Approved by School Committee December 11, 2007
ARLINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007
7:30 PM
Present: Susan Lovelace, Chair Joe Curran
Sean Garballey, Vice Chair Ronald Spangler
Jeff Thielman, Secretary Sue Sheffler
Superintendent: Nate Levenson
Chief Financial Off: Sue Mazzarella
Asst. Superintendent: Kathleen Bodie
Student Rep: Bobby McWatters
Absent: Denise Burns
Interim Sp. Ed. Dir: Gerald Kupperschmidt
Student Rep: Callie McHugh
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
None
CONSENT AGENDA – all items listed with an asterisk (*) are considered to be routine and will be
enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the
Committee so request, in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence.
*Approval of Warrant 08061 in the amount of $477,166.84
*Approval of November 13, 2007 Regular minutes
*Approval of Agreement between Town of Arlington, School Committee and Local 680 Traffic Supervisor.
On a motion by Mr. Thielman seconded by Mr. Curran it was voted to approve the consent agenda.
Vote: 6:0 unanimous
RECOGNITION
Ms. Lovelace paid recognition to the following:
§ Arlington High School Football team on winning the Thanksgiving game against Somerville High School.
§ Elise Frangos and 10th grade teachers for organizing the field trip to Boston to see To Kill a Mockingbird.
§ 5th grade students who were part of the fun pages of the Boston Sunday Globe.
§ Bishop community for completion of the playground
§ Hardy literacy team presented “Learning to Read” to Hardy 1st grade parents.
READING
Evelyn DeRosa, Marie Janiak and Linda Hanson, the District Reading Coaches, presented the K-5 Reading program. The School Committee members enjoyed the interaction with a story read by Ms. DeRosa, Ms. Hanson presented the overview of the past two years and the committee viewed a DVD prepared with Ms. Shediacs 2nd grade students from Stratton School during a classroom lesson lead by Ms. Janiak.
Dr. Judith Malone Neville and Ms. Mary Fischer summarized the school wide approach on improving Reading at the Ottoson Middle School. Ms. Fischer explained that 6th grade students were tested at the beginning of this year and will again be tested at the end of the year to see how the 6th graders have developed. Andrea Marquant explained how the data was collected and analyzed and presented this to the School Committee members. Anna Collozo noted with much collaboration from many teachers the Reading program has come full circle and continues to be successful.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Ms. Bodie presented to the committee the professional development goals and how they are aligned with the District Goals and explained that the varied professional development opportunities going on improves student learning. Many sources of professional development are done through graduate courses, workshops, attending conferences and study groups, participating in leadership roles and attending department meetings. Ms. Bodie acknowledged that nearly every teacher in the district is involved with professional development one way or another.
The committee received copies of professional development and stipend opportunities for the 2007-2008 school year.
BEGINNING BUDGET DISCUSSIONS FY 09
Superintendent Levenson presented the first draft of the FY 09 Budget Development “Another Tough Year”. Superintendent Levenson noted what we have already done over the last 2 years and the challenges facing us are the rising health insurance costs, declining grant funding, special education services and special education transportation rising rates and more students. Over the next several meetings Nate will share additional data and will continue with the budget discussion.
SUPERINTENDENT REPORT
All members received the superintendent report and Nate will follow up on this at the next School Committee meeting.
On a motion by Mr. Garballey and seconded by Mr. Curran it was voted to move the 11 o’clock rule to 11:10 PM.
Vote: 6:0 unanimous
SUBCOMMITTEE
Subcommittee Chairs will report on their past meetings at the next School Committee meeting.
SECRETARY REPORT
Jeff Thielman reported that the members of the Ponder Report are selling items to seek revenue for our school paper.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Garballey would like committee members to attend the next Budget Subcommittee Meeting to discuss possible ways to raise revenue. Sean noted on displayed at Town Hall on Nov 29th from 2-8 will be a document display from the Massachusetts State Achieves Arlington 1807- 2007.
ADJOURN
On motion by Mr. Thielman and seconded by Ms. Sheffler it was voted to adjourn at 11:08 p.m. Vote 6:0 unanimous
Submitted by:
Karen M. Fitzgerald
Administrative Assistant, Arlington School Committee
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