School Committee hears end-of-year wrapup

Date: 7/13/2010

July 12, 2010

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Managing Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW -- School Web sites, vide recording on buses and high school athletic fees were some of the key topics on the agenda at the School Committee's June 21 meeting

Administrators from each school in the district also presented reports outlining his or her school's progress in achieving "smart goals" set earlier in the year.

Principal Kathleen Hill and Assistantn Principal Paul Plummer also reviewed the first year development and implementation of the Edline-based Web site at Birchland Park Middle School.

East Longmeadow High School administrators reported that the school's newly updated Web site, unveiled at the Feb. 11 open house, has recorded 8,428 visitor hits, 4,035 of which have been unique to the site. This site now includes a new home page, new sub-pages and information updated on a timely basis. Combined with the school newsletter and the use of the connectEd telephone system, administrators indicated they felt communication with students, parents and families has improved.

The high school has also implemented its second U.S. History course in preparation for the upcoming addition of the U.S. History component to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) for 10th-grade students.

Administrators and staff are also reviewing the school's mission statement in preparation for reaccreditations by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) in 2013.

Hill and Plummer noted noted that 59 percent of Birchland Park parents communicated with teachers or the school through the e-mail component of the school Web site. Forty percent of the parents and students surveyed also felt the site, which allows students and parents to view progress reports, report cards and assignments, students to send electronically-based assignments to teachers and parents to communicate directly with teachers, was very useful.

Parents and students were each provided with a password to the site at the start of the school year; administrators said they believed many parents might have used their child's password, resulting in what seemed to be only a 50 percent usage by parents.

The middle school has also implemented remedial math and English language arts classes for students who have demonstrated difficulties in these subjects based upon their MCAS scores. The remediated math restructuring was noted to be in year two of this process. The English language arts encompassed two additional 30-minute classes for these students from January to June.

Administrators from Mountain View and Mapleshade elementary schools said their respective schools had implemented three new sections of the Investigations program, focusing on math skills. Their schools had also extended their assessments for each student's reading comprehension and had implemented the Peaceful Playground games-based concept for resolving conflicts during the fall and early winter terms.

The administrators were going to reevaluate how to continue the conflict-resolving games when recess moves indoors for the colder months.

Administrators from Meadow Brook Elementary School outlined their smart goals for the year as using reading assessments to help create individual assessment plans for students, coordinating with the other two elementary schools to develop parallel math skills programs and developing wraparound services for students who receive special education instruction in academic areas. Meadow Brook does not administer the MCAS test, but instead uses Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards developed under No Child Left Behind to evaluate student progress.

The School Committee also voted to allow the use of video and audio recording devices on the town's school buses.

It was noted that this had been a policy the committee wanted to put in place for some time as all buses purchased in the past two years have come equipped with cameras. To date, a total of 14 buses have cameras and the ability to make recordings.

Outgoing East Longmeadow High School Principal Richard Freccero presented the school's proposed athletic budget and fees for 2010-11 academic year to the committee. He said that, based upon an in-depth study of usage and costs, his recommendation was to keep the fee at $126 per sport for the coming year. He did recommend that the new administration repeat the study next year, with an eye to "looking at upping the [athletic] budget or increasing the user fee."