool programming.
•hiring "Creative Learning Facilitators" at each elementary school, typically a current classroom teacher who would receive an extra stipend to work with classroom teachers to differentiate instruction for top-tier learners. The "CLF" would also offer weekly afterschool enrichment. These positions are currently in the interview phase, and will likely be in place by the new year.
•all of the above staff would work on developing units and materials that could be used by all classroom teachers to offer more enrichment, and then offering assistance in implementing those new activities.
•these offerings will differ slightly at each school, as the principals have control on the scheduling of the enrichment activities.
•a big change from the former PROBE program is that kids do not have to be identified as "gifted and talented" to participate. They might excel in just one subject.
•at the middle school level, kids can participate in special math programs such as "Odyssey of the Mind".

REDISTRICTING, RACIAL IMBALANCE AND A MACDONOUGH MAGNET

The other big topic of discussion at the meeting was what to do with the information that consultant JCJ Architects has supplied about the capacity and enrollment at our schools. Middletown is currently under a directive from the state to come up with a plan to improve the racial balance at our schools, or suffer their interference. The JCJ report was intended to address this issue, as well as looking at whether any of our schools were crowded or underused.

First, a brief background on the problem of racial imbalance: Middletown's school kids are 43% minority. State law, as influenced by the Sheff v. O'Neill case, requires that each individual school should be within 25% of that average, and that any school more than 15% off the average should be put on notice. On the last reporting date, Macdonough was a few tenths of a percentage point over 25%. The school district is supposed to file a report by February 1st, 2010, outlining our proposal on how to resolve the imbalance.

The JCJ report primarily consists of an analysis of the size and capacity of each school, plus an outline of current busing patterns which force many children to go to a school that is not the closest one to their home. The reason for those convoluted bus routes, which Middletown families have tolerated for the last 10 years or so, is that our school district has been trying to resolve the problem of racial imbalance in our schools by busing certain neighborhoods around to wherever their particular demographic was most needed. Aside from the high busing costs of this strategy, it carries a questionable educational and negative community impact on the neediest kids. I would be delighted to see this system retired.

In its place, JCJ has proposed 19 changes to the current enrollment boundaries for each school, and if you haven't taken a look, you should go to this Eye post or read the report itself on the school website, and check the list and the map. Under these changes, the district looks more like a patchwork quilt, and less like a pop art painting -- it's a return to community/neighborhood schools. For example, the Stonycrest apartments on Newfield Street would move from Macdonough (more than a mile away) back to Spencer (just a few blocks away). But some of the changes may need a more nuanced review -- especially when you consider that the proposal puts Macdonough further out of racial balance, and puts Moody at risk of imbalance in the other direction.

Several school board members questioned the thoroughness of the report, and Superintendent Frechette confirmed that JCJ will be providing some additional information that was requested, without extra charge. One of the requests was to provide the numbers of economically disadvantaged kids that would attend each school under the proposal. I'll note that Macdonough currently has 80% of its children in the "Free/Reduced Lunch/Economic Disadvantage" category, the next highest school is Bielefield at 45%, and all the other schools have fewer than 40%. If the 19 enrollment changes are implemented, then those numbers increase at Macdonough (these numbers were updated at 9:20 am 12/10).

To sum up, the 19 enrollment changes - however sensible - do not solve the racial imbalance. As a possible solution, JCJ points out that the state would allow us to create a magnet school at Macdonough, opening enough seats to students from outside the neighborhood to help bring the school closer to the town average (this would also mean that Maconough would not have enough seats for all North End children - some would have be bused out of the neighborhood). JCJ also suggested that afterschool or Saturday enrichment programs might appease the state, though little detail was offered on that option.

To wrestle with the details of the proposed redistricting and the possible creation of a magnet school, the Board voted to create an ad-hoc committee which will likely meet every week for the next month or two. The committee, which will be appointed by Chair Ted Raczka, will include 3 Board members, 3 parents, 3 teachers and 4 community members, and possibly a few others that I failed to write down.

I can't leave this topic without putting on my Macdonough PTA hat for a moment to say that those of us at Macdonough do not have a problem with the racial balance of our school - we think it's perfectly balanced (approximately 1/3 caucasian, 1/3 african american, and 1/3 all kinds of other people). And we are very happy with the progress our school has made and is still making. But unfortunately, Middletown is required to follow the law and change the makeup of our student body. As we acknowledge this reality, the Macdonough community is trying to be an active part of finding a solution that isn't a negative for North End families.

OTHER BOARD OF ED BUSINESS

The Board took care of some other business, which I will try to convey with more brevity:
•Middletown High math teacher Steven Lecky received the Board's congratulations on receiving the Robert A. Rosenbaum award.
•The library at Farm Hill School will be named for long-time teacher and lover of books, Clara Sanders.
•The superintendent presented the statistical enrollment projection through 2019, which is updated annually. The report predicted a few spikes in the years ahead - and the information was considered in the JCJ report.
•The meeting on December 22 will start with a workshop from CAPPS/CABE about Board roles and responsibilities. This was not a popular suggestion with Board members Corinne Gill and Sheila Daniels who are seeking more input on how workshop speakers and topics are chosen.
•The district has updated its policy on dispensing medications to students, and one-on-one paraprofessionals will now be trained for that task.

CONSPIRACY AT CITY HALL? "BOARD BROADCAST-GATE"

A final bit of intrigue was raised at the meeting's close, with a discussion of where board meetings should be held and why the current meeting was "off the air". One of the advantages of meeting at the council chambers is the excellent video and sound systems for live broadcast on Channel 19. Unfortunately, Tuesday's meeting had no sound, and was not broadcast. Apparently, the custodial staff was not easily located at the beginning of the meeting, and perhaps was not aware that a key was needed by the Board of Ed to access the broadcast equipment. For some of the Board members, who were unaware that the custodian was on the premises after all, there seemed to be a concern that the Board of Ed is less than welcome at the council chambers. In addition, the Board is split on how important it is to broadcast all of their meetings, including workshops. After a vote, it was decided that the next meeting will be held at the Board of Ed offices on Hunting Hill Avenue, where the main item of business is to receive the Superintendent's proposed budget. That meeting, on December 22nd, will not be televised.

JCJ Recommends Review/Redrawing of Elementary School District Lines and New Use for Macdonough

(Proposed elementary school district realignment.)

CORRECTION: At Tuesday's presentation by JCJ Architecture, the firm did not recommend the closure of Keigwin or a consolidation of the middle school as previously stated in this post before the presentation by JCJ Architecture.

The conclusions drawn by a year-long study by JCJ Architecture of Middletown Schools are to review district alignments, and adjust elementary school districts, and to create a new approach to the ongoing use of Mcdonough School in the city's North End.

The results of the report while significant, and based on an extensive study, are not binding and are subject to alteration and approval by the Board of Education. The board meets tonight to accept the report from JCJ Architecture, at the Middletown High School Media Center, 7:00 PM.

According to the conclusions drawn in the lengthy report:

The elementary school attendance boundaries should be reviewed regardless of any other options which may be pursued. The disparity in enrollment, relative to capacity, can be addressed through this approach; however, doing just this will not address the issue of socioeconomic diversity that has plagued the District. There are three primary options: close the Macdonough School and dispense the students from those neighborhoods to the remaining schools, expand the Macdonough School to bring its capacity more in line with the other elementary schools, or create a curriculum that encourages students to travel out of their community school to attend a school located in vicinity (sic) of the North End neighborhood.

The report suggests nineteen realignments for redistricting of elementary school "catchment areas" (neighborhoods from which students are drawn for schools), and the location of preschool services at a single location, with Snow school suggested as that site.

The new elementary districts would provide for less travel, specifically bus travel, for students, more ability for students to walk to neighborhood schools and maintain a required racial and socioeconomic balance in schools. The realignment would also address overcapacity issues at elementary schools North of Route 66 (Lawrence, Macdonough, Moody, Spencer), and under capacity at schools South of Route 66 (Bielefield, Farm Hill, Snow, Wesley).

The report calls the current configuration of school districts and associated bus routes "convoluted" because they were drawn up as neighborhood development occured around Middletown. The current bus fleet of 60 buses, and 27 vans run approximately 425 routes a day, consuming 200,000 gallons of fuel annually.

The suggested realignment is as follows:


1. 27 students currently at Lawrence School would attend Moody from the following streets - Inverness, Highlands, Stirling, Carriage Crossing, Westlake, Heather, Braeburn. This neighborhood is currently split between Lawrence and Moody.

2. 10 students currently at Spencer would attend Lawrence from Town Ridge who are currently bused a significant distance to Spencer.

3. 45 students currently at Spencer would attend Lawrence from Dove Lane, Robin Court, North Woods, Town Colony, Russet Lane, Town Place, Town Brooke who are currently bused a significant distance to Spencer.

4. 66 students currently at Mcdonough would attend Spencer from Stonycrest and Rose Circle. This is an isolated neighborhood closer to Spencer than Macdonough.

5. 79 students currently at Moody would attend Mcdonough from Ferry, Grand, Rapallo, Portland, Bridge, Miller Hartford. These students live within walking distance of Macdonough but are currently bused to Moody.

6. 2 students currently at Spencer would attend Mcdonough from Wetmore Place which is in walking distance of Macdonough.

7. 25 students currently at Spencer would attend Farm Hill from Traverse Square. Here an isolated pocket between two schools is bused to a third.

8. 9 students currently at Lawrence would attend Bielfield from Omo and Walnut. This neighborhood is currently split into four different schools.

9. 1 student currently at Lawrence would attend Farm Hill from Maple Street. This neighborhood is split into four different schools.

10. 3 students currently at Wesley would attend Farm Hill from Main Street. This neighborhood is currently split into four different schools.

11. 38 students currently at Wesley would attend Beilfield from Silver, Wall, Elm, Frisbee, Evergreen, Maplewood, Mckenzie, Roberts, Frissell, Linden, Laurel, Garden and Eastern. This neighborhood is currently split into four different schools.

12. (tbd number of) students from Mcdonough would attend Spencer and Snow from Washington, Bernie O'Rourke, Jackson, establishing Route 6A as a border between Spencer and Snow while improving continuity of bus circulation.

13. 1 student currently at Snow would attend Wesley from Laurel Grove, improving continuity of neighborhood and reducing bus travel.

14. 13 students currently at Snow would attend Wesley from Connor, Pine, Coles, Long Hill and Poinsettia improving continuity of neighborhoods and reducing bus travel.

15. 18 students currently at Wesley would attend Snow from Santangelo to improve the continuity of neighborhoods and reduce bus travel.

16. 3 students currently at Snow would attend Wesley from Randolf Road to improve the continuity of neighborhoods and reduce bus travel.

17. 6 students currently at Snow would attend Farm Hill from Newtown, Gowin, Milardo, Farm Hill and Shelley improving continuity of neighborhoods and reduce bus travel.

18. 23 students currently at Farm Hill would attend Wesley (as printed in the report - though it appears as Bielfield may be the target school according to maps provided in the report) from Millbrook and Lake Ridge establishing East Main and Millbrook as a perimeter for Bielfield improving continuity and reducing overlapping bus traffic.

19. 1 student at Farm Hill would attend Wesley from Crystal Lake, Prout, Sunnyslope, Her-Del to improve continuity of neighborhoods and reduce bus travel.

In the report, JCJ Architecture encourages a long term solution of establishing "standard building spaces" in elementary schools that would be "requistite for elementary grade curriculum."

The study was originally designed to address these issues:

1. Disparity in enrollment and capacity in the elementary schools
2. Socioeconomic diversity in the elementary schools
3. Attendance boundaries in the elementary schools
4. Lingering feelings that the 6th grade academy is creating student hardship

School Enrollments Hold Steady, Moody Remains Overcrowded

The School District's enrollment numbers at the beginning of September are very similar to those last December. Overall there was a 4% drop in the number of elementary students, with the largest reduction coming at Snow School, with 65 fewer students this year (an 18% drop).

Moody continues to be the only school which has more students than the building was designed to handle. An interim report from the JCJ Architecture firm, released in late May , indicated that Moody was built to house a maximum of 395 students, the current enrollment is higher than capacity by at least two classes. Moody has been forced to alter room uses over the past two years to accommodate all of the classes.

In addition, the average class size in grades 1 to 5 at Moody is higher than at any other elementary school.

	capacity	September 4 enrollment	% of Capacity	mean class size, grades 1-5
Moody	395	449	113.7%	21.6
Spencer	426	370	86.9%	18.4
Wesley	432	365	84.5%	20.7
Lawrence	451	349	77.4%	19.8
Macdonough	288	217	75.3%	18.1
Farm Hill	407	288	70.8%	18.1
Bielefield	526	285	54.2%	19.7
Snow	575	292	50.8%	18.5
total	3500	2615	74.7%	19.5

The superintendent of schools office has paid close attention to the overcrowding at Moody. Last January Barbara Senges, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, expressed deep concern about the overcrowding, and in a meeting with the Moody School PTA told parents that this overcrowding would be addressed before the start of the school year.

Senges, as well as the parents, anticipated that a feasibility study commissioned by the Board of Education would make recommendations in April or May for alleviating Moody overcrowding and for addressing a racial imbalance at Macdonough. However, JCJ Architecture, which was hired by the Board for this study, recommended against any changes this past summer. Senges told me, "JCJ recommended, and the Board agreed, to put off any changes."

Senges said that the final JCJ report would undoubtedly recommend redistricting, "I definitely know that the recommendation from JCJ will move kids around." She also mentioned the possibility of changing the current arrangement of one school for all 6th graders (Keigwin), and one school for all 7th and 8th graders (Wilson), asking "Would it make more sense to have two 6, 7, 8 schools instead?" Senges said it didn't make sense to move students around this past summer because the more extensive changes which will take place next summer are not yet defined.

JCJ is due to turn in their final report in late November or early December, in time for the budget process to reflect any effects of the recommendations. Senges said, "This is the last year [Moody students and teachers] are going to have to deal with this issue."

The principal of Moody, Yolande Eldridge, told me in an interview that Moody was having no troubles because of too many students, "I don't hear the word 'overcrowding' in the school." Eldridge noted that Moody's test scores were good, and that some of the schools with much more space and with smaller class size were identified as "in need of improvement."

She said that over the summer she was able to move functions around to create needed space, for example moving Kids Corner into the Cafeteria, and turning a storage room into an office room. Her only regret was that there is no space to host all-school functions; Moody does not have a dedicated auditorium, and the gym can't even hold all students, let alone their parents too.

I asked Eldridge about redistricting, and what she considered to be an ideal enrollment for Moody. She simply responded, "We're in great shape. I consider us a good staff." She said JCJ were experts in redistricting, and would be taking many factors throughout the city into account in their recommendations, "It's not just about Moody."

Moody School to get some staffing relief for 2009-2010

At Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting, Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges told board members that a meeting with Moody Principal Yolande Eldridge has produced the following changes to ease Moody's overcrowding concerns for next year:

• Two teachers who taught 1/2 time this year (job-sharing) will move to full-time next year to help out with the anticipated 4 first grade classes. This means each first grade will have a 2nd teacher for 1/2 the day each day.


• In Special Education, a full time teacher will be added, bring the staff total to three teachers.


• An additional four duty aides will be added, for a total of ten.


• The cafeteria workers will pick up additional hours.


• During inclement weather, students will go to their classrooms instead of the gym or the cafeteria.


• The part-time secretary will continue to assist the full-time secretary.


• A Head Teacher (stipend position) will be added to assist the Principal with supervisory duties.

Board Member Ryan Kennedy asked Senges how she was going to pay for the staffing additions, and she deferred to Superintendent Michael Frechette: "Our budget can absorb these additions...we'll make it work...our budget is a living document and it will change from moment to moment," he said. "But we passed the budget LAST week," Kennedy replied, "and we asked you if you needed money for Moody, and you said no. Now you say you'll 'make it work' and I think we're doing things backwards here."

In other BOE news, Middletown has applied for $2 million in Federal stimulus funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The use of these funds is extremely restricted, and is intended to help build a district's capacity in a specific way. There may be additional funds available, but the state and federal governments are still deciding how to allocate such funds (competitively or by entitlement). In any case, the funds Frechette hopes to receive are tied to specific District Improvement Plans.

During the Public Session, City Councilman David Bauer (speaking as a member of the Board of Health) mentioned a field mouse issue in the kitchen at Keigwin and another rodent problem at Middletown High School: both had been identified as a result of improper food handling, and he wanted to know when the BOE was going to address/discuss those problems. Facilities Director Ken Jackson said the Keigwin issue is being addressed and that he didn't know anything about MHS (but he'd find out).

Brandon Downer, a freshman at MHS, addressed the BOE on the subject of fights and the new policy of locking the bathrooms (students have to ask to have the bathrooms unlocked to use them). "You just can't help it - there is a lot of violence in our school. But, there is a security system in place and they do a good job." Downer also commented that he understands why the bathrooms are now locked: "Just last week I personally saw 12 kids skip class and lock themselves in the bathroom...you can't do anything else about it." Later, in a personal interview with yours truly, Downer said he feels safe when he's in school, but that "kids are going to be kids, and parents, teachers, and rules aren't going to change that...my generation is rebellious and you can't change that." Downer stated that he believes there is a lot of gang violence at MHS, and while there are some very rude teachers, the kids are rude in class first, and that provokes a teacher's response. (author's note: I had to leave before the end of the meeting, so I did not have a chance to get MHS Principal Robert Fontaine's response to these comments.)

Finally, the Naming Committee presented its report to the BOE. Charged with the responsibility "to address naming issues for the new high school and middle school," the Committee recommended that "any name associated with a facility at either the old middle school or the old high school should be moved to a facility at the new middle school or high school....In particular, if a coach were a Woodrow Wilson High School coach, that person's name should continue to be associated with the high school and not the middle school even though the middle school now uses the name Woodrow Wilson." A quick summary of the recommended names is as follows:

• Gallitto-Montanile Sports Arena (over the west entrance to the athletic facilities at the HS)
• LaBella-Sullivan Gymnasium
• Baldwin-Parmelee Pool
• Miller-Fillback Sports Complex (displayed outside toward the stadium area or on it)
• Rosek-Skubel Stadium (displayed inside the stadium)
• Greco's Grill (name of the concession stand at the new HS)
• Denunzio Field (displayed on the baseball field)
• Hiller Field (displayed on the softball field)
• Virginia Gilbert Memorial Library
• A Wall of Honor/Walk of Honor is also recommended to recognize individuals who distinguish themselves at MHS and for whom a facility is not named: including but not limited to teachers, librarians, administrators, custodians, etc.
• Collins Field (displayed at the middle school football stadium and track)
• A Wall of Honor is also recommended for WWMS to honor teachers, librarians, administrators, custodians, etc., who have played a prominent role and for whom a facility is not named.

JCJ Architecture has been hired by the Superintendent to design signage to implement the naming recommendations, and the Naming Committee also recommended the city change the through-way in front of Woodrow Wilson Middle School to a city street and readdress the school 1 Wilderman's Way.

I had to leave before the meeting finished, so I did not get to see what else happened under Action Items. The Superintendent's Evaluation was scheduled for an Executive Session. I will say that I was sadly disappointed by the Superintendent's Moody update. The staffing changes are only band-aids at this point, and I fear a tourniquet is probably needed. Late last December and into January, Moody PTA President Susan Courchesne called for a cap on Moody's enrollment. The Westfield Residents Association (WRA) joined Courchesne's call in a letter to the Superintendent dated January 6, 2009. After a second letter dated February 10, 2009, Dr. Frechette had not specifically addressed the issue of capping Moody's enrollment. JCJ Architecture mentioned as late as May that perhaps Moody's enrollment issues would be self-correcting: 5th grade would leave and not as many kindergartners would register.

That remains to be seen. The Kindergarten registration numbers are not known yet, but the November 2008 Enrollment Report by Peter M. Prowda, PhD, projects a decreasing District enrollment over the next 10 years, with Middletown's K-5 enrollment essentially staying flat (.5% decrease). This projection comes despite the fact that Middletown's enrollment growth (6.5%) exceeded both that of the state (4.1%) and similarly-sized towns for the past 10 years. I have to speculate that this report is responsible for the Administration's less than enthusiastic response to Moody parents and the overcrowding issue. That JCJ Architecture had no "save the day" recommendation, and that BOE talk has now shifted to the planned redistricting for next year fortifies my suspicions further.

One parent pointed out during a recent public session that last year's projection for Moody's Kindergarten enrollment was off 117% (3 classes were planned for, there ended up being 5 classes in 2008-2009), and he wondered out loud what would happen if the projection was off again for the 2009-2010 school year. That's a great question, given the fact that the Superintendent's office seems content with adding a few staff members here and there. Given JCJ Architecture's assessment that the Middletown school system has enough seats for all the students currently in the district (just not in the right place at this exact moment), the projected decrease in total Middletown students over the next 10 years, and the planned redistricting for next year, I believe the Administration thinks the "Moody problem" will just evaporate over time.

Superintendent Receives Contract Approval, Salary Increase

By the way, during today's Eye on the Air (the Middletown Eye's radio edition, Fridays 1-2 on WESU, 88.1FM), David Bauer reported that the Board of Education voted Tuesday night to give Superintendent Frechette a three year contract, with a salary of $154,000 per year, a $2,000 supplement for his degree, and a $6,000 per year allowance for using his own car for transportation. From the June 6, 2006, BOE minutes, Frechette's last 3-year contract was : "
Vote taken to increase the Superintendent’s annual salary to $141,428, continue the TSA, $2,285, Ph.D. stipend, $2,000, retroactive Ph.D. for the 2005-2006 school year, $2,000, and continue his contract for one more year (for a total of three years) passed with a motion by Ms. Weiss and a second by Mr. Boyd – unanimous vote."

Obviously, despite the terrible economy, massive lay-offs, the need for a Federal stimulus package, a cut in the overall school budget, and the Administration's own confession that "our middle schools are struggling" and "Middletown doesn't have a challenging enough curriculum," the Superintendent is still entitled to a 3% raise for the next three years. At least we know what our priorities are.

Moody School Building and Leveling to be discussed at two Board of Ed meetings Tuesday

The School Board will be holding two meetings on Tuesday evening, a special meeting on Leveling at 6PM, and a regular meeting at 7PM.  Both meetings will be in the Middletown High School Cafe.  

Leveling

Leveling is the Schools administration's plan to combine all students into the same classroom, eliminating advanced classes for mathematics in 6th grade.  The Board has scheduled 20 minutes each for administrators and the Public to speak, and 20 minutes for themselves to discuss Leveling, prior to an "Action Item" on Leveling.  Leveling was discussed extensively by the Board at their June 2nd meeting.  

Moody School and JCJ Report

The second meeting is their regular meeting, scheduled to start at 7PM.  This meeting has a long agenda, full of policy readings, and reports from standing committees.  Two related items stand out, in the "Report of the Superintendent" portion of the meeting.  The first is entitled "Moody School Status" and the second  "Feasibility Study Update."

The Superintendent's office has been concerned about overcrowding at Moody School since at least January.  Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges came to the January Moody School PTA meeting and assured the parents that there would not be too many students at Moody School next year.   Senges will be making the presentation on "Moody School Status" at the Board Meeting tonight.  

The "Feasibility Study" is the work being carried out by JCJ Architecture, who have been undertaking a district wide utilization study, to determine the best use of Middletown's school buildings.  Their final report is not due until the fall, but an "initial report" was to make recommendations for solving two issues:  overcrowding at Moody and a racial imbalance at MacDonough.  

This initial report, entitled "Observations of potential near-term changes" does not make any recommendations to address these issues, and specifically recommends against redistricting:

Rearranging attendance borders will likely not have a positive impact on the district at this time and is not seen as a viable working option.  

The long range plan will look more deeply into alternatives to large scale changes to attendance districts.  

Athough there are no recommendations for solving Moody's overcrowding issue in the JCJ report, the report does provide data on the enrollment capacity of each school.  Combining these data with the December 1st enrollment figures from the Board of Education office, it becomes obvious that while overall there is more than enough capacity in the elementary school buildings, Moody School is overflowing by the equivalent of nearly 3 classes (57 students):

These enrollment numbers can fluctuate during the course of the school year, and may be slightly different today than they were on December 1st. In fact, the JCJ report uses a total enrollment number for the elementary schools that is 25 students higher than the December 1st numbers used above (about 1%). 

Superintendent Dr. Michael Frechette told me last week that he is looking at several options for Moody School, but that he was not prepared to discuss them at that time.  He agreed that the problem was clearly a lack of capacity.  The Principal of Moody, Yolande Eldridge, told me that the Board has provided resources such as an additional copy machine and added paraprofessionals during this school year, but she could not say what resources might be made  available for the coming year. 

Board of Ed to get public input

The Board of Education has scheduled a special meeting for next Tuesday, at which there will be two public comment sessions.

The first public comment session will focus on leveling, which is a proposal to eliminate advanced math classes from the 6th grade next year (Eye piece).  Last week's BoE meeting drew impassioned opposition to this leveling, from teachers and parents concerned about both the advanced students and those needing more time to understand basic math.  

The second public comment session will focus on the recommendations by JCJ Architecture, who have been hired to do a district wide utilization study.  JCJ promised to make recommendations this Spring, which would solve Moody School's overcrowding this coming year.  These recommendations are to be followed in the fall by recommendations for districtwide school buildings use.  The JCJ recommendations will precede a second public comment session.  

Here is the agenda for the meeting on Tuesday, May 26, in the Middletown High School auditorium, from the BoE web site:

6:00 Leveling

7:00 Public Comment

7:30 JCJ Architecture Recommendations

8:30 Public Comment

9:00 Adjournment

The Hartford Courant reports that the JCJ recommendations presented on Tuesday will deal only with Moody Elementary School overcrowding.  The chair of the Board of Education, Ted Raczka, has not responded to my Thursday early morning request for more information to share about leveling  or the JCJ study.  

The School Vision Thing at Snow

About 25 residents/parents, arrived at Snow School to participate in the school visioning survey being conducted by JCJ Architects. Among the residents was Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano and Board of Ed member Sheila Daniels (who received praise from some in attendance for her ability to sidestep politics and speak with integrity on the Board).

As with the other meetings parents were asked to answer questions grouped under a number of topics to attempt to assess our opinions on the current state of the school and the district, and the ideal state of schools and the district.

There was unanimity on the size of schools and classrooms. Everyone who spoke noted that small class sizes and small schools are best for students, teachers and administrators. However, when it came to assessing realities, more than one speaker made it clear that given the current economic climate, and state of the city budget, small schools with small classes was a bit of a pipe dream.

There was also general agreement that community or neighborhood schools were preferred over larger, more centralized schools, especially at the elementary level, for a number of reasons including parent involvement, community-building and time on school buses. The negative of neighborhood schools was expressed by me as a balkanization of race and poverty.

Here' s where the meeting got heated. The moderater suggested that forced integration through busing was a bad idea imposed by the government to solve a problem that didn't necessarily need to be solved. He said, "It's adults using kids to solve an adult problem."

This fueled a long, and sometimes vitriolic, discussion of integration in Middletown, the need for integration, whether poverty or race was at the root of the problem, and the distinct problems with busing any school child long distances.

In a more free-form discussion of pluses and minuses of the current district it was noted that the schools are strong in arts and sports, that most parents and students liked their elementary schools, that there are a number of very good principals and teachers, that after-school programs were excellent.

Criticism was aimed at the politization of the Board of Education, and at state laws which make Connecticut Boards of Education and school superintendents able to avoid fiscal oversight by the towns in which they operate. Understandably, Giuliano was particularly incensed at the inability to control spending in the schools.

Because of the long discussions on educational topics, the meeting ended later than planned (but frustratingly, also began twenty minutes later than the 6 PM start time.)

Board of Ed meets with JCJ

The Board of Education had a brief special meeting on Monday night to hear from JCJ Architecture about the District Utilization Study, and conduct other business in executive session. At the meeting, Jim LaPosta from JCJ stood in for Project Manager Greg Smolley. He started out with a general overview of his firm's qualifications and then described the process they are using to study the balance between the demographics of the student body and school buildings. As readers of the Eye know, the firm is charged both with making short-term recommendations about the overcrowding at Moody School (for 2009-10), and then producing a long-term study on grade configuration, racial balance and facility use throughout the district.

According to the presentation, here's where things stand:

At this point, JCJ has visited about half of the elementary schools in town, cataloging the classroom space, reviewing the other facilities and learning about the demographics of the student body. Also, the firm has held two "visioning workshops", first at Moody School and then at Macdonough.

Three of the Board members have attended the visioning workshops: Corinne Gill, Sheila Daniels and Ryan Kennedy. Some of the others were less familiar with the process that the consultant is using and LaPosta took the opportunity to point out that a simple number crunching of building space vs. students only takes a few weeks, but it is too blunt a tool for understanding how the schools fit into our community. He said that the visioning workshops help the consultants listen to what people really want from the schools overall. This ranges from determining the local appetite and/or tolerance for spending on school buildings to the opportunities to open the schools for many more community uses.

Jay Keiser noted that a new visioning workshop has been added for Spencer School on April 22nd. He voiced concern that if Spencer was now facing an impact from redistricting like Moody and Macdonough, then the parents should be told that specifically. This is a bit of an awkward situation, since the consultants have repeatedly said that no assumptions can be made about which schools will be affected by the short-term redistricting plan -- in fact, they are not yet saying that any changes should be made at all. Moody and Macdonough families were reassured that all the elementary schools would be studied for excess capacity, not just their two buildings. LaPosta did state that the assessment of each school's physical capacity would be completed within the next few weeks, and would be considered in the short-term recommendations.

Let's move to the question of timelines. In a slight case of "deadline creep", JCJ now says that they will have the short-term recommendations by mid to late May, or at least by the end of May. Before that time, they will have a visioning workshop with teachers, in addition to the above-mentioned Spencer School workshop. (Revision: After publication, I learned that there will also be a visioning workshop at Snow School on April 30th.) There is also a community-wide meeting planned for April 27th at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, but it is not yet clear if there will be preliminary recommendations at that session, as was suggested at the Macdonough workshop.

Board members questioned the timing of the long-term study, which is promised to arrive by early winter of next year. It was pointed out that any significant changes for 2010-2011 would probably take months to consider and implement. The request was made to get that report back by late Fall 2009, and LaPosta seemed amenable to considering that.

From over here in the cheap seats, I'm starting to worry about waiting another 6-7 weeks before the short-term study is released. There will be tremendous pressure on the Board to make their decision quickly, because of all the logistical changes involved in redistricting families and moving classrooms around. But there will also need to be a period of shock, community feedback and consensus about the decision, not to mention an opportunity to consider the practicality of the recommendations. Stop me if you've already seen this movie, but I think that's the part where parents show up in droves to complain and people are up in arms about the lack of transparency, poor planning and hasty decision-making. I'm all for blue-sky visioning, but I hope the nuts and bolts analysis of the capacity of our buildings and the size of our student body will be released as soon as possible. Surely our short-term solutions will come from that information. Then we could all take a breath and consider our vision for the school system without the cloud of immediate re-districting over our heads.

Macdonough's Turn

On Thursday night, nearly 50 people gathered in the Macdonough School cafeteria to go through the same "visioning" exercises about our school system as Moody School did on Wednesday night. JCJ Architects are taking seriously their charge to understand what families in town want for the schools -- and at times it was a bit of a struggle to keep people focused on that lofty question when there are so many immediate concerns about possible redistricting for next year.

If you've been following this issue you know that Moody has had larger classes in recent years, and the Superintendent has promised parents that a solution will be found before next year. JCJ was retained to make recommendations by May on this short-term issue, as well as producing a longer-term plan for redistricting all the schools, considering the capacity of each school, the configuration of grades and compliance with Connecticut's racial imbalance law which requires that no school can be more than 25% higher or lower than the district average for minority students.

Greg Smolley from JCJ stressed that he has not been given any directive from the Board of Ed or the Superintendent's Office about what solutions this study should recommend -- he says he has not been hired to justify some plan that is already in the works. But one parent bluntly put it to the crowd: "I'm not buying it." She voiced out loud what many in the room were murmuring among themselves: the suspicion that Macdonough alone might be asked to absorb the overcrowding at Moody School. Smolley didn't back down -- he said that in all the studies he had done, all up and down the east coast, he had never been given less pressure from an administration, and he said "you can believe that or not, I have no reason to lie to you."

I was reassured by his commitment that although meetings are only being held at Macdonough and Moody schools, the short-term recommendations will in fact consider the capacity of all eight elementary schools in town. That means that every school will be reviewed for the potential to take more students, either by moving uses within the building to create new classrooms or by increasing class size -- if in fact JCJ determines that some Moody families will need to move. Although it was a hard sell, Smolley maintained that the only reason that Moody and Macdonough were having community meetings was that they chose the largest building and the smallest building to study, to see if that would give them some insight at the beginning of the process. They will eventually hold meetings at all the schools.

In the context of all that stress, I'd like to report that the visioning process itself was truly a pleasure, primarily because of our lively and interesting table of 8: five current Macdonough parents, one Moody parent who lives in the North End, one Macdonough teacher and one staffer, both of whom live in the neighborhood. As fishmuscle and JAM wrote on Thursday's Eye, our task was to rank 9 items on how they affect the schools. No shrinking violets here -- each person was willing to speak up for their beliefs about what makes a school a good place. Two people were all for putting a higher priority on technology, while the two iphone-wielding parents argued against it. I had phys. ed way down on my list but changed my mind after the teacher pointed out that kids need time to get moving or they can't learn. We talked about the stigma that some of us feel is attached to Macdonough -- mixed with pride about how the school is getting better all the time. We all agreed on the importance of after-school programs, but daycare fell lower on our lists.

Living close to your school was primary for many people -- as one wise-cracking parent at another table noted, we might have been at a realtors' association meeting, since all you kept hearing all night was location, location, location. Although my table was generally frustrated with the format of the lists -- where, for example, was the issue of racial balance/diversity on the list of school qualities, we wanted to know -- it did spur conversation that hopefully was noted by our JCJ facilitator. In my regular life, I attend a good number of public meetings, and I have to say I can't remember the last time I participated in such an open and reasonable discussion about issues affecting our town. In sum, it was a worthwhile evening -- I came away renewed in my appreciation for the Macdonough community and my family's commitment there.

It turns out that the exercise itself was meant as a learning experience. Smolley wrapped up by pointing out that we'd probably noticed how challenging it is for a small community of 8 people to come to concensus on what makes a good school, so we can expect that kind of challenge and compromise to continue throughout the study.

JCJ will have some preliminary findings to share at their next meeting on April 27th meeting at Woodrow Wilson School at 6 pm. Childcare will be available.

School visioning workshop draws 100 people to Moody School

JCJ Architecture held its first Public Outreach/Visioning meeting at Moody Elementary School this evening from 6 to 9. About a hundred parents and other members of the public came, as well as Board of Education members Corinne Gill, Ryan Kennedy, and Sheila Daniels, Mayor Giuliano, and teachers at Moody. All provided their input for the purpose of the District Wide Utilization Study that the Board of Ed has commissioned JCJ to undertake.

Attendees worked in 11 groups of about 8 people each, with JCJ staff as facilitators, to complete three evaluation sessions where individuals ranked nine categories in order of relative importance based on their personal preferences. Then, the group as a whole discussed the categories and developed a consensus ranking . Groups had about 25 minutes to complete their rankings, and very lively discussions took place on multiple issues.

Session 1: The school as a place of learning

Attendees considered school size, class size, technology, classroom/types, physical education, arts programs, grade configuration, non-school amenities, location/travel time. Every one of the 11 different groups ranked class size as the #1 most important, with location/travel time coming in second for most groups. Non-school amenities (health center/day care/community use) were ranked last by most, and everything else was somewhere in the middle.

Session 2: The school as a municipal asset
The features of schools as a municipal asset that were ranked: sustainable, cost to operate, cost to build, indoor/environmental quality, age of building, number of buildings, tax

impact, location, symbol/identity. "Indoor/environmental quality" was ranked in the top two by all groups, perhaps not surprising at Moody School, which only recently eliminated a mold contamination which had caused health problems for teachers and students alike. The other feature that was very highly ranked (1st or 2nd by almost all groups) was "Location". The least important feature for most groups was the school as "Symbol/identity".

Session 3: The school as a community asset
Various possible features of the school as it might contribute to a community in ways beyond education were ranked: health center, daycare, public use, after school programs, preschool/Head Start, parent/adult education/job training, location, community information centers, partnerships with the community. The vast majority of groups again chose "location" as the most important feature, followed by "after school programs," and "pre-school/Head start."

Overall, the meeting was very productive as parents seriously considered what they believed to be most important about the future of education in Middletown.

After the conclusion of these 'visioning' sessions, parents asked the lead JCJ Planner, Greg Smolley, questions about the study and its possible outcome(s). Parents were extremely anxious about the possibility that redistricting would change the school that their children attend. Smolley explained that parents' input from tonight's session would play a major role in their report to the Board of Ed, but he also encouraged concerned parents to attend Board of Education meetings to express their opinion and concerns.

Board of Ed member Ryan Kennedy echoed those sentiments, and further encouraged residents to speak with individual board members, via the contact information for each that is available on the School District's web pages. Four of the nine board seats, including that of the chair, Ted Raczka, will be up for election this year.

Smolley said that the initial report with recommendations to alleviate the severe overcrowding at Moody will be sent to the Board in May. The final report, which will address district-wide issues, will be done early in the next school year. He said that when both the mayor and the School Board facilitate wide-spread community involvement in the process, it reduces the potential for decisions to be hijacked for political purposes. He applauded Middletown's efforts so far, saying that the turnout was greater than they had seen in some other communities.

JCJ Architecture will be at Macdonough Elementary School Thursday evening, March 26, from 6 to 9PM, to repeat this process.

by Jennifer Mahr and Stephen Devoto

JCJ Architecture – District Utilization Study Update

The Middletown Eye has learned from Ryan Kennedy, member of the Board of Education, that JCJ’s fee for the District Study was $138,000. The BOE approved the spending of this amount at the November meeting from the insurance windfall account (this money was returned as overpayment funds when the District renegotiated its insurance coverage at a lower rate than previously paid).

Kennedy also commented that he believes that the immediate results of this study will save the Middletown School District possibly $150,000 in busing costs. Calling the study a “blank-slate approach,” meaning that the BOE does not have an end goal already in mind, Kennedy stated that he will have two things in mind when reviewing the final report: “first and most important making sure every student is treated equal, which includes every building will be equal in capacity. Second, we need to attempt to reduce the number of buses we use, which will save us money as well [as] reduce the amount of diesel air pollution.”

As previously reported, JCJ has been charged by the BOE to engage multiple stakeholders during its evaluation process. The first on-site meetings are scheduled for Macdonough and Moody next week: Moody’s meeting will be held at 6pm on Wednesday, March 25th, and MacDonough’s meeting is scheduled for 6pm on Thursday, March 26th.

In recent days, several BOE members have expressed concern that the BOE has neither seen JCJ’s project timeline nor been updated on the project status. Considering the fact that JCJ’s report on the overcrowding at Moody is due in May, the lack of available information on the project’s progress has prompted BOE members Corinne Gill, Sheila Daniels and Ryan Kennedy to request this topic be added to the BOE’s agenda for the April meeting. Kennedy will also request that a JCJ representative attend the April BOE meeting as well.

School District Utilization Study to Examine Middle School Re-organization

The Board of Education has commissioned JCJArchitecture of Hartford to do a District Wide Utilization Study. JCJ’s mandate is to address enrollment at Elementary Schools in Middletown, and to evaluate the wisdom of having the current configuration of the Middle Schools. JCJArchitecture specifically has been directed to consider the financial implications of any proposed recommendations.

In addition to the broad charge to make a district wide demographic study and to make re-districting recommendations to address overcrowding at some schools and a racial imbalance at one school, JCJ will assess various specific proposals for rearranging the utilization of Middletown Schools. They will study the educational and financial advantages, disadvantages, and feasibility of the following middle school configurations:

1. Making no changes, keeping one 6th grade only school (Keigwin) and one 7th and 8th grade school (Woodrow Wilson, now sited in the old High School).
2. Closing the 6th grade school, and combining the 6th grade with the 7th and 8th grades at Woodrow Wilson.
3. Returning the 120 Middletown students at Thomas Edison Middle School (a Meriden magnet school) to the District, in the context of option 1 or option 2, above.
4. Redistributing the 6th grades back to the 8 elementary schools.
5. Creating two middle schools to serve 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, using the two existing middle schools.

The Board of Ed expects that JCJ will get input from the public, from parents, and from the Board of Ed. This will occur at focus group sessions and evening meetings. In a January 26 letter to parents of school children and to school staff, JCJ went further and promised to also coordinate with School staff:

Our work will be coordinated with the Middletown Public Schools' administration, staff, and parent groups so that the final recommendations to be presented to the Board of Education will have been shaped by the input of these stakeholder groups. We look forward to our work in Middletown and to meeting with the students, teachers, administrators, parents, and residents as we undertake this important project.

At a January meeting of the Moody School PTA, assistant superintendent Barbara Senges told parents that JCJ would offer suggestions to solve the overcrowding problems at Moody. Those suggestions would be implemented before the next school year. Senges also said that the entire JCJ report would be finished before the "next budget cycle", suggesting that it would be done by December at the latest.

Schools superintendent Michael Frechette, in a February 19th letter to the Westfield Residents Association, confirmed part of this time line:

...JCJ Architecture anticipates having their teams in the schools and around town for the rest of this month [February]. Their outreach will start in March giving them enough time to inform the public and arrange for meeting places and working documents. The draft and final reports would follow in April and May. JCJ will be contacting Moody School (as well as all schools) to arrange for their team to meet with appropriate stakeholders.

At the March 17th Moody School PTA meeting, Principal Yolande Eldridge said that she had heard nothing from JCJ until that morning, when she received a draft of their plan for getting stakeholder input from Superintendent Frechette. She handed this draft of a "Middletown Public Schools Visioning" plan to PTA parents. The draft calls for meetings with interested parties to begin possibly as early as next week (dates will be in The Eye as soon as we know). Interested parties, as defined by the draft plan, include Board of Ed members, the Mayor, Council members, administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Mrs. Eldridge also confirmed that there has been no JCJ visit to Moody to assess the building's current status in advance of these proposed meetings.  

JCJ is a large architectural firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Phoenix, San Diego, and Hartford. They have done three projects in Middletown in recent years: the $8.1 million renovation and construction of Snow Elementary School, the $7.3 million construction of the Middletown Police Headquarters, and the construction and renovation of the Wesleyan Film Studies Building on Washington Terrace.