The Reading School Committee (SC) of Reading Public Schools (RPS) is meeting on Thursday October 19, 2023. The meeting is being held at 7pm at the Reading Memorial High School (RMHS) library and will be broadcast by RCTV and will be accessible via zoom. Links to watch are listed below. .
Links to the agenda and packet are posted below. The packet is 58 pages long with the bulk being the presentation on the ARC K-2 literacy curriculum implementation and the FY23 end of year budget update
The agenda also includes acceptance of various donations, including donations related to cheerleading, field hockey, football, and student theatre.
Focus on Excellence
p. 5-6 of packet
At the start of the SC meeting, the following students will be recognized as class of 2024 National Merit scholars, based on their performance on the PSAT/NMSQT test given in fall 2023. These students include: RMHS students Ruby R. Allen, Caylyn P. Heroux, Brendan Hoffman, Maureen Manning, Vedant S. Narayan, William C. O’Connor, Lily A. Powell, and Hannah Wiggins who were recently named National Merit Commended students and to Yiyang “Ian” Xiao who was named as a National Merit Semifinalist. These awards are presented to students with the most competitive PSAT scores across the country.
In addition, two students will be honored with the 2023 Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents’ Certificate of Academic Excellence. This annual award honors seniors across the state who have demonstrated distinguished academic performance and personal contributions to their high school communities. This year’s RMHS recipients are Isabella Ring and Mark Malley.
ARC Core Implementation Plan
(p. 28-45 of packet)
This presentation is one of three presentations slated for this year relating to implementation of the new, ARPA-funded K-5 literacy curriculum known as ARC CORE. Grades 3-5 were implemented last year, and this year begins the K-2 implementation. The presentation slides for the 10/19/2023 meeting related to information about the first few weeks of K-2 implementation and an overview of the implementation plan for ARC Core. In December, there will be a presentation relating to early literacy screening and literacy intervention. In February there will be an implementation plan update, including information on what staff is seeing in classrooms during implementation.
The implementation appears to be viewed as a complex change for teaching staff that may take up to 4 years for full implementation, including targeted professional learning, communication to parents and students, data gathering, and responsive adjustment of implementation supports. Implementation also may require creation/revision of curriculum guides, curriculum maps, and/or pacing guides, and continued staff training.
The presentation includes a lot of specific implementation details that are specific to staff, including walk-throughs, coaching, training, collaboration, etc. For parents and students, the presentation notes that the Gr.3-5 report cards will have “revised indicators” during 23-24, and K-2 report cards will be revised in 2024.
As of the 1st 7 weeks of school, all K-2 classrooms are currently teaching unit 1 with unit 2 to launch in late October, and by late October, all RPS elementary schools will have had 3 of the 10 provided coaching sessions. In addition, the so-called IRLA (Independent reading level assessment), which is part of ARC CORE, is 97% complete. Per online information I have located on ARC CORE, the IRLA is intended to identify, for a given student, baseline reading skills, match student to appropriate texts, identify the most crucial skills/standards for a student to learn next, monitor real-time progress through the standards, and repeat this process as a student progress towards grade level.
FY23 Financial Report
Year End (P. 46-55 of packet)
This report is done every year and typically helps the SC and public see how well the FY23 budget allocations matched actual expenses and where the school budget money went. P. 46 is the overview table. Per this report, all financial obligations were met with a balance remaining of $102,000 to be turned over to the town free cash fund, which is (per the report), the lowest balance turned back to the town in the last 5 years.
Some recommended budget transfers are included for SC vote, which are included to ensure each of the RPS’s eight cost centers have a zero or positive balance at year end. In particular, the report recommends transferring (from FY23 budget amounts), $204,290 out of regular day cost center, and transferring this to other cost centers as follows: $187,272 to Special Education $14,009 Administration $3,009 to Athletics (rounding differences not included).
The financial report also has further explanations for the changes in the balances of various revolving accounts (see p. 51-52). For example, RISE preschool revolving fund ended the year with approximately $20k loss vs expected amount due to needing to spend about $20k on libraries and bookshelves for each classroom. The school lunch program apparently had a loss of $655,581, which might seem puzzling given that all lunches were free last year. The report indicates that the causes include “Filling of vacancies and wage adjustments for cafeteria services workers, and managers… Increases in food costs including bread, milk, and groceries…New equipment purchase, installation, and repair for multiple kitchens across the district…Less reimbursement was received as the method of reimbursement decreased despite our increase in participation.. The report also states “We anticipate a higher rate of reimbursement in FY24 as a result of some changes in the calculation methodology that will be positive for us.
The annual report also includes information reported to the state, such as avg teacher salary for FY23 ($87,825 which is up 4.1% over prior year FY22 average of $84,264).
The newly created special education reserve fund report also is included (p. 55) and shows a current balance of $175,000. It is meant to provide for unanticipated or unbudgeted costs in the following areas: 1. Special Education 2. Recovery High School Programs 3. Out-of-District Tuition 4. Out-of-District Transportation.
How to Watch
The RCTV YouTube live stream link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Hk7okjA7Y
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/86577254707
Meeting ID: 865 7725 4707
One tap mobile +16469313860
