Quincy Citywide Parent’s Council

Minutes from October 16, 2006

Broad Meadows Middle School

 

Meeting was called to order at 7:05pm, with Sandy Arabian presiding.

Sandy introduced Dr. Rick DeCristofaro, the Superintendent of Schools who was the guest speaker for the night.  She noted that the council would handle business after he had made his presentation. 

 

Dr. DeChristofaro’s presentation covered the following subjects:

bulletBudget Review 2003-2006
bulletFollowing a significant cut just prior to this period, these years were focused on rebuilding.  Under Mayor Phelan, the School Dept budget has received 5% increases each year.
bulletCurrent Budget 2006-2007
bulletWith the addition of full day Kindergarten, the expansion of the Trophies Reading Program to K-4 in all schools, and an increase in the supplies line item, the School Dept has not only recovered from the cut in 2002, but has made significant improvements.
bulletEnrollment 2006-2007
bulletEnrollment numbers are fairly stable overall; this year’s total is 8,969 students.
bulletClass Sizes: Pre-School – High School
bulletFor the majority of classes, the number of students is well below the guidelines.  In a few cases of larger class sizes, some skills support has been implemented.
bulletProfessional Staff: Retirements, Resignations and Leaves of Absence
bullet900 professional employees (1400 total): 28 resignations this year and 60 retirements.  This means that 98% of staff stayed with QPS.  100 new staff hired this year in addition to 19.5 teachers for full day K.
bulletSystem Planning (Copies of these plans were made available for review at the meeting.  Copies will be sent to the Citywide Council.  Parents can request copies if they want them).
bulletDistrict Improvement Plan-based on 6 standards.
bulletSchool Improvement Plans—a standard template that Principals adapt to their own school.  Barbara Isola asked about the timing of the submission the School Improvement Plans noting that it is in the fall, well after the budget has been determined in the spring.  Dr. DeCristofaro said that Principals inform the budgeting process team and that the School Councils have the opportunity to advise the Principal in the process while they are working on the School Improvement Plan.
bulletProfessional Development Plan—Tuesdays are crucial for professional development.
bulletTeam Organization and Alignment—90 teams are active in the District.
bulletSystem Priorities (2006-2007)
bulletPre-School
bulletElementary School
bulletMiddle School
bulletHigh School
bulletExtended Day Opportunities
bulletSummer Scene 2006
bulletFall Scene 2006
bulletQuincy School-Community Partnership Events 2006-2007
bullet Maintenance/School Projects

 

Along with the presentation slides in hard copy, Dr. DeCristofaro provided a packet of information to each participant including information on the nine 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Fall Scene at the elementary schools, and information on the Quincy School-Community Partnership Program.

 

Following the presentation, Dr. DeCristofaro asked if there were any questions from parents who were present.

Carlos DaSilva had three questions:

bulletWhat are the criteria for choosing which foreign languages are taught? He noted that Portuguese is not currently taught although there are 5,000 Brazilians in Quincy and that Portuguese is the second most spoken language in MA after English.  Dr. DeCristofaro said that adding Portuguese instruction was not currently under consideration.
bulletA student he is aware of enrolled in ROTC not realizing what the program was.  The student has undocumented parents and the family is concerned.  Dr. DeCristofaro said he could not address the issue tonight and asked Carlos to call him at another time.
bulletAt Lincoln-Hancock, there are often not enough lunches so students in 3rd lunch are served leftovers from the day before.  Several other parents noted the same problem at other schools.  Dr. DeCristofaro said he would be willing to speak with the Food Service Director to address the issue.  Sandy agreed to call the Food Service Director to set up a meeting with Dr. DeCristofaro and that she would also attend.

 

Henry Brawley asked about the format of the District Improvement Plan.  Formerly it was a multi-year plan and now it only covers one year.  What will the format be in the future?  Dr. DeCristofaro said that he thought the one-year plan was easier for people to absorb and that he expected it to be for one year at a time in the future.

Barbara Isola asked about the differences in the science tracks in the two high schools.  She said that it is harder to get into Biology in 9th grade in North.  There are similar problems in the math department.  Fiona Canavan agreed that the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade is difficult because parents and students do not have enough information about the impact of their choices.  Roseann Russell said that parents need information at the beginning of 8th grade.  Kathy Durham noted the lack of information and support for parents in determining what the best school (QHS, NQHS, or private) would be for their child.  Several other parents echoed the point that this is a weak area in terms of communication to parents.  Dr. DeCristofaro asked for ideas about “when” and “how” to present information.  Barbara Isola suggested a joint presentation by the two high schools, instead or, or in addition to, the current system of two separate Open Houses. Dr. DeCristofaro said that he is open to ideas. Sandy and Fiona will organize a sub-committee to meet with the middle school administration with suggestions on how to improve this transition.

Fiona noted that parents have to “opt out” of recruitment for ROTC if they do not want their child approached by representatives of this program.  The school system cannot prevent students from being approached; only parents can, by filling out the appropriate forms.  Roseann noted that the opt-out form is sent home to QHS parents, but it was not sent to parents at North.  Dr. DeCristofaro said he thought the form was in the Parent Handbook.

 

Sandy noted that before tonight Fiona had presented Dr. DeCristofaro with three issues that the Council wanted to hear him address: full day K update, ELC move to Central, and foreign language instruction at the middle school level.

 

Full Day Kindergarten—What has been the impact on the school system overall?

Susan Bill, a parent as well as a music teacher at Beechwood Knoll, said that many art and music classrooms were eliminated so the specialists have to travel from room to room, and frequently have to share rooms. It was noted that the situation is the same at Wollaston.  Sue Bill also noted that the music program does not meet national standards set by the music teacher association.  Dr. DeCristofaro said that space is just not available, even before reconfiguration of current space usage.  He said that art and music would be a priority if space were available, but that full-day K was a higher priority at this point.

 

Sandy brought up the issue of the space needs of special needs students for services like occupational and physical therapy.  These services are necessary to the students’ academic success but they are not being provided in appropriate spaces, and that therefore those students’ academic needs were not being met. Dr. DeCristofaro was not aware of any OT or PT students being moved, but he would look into it. He agreed that it is not acceptable for those students to be unable to have their services in a proper environment.

Roseann asked if full-day K is expected to result in an overall increase in enrollment?  Dr. DeCristofaro said that there had always been a “grade 1 bump up” or an increase in enrollment from Kindergarten to 1st grade.  That increase has been mirrored in the increase this year in Kindergarten so he does not think there will be an overall increase in enrollment.

 

ELC move to Central--How has the move of the Elementary Lab Center (ELC) to Central affected the space situation at that school?

Fiona said that the ELC program took over a space formerly occupied by a middle school class—what has happened to those kids?  Ann Mahoney said that that class has been moved to the 2nd floor.  Roseann Russell voiced concern that given the space crunch at Central, she was very skeptical that the addition of the ELC program does not negatively impact the space availability of the middle school students.  Dr. DeCristofaro said that 99% of ELC kids go to Central eventually so that moving the program there made sense.  Also, the availability of the middle school teachers to the Lab students was made easier by moving the program. He also said that Principal Fay-Beers and Acting Principal Silva made the decision.  He acknowledged that there is a domino effect whenever a change is made.

 

Foreign Language Instruction at the Middle Schools

Fiona reported on the state of foreign language instruction:  at Central it is 2 days out of a 6 day period, at Sterling there is no instruction in 7th grade, but one hour everyday in 8th grade (Dr. DeCristofaro noted that it is the same at Point Webster) and at Broad Meadows it is 3 days out of 6 days.  She was concerned that the students will be at very different levels when they get to high school and that the teachers there will have to spend a lot of time just figuring out who is at what level.  She reported that the high school teachers told her that 1 year of a more intensive instruction is likely better than 2 years of less intensive.  She suggested that a plan be put in place immediately to level the playing field.  Dr. DeCristofaro replied that Principals made their own decisions based on allocations of time for core subjects and that he normally does not intercede with scheduling issues.  He said that discussions are still ongoing and he agreed to try to step up the pace of these discussions.

 

Other questions and issues brought forth:

Fiona asked about the heat at Central.  She said it was very cold today.  Dr. DeCristofaro said that the heat was on in all schools today—except Wollaston where work was being done on the oil tank.

 

Roseann mentioned that parents are interested in teachers using email and websites more, especially at the high schools.  Dr. DeCristofaro asked parents present what their experience has been with electronic and web communication with teachers.  Several parents mentioned positive experiences.  Barbara Isola mentioned that the Guidance Department has been sending very helpful emails with information and deadlines.  Several other parents echoed this sentiment.  Barbara also mentioned a positive experience her daughter had communicating electronically with a teacher (Ms. Goldfarb).  Sandy noted that Rich O’Brien, Director of Information, Technology and Media is on the Council’s list of speakers to be invited.

 

Following up on the transition from 8th to 9th grade that was discussed earlier, a parent said that she thinks the middle schools give up trying to send information home with students but that the vertical teams need to be more responsible.  Another parent pointed out that her child had a good experience transitioning from Point Webster.

 

Sandy and the rest of those present thanked Dr. DeCristofaro for taking the time to make a presentation and his willingness to take questions.

 

 

The minutes from the Sept 11th meeting were distributed and were accepted. 

 

Old Business:

Fiona reported that the door at Central has been fixed.

Barbara Isola and Henry Brawley will present recommendations regarding the traffic situation at North during the Open Forum at the School Committee Meeting this Wednesday.  They will be asking for the city to commission a traffic engineer to conduct a study and make recommendations.  Barbara noted that Dr. DeCristofaro has been very attentive to the issue and that some improvements (repainted crosswalk) were done very quickly.

 

The speaker at the next meeting on November 13th will be Jim Rendle, Athletic Director.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 9:15pm.