🏫 January 18th School Committee Agenda Preview

The Reading School Committee (SC) of Reading Public Schools (RPS)  is meeting on Thursday January 18 2024. This meeting starts at 7pm.  Links to watch, pertinent packet info and the packet itself are listed below.

The packet is 125 pages long with the bulk being the full proposed FY25 budget.  The packet also includes the RMHS counseling presentation and a brief outline of the RMHS scheduling pilot.   This post is not repeating the past information about the FY25 budget, which I have discussed at length in connection with prior SC meetings.

The 5 things to know for tonight, from  the rest of my post:

1. RPS is proposing increases to extended day program fees of roughly 3% – 17.5%  and restructuring the way fees are structured (rate in FY25 proposed to be same for RISE and elementary schools).  Avg monthly increase is $10.00 to $20.00 but this is a varying % of original cost.  
   
   
2. RMHS students are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels of 4-year college attendance
   
   
3. RMHS students have had slight decreases in mean SAT scores for each of past 4 years: Mean math is down 3% vs 2019 and mean English is down 2.3% since 2019.  The state rates are math down 1.7% and English up 0.17% since 2019
   
   
4. RMHS students are doing 19% less well on AP exam as compared to 4 years ago, but 26% more students are taking AP exams
   
   
5. RMHS is piloting a new block schedule from 1/22/24 through 2/16/24.  In this pilot, during two of the weeks, students will have two early release days, and longer class periods and more dropped blocks on certain days.  Students and parents have been informed about these changes. 

Votes to be Taken

There will be the usual votes to approve consent agenda, approve prior meeting minutes, approve field trips, and approve donations/grants.  In addition, it appears that a vote is planned on approving the above-listed FY25 rate increases for extended day. 

Extended Day Fee

EXTENDED DAY PROGRAM FEE INCREASE (p. 23-24 of packet) – discussion and vote

• RPS is proposing increases in extended day program fees (both before school and after school) and restructuring the fees to include what is described as “3% transaction fees” within the fees (which seems to presume that all payments are being made electronically vs by check – unclear). 
  • I have included the chart showing the changes, but as an example, 5 days of after school extended day, including Fridays, is going from $423 per month to $443 per month. 
  • The packet memo indicates costs have not changed since 2012, when there was a tuition decrease, but that costs of materials, supplies, and payroll all have gone up
  • Extended day enrollment increased to 687 students this year, vs 470 last year.
  • It appears that, per the fee charts in the memo, that certain kinds of “combination discounts” and other offerings will no longer be available”  :
    • Example – I do not know what the “special option”  before school care was, other than it was cheaper than regular before school care, but “special option” is proposed to go away in FY25
    • Currently there seem to be slight discounts for enrolling in certain combinations of extended day offerings, or in more days but these discounts appear to be proposed to go away or decreased, and there will be only separate rates for before school and after school, and the rate for 5 days of a program is essentially the same as rate for 1 day of a program
      • For example, currently enrolling in 1 day of before school in elementary is 25.50 but 5 days is 114 (a savings of $13.50 on a 5-day total).  But with FY25 proposal, the daily before school rate for 1 day is $27 and the 5-day rate is $134 (savings of only one dollar)
  • RISE and Elementary are proposed to have same rates, whereas currently RISE rates are slightly cheaper than elementary rates.
  • There still will be the difference in costs per day or multiple days for the programs that include Friday vs those  not including Friday (i.e., Friday always costs more because it inherently includes more hours of care because all Fridays are early release) :

RMHS Counseling Update

PRESENTATION (p. 25-34 of packet)

RMHS counseling update includes the following statistics and information:

• The % of kids attending a 4-year college is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels (after dropping by 4-7% from 2020-2022.
• RMHS mean SAT scores have decreased every year since pandemic, in both English and math:
  • A slightly smaller % of kids took SAT vs pre-pandemic in 2023 (85% in 2023 vs 89% in 2019)
  • English mean dropped from 596 in  2019 to 582 in 2023
  • Math mean dropped from 604 in 2019 to 586 in 2023

• Although more RMHS students are taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams than in the past, RMHS students generally are doing less well on the Advanced Placement (AP) exam as compared to past 4 years:
  • The % of kids scoring 3 or better (out of 5) on the AP exam has gone from 86% of kids taking the AP exam in 2019, to 67% of kids taking the exam in 2023. Colleges that accept AP scores to count for a college class typically require a score of 3 or better on the AP exam
  • 307 kids took one or more AP exams in 2023, compared to 244 in 2019
  • The raw numbers of students getting various AP recognitions (for scoring 3 or above on multiple AP exams) is generally the same or better as compared to 2019, but it should be noted that 26% more kids took the exam this year as compared to 2019, so these may end up being a lower % of total (I did not do all the sub-math  to verify)

• The presentation includes an impressive list of class of 2024 college acceptances so for, indicating that class of 2024 has submitted 1500+ applications to 138 colleges, with over 500 reported acceptances so far

• The presentation reports the following current and ongoing school counseling initiatives:
  • Successful administration of digital school day PSATs in fall increasing access for all sophomores and juniorsAdministering first digital SATs on Saturday, March 9thGap Year Fair (held on 1/17)  College Fair (coming 3/13), and continued guidance curriculum and parent eveningsContinue college and career curriculum for all grades during flexContinue working with administration to advance Innovation Career Pathways and Dual Enrollment opportunities for studentsCounselors focusing on work-based learning and enhancing MYCAP for students in guidance seminars with goal of school wide initiatives next year
  • Support expansion of the senior Quarter 4 Internship Program

RMHS Schedule Pilot

(p. 36-44 of packet)

RMHS is trying out a pilot schedule starting next week (start of 2^nd semester, post  midterms) which will run until the break for February vacation, and staff, students and parents will be surveyed after it is complete

The purpose is to try out a schedule that:

• Makes the schedule more predictable, with classes starting and ending at same time (vs shorter class times on Tues/Thurs flex days, as is current)
  • Could in the future allow more flexibility in class selections, allowing students to take more classes of interest
    • Currently, AP science classes are implemented in a way that  requires an extra class block a few days a month for labs, so students taking those classes are unable to take other classes on the days they do not need the extra class block, because other classes would conflict with the days the lab block is neededThe AP science “extra block” issue ends up having a ripple effect on many other parts of schedule, because this can limit times when other required classes can be run, and ends up impacting all studentsStudents in honors and CP science classes do not get the extra lab block time
    The current schedule results in academic and job-based equity issues for students and staff
    • Students in honors and CP science classes never get the extra lab block time like AP studentsStaff members who teach AP science classes end up having to teach fewer sections  classes than staff members who teach non-AP science classes because they meet more often, so AP science teachers often have fewer kids to manage (AP class sections typically smaller than non-AP) but same amount of course time to prepare
    The pilot increases equity in time on learning for ALL subjects by allowing all classes to have some days with longer blocks, to enable different types of learning that benefit from longer class blocks (e.g., projects, outside speakers, more labs, etc.)Students on IEPs will get all required services and minutes of services during the pilotDuring the pilot, there will be early release days on Feb 1, 2, 15, and 16,  with a slightly “later” early release time of 1:30 (vs  1pm for normal early release days).  The previously scheduled early release day of 2/9/2024 for RMHS was eliminated via an SC vote on 1/11/2024.On the weeks with early release days , the class block length is 88 minutes (higher than current regular block length of 57 minutes)On flex days, the schedule drops two blocks vs current schedule where each day, including flex, you drop one block
  • During the pilot it will be a 5-day schedule rotation, vs current 6 day

FY25 Budget

REMAINDER OF SC MEETING – FY 25 BUDGET ONGOING DISCUSSION (p. 46-125 of packet)

The meeting will conclude with ongoing discussion of the FY25 budget (which has been covered in my articles on past SC  meetings)  and possibly an executive session relating to collective bargaining (such an executive session was also on the 1/11/2024 agenda, but that executive session never actually took place).

How to Watch this Meeting

The RCTV YouTube live stream link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_8QUoNVVm0

You can also watch via Xfinity channel 6 (“local 3”) 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/87623785515  Meeting ID: 876 2378 5515