Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, November 6

The Worcester School Committee has a regular meeting on Thursday, November 3 at 7 pm. You can find the agenda here.
After recognitions, we have the Superintendent's presentation of her summative evaluation. You can find the (massive) backup for that here. The School Committee will present their evaluation at the next meeting on Thursday, November 20.
We have the reports of both the Joint Committee and Finance and Operations. (In both cases, the notes start with that blog post and go forward.)
We have a response coming back on site councils.
We have a response on internships.
We have a response coming back on kindergartners on buses.
We have several congratulations being offered: students in the Columbus Day art contest; Rob Pezzella for his selection as "Changemaker for Children" from YOU, Inc; for a donation to Norrback Elementary.
We're sending the city's Byrne grant to Governance.
We have an item on the proposed changes to the teacher licensure system (on which I have posted at length). Note that right now, the proposal is to send this to the Governance subcommittee.
Miss Biancheria is asking about MCAS overrides.
She'd also like a report on coordination with the Department of Public Health on flu and Ebola.
There's a request for a report on CSX donations on Grafton Hill.
We have the quarterly special education collaborative report to consider.
There are several more proposals for congratulations--Burncoat Field Hockey; North High Health Science; South High--all connnected to Channel 5's broadcast here last week.
Administration is sending an elementary report card item to subcommittee (there's no backup; it's for updates as the pilot rolls forward).
We're being asked to approve a six year, $1.8 million contract with Houghton Mifflin for the "Go, Math!" program, being piloted this year.
We are being asked to approve two prior year payments:1,439.86 for an Instructional Assistant and $7,468.00 for an EAW Unit B administration.
We're being asked to accept a $900 donation from Agriculture in the Classroom to Worcester Tech's Biosphere.
Mr. O'Connell is sending part of the Council of Great City School's statement around standardized testing to Accountability. 
Mr. Monfredo would like to congratulate Woodland and Union Hill for receiving the Apple grant.
Miss Biancheria would like an update on dealing with arrests and youth violence.
And we're being asked to accept $13,000 from Millbury Savings Bank for Vernon Hill ($5000) and Quinsigamond School ($8000), as part of their five year commitment to those schools.

New principals and assistant principals appointed

We've just received the new principals and assistant principals appointed by Superintendent Boone in our Friday letter.

Jessica Boss, Principal, Chandler Elementary Community School 

 Yeu Kue, Principal, City View Discovery School 

 Mary Labuski, Principal, Flagg Street School 

 Martha Dewar, Principal, Lincoln Street School 

 Caprice Kopka, Principal, Rice Square School 

 Josephine Robertson, Principal, Sullivan Middle 

 Carenza Jackson, Principal, Vernon Hill School 

 

 Michael Dunphy, Assistant Principal, Belmont Street Community School 

 Lynne-Ann Handleman, Assistant Principal, Chandler Magnet School (ACT) 

 Renee Powers, Assistant Principal, Lake View School 

 Nancy O’Coin, Assistant Principal, Quinsigamond School 

 Caryn McCrohon, Assistant Principal, Tatnuck Magnet School 

Mary Ellen Scanlon, Assistant Principal, Thorndyke Road School 

You can find out more about them at the above link. Nearly all are internal hires.

New principal at Quinsigamond Elementary

I have just received the following from  Superintendent Boone:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Margaret Doyle as principal of Quinsigamond Elementary School effective the 2013-14 school year.  Ms. Doyle currently serves as principal of Thorndyke Road Elementary, a position she has held since 2009. I will forward her resume to you on Monday. With this appointment, we will be posting the prinicipal position for Thorndyke Road and undertaking a full search for that position, including a stakeholder group of teachers and parents.

Day by Day subs; supplemental programs; coaches; athletic OM

I'd just like to comment here that the AC is on and it is FREEZING
Colorio: jump in number of subs since 2007
Luster: quality individuals to continue instruction
"best effort that administration was able to do"
Novick asks: concerns with substitutes should go to the building principals or to HR
Biancheria asks about salary
Luster: ability to pay (this is less than local)
passes
Supplemental programs
O'Connell: PE for Creamer evening
only for students in the program?
Boone: open to students across the district
asks for a report
Monfredo: returnee program: how many students are in that?
Gribouski: 18 students this year, pilot year
as they finish, more students can access the program
extending through the summer
have students finish their credits over the summer and graduate by fall
Biancheria: could streamline costs of translators
community schools (Clark St, Canterbury, Elm Park, and Quinsigamond): what we consider a community school program? What are we offering?
back-and-forth and had a number of conversations
Boone comments that there was a report in TLSS on community schools; asks that it be reviewed
was there any change?
Boone: description has not changed; grants that have sunset (ed?)
Biancheria: "they have not changed their rates since 1994" (WPD)
additions to the Creamer Center of sped and ELL as well as the school adjustment counselor, can't find it in the site based budget
Luster: they are system-wide employees, they don't show up at the school budget
Allen: not a position, it's additional time (at $30/hour)
Gribouski: they're an hourly rate; both in evening program or credit recovery program
Novick: translation: how's it going?
we've added two languages! Twi and Patois (that's to Spanish, Portguese,Vietnamese, Albanian, and Arabic)
Colorio: if we aren't using services, will it be less?
Coaches:
O'Connell: do we assume everyone will field a team?
Allen: blanket amount, not sport or school
Shea: notes that some of girls soccer teams did not have enough numbers; softball in the spring (JV)
look at increasing participation for female athletes throughout the district
O'Connell: great success at citywide teams: should we switch some of these to individual high schools?
Shea: where we have seen it, we have tried to do so
O'Connell: can have both citywide and school-by-school teams? Yes.
asks for a report in spring for expanding sports teams
Colorio: middle school expansion: boys and girls basketball in winter
Shea: asked to go from Sept to May: intermurals throughout the year in three sessions
what are the sports? soccer, tennis, baseball, softball, floor hockey...all space dependant
working with principals
Biancheria: cheerleader advisers under athletes as they should be
bowling which is run as an after school program
approved
Athletic OM:
Novick: requesting a report on gymnastics equipment throughout the district, including location and condition
the Title IX survey showed girls most interested in gymnastics; major expense is equipment
complaint on MIAA costs, which Boone shares (I told her she had my support to lead a revolution)
supplies being cut due to purchase of new helmets last year
costs of rental of ice time and pool: underfunded
Colorio: urging gate revenue increase: get more people to games
Monfredo: could we look at the cost of a citywide gymnastics team?
rental of Foley Stadium sign
Allen: has been bid out four or five times with no success
O'Connell: how about an RFP?
Biancheria: report on athletic transportation; dollars spent by school
Shea: could be broken down by season, hard to do by school...Durham
Allen: can do in house
gate receipts offset costs in account: general spent on game officials

This is it for today!

WPS input into the City's Open Space and Recreation plan

and we have Rob Antonelli from city Parks and Rec here
Allen: "you read about net school spending and budget hearings when it comes to the city, but the schools have very strong relationships with city departments...very strong relationship with city and parks"
new playgrounds at Quinsig and Gates Lane
"in that spirit, I see the school department being very willing and able to work with parks"
Antonelli: 20 public hearings across the city regarding the master plan
in the process of putting together a lot of the pieces of what those guidelines are
five year plan that was initially developed through Conservation and Recreation
city is required to have one for state and federal grants
state decided to extend the program for additional two years; now a seven year program
"not as crisp" when done in house, so outsourced this year
open space records in many different locations; no central repository for mapping
Weston and Sampson putting it all on one format
making sure all of the properties correct; surveys and maps of properties
draft document for some time longer; draft going in mid-June (must have in for grant eligibility in July)
revisions are nearly always required by the state
several upcoming meetings at end of June, beginning of July
approval by Council in the fall
inventory of school department facilities: needs updating and correcting
Looking to include:

• inventory of outdoor recreation facilities at schools
• condition assessment and access allowed to public facilities

Parks are assessed for their condition as part of the open space master plan

• are there a planned capital improvements plan at school facilities to put into the plan?
• changes in delivery of maintenance...could also be included in the plan to give the public better information about maintenance of properties

public survey was completed in May; will have results in next week or so

• is their room for further collaboration? beyond what is already being done

Foley: draft document submitting to state will include only listing of schools; no action items as with other properties

Antonelli: there are open spaces in public schools

Foley: suggestion that we keep this here and discuss the upkeep and needs of fields

Antonelli: to include short and long term goals over the next seven years; we would like to do X by this date

Foley: putting a plan together to look at this

Colorio: clarifying what the plan is, how the grant cycle works, looking at lines of access and trails

If trails are being connected, properties are looked at, sidewalks looked at

Novick: if it's in the plan, it can be grant funded; our needs making the list

what about swimming due to loss of students?

Whale's Tale program: looking to bring back and note, due to need of water safety

Tech School students working on the vernal pools

need for trail maps: getting people to these: "People don't even know that we have a waterfall in Worcester"

Things that people don't even know that we have

talking to various city departments about the information on their end...need that information as part of our document
"when they go for a grant...they can say...'it's included in the open space plan'..incorporates more and better collaboration with city departments and maybe gives them a leg up on communities that maybe didn't have that"
makes it a stronger plan: makes it a much better document
Allen: intent is to include all WPS properties in the open space plan, and then rolling forward to identify access and condition

Heating after the long weekend

The Worcester School Committee received the following in an email from Mr. Allen regarding heat in the schools this week (underlining added):

Although the number of instances over this period of time is high, please know that the type of issues are very common that the Facilities Department faces with the schools throughout the heating season.
Columbus Park had a water line break in the boiler room and heating issues from the boiler.  Several of the technicians were deployed to address this issue at the school.  All of the issues have been resolved.
We had an unusual number of calls related to Canterbury Street.  This issue here was something that occurs in some of our schools not yet on full monitoring.  The custodian reported to Maintenance Services first thing this morning that the building was cold.  Since we had a number of personnel at Columbus Park, Maintenance Services was on site at the school between 9-9:30 a.m.  The boiler was reset and is again fully operational.  However, it is likely that it took several hours to regain normal heating temperatures to the entire building.
McGrath, Forest Grove, May Street, and Doherty had a variety of issues affecting heat delivery.  All of those overall building issues have been resolved.  There are instances of isolated classrooms issues at these site that will be addressed.
Burncoat High (B-Wing) has no heat and a replacement part is being shipped from Texas for the repair.  The repair should be completed by end of the week.  The school is fully aware of the status and will make adjustments to building usage as appropriate and needed.
Claremont, Roosevelt, Norrback, Quinsigamond, and Worcester Arts have new boilers through Honeywell ESCo program and each of these schools are having operational/technical issues associated with new boiler set-up and controls adjustments.  Honeywell and the boiler manufacturers are working these issues at the schools and we hopeful they can resolve them in the very near future.
As we progress into the cold winter season, it is not uncommon to have multiple heating issues at our schools on any given day.  Please be assured that the Facilities Department will respond to any and all heating issues that are reported by the schools.  They very are cognizant of the instructional benefit of having a warm and comfortable classroom and every effort is made to minimize disruptions to the learning process resulting from any facilities issue. 

And I will only add ('though this is somewhat repeating what Mr. Allen says above) that yes, you should always say something if you have a concern,and no, it is not okay for a building to be cold.

On the heat

or lack thereof. The Worcester School Committee received the following from Mr. Allen this afternoon:
It is clear that the recent cold weather has had an adverse impact on some of our heating plants and we are taking the necessary steps to address these issues as soon as possible so as to minimize any impact on instructional time. 

We have received the most communication regarding Doherty High School.  The immediate response that we will be taking is an earlier starting time for the heating system during the colder weather.  This should mitigate much of the overall building problems that has been experienced at the school.  However, the school does experience significant heat loss; first when the rush of students enter during the morning (with doors being opened for extended times) and during the day due to the condition of the school’s overall building envelope.  This also contributes to the variances in temperature within rooms and is not a new issue.  This is the condition resulting from of the non-insulated, single paned windows that surround the entire building envelope.  This is one of the reasons that we have identified Doherty High School as a project for major renovation under MSBA.  We will continue to work with our HVAC and building custodial staff to address daily, localized issues at the school.  We believe that turning the heat on earlier and some other steps will mitigate the problems at this school.

We have also experienced problems at other schools this week, including WTHS, McGrath, PIC, Quinsigamond, and Fanning.  These were primarily related to building controls and remote communications issues and have been resolved.  We’ve also had problems at North High and those issues appear to have been resolved through the construction contractor.  The building needed adjustments to the building controls based on the commissioning process of the school while in full operation. 

Jim Bedard is meeting with the HVAC lead tradesman each morning to review the status of all buildings and deploys necessary resources to address any issues.

Worcester School Committee: honors for those improving grounds!

We're starting our meeting tonight by honoring the members of the Quinsig Village Advisory Committee, who enabled the building of a new playground at Quinsigamond School.
Councilor Clancy is announcing that they recently voted additional funds for capital improvements inside of Vernon Hill School and Quinsigamond School. (Hooray!)

We are also honoring District Attorney Early for the work he and his staff have done for improvements at schools around the district. (I should note that we got a list of the work that has been done and it went on for pages!)

Questions from members

O'Connell asks if we're ready for these "bumps" going through the system
Boone: capacity is challenge at K-6 level
classes that are larger are due to lack of classroom space in particular schools (this is a vital point)

Worcester School Committee meeting tonight

There will be a meeting of the Worcester School Committee tonight at City Hall at 7 pm (or thereabouts; I wouldn't be surprised if executive session ran long). You'll find the agenda here.
There's something for everyone on this agenda:

• There are two recognitions on the agenda: one for the South High mini-grant project, and one of Amber Ustinovich, a student at Worcester Tech, who was recently chosen as "Outstanding Vocational Technical Student."
• There are two public petitions on the agenda: one bringing back a single evaluation of the superintendent, and another (as you may have seen in today's paper) suggesting that North High be renamed in honor of the late John Tivnan. There seems to be a lack of clarity around renaming; while the Council did weigh in last week, only the School Committee can rename--or not--a school.
• There are two reports of the Superintendent: one on the six-pronged communication plan (postponed from the last meeting), and another on the special education audit. While the back-up on the audit is a single page, I've been told by administration that the report will be more comprehensive.
• A number of reports back from administration: on retirees, on summer programs, on the Worcester Police Department Youth Summit (held last night).
• Accepting several donations, including one from Superintendent Boone to support the Student Advisory Committee.
• Motions looking at closing the gap in college preparation, considering the actions of a community in Kansas around NCLB, reviewing tax title properties prior to auction, reporting on the Skyline Technical Fund donations, revising report cards, recognitions.
• Reviewing improvements to Quinsigamond's playground and the Bennet Field/Gates Lane properties.
• We also have to set a date to review the superintendent. This is generally done in June.

Remember, the meeting is live on Channel 11 and online from the WPS website.

Honors

We're starting tonight with honoring the Tech school for their selection by the MetLife Foundation and the National Association of Secondary School Principals as a Breakthrough School. Mr. Coughlin points us to the new website for soliciting funds for the school around this.

Acknowledgement tonight of the donation (first year) of $13,000 in total to Vernon Hill and Quinsigamond Schools from Millbury Savings Bank.

TimothyWilliams, network administrator for WPS, is being deployed overseas with the US Navy, and is, as Superintendent Boone puts it, receiving our version of "manning the rail."