Assistant Superintendent To Retire March 30, 2012

Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges has announced her intention to retire as of March 30, 2012, citing a need to care for ailing parents as her motivation for leaving.

See the Patch's full article here.

Until her departure, Senges will stand in as acting Superintendent in the wake of Dr. Michael Frechette's departure yesterday.

The next regular Board of Education meeting is this Tuesday, March 13, at 7pm.

News Update on School Website

Posted 02/04/2011 01:53PM

Given the upcoming weather forecasts and our ongoing roof snow removal efforts, all after school activities today (February 4th) and all weekend activities in the schools are cancelled. As of this writing, all away athletic events will still be held as scheduled.

The above information was just posted on the Middletown Public School's website.

Board of Education 2010-11 Budget

Click here to see the 2010-2011 Middletown Public Schools budget. As you scroll through the beginning memos, you'll see a summary sheet with the specific breakdown on how a zero percent budget was achieved (remember that $859,520 was cut from the originally proposed budget).

The specific breakdown for the line item transfers totaling $1,497,466 is also included.

The last Budget Committee minutes available online are from 1/25/10, so there isn't a recent look at how the Budget Committee evaluated the budget...hopefully this changes soon!

Eye on the Air, August 8

Eye on the Air, Middletown Eye Radio, every Friday, 1-2 p.m. on WESU, 88.1 FM and live online.



Today's Guests

Barry Simon, Executive Director, Gilead Community Services speaking how a downturn in the economy and state budget cuts affect services to individuals with mental health issues.

Barbara Senges, Assistant Superintendent of Middletown Public Schools on assessment of CAPT and Mastery Exam results.

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.)

reading, writing, 'rithmetic....and Art!

Every year, I look forward to a particular art show at Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University. While the college students are away on Spring Break, the university allows the Middletown Public Schools to display the work of students from every grade and every school in the system. The galleries are filled with pottery, charcoal studies, paper craft projects and pen and ink sketches, each with a label listing the name and grade of the child, as well as their art teacher and school. You can see a slideshow of some of the work on the school system's website.

We have some very talented young artists in town -- and for the kids, nothing matches finding their own work on the gallery wall.

The exhibit is up through March 15th. The Zilkha gallery is open Monday to Friday, from 12 to 7 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 4 pm. If you've never been, the gallery is easily accessed from the parking lot off Washington Terrace, adjacent to the Veterans Memorial Green.

Christmas in February for School Board

Although there hasn't yet been time to digest all the implications of Governor Rell's proposed state budget for 2009-2011, there is one item that undoubtedly has them popping champagne corks over at the Board Of Education offices on Hunting Hill Avenue. Non-alcoholic champagne, of course.

According to the Hartford Courant, it was announced today that Governor Rell will propose a budget that includes the same level of state funding for education in Middletown. Until now, Superintendent Michael Frechette has been cautioning the Board of Ed to expect at least $2 million less in state funding than we received this year.

State funding makes up nearly a quarter of this year's school budget of $69,350,000. Less funding from the state would have meant either budget cuts or local tax increases.

On February 10th, the school board is expected to vote on a budget for 2009-2010, which will then go to the Common Council for their approval (or their rejection). Even with the good news that the state will not cut Middletown's share of education funding, there is still a gap of nearly $4 million between the budget for the current year and what it would take to keep the same level of services for next year. The school board has the option to ask the City for an additional 5.61 % in funding to close that gap, or propose cuts in current services.

Stay tuned -- and if you care about local education services, take a moment to celebrate!

Board of Education Budget

The Superintendent of Schools, Michael Frechette, presented his recommended budget for the Board of Education for 2009/10 at the last School Board meeting (the budget is available on-line: BUDGET and COVER MEMO). He recommended a budget of about $73M, which is $3.9M more than in 2008/09 (a 5.6% increase). Most of this increase is due to the following:

• Teaching salaries: $845,000 more, due to a 2.9% contracted increase in the salaries of 411 teaching positions (total teacher's salaries: $31M).
  
• Support salaries: $383,000 more, due to a 3% contracted increase in 112 clerical, custodial, maintenance, and nurses salaries (total support and paraprofessional salaries: $8M)
• Administrator salaries: $265,000 more, due to a 3% contracted increase (total admin salaries: $3M)
  
• Benefits: $1.3M more, due almost entirely to a 9.5% increase in health and dental insurance costs (total benefits: $13M).
  
• Pupil Transportation: $392,000 more, due to a 2.5% contracted increase (total transportation: $5M).
  

This year, the superintendent is recommending a smaller increase than last year, when he recommended a 10.3% increase (the full budgets for 2006/07 and 2007/08 are available on the Budget page of the Board of Education Website).

On January 13th, the Board will meet to discuss the Superintendent's recommendations (in last year's cycle, on January 17th they reduced the increase from 10.3% to 9.7%). The Mayor and the Common Council will then appropriate funds for Education from the City's budget (in last year's cycle, on June 3rd the BOE adopted a budget with a 4.9% increase).

It's expected that the meeting will offer a decision on how much (if any) of an increase the Board wants to support. This year, the word "increase" has a nuanced meaning -- it will take an increase of $6 million (8.5%) to continue the programs and staffing that our schools currently enjoy. Anything less than $6 mil, and it might still be an increase in taxes, but it will mean a decrease in service. That $6 million gap is due to the expected drop in state funding (about $2 million) and raises and cost increases that are already contracted (about $4 million).

In an ideal world, all of our citizens would be familiar with the workings of our schools. This is an important issue even if you don't have kids in the system.  Education is the biggest single item (by far) in our city's budget, and you know that the quality of the schools -- and the tax rates -- affect both your property values and your quality of life.

No school today!

Schoolchildren rejoice. Parents weep. A storm is foretold. School is cancelled for all Middletown Public Schools.