Carver Public Schools
Carver, Massachusetts
School Committee Regular Meeting
Monday, September 10, 2007
Minutes
Members Present: Kay Spencer, Chair
Mary Kaminski, Vice Chair
Al Spicer
Barry Struski
Randy Webster
Also Present: Elizabeth Sorrell, Superintendent
Matthew Gillis, Director of Business & Finance
Laura Tilton, Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Technology
6:30 p.m. Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and tour of new Fitness Room at High School.
Elizabeth Sorrell, Superintendent, introduced Michael Schultz, Director of Comprehensive Health and Athletics and thanked him for his time, commitment and energy to this project. Mr. Schultz recognized the Athletics Boosters Club and other community members and gave credit to them for their outstanding team work in tackling the project of reconstructing a portion of the high school girl’s locker room into a Fitness Room to be used by students. Members of the School Committee, Boosters Club and press were given a tour of the facility.
Kay Spencer called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
I. Comments from General Public
None
II. Comments from EAPC
Connie Koffman noted the year has started off smoothly. The EAPC is establishing a negotiating team and will be sending formal letter of intent to negotiate a new contract for the faculty and they look forward to a congenial process.
III. Updates from Student Advisory Council and Captain’s Council
At this time, the Captain’s Council has not yet been voted on by the Athletic Department but a representative is expected to join the October meeting.
Erica Kierstead, President of Executive Board and Kayla Morrison, Junior Class council rep. will be the student advisory council this year. They gave an extensive report on activities planned for the school year. Of note, student council is planning a 20th birthday celebration for the high school in December. The Carver High School building was opened for use in December 1988 while still part of the Plymouth-Carver region.
IV. Approval of Minutes
Motion by Mary Kaminski to approve regular and executive session meeting minutes of August 13, 2007. Second by Randy Webster, all in favor with one abstention.
V. Communications
A. In the News – The Patriot Ledger featured “What’s New” in Carver Schools and highlighted the fitness center, new math labs at the Middle
School, math curriculum for K-5 and benchmarks. Also, they interviewed several of our students who are on our way to college.
B. Board of Appeals – A commercial kennel and Mamma Mia’s Restaurant will be on the agenda at the September 13, 2007 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting. Mr. Struski asked which schools are the abutters and the answer is the Primary and Elementary Schools on Main Street. No discussion or disapproval of this matter from the school committee.
C. US Dept of Education –Office of Civil Rights – The school department had a complaint filed against them alleging we had denied a free and appropriate education to a student by not implementing some accommodations. Although some of the provisions of the IEP were not implemented exactly as written, the report received from the Boston Office of Civil Rights indicated we were not in violation. Randy Webster commented on how thorough the report was on the case. The Superintendent gave kudos to the Middle School faculty and Maureen Gaughan, Director
of Special Education for their extensive work, care and attention on this issue to make it a positive outcome for the student and the district.
VI. Reports from the Superintendent
A. Recreation Committee Report – Scott Alexander, School Committee representative to the Recreation Committee gave an overview of the work done by Recreation Committee last year. An 8 week swim program was offered over the summer which serviced over 120 children, a summer basketball league and a craft program were offered as
well. Free passes to Edaville Railroad and King Richards Faire are available to residents through this committee. The Bates Pond area in South Carver is being looked at for a small recreational/park area and basketball court. The number one goal is field space for soccer and baseball. The school committee thanked him for his commitment and hard work to this appointment.
B. Personnel Updates – The hiring process is nearly completed. We continue to look for 1.6 Speech and Language Pathologists and the Athletic Trainer. We have reassigned licensed staff and contracted for services to fill these positions until we fill this position. Daniel Portelance – HS Culinary and Virginia Jerome – HS
Mathematics, have joined our staff.
C. Professional Development - September 4 was a productive day for all faculty and staff in Carver. The school year professional development brochure was distributed. Carver residents are welcome to participate in the professional development opportunities and can locate information on our Carver Public School’s website homepage. Laura Tilton, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology, spoke in more detail about the various options available including graduate credit for recertification. The Massachusetts Cultural Council has awarded Carver a 2nd year grant for $25,000 for the continuation of professional development with arts and sciences. The Curriculum Team completed the Benchmark project and booklets by school/grade level will be distributed to all parents/guardians in
district. Randy Webster suggested the teachers use a copy of the benchmarks during open house and parent/teacher conferences. Copies of the benchmarks will be on-line and in the Public Library.
D. Updates on CPC Projects - Matthew Gillis, Chief Operations and Finance Officer reported the tennis and basketball courts reconstruction and the addition of a 5th tennis court is approximately 75% completed. The topcoat colors selected for the tennis courts are blue and green and the basketball colors will be grey and “Carver” red. There will be Family Fun Day on October 13th to introduce the community to the new facilities. The Superintendent read a thank you letter written by Michael Schultz, Director of Athletics, which is
being sent to all members of the Athletic Boosters club and the many community volunteers who made the Fitness Club project a reality. The superintendent thanked Mike for the countless hours he contributed to the project.
E. SAT Scores - The Superintendent was pleased to announce that the district celebrates the rise in the median SAT scores for the 2007 College Bound students. Our critical reading scores were increased by 17 point and by 15 points in mathematics section, and 34 points in writing. This is a significant increase over last year and the previous five years. The Superintendent congratulated the teachers who helped make this happen and also gave kudos to our recently retired high school principal, Kathleen Spencer for her hard work in this area. Randy Webster asked if it was a systemic
approach that made the difference in the scores. Scott Knief, High School Principal indicated that a change in scores by 9 points in either direction can be an indication of the schools approach. The English Department took the first semester of the senior year and worked within the curriculum for SAT preparation. The statistics are from the Class of 2007, 88% of whom took the SAT exams. The Preliminary MCAS results have been received for students who tested in the spring of 2007 and will be shared at the October meeting for the public.
VII. Recommendations from the Superintendent
A. District Improvement Plan –The revised and final DIP (District Improvement Plan) was presented to the school committee. Randy Webster made a motion to approve as written, Al Spicer, second. All in favor. Mid-year and end of year reports will be filed based on this improvement plan. The DIP will be available on the school website (www.carver.org)
B. Sexual Misconduct Policy – This policy for appropriate boundaries with students was brought to the committee for a second reading and adoption which was amended by the school committee attorney, Rebecca Bryant. This policy has been previewed by high school faculty and EAPC president as well. Motion to approve was made by Al Spicer, Mary
Kaminski second. All in favor.
C. Out of State Field Trip – The eighth grade is requesting permission to travel to Rockefeller Center, NYC. The Tornado Team will travel on Dec. 7, and Hurricane Team on Dec. 14, 2007. The Superintendent recommends that the school committee approve this request. Randy Webster made a motion to approve, Mary Kaminski, second. All in favor.
VIII. Reports from the School Committee
Randy Webster offered congratulations to Matthew Gillis for watching the bottom line of the school’s budget. Mr. Gillis thanked the committee for their comments and extended credit to his staff of Linda Dorgan and Tammy Veracka who have worked diligently with him on this effort. Mary Kaminski commented on how well Opening Day was carried out. The superintendent offered the transporting of children went well. Maureen Dickson did a wonderful job as Interim Director of Transportation. She has learned our new transportation software and in fact several area schools have called to ask about our software and to see if we were interested in arranging their transportation schedule.
Barry Struski reminded the community there is a debt exclusion vote on Saturday, September 15th for police and fire department. Randy Webster asked about security in our buildings. Matt explained 3 of our 4 buildings have card readers for entrance to the buildings and the doors are being numbered inside and out for emergency exits. We engaged a company this summer to draw virtual layouts and exits. The police and fire departments will have access to these reports. This report will be brought to the school committee in October or November.
The School Building Authority visited in September and toured the Governor John Carver Elementary school. They will be sending a letter of their observations. The initial impression was they outstood the seriousness of our needs. There were at least 500 applications to this agency and our Superintendent was encouraged we made it into the top 100 for a visit but she does not feel we will be selected to go forward this year. They were very impressed with our feasibility study. The possibility of a casino in our area was also discussed with this agency.
XI. Executive Session
Mary Kaminski made a motion to go into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing personnel issues, not to return to regular session. Barry Struski second. All in favor.
Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM.
Next regular meeting: Monday, October 15, 2007
Respectfully submitted by: Annmarie G. Metrano, Recording Secretary
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