🏫 June 6th School Committee Agenda Preview

The Reading School Committee (SC) of Reading Public Schools (RPS)  is meeting at 7pm on Thursday June 6, 2024 at Reading Memorial High School. 

Links to the agenda, packet, and to watch the meeting are at the end of this article. 

Tonight’s  meeting looks jam-packed, with lots of presentations and updates on various programs and initiatives, as well as some votes including voting to create a Naming Advisory Committee, voting on an update to the FY24-25 school calendar (discussed below).  There will also be this meeting’s “Focus on Excellence” – Shark Tank (no info in packet).

Mis Notes from Packet

• COOLIDGE SCIENCE OLYMPIAD – Very shocked to see on p. 21 that the Coolidge School Science Olympiad (CSSO) nonprofit parent  group is being dissolved and is donating the nearly $60k in its revolving account back to the town for Coolidge Middle School STEM activities.  For those who remember, the Coolidge Middle School science Olympiad team was a powerhouse at both the state and national level for many years, even as recently as around 2019.  The parent group also was a fundraising powerhouse, holding a yard sale every year to raise money for trips to nationals, etc.  When I was at the state-level Science Olympiad events with my two children who were on the Parker Science Olympiad team, the parents from other towns, upon learning we were also from Reading, would jokingly tell me that the other towns viewed Coolidge like the New England Patriots (of the then-Tom Brady era) – they were unstoppable.  Alas, like the Patriots after Tom Brady, Coolidge  Science Olympiad team apparently has had some changes.  I hope the money can be put to good use.  Science Olympiad is such a good program and is still active at the high school level in Reading, at least.
• PARKER PRINCIPAL LEAVING – Per the information on p. 44-45 of the packet. The principal of Parker middle school is leaving.  She has been with the district for two years.  The  memo details a timeline for a search process for either a replacement or interim principal (both job postings are live now on the RPS website).

• RPS 2024-2025 proposed calendar update (p. 174-176) – the SC will be voting to approve an updated RPS calendar that includes something missing from the previously approved calendar:  the December professional development day for middle and high school.  As the calendar indicates, December 6, 2024 will now be an early release day for middle school and high school.  The previously approved 2024/2025 calendar did not list this day as an early release day.

Athletics Naming Request

(p. 24-26)

As the memo on these pages details, the SC has had requests to name the Gymnasium inside the Hawkes Field House after long-time teacher, soccer coach, and athletic director Phil Vaccaro and Turf 2 after long-time lacrosse coach Charlie Hardy.  The next process steps tonight include: two discrete discussions and votes on whether to accept the nominations.  If the SC accepts the nominations, they will be putting together an advisory committee to further study the nomination and make a recommendation to the School Committee as a whole.  Tentatively, the advisory committee would include an SC member, the RMHS principal (as a “consultant” because she is a nonresident). a Select Board (SB) member, a local business leader, an RMHS student representative (nominated by RMHS principal) and a Historical Commission member.  It appears that they will make their recommendation by October 2024 (packet says October 2022, which I am assuming is a typo).

SEPAC

End of Year Update (p 27-43)

The Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC) will give its traditional end of year update presentation on its activities and accomplishments.  There is too much here to summarize in this article, so I will leave the reader to review the packet for details.

Human Resources

Update (p. 47-63)

Much of this relates to noting all of the new collective bargaining contracts as well as the district’s transition to new software systems for absence and substitute management (“Red Rover”) and compliance with mandated training (“ArxEd”).   Also of interest re the results on p 57-58 are results of surveying staff who are exiting, whether to retire or for another position, as well as the tenure of existing staff.

The data shows that more than half of the RPS staff (53%) who left the district have been here 3 years or less:
–              24% of our staff had been here less than one year
–              29% had been here only 1-3 years.

In contrast, 24% of our staff who left the district had been here 10+ years, 9% for 7-9 years, and 14% for 4-6 years.

In terms of primary reason for departure, the leading reason is “personal/family reasons (rank of 9) followed by a 3-way tie for 2^nd (rank of 3) for these reasons:  career change, compensation, retirement.  The next lowest reason at a level of 2 is accepted a teacher position (from para role). And the lowest rank reasons (rank of 1) are relocation and return to school.

The chart on p. 61 shoes the race and ethnicity by number of staff.  We have had quite a lot of changes since the 20-21 school year. In 20-21, we had 578 listed staff and per the FY2025 school budget  our enrollment was 3854 students and our staff breakdown was:

African American: 2
Asian: 6
Hispanic: 4
White:  565
Native American: 0
Multi Race Non-Hispanic 1

In contrast, in 23-24, we have 625 staff for an enrollment of 3747 students (per FY25 budget) and the staff breakdown in:

African American: 11
Asian: 8
Hispanic: 7
White:  598
Native American: 0
Multi Race Non-Hispanic 1

So even though student enrollment is down 2.78% since 2021, staff size is up by 8.13%

Math Pathways

End of the year Update (P. 64-76)

This is another presentation with a lot of updates.  For simplicity, I will focus on the update on the math pathways projects and the initial impact information.  Here are some key Highlights of math improvements

• Parker will pilot a new bell schedule in 2024-25, lengthening math class time for students by 720 minutes over the course of the year. This year, Coolidge added math intervention during team time to provide targeted math support and will continue this practice going forward. Both middle schools are updating electives to include courses where students use applied math to explore potential career options.
• Middle school math curriculum review planned for 24-25 school year
• Math lab at RMHS to continue but looking for new space other than RMHS library
• Math acceleration changes: 
  • When reviewing grade 6 student data in spring 2024, middle school principals identified students eligible for grade 7 acceleration. In addition to students who scored at or above the required score, families of students approaching that score were contacted and given the option of grade 7 acceleration (22 students in spring 2024). In conversations with families, math teachers explained the acceleration options, talked about the student’s disposition to math and interest. To date, 18 students in this group selected acceleration
    A middle school summer math enrichment has been created:
    •  Available for all rising 7th and 8th graders – all students will be encouraged to participate over the summer7 modules with asynchronous workOpportunity for a weekly teacher check in  – A teacher will review work and give feedback weeklyModules include review of grade level topics (great for all students).  Modules also include an extension previewing next grade level topics (great for students who love math and want a push)Rising 8th graders who took grade 7 math and complete the extension modules can choose to take an assessment in August to move into Algebra I in grade 8
      
    At RMHS –  CP introduction to Calculus is changed to CP Precalculus and CP Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry changed to CP Statistics and Trigonometry
    Summer Geometry course implemented with staff, 9 rising sophomores and 2 rising freshman enrolled
    Launched the METCO Summer Bridge Program, a summer program offered to Boston resident students (at METCO HQ) via a METCO grant. Program will serve up to ten rising 6th and 7th grade students who would benefit from extra support in advancing math skills, potentially leading to a future acceleration. Click here to learn more
  • Continuing PD that supports teachers in increasing student engagement and differentiation based on the needs all students, but in particular demographic groups not proportionally reflected in the accelerated math pathway

Special Education

End of the year Update (P. 77-117)

This lengthy section includes end of year program reviews for these special education programs, including SOAR (at p. 79-83); REACH (p. 84-87); LEARNING CENTER (p. 88-97); RISE (p. 97-99); LEAD (p. 100-110); and EMBARC (p. 110-117).  There is  way too much data here in these 40 pages of tables to summarize.  I refer the reader to those packet pages.

District Strategic Plan

Update (P. 118-172)

As with the Special Education End of Year update, this section is 54 pages of detailed tables that are too long to summarize in an article.  I refer the reader to these packet pages.  Given all the topics in the rest of the evening, I will be surprised if the meeting goes into a lot of the details in these pages.

How to Watch

The SC meeting will be broadcast on the RCTV YouTube channel at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG43juC1a34

The meeting also will be on Verizon Ch 32, Xfinity Ch 6.

In addition, you can join the meeting (or watch) via the Zoom link here:

Join Zoom Meeting https://readingpsma.zoom.us/j/82987252761  Meeting ID: 829 8725 2761