The Reading School Committee (SC) of Reading Public Schools (RPS) is meeting on May 8, 2023. The meeting is being held at 7pm at the Reading Memorial High School (RMHS) library and will be broadcast by RCTV and also will be accessible via zoom. Links to watch are listed below, along with selected images from the packet and agenda.
Main things to know for tonight’s meeting:
— The agenda looks pretty packed, with four different presentation areas and votes on nine (9) different RPS policy changes for the schools. More information below.
— The information presented tonight may be of special interest to current and future RMHS parents and current and future RISE parents
— At the time of this writing, information for one of the topics, “math pathways update” is not included in the packet beyond a quick memo indicating that the STEM curriculum coordinator and RMHS Math Dept head “will provide an overview of the work that has taken place up until this point” relating to RPS math pathways and will “provide an overview of next steps including the creation of a Community Math Pathways Committee that will be developed in the coming year.”
— GRANTS FOR INTERNSHIPS PAY: Normally I don’t summarize all the information on donations and grants, but there is one I wanted to highlight at page 28 of the packet. For the internships this year, RMHS received a “MassHire MetroNorth Workforce Board’s STEM grant for a total award of $39,750 and Education grant for a total award of $75,000 to place and pay Reading Memorial High School students for internship positions”. For those who did not know, eligible RMHS seniors with approved grade point averages were approved, this past spring, to participate in internships instead of attending school during the fourth quarter. My understanding is that about a third of the senior class participated. I do not know for sure if all participating students were compensated, but according to the memo, “More than 50 students are participating in the program. Students interned, and were compensated for, up to 100-hours at $15.00 per hour.”
RMHS INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM UPDATE
(pages 35-47 of packet)
SERVICES UPDATE
— The first major presentation item is an update from the RMHS leadership team, including updates from each department, on major accomplishments this year and plans for upcoming years. This is the first time in over 10 years of watching SC presentations, that I have ever seen this particular type of update given to the SC. There is not enough space in this article to summarize the entire 12 packed slides of update, but here are a few brief highlights from each dept and overall:
* OVERALL: Developed and implemented robust instructional feedback system for 100% of faculty, implemented new program developments including internships, new courses, math pathways, dual enrollment courses, skills capital grant applications;
* ENGLISH: secured a grant for podcasting station housed in media center, adopted new Native American text in American Literature class, 50 RMHS seniors published articles in online student newspaper
* FINE/PERFORMING ARTS: reinstituted AP Art show and added 3rd night to Artsfest to allow pre-K and elementary to perform on stage, added new middle school percussion ensemble piloted after-school private lessons program for middle and high school
* HEALTH/WELLNESS: expanded senior internship program in education, researching dual enrollment and education certificate pathways, altered course offerings to allow students more course choice inside and outside dept
* HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES: developed three new courses, updated Ap European History curriculum, year 2 of Civics Project, significant dept participation as coaches/advisors
* MATH/BUSINESS: Awarded innovation career pathway, began work with math pathways committee, added AP Precalculus course, developing new partnership with Microsoft
* SCIENCE: awarded innovation career pathway, developing two new courses, applied for grant for course and laboratory expansion
* SPECIAL EDUCATION: added special education dept head, implemented SMARTs executive functioning curriculum, new Unified basketball team, re-established Best Buddies chapter
* COUNSELING: completed MYCAP (My Career and Academic Plan) training with DESE, Year 2 of Project Wayfinder for Gr. 9/10, added full time adjustment counselor, reviewed Stepping Stone program, revamped Rocket Ambassador program ( peer to peer mentors)
* WORLD LANGUAGES: awarded Mass Seal of Biliteracy to 12 seniors and 8 juniors also qualify, added world languages honor societies, tested 550 students with proficiency assessments in 7 languages, planning exchange trip to France for 2023-24
RISE EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM EVALUATION
(pages 49-60 of packet)
– This report comes from an independent consultant evaluation of the RISE program to provide a RPS with an objective report that identifies areas of strengths, needs, and recommendations, including a “barometer reading” of the RISE Early Childhood Program regarding programming, services, professional development, and staffing.
– The program evaluation was based on a four-step approach, which included an initial visit, observations, interviews, and written documentation relevant to the program and included meeting/interviewing six RISE parents.
– There is a lot on the report, but here is a top-level view of recommendations and listed concerns (if directly quoting from report, comments are listed in quotations”
MAJOR AREAS OF CONCERN AT RISE:
* CULTURE: “Through our interviews in the Spring and early Fall, culture in the RISE Pre-School came up as an area of concern….these cultural issues were deep-rooted and consistent among the RISE classrooms in the high school and located in the elementary school settings…Interviews indicated staff do not feel that the Reading school community includes the preschool or that it is part of their respective school building. From their perspective, the focus is primarily on K-12.”
* TRANSITIONS: “The process of students transferring from preschool to an elementary school for kindergarten is not consistent or documented, which is confusing for RISE parents, teachers and the receiving kindergarten TEAM. No definitive process with timelines makes it especially difficult for students being placed in specialized programs.”
* PROGRAMS NOT IMPLEMENTED WITH FIDELITY: “The following curricula are implemented at RISE: Fundations, Heggerty, Second Step, Handwriting Without Tears, Yoga, and September-June theme-based units approach. Observations and interviews indicated that these programs are not used with fidelity across all preschool classrooms and some teachers need training in implementing these curricula.”
* STUDENT ANXIETY: “The RISE classroom teachers are concerned about increased anxiety in students and the need to embed opportunities to help students learn a variety of self-regulation skills. Interviews indicated that parents have asked and would benefit from learning these strategies to implement at home aligning home and school.”
RECOMMENDATIONS (many more details on these are in the report – this is just a listing)
- Culture, communication and identity issues in RISE must be addressed
- Hire a .60 FTE Educational Team Supervisor (ETS) for Fall 2023
- Increase parent and staff communication
- Develop and document the transition process from RISE to kindergarten
- Improve the RISE application and screening process for students without disabilities
- Establish behavioral management systems in the classrooms
- Update the RISE curriculum to align with kindergarten and implement with fidelity in all classrooms
- . Reconfigure the classrooms, both full and half day, and develop a continuum which meets the needs of students with moderate-to-severe disabilities
Q3 FINANCIAL UPDATE & END OF YEAR STATUS
(p. 61-70 of packet)
— There is a huge amount of detail in this report, but the bottom line for FY23 appears to be that (once again) the special education cost center is ending the year with a huge surplus ($740k)k even accounting for pre-payment of out of district tuitions, and the SC is being asked to vote to transfer this towards other FY23 RPS expenses:
* $35K of this to district wide technology to ”support the expansion of cybersecurity software required by MIAA before July 1 in collaboration with the Town. “
* $645k to regular day to “renew technology devices to maintain five-year life cycle “ and to “maintain balance in Full-Day Kindergarten revolving fund, which results in reducing the allocated of the FDK Offset”. To clarify per my best understanding, this means that some of this $645k is being used to cover FY23 expenses for full day K, so less money needs to be taken out of the full day K revolving account to cover FY23 expenses, this enables RPS to “maintain balance” in the full day K revolving fund.
– This report also indicated the size of balances in the various revolving accounts, student accounts, the spending of grants, and all cost center balances, and I refer you to those pages in the packet for those details.
EXTENDED DAY ENRICHMENT PROGRAM
(p. 71-72)
According to the memo on page 71, because of the high demand for extended day and the difficulties with finding staffing, the extended day director is proposing to enter into contacts with 6 vendors, at a total cost of $761.34K, as a pilot program, to better meet the needs of families. The memo indicates that the projected budget and revenue shows that the extended day program will be able to handle the costs as a pilot program for at least the next two years, and after that, it may be necessary to adjust extended day tuition rates to sustain the programming. The outside providers listed include: Chess Wizards, Global Child, Kid’s Test Kitchen, Kidstock!, Kidzfun, and SNL.
POLICY CHANGES
(packet pages 72 – 102 including selected minutes from policy subcommittee meetings)
The SC will consider 8 policy updates and consider revoking one policy that the Mass Association of School Committees (MASC) removed from its model policy in 2017. I will only mention at a high level the policy changes; you can refer to the packet for further details. Note that in many policies, the pronouns she/he are replaced by “their,” as part of the policy changes.
- GCJ Professional Teacher status – two significant changes:
* further specifies that professional teacher status (PTS) is based on three consecutive “qualifying” years, where qualifying years is further clarified to be years where teacher is both licensed by DESE or another appropriate licensure” and where no leave greater than 30 days was taken
* continuous employment is no longer guaranteed (per old policy) but is “subject to satisfactory evaluations and good conduct in accordance with M.G.L. 71:42” - * Further detail on SC subcommittee deliberation on this change can be found in the packet at pages 92-93 and 98, which refer back to the meeting minutes of the policy subcommittee where this was discussed.
- DGC -Authorized Signatures – this policy is significantly expanded to spell out who can be considered an authorized signature based on the type of contract, whereas the old policy listed it to be chair of the SC, vice chair if chair is unavailable, Supt for payrolls, and town treasurer to sign all checks. The policy update changes this to specify that SC chair (or vice chair if time critical) has authority to sign Supt contract and union contracts, but for bills, payrolls and warrants, it should instead be a quorum of the SC to approve, and for contracts covered by FERPA or employee privacy laws, it should be the Supt to approve. Town treasurer still signs all checks drawn against school dept funds. The change also allows SC chair/vice chair if needed, to sign certain docs related to state or other processes (e.g.,. MIAA, MSBA).
- DH Bonded employees and officers – policy only seems to have a grammatical change; no change in substance, but it cross references other policies that were not previously cross referenced.
- DI -Fiscal Accounting and reporting – further expands Supt responsibilities, clarifies the specific state requirements with which the accounting system will comply, and adds additional cross reference policies.
- DIE – Audits – significant revisions, including time frame by which an annual audit must be completed, specifies that SC should consider audit results (old policy did not indicate SC had to do anything in response to audit), and provides for additional financial reports and audits to which RPS is subject; additional cross references added.
- DJ – Purchasing: – entire policy is rewritten and changed significantly, including adding requirement that the Supt designate a district purchasing agent, with SC having rights to direct purchasing agent and approve or not approve purchases.
- DJA – Purchasing Authority – old policy listed Supt has having purchasing authority without requiring SC approval. New policy extends this to a designee of Supt and clarifies that SC approval is not needed for purchases within the cost center appropriation, which is less limiting than the old policy
- DK – Payment procedures – significant updates from old policy; now includes requirement for warrants to be forwarded to town treasurer for payment by town treasurer, after review by director of Finance and Operations and a designated SC member.
- DJG – Vendor relations (propose to revoke)
COMMUNITY CORRESPONDENCE
(p. 104-105 of packet)
This correspondence may be of interest to RMHS parents. In this email, RMHS teacher Trey Skehan expresses concern about a longstanding issue wherein RMHS staff are not given keys to all of the rooms where they are required to teach during the day.. Apparently, teachers share classrooms with other teachers and, at least in the math department, there is a math office where teachers can use it for prep work and to keep personal items. This teacher is not given a key to the math office and only has a key to one of the four different rooms he uses for teaching. He notes that facilities department refuses to give keys when he requests them and says that he does not need such keys. He noted that his wife teaches in another district and has never been denied keys to rooms where she works. He also expresses the safety concerns that arise from his not having keys, including concerns about student safety if he needed to lock or unlock a room for student safety.
Per the email, the teacher has tried to address this matter going back through several RMHS principals and with both the current superintendent and the previous one, to no avail, so is now appealing to the school committee for help. .
HOW TO WATCH THIS MEETING
The RCTV YouTube live stream link to watch the meeting is not yet up but will appear here: https://www.youtube.com/@RCTVStudios/streams
You can also watch via Xfinity channel 99 or Verizon channel 32.
In addition, you can join the meeting (or watch) via the Zoom link here:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://readingpsma.zoom.us/j/83657021146
Meeting ID: 836 5702 1146
