Board of Education Meeting Minutes

December 8, 2004

BOARD OF EDUCATION

DECEMBER 8, 2004

ATTENDANCE: Jody Bishop-Pullan, Chairman; Rosa Murray; Thomas Vetter; David Cole; Rob Polley; Judith Rivas; Susan Hamilton; Richard Fuller (8:50); Mayor, Alex Knopp

STAFF: Dr. Salvatore Corda; Dr. Karen Lang; Ivette Matias

CALL TO ORDER

Ms. Bishop-Pullan called the meeting to order at 7:45 pm.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

All present recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

SPOTLIGHT

Mr. Vetter read the written report, Spotlight on Norwalk Public Schools.

SUPERINTENDENT’ REPORT

School Growth Plans

Dr. Corda presented the following entitled School Growth Plan:

· Purpose of the Plan

· Key Terms

· What is a Learning Organization?

· Our Learning Organization

· Genesis of Plan Development

· Data Collection

o Student body characteristics/demographics

o Student achievement data

· Data Analysis

· The Plan

o Components

o Optional Information That May Be Helpful

· Norwalk Public School – School Growth Template

· Further Steps

o Protocol for Plan Review and Implementation

o Stage Two: Central Office Review

o Stage Three: Central Office Visit/Review with Schools

Mayor Knopp said one of the interesting parts of the participation of the school district with the after-school programs was the third party assessment of whether or not the other provisions had a benefit. He asked if any consideration had been given to a third party review of the plans to have somebody not associated with the day to day with district employment.

Dr. Corda replied that they had not, however they were fortunate because through their associate with the Center of School Change that they have access to individuals there who are working with them and to examine and evaluate the work they are doing. He said this is a process that is two-fold in the sense that they are not only evaluating the execution of the plan but it also requires to them to think about what they are doing as they are executing the plan.

Mayor Knopp asked Dr. Corda what his feeling would be if they were to formulate the plans and there is no significant, or measurable change in the achievement gap issues that are important to No Child Left Behind and CAPT; would that be considered a short-coming.

Dr. Corda said it would suggest to him that they would need to reconsider what it is they are focusing on. There is a trap they have to be careful about and it has been set because the measures people use to consider success is prescribed by others. He said they have to be careful about that but at the same time they are accountable to that and that is where the problem is. Nevertheless the policy makers have made the determination and on the base of it, it sounds perfectly logical. He said he would expect to be able to point to, over time, improved performance on all levels in terms of closing the gap. Dr. Corda submitted that when the next law is identified as the standard that has to be met, the number of schools in Connecticut and across the country that will be identified as needing improvement will increase dramatically and if the bar is raised after that it will get out of sight. He suggested that there would be some dramatic changes made to No Child Left Behind as it is flawed.

Mayor Knopp said assuming for the moment that that predication doesn’t come try and in fact it maybe even gets worse. If it turns out that the result is that two or three elementary schools in Norwalk end up not making enough progress and the next level of sanctions begin to kick in, did Dr. Corda anticipate them in addition to these plans, be able to formulate something that is more targeted at those particular schools for those types of measurements.

Dr. Corda said the Board would have to do some very serious thinking about whether or not it is going to accept the standards that have been imposed on it by others and whether or not it is comfortable saying that it will spend time, money and energy on teaching to a test or to make a more radical decision.

Mr. Polley suggested that the plan outlines a strategy for the continuing goals and no matter what the goals is they can’t say they want to lower their scores.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan commented that this is the first time they have seen something this concrete that they know will be used to help the school. It is going to be very pointed knowing they are developing benchmarks that will alert them to where they are sooner.

Dr. Corda said it was important to note that this is the first time they have done this and there are going to be issues that will emerge. With the teacher evaluation plan and will all the work that has to be done with curriculum this puts them in a better position than they were.

Ms. Murray asked what consideration had been given to the amount of work they will be asking of the administrators in addition to running their buildings.

Dr. Corda responded by saying that the building principals and teachers have concerns about their time. If a building principal is not spending the bulk or his or her time focusing on issues related to instruction then he submitted they would have very well run building with not a whole lot of learning going on. If they look at the performance of children over the past five years, across the district the percentage of them who perform in each of the categories remain stable then they can’t be satisfied with that and it would suggest that they have to start doing something different. He suggested that the difference that takes place is one where there has to be more emphasis on the instructional core; what is taking place in classrooms. It is not a matter of energy it is making sure that they are spending their energy on the things that make a difference.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Robert Fry asked when the parents and kids would see results of the school growth plans.

Dr. Corda replied that it is still in its first draft and after several review stages it might be out by the end of the school year. He added that this is not a one-time effort and it would continue to be examined.

ACTIONS

A. CONSENT

1. Approval of Minutes (November 16, 2004) 2. Personnel Actions 3. Approval of Field Trip(s)

** MR. COLE MOVED APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA AS PRESENTED. ** MS. HAMILTON SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

B. APPROVE REVISION OF POLICY #33260 SALES AND DISPOSAL OF BOOKS, EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

Ms. Rivas indicated that that the policy now clarifies the section regarding the books, adding that this is a very minor thing.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan confirmed that the amendments have been passed by legal counsel.

Mayor Knopp asked for the reason in the change in the deletion of the current prohibition against selling equipment directly to individuals.

Ms. Rivas indicated that they wanted to clarify that the money would go to the city.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan said this was the only thing that had existed before and now there is clarity of the process regarding the way it is to be sold.

Mr. Polley said the emphasis here is not that it can’t be sold to individuals, it’s that it can’t be sold to individuals outside of the process.

** MS. RIVAS MOVED: RESOLVED, UPON THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, THAT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVE THE ATTACHED REVISION OF POLICY #3260 – SALES AND DISPOSAL OF BOOKS, EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES.

** MS. HAMILTON SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan thanked Ms. Rivas for the amount of work put in for the policy.

C. APPROVE SALE OF TEXTBOOKS

** MS. MURRAY MOVED: RESOLVED, UPON THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, THAT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVE THE SALE OF 47 COPIES OF “DISCOVERING GEOMETRY” TO BRIDGEPORT CENTRAL SCHOOL FOR THE PRICE OF $25:00 EACH.

** MS. HAMILTON SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

INFORMATION AND REPORTS

A. UPDATE ON GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

Ms. Rivas indicated that they would be referring to Mr. Daddona for a more specifics.

Dr. Lang said that this year the same group smoothed out the language, so there is no change in substance, just in style. She said as of next year they will be offering academic enhancement classes for grades 9, 10 and 11 to avoid failures on the CAPT.

Ms. Murray asked about the number of enhancement teachers.

Dr. Lang replied that there would be 3 in each building.

Mayor Knopp asked if the district had any rough calculation, if these graduation requirements were in effect now, would be in different categories.

Dr. Lang replied that they had not looked at all of the different scores in all areas but there are approximately 200 students who did not pass some piece of the CAPT test; she said they have made sure those lists are widely available so teachers can do all they can to give those kids all the additional support they can get.

Mr. Vetter noted that some years ago there had been discussion about the computer literacy requirement but there are some kids now that are more advanced now and he suggested that the course be beefed up.

B. UPDATE ON ESL/BILINGUAL PROGRAM

Dr. Corda introduced Ivette Matias and said she was going to give an update with regard to their ESL/Bilingual Program.

Mr. Fuller joined the meeting at 8:50 pm.

Ms. Matias presented the following entitled Norwalk Board of Education Meeting – Status Report Elementary Bilingual/ESOL Programs

· Introduction · Methods for Identifying and Placing Students · Instructional Service Delivery

Ms. Bishop-Pullan referred to the projections noting that they were much lower than the actual numbers.

Ms. Matias said the actual number of LTS are not entitled to bilingual services and they don’t necessary receive ESOL services.

Mayor Knopp said there were 287 new students; he asked if this number was in terms of new language students.

Ms. Matias replied that they might be transfers from other school districts, they might come from another country or they might have been born here with non-English speaking parents.

Mayor Knopp said out of the 287 new students, how many of those were not projected to be enrolled at the start of the year.

Dr. Corda said a way to look at might be to look at the number of students they had projected who would require bilingual services, that number would be 179.

Mayor Knopp said he was curious about the differential between the imprecise diagnoses. There are more bilingual students than were projected and fewer ESL students than were projected. How much of this is a result of new students who were not anticipated and how much is due to imprecise diagnosis.

Ms. Matias said the projected number of students could have meant they were switched from bilingual.

Mayor Knopp confirmed that they do not have 287 more students than were projected; of those new students the projection regarding which category they would go in is considerably wrong.

Dr. Corda said they did receive a large number of students that were new to Norwalk more so than they had anticipated, who require these services.

Ms. Matias stated that they are working on the needs of the students to give them the best possible education that they can. She continued with her presentation:

· Student Enrollment and Staffing

· Concerns/Issues

Ms. Rivas asked how they decide when to pull students out and what classes would they be missing and are all of the teachers aware of this.

Ms. Matias said the teachers have worked it out with the principals and the classroom teachers and they are pulled out of a literacy class, during a special or an art class but this is done over a six day cycle. So they child would have art (for example) at least once a week.

Ms. Matias concluded her presentation with the following:

· Professional Development

· Plans for the Future

· Criteria needed to meet the English Mastery Standard

· Definitions of Student Assessments

· Elementary Schools Bilingual and ESOL Staffing

Ms. Bishop-Pullan thanked Ms. Matias.

C. BOARD MEMBERS ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mr. Cole said regarding the Ed Specs Committee they did a terrific walk through at Jefferson and they plan to do the same next month with Naramake and Nathan Hale. Mr. Cole also mentioned that they plan to add two new members to the committee.

Regarding the Memorial Day Parade, Mr. Cole said they are urging the schools to participate with floats with a theme on either Support Out Troops or Honor Our Veterans. The first prize is a $300 gift certificate to B&N, second prize - $200 and third prize - $100.

There was confirmation of the budget meeting dates of December 14th and 15th.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan stated that this Board would need to approve the new members of the Ed Spec Committee.

Mr. Vetter said on December 20th, 21st and 22nd the Norwalk High School will be having their Candlelight Concert at 8pm.

Mayor Knopp announced that he and a number of other Mayors, Superintendents and members of Civil Rights organizations had formed a new coalition seeking more justice for education funding. This is based on an idea instead of having educational funding based primarily on a horizontal equity among towns it will be done on a vertical equity among students. This means they will take the cost to educate a child from a traditional family and from there they will figure out how much more it would cost to educate a child from a (for example) non-English speaking family, a family of poverty and a family with special needs and then to determine what the total amount of funding is. What this coalition is doing is to provide funding for study to be done and Norwalk’s fee for this is $15000 and he said he was prepared to ask the city to pony up. The Mayor said what he wanted to do through Central Office is to distribute some background information about the coalition and stated that he was going to ask the Common Council and the Board of Education to formally endorse the joining of it. He said the study hoped to be finished some time around March and that he hoped to be able to have a presentation for the Board.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan confirmed the next Board meeting dates of December 21, 2004 and January 4, 2005. She also asked for confirmation of whether Board members needed to be appointed to the Ad Hoc Committee.

Dr. Corda said they went over the minutes of the Board meeting and they went over the documents that had been shared with the Board and in no place could they find that it was necessary to have Board members on the Building Advisory Committee.

There was discussion on the role of the different committees.

The Mayor said they would need to receive recommendations for the schools that already have Ed Specs approved to keep these projects on time.

ADJOURNMENT

** MR. COLE MOVED TO ADJOURN. ** MR. POLLEY SECONDED. ** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Kate Kye Telesco Secretarial

Category: Minutes