Board of Ed To Consider New Policy on Public Comment

Tuesday night's regular Board of Education Meeting was a busy one: Superintendent Michael Frechette reported on snow days (4 taken so far, not many left), the projected district enrollment for the next 10 years (will remain fairly flat with a bubble in the current 2nd grade), and the difference between his wish list and the list of support needs the district has.

Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges talked at length about the District Data Teams, noting that technically, this is the last year of the 3-year District Improvement Plan mandated by Middletown's performance levels on the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs). In a recent meeting, it was decided that instead of writing a new plan for the next three years, the district will continue with its current plan. This is for two reasons: first, all the parts of the original plan aren't implemented yet, and second, the original plan is working and Middletown is off the "needs improvement" list for the first time in several years. Senges also passed on several compliments from the State Representative who visits all 16 districts in CT with improvement plans: "She said that in all the districts she visits, no one has the depth of conversation Middletown has...and she's never seen a group with the same level of instructional leadership as we do."

The hot seat for the evening belonged to Facilities Director Ken Jackson as there are still issues at MHS with a failed retaining wall, lighting and acoustical problems in the pool area, and cracked seats in the auditorium. The good news, though, is that the seat company is replacing all 1,000 auditorium seats under warranty. Jackson also asked the BOE for $5000 for an Engineering Study to tackle the electrical issues at Woodrow Wilson Middle School. The school had its second electrical fire on January 19th, but the problem stems from CL&P's phase dropout issues on that side of town. While an infrastructure update will ultimately solve the problem once and for all, that's CL&P's decision, and in the meantime, Jackson has to take measures to prevent future fires and to protect power to the district's server. When WWMS loses power, power to the district's server is also lost, which affects the ability of every school in the district to access the internet. This loss of internet service also means the district can't use its Honeywell Emergency system to notify parents. This was obvious on Jan. 19 when the school was evacuated and kids sent home early, but the district couldn't call parents to tell them their kids were on their way home. Jackson told the Board he wants to have an electrical study of the system to see how to get surge protection, but that he will also be looking to install an emergency generator to protect power to the server.

The most interesting topic of the evening, though, came from a quick comment during the public session. A gentleman (and I didn't catch his name, I apologize) thanked the BOE for returning SRO's (School Resource Officer) back to Middletown High. "The teachers really appreciate it and the officers are excited to be there and they're really settling in." Then the gentleman went on to add, "I also urge the board to consider some kind of policy to control the slanderous comments made during the Public Session...people just get up here and say stuff that isn't true."

MHS Principal Robert Fontaine then gave a "State of Middletown High" speech. (This was still during the public comment session where speakers have 3 minutes and when the timer beeps, BOE Chairman Ted Raczka cuts the speaker off mid-sentence.) Fontaine had lots of nice things to say about how the climate is improving at MHS and how the data teams are making are improving instruction and how suspensions are down. Notably, though, when the 3-minute timer beeped, Fontaine kept talking...

Toward the end of the meeting when Policy Committee Chair Sally Boske was updating the Board on policy issues, she noted that the committee would be considering a "policy on public comment."

Now why is this interesting (especially to this EYE reporter)? Just over a year ago, the BOE amended Bylaw 9325(a) to limit public comment to 3 minutes a person down from 5 minutes a person. The Board has been routinely criticized for this limitation. The MHS Principal could have been added to the agenda in any number of places as a legitimate report to the board, but he choose to use public comment time and he wasn't limited to 3 minutes. And it wasn't like he was just allowed to finish his sentence or even a paragraph. He continued speaking for at least another 2 -3 minutes past the allotted time. And now, the policy committee will be looking to create what kind of policy?

Bylaw 9325(a) currently allows "any individual or group to address the Board concerning any subject that lies within its jurisdiction..." The only restriction possible is that the subject of the public address has to be a matter that the BOE has control over. So, for example, someone couldn't complain to the BOE about how public works removes or doesn't remove snow from corners in Middletown. I'll be curious to see just what comes next...a tax-paying citizen can only talk to his or her elected officials in a public setting if...if...the subject is nice and doesn't point out any deficiencies? Oh wait, maybe only if the citizen has personal knowledge of a problem (meaning he or she was actually there on school property to witness the concern) and it's the second Wednesday of the fourth month of an odd year.

Hmm. I guess I'm going to have to dig out my first amendment again...

Middletown High Students Speak Out

Last night, the Board of Education met in the cafeteria at the new Middletown High. They did not discuss the school budget, as they have at the last several meetings. Instead, they conducted their regular business, with a full 45 minutes devoted to comments from the public.

Over the last month, Middletown High School has suffered through a bomb scare and an alleged after-school rape of a 15-year-old girl by two 18-year-olds, which is still under investigation. So the unofficial theme of the evening was "Is Middletown High Safe?" Two parents spoke with concerns about how the administration handled the mid-December bomb threat, which was reported after one student overheard another student possibly discussing a bomb and was handled by Middletown and Hartford police. Parents were notified through an electronic phone call, which went out immediately after the incident, and letters which were carried home by students. MHS principal Robert Fontaine noted that the phone call system is new this year, and there may have been errors which left some parents out of the loop.

But the bulk of the public session was a positive report from seven Middletown High students who came out to reassure the Board that they feel safe and protected at school. The students were recruited by Athletic Director Mike Pitruzello, and they included a diverse range of teenagers who were poised and assertive at the microphone. In most cases, they said that they felt that problems caused by a small number of students should not be allowed to define the character of their school.

Student Trey James struck a chord when he said that he felt that these incidents draw so much attention because they are not the norm -- he said "I'm proud of that."

Junior Anne Machuga and a friend (whose named I missed) sat at the microphone together and said they'd learned that they have to speak up against teen sterotypes. "We're letting you guys know that there is a lot of good going on in our school."

These comments were echoed by Ava Donaldson, a senior at MHS, who is the official student representative of the Board of Ed, and sits at the table at each meeting.

A special portion of the meeting was devoted to a report from Principal Fontaine about safety and civility at the high school. He gave an interesting report about their efforts to change the culture of discipline at the school, especially the shift from "teachers teach, the assistant principal does the discipline" to a system where all adults share responsibility for monitoring standards of behavior. In conjunction with this, they have moved away from a detention-based discipline program, to finding more "appropriate consequences" for misbehavior. When pressed for examples, he mentioned that a kid who makes a mess in the cafeteria might be assigned to community service -- cleaning the lunchroom. Also, he said that they have devoted a lot of professional development time to helping staff understand the importance of developing relationships with students as a groundwork for effective discipline.

I'm not familiar enough with the on-the-ground results of these efforts to evaluate their effectiveness, and the EYE would welcome any comments or reporting from those with a better inside view!

The Board meeting also included a recognition of Santo Fragilio, the founder of the Middletown Cultural Council. That's the group that has been bringing musicians, artists, actors and dancers into our schools to perform and to teach for the past 40 years. If you've had a child in the Middletown schools during those decades, then you've had the benefit of Santo's volunteer efforts. He has a hand in every step of the process: writing the grants, booking the artists, coordinating with the schools. He works with a small group that includes people like Marco Gaylord (the school system Fine Arts Coordinator and High School band director) and Pam Tatge (director of Wesleyan's Center for the Arts), among others. I know all this because I became a member of the Cultural Council this past September and I'm wowed by what Santo can do. Congratulations Santo!

The next Board of Ed meeting will be on February 10th, when the Board expects to adopt a budget for the 2009-2010 year, which then gets passed on to the Common Council to see if they will support that level of funding. Also, there is a February 24th workshop and special meeting scheduled, when the Board will consider the official School Improvement Plan and will also consider their priorities for the budget, in case future cuts are needed.

And by the way, if you want even more Board of Ed news than the Middletown Eye can give you, you can now watch the Board meetings live on Channel 19. They are re-broadcast the Sunday following the meeting at 6 pm.