Town of Carver, MA - SCHOOL COMMITTEE MINUTES

Cathy Sharon-Matthews, Vice President, addressed the committee. She encouraged staff, parents, community to connect with their State representatives and the governor regarding Chapter 70 funding and finding more creative ways of funding our schools. Randy Webster agreed with her recommendation and suggested our school committee send correspondence to State House with concerns relative to our district.

Brittany Sherwood reported the following: Seniors: Senior Show was successful. Senior Dinner Dance will be May 24, Class Day, May 29, Convocation and Awards, May 30 and Graduation Ceremonies, June 3^rd at 12.00. Juniors: had a successful Faculty Basketball Game. Prom details are being finalized for May 11^th – Promenade at 4:30 and Prom 6-11 at Indian Pond Country Club. Sophomores: worked the Concession Stand at Spirit Week and are finalizing a Dodgeball tournament and Freshmen are discussing fund raising ideas. Student Council: April was English Dept. appreciation month. Spirit Week was successful and school spirit and Penny Wars were won by Senior Class. Mike Lucie, Social Science teacher got to Kiss a Fish for Kevin. Mr. and Mrs. Crusader Talent Show was held but had low attendance. MASC was well worth attending. On April 3^rd, the Invisible Children presentation was held and it was a very moving topic. Student Council cook-out and awards is May 22.

Tom Piepiora, President, of the Captains Council reported Spring Sports season is underway with 150 high school student athletes and 180 middle school student athletes. He encouraged the community to attend the sporting events, schedules can be found on the athletic link of Carver Public Schools website (www.carver.org). The Captain’s Council is sponsoring the White Ribbon Campaign through the Comprehensive Health classes with freshman and sophomores on April 10^th at 8:30 a.m. to “stand up” to raise awareness of men’s violence against women.

A. Recognitions: Lady Crusaders and Coaches were thanked for their hard-work and dedication that brought the team and the whole town of Carver a season to remember – South Shore League Champions!. Their accomplishments inspired a fan following that made history for any sport in Carver. Coach Tony Pina thanked the administration, staff and community for their extraordinary support of the team.

The Senior Class was recognized for a very entertaining Senior Show and the Student Council for all of their Spirit Week activities and their generosity in raising funds for Kevin through KISS A FISH! Thanks also to good sport in fish kissing, Mr. Lucie!

B. Personnel – Employment Opportunities brochure was distributed. It was prepared and brought by all administrators to the Hiring Fair at Bridgewater State College. The anticipated openings for 2007-08 have been posted and advertised and search committees are being formed and interviews will be underway soon. Revised job descriptions for technology personnel and .5 Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology were shared with the committee. Also revised were: Health Office Paraprofessional, Director of Transportation and Director of Facilities.

D. P.C.C. – Summer program acceptances have been received with 31 students accepted. It is an honor to attend to this competitive program. We were able to send additional students over our allotted “slots” due to other towns not filling their quota.

Carver Public Schools submitted one grant to MusicDrivesUs.com which is a grant funded by the Ernie Boch, Jr. Foundation. We asked for storage for music instruments and funds to equip a new general music program at the middle school. Data from our Music Task Force was used for rationale. The total requested is $13,500.

Deb Giokas from Elementary School Music Department along with Deb Gesualdo wrote a successful grant called Music in the Morning -$3000 for five years. She gave an overview of the program which includes a different composer being introduced to the students/staff each week through music and a brief bio played over intercom in the morning. The core values of the initiative are to have music be a part of their learning experience. Carver was 1 of only 9 schools who received this grant during this quarter.

G. NEASC – Five Year Report – Scott Knief, High School Principal presented an update to the 51 recommendations made by NEASC, five years after their visit. Schools are viewed through seven standards of curriculum, instruction, assessment, leadership, school resources, community resource and mission and expectations. Each school must respond to the recommendations at year 2 and 5 and they must indicate the status of the recommendation. The high school is proud to report they have completed 31 of the recommendations, 17 in progress and 3 planned for the future. The high school was split into 9 disciplinary teams and each team was assigned four to six of the recommendations to evaluate and gather evidence to substantiate the status. The recommendations were reviewed for future work required and also to make sure the high school’s expectations are in alignment with NEASC standards.

H. AYP Report – Liz Sorrell presented her report on MCAS results, highlighting the Middle School results particularly in math. The Middle School has been identified as a school that needs improvement in mathematics. We need to have these students to proficient or advanced by 2014 for graduation from high school. The current year’s freshman (Class of 2010) will have to take and pass a Science & Technology MCAS exam to graduate. The DOE has raised the passing score from 220 to 240 (math) which increases our obstacles to prepare our children for success. As a result of the test statistics, it is obvious that when the students come to grade 6 they are missing skills that need to be caught up. A math program needs to be implemented that spans elementary and middle school math at the same time so we can reach for our very best. If we do not improve our scores next year (2^nd year), we would be given from the state corrective actions. The NELMS report from last year gave us suggestions for improvement including making access to all students for all programs.

A number of concerns and recommended changes were outlined for the middle school day. A part of the concern was the music program and a Music Task Force was formed and they presented their findings last meeting. Recommendations included adding more space (classroom and storage) however this is not possible at this time. Also recommended was to include a general music program to include grade 6 and to have access for all students. We will be able to hire a full time general music teacher with the proposed restructuring of the middle school system. It would maintain reasonable class size and allow every student to have music, currently we only serve 31%.

I. Multi-Age Program -Principal Candy Weiler gave her recommendation regarding grouping for multiage in grades K-3 for FY 2008. During several extensive meetings with the Primary multiage teachers and administration, the issue of implementing the new literacy program across three grade levels was discussed. It is important to reach the goal of consistently delivering reading instruction among and between grade levels in order for the students to have the ability to read proficiently by third grade. A decision was made that by eliminating the kindergarten multiage, the teachers would be able to focus on two grade levels instead of three in the same classroom. This decision was reached prior to kindergarten registration and parents will be informed they will have the opportunity to enroll their child in the multiage program after their child has completed kindergarten.

J. Middle School Scheduling – Dan Daly presented information regarding changing the Middle School day from a 6 period rotating schedule to a 7 period day as a result of responding to the AYP data and NELMS report. He describe the history of how the current schedule was initiated which was pre-MCAS mandates. The 6 period day, now with MCAS, has outlived its usefulness. The 7 period schedule offers absolute equal access to every special to every student in the school, provides opportunities for MCAS remediation and allows team teachers to have team, subject or grade level planning for one period every day. It would also reduce the average class size of Math ELA and Science in grade 8 and a Math Lab would be created by hiring two teachers who would have approximately a 12:1 student/teacher ratio in sub-groups. Classes would change from current 58 minutes to 49 minutes. It has been a challenging process to reconfigure the schedule.

Questions and concerns were addressed from parents in attendance. It was recognized that music program has been very success- ful and award winning and it was a difficult situation to have to make changes but it is important to move the school system forward effectively. Mr. Daly invited any parents to come see him with any questions/suggestions.

K. Presentation on Police and Fire Department Buildings – a power point presentation was given by Buzz Artiano to make the school committee and community aware of the condition of the fire and police department buildings. Building Committee was formed in August 2006 to look at long term solution for building attractive, functional facilities for each of these departments. Current conditions of the building and suggestions for replacements were shown.

A. Policy Actions: Graduation requirements (IKF) and Student Records (JRA) policies were presented for second reading. Policy IKF – motion to approve made by Randy Webster, second by Mary Kaminski. All in favor. Policy JRA - motion to approve made by Al Spicer, second by Barry Struski. All in favor.