Bits of Board of Ed News

I was at the Board of Ed this morning, and I picked up some bits of news for y'all.


Middletown takes a medal in the state education olympics!

Ok, so there isn't really a "state education olympics", but Middletown did receive honors this morning as one of the top three school districts in the state, in terms of improvement. Michael Frechette was invited by the Commissioner of Education to address the annual "back-to-school" gathering of superintendents. He gave a presentation on our district's impressive achievements in test score improvements; you can view his power point on the school system website here.


Did we lose teachers or not?

I remember lots of discussion last Spring about eliminating 13 classrooms, not replacing teachers who were retiring and increasing class sizes, but in the end, I just didn't have a grip on the final outcome. Luckily, while I had Asst. Superintendent Barbara Senges' ear this morning, I was able to get it sorted out.

This year, our elementary schools will have 6 fewer classrooms - that means that some classrooms will be combined. For example - let's say there are 60 third-graders at one school. Last year, that might have been 4 classrooms of 15 students each, but this year it would be 3 classrooms of 20 or so students. The district average for elementary classrooms hovers somewhere around an average of 18 to 19 students per class -- so this would mean a slight increase in class size.

The reduction of these six teaching positions did not require any layoffs, because there were two dozen retirements across the district. In fact, Middletown has been able to hire new teachers this year, some of whom are experienced educators who were laid off from other districts in the state.

So which schools will lose a teacher? Bielefield will lose three classrooms, and Snow, Lawrence and Wesley will lose one each.


Curriculum Committee Sticks Around


As Fishmuscle wrote in the Eye last month, an option was under consideration that would eliminate the current Curriculum Committee, which is made up of three Board of Ed members, and two people from the community. After some discussion, the Curriculum Committee decided to stay in business, with a clarification about the role of the various groups that affect curriculum decisions. This proposal will be considered by the full Board, and includes the following:

•Subject Area curriculum committees will review and develop any changes for the curriculum and learning materials, such as textbooks, covering the full range of pre-K to 12th grade.

•The District Data Team, which has been in place since last year, would now be charged with "general responsibility" for the curriculum. The DDT is the centerpiece of the District Improvement Plan, and is already organized into three areas of focus: curriculum and assessment, professional development and school climate. Made up primarily of teachers and administrators, the DDT is not a public meeting and it reports to the Superintendent. Under the new proposal, the DDT would communicate with the Board's Curriculum Committee, primarily through the Assistant Superintendent. A further proposal was to ask principals and teachers who are part of the DDT to rotate through the Curriculum Committee to offer their perspective.

•The Board of Ed's Curriculum Committee would continue with the "general oversight" on curriculum issues, reviewing all issues before they are passed on to the Board for final approval, if need be.

•The Board of Ed itself is required to have the final say on all these issues.

At Tuesday's meeting there was some debate and dissent among the committee members about whether it was a good idea to relieve the entire Board of the responsibility to hear all presentations about Middletown's curriculum. Board member Sally Boske favored the idea of empowering the DDT with the bulk of curriculum tasks and eliminating the Board's committee as the middleman. She felt that would bring a higher level of information to the full Board, instead of just the few Board members who are part of the Curriculum Committee. She was, however, outvoted; the remainder of the committee agreed to send their proposed organizational structure to the next Board of Ed meeting for their approval.

Here's where I start editorializing: The primary issue seems to be one that balances the desire for open, public process and input from parents, and the efficiencies and expertise offered by allowing the professional staff to take the lead. In the eyes of this citizen, the role of the Curriculum Committee as a gatekeeper will be most effective if they are aggressive about bringing any controversial issues to the full board and the wider public while they are still in the development stages. That might ease the "How Did We Get Here" syndrome that seems to permeate any meeting where changes to the system are considered by the Board. In the worst case scenario, the Curriculum Committee will act as a damper to any significant participation from the Board or the public, as any proposals will have "already been through committee".

The next Board of Ed meeting is Tuesday, August 25th at 7 pm at the cafeteria at Middletown High School.

Curriculum Committee Considers its Role

The Board of Education Curriculum Committee met on Thursday morning to discuss how to respond to a new law, effective July 1st, which requires that the Board of Education of all school districts establish a Curriculum Committee. Several options were considered, including making no changes to the current arrangement, replacing the current Curriculum Committee with an all-professional one, and having both an all-professional committee and the current citizen's committee. There was vigorous discussion, but no decisions were reached.

A new approach

The Curriculum Committee consists of Board of Education members Bill Boyd, Sheila Daniels, and Sally Boske, and community members Susan Glass and Bill Grady. They meet once a month to discuss curriculum issues with Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Barbara Senges.

Senges informed the committee about the new law, "What's new is that now the law says it's [the Board of Ed's] duty to establish a "District-wide Curriculum Committee" (DWCC) that would establish the curriculum." She called for this new DWCC to be composed entirely of education professionals, including teachers, principals, and experts in education like her. She envisioned a group of people each with "life membership", who would concentrate on all aspects of the K-12 curriculum. There would be working groups responsible for each of the 4 areas of the curriculum (Language Arts, Mathematics, etc).

Senges contrasted such an approach with the approach that has been used, under former Assistant for Curriculum Dr. John Hennelly. In previous years, extra pay would be offered to teachers who wanted to spend time during the summer developing the curriculum. Senges said, "I don't like the method that has been used in the past. It's been a little random."

The "Leveling Brouhaha" and the role of the public

This spring parents discovered that the administrators had decided to eliminate leveling (the separation of students into different levels of ability) in 6th grade math and language arts. The committee discussed the uproar created by this decision, which was perhaps exacerbated by the lack of communication with parents. Boyd suggested that this episode indicated that the Board of Education needed to have authority over the curriculum.

Senges disagreed, saying that leveling was NOT a curriculum issue. She said an example of a curriculum issue would be the kind of math abilities that should be taught in third grade, not how students should be grouped in classes. She said that the District Wide Curriculum Committee would be responsible for interpreting the broad guidelines which the state provides to all districts, tailoring the curriculum to best serve the Middletown population.

Senges suggested that one advantage of a new DWCC would be that its meetings "would not be public meetings in my opinion... I don't think you want public to be there."

I waved my hands at this point, and Chairman Boyd graciously allowed me, as the only member of the public at the meeting, to comment. I questioned whether any committee formulated by state statute could hold meetings that were closed to the public. I also commented that after this spring's elimination of leveling, and the uproar caused in part by the lack of communication with parents, it might not be a good idea to reduce the opportunities for public information and input into curriculum issues.

Senges vigorously defended the idea that curriculum planning should be done by professionals, without any members of the public present. She said that of course Board Members would be welcome to come to any meetings of a District-wide Curriculum Committee.

Lines of authority

Boyd, Sheila Daniels, Susan Glass, and Bill Grady all questioned what the role of the Board's Curriculum Committee would be if there were a new, professional District Wide Curriculum Committee. Senges responded that Board Members "can ask about things, ... and [the board] needs to fund the curriculum development payments to teachers ($28/hour)". She also said that by state law, the Board needs to approve textbooks, although she agreed with Boyd that the Board has not done any textbook approval in many years. However, it seemed quite clear to her that matters of such centrality to education as the curriculum should be handled by professionals.

She told the board that the responsibility of the Board of Education Curriculum Committee is to be well informed, and that "Our job as administrators is to keep the Board of Education well informed... The reason we are at odds at times is because you don't have all the information."

Senges was in favor of keeping the current Board Curriculum Committee in place, after the formation of the DWCC. She agreed to create a chart with clear lines of responsibility and authority, delineating what the role of the Board, the Board's Curriculum Committee, and the professional DWCC, would be.

Board members also questioned whether the new state law unambiguously mandated a new committee of professionals. Several said that at the most recent meeting of CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education), speakers from different school districts had discussed a wide range of ways that the new law could be met. Senges agreed to provide a legal interpretation of the law.

Next steps

At the next meeting of the Board's Curriculum Committee, which will occur probably on August 18th at 8AM, Senges is to present the legal interpretation, as well as the flow chart of responsibilities and authorities. The Board will then make a decision on the nature and responsibilities of Curriculum Committee(s).