Vote Medford 2007

Skerry: (Q1) Transparency of Decision-Making

The Medford School Committee meets regularly in public session. There is significant opportunity to participate in public meetings.

All regular meetings are televised. Agendas are posted prior to meetings on the website, in city hall and at the school department offices.

Anyone can have an item placed on the agenda under community participation and address the committee and community.

The issue of redistricting has come up one time since the new schools were built. There was one change that modified the western boundary between the Brooks and Columbus zones. Students that were already at the Brooks were grand-fathered in as were their siblings. The matter was discussed openly at a public meeting and opposition was minimal.

There was a need to balance enrollments. It was not done in secret. When tough decision are made, not everyone will agree. It doesn’t mean that the decision was done deceitfully.

Teacher hiring is governed by the Education Reform Act of 1993. The Massachusetts Department of Education has advised school committees that their primary role is to make policy and oversee its implementation. The hiring process belongs primarily to the principals and the Superintendent.

This year the school system hired over 75 people to fill vacancies. The interview processes involved including principals, department administrators, teachers, parents and school committee members. Principals convened screening committees to help them make decisions in most instances.

There were several key administrators hired. These processes were very open and public. For example: Director of Pupil Services was interviewed by an inclusive advisory committee and the School Committee. The same was true for the Principalship of the Andrews School.

When a teacher is hired, it must be remembered that the school system will own this person not just a particular school. Therefore it is important for the Superintendent and the subject specific administrators to participate with the principal. The law and the DOE advisory speak to this point.

Collective bargaining contracts must also be respected when hiring. Often seniority rights require the transfer/placement of personnel independent of individual building preferences.

Sometimes the placement of certain programs in specific buildings determines personnel assignments.

The School Committee must trust its administrators to make decisions about the personnel and not micromanage the process. Administrators must work together to ensure that qualified professionals are hired to get the job done.

Principals and other administrators evaluate teachers and make decisions to retain or dismiss individuals based upon performance.

Principals are sensitive to the feedback they receive from parents and other within their respective school communities.

Skerry: (Q2) Individualized Education for Above-Grade-Level Students

There is n need to create an IEP structure to work effectively with gifted students.

The Medford School system is one of the first systems statewide taking a leadership role in the development of new initiatives for gifted students. Medford is the recipient of a Javits Grant for this purpose. The Medford Superintendent was given an award by the Massachusetts Association of Gifted Educators for his leadership role in this area. The Superintendent also was a featured speaker on the subject at a University of Massachusetts conference on the gifted.

Medford has used the Javits Grant to train teachers grades K-8 in the identification and instruction of gifted students.

It is expected that teachers who have been trained will begin to share their knowledge with colleagues and expand our capacity to work with this population.

Differentiated instruction is the key. Teachers must provide enriched opportunities for students who display gifts and talents.

We need to focus our teachers on differentiated instruction and not bog them down in more paperwork.

Skerry: (Q3) School Choice with Uniform Quality in Elementary Schools

Each of our elementary schools is staffed with Highly Qualified licensed (certified) teachers and staff.

Each of our schools has a uniform curriculum that is aligned with state standards.

Each has very good class size.

All of our schools have a diverse mix of students.

All are provided with educational materials and funding on an equitable basis.

Realistic economics and good educational practice requires that specialized programs in Special Education and English Language Learning be distributed among four buildings. This means that each building will have some unique challenge.

Generally, each of the grades at each school has four teachers. While, the curriculum and the grade level standards are the same, there will be some differences based upon teacher styles and student learning needs.

Uniformity is a function of having a standardized curriculum and licensed teachers in all schools.

The performance of each school is closely monitored and evaluated by the central office.

Professional Development (workshops) is targeted to the specific needs of teacher and building based upon performance and perceived needs.

Overall parental choice of schools is available with rare exceptions. (class enrollments)

Skerry: (Q4) Overcoming Financial Constraints

State aid to local education has been cut dramatically since FY2002. At that time state aid constituted 37.5% of the school budget. Today that aid is less than 25%. Additionally there have been new assessments to the city for state and federal mandated programs which have further reduced the resources for local programs including public education. State aid through Chapter 70 (main source of state aid to local education) is still 1.5 million dollars lower per year than it was in FY 2002. The City of Medford (and many others) have lost significant revenue from the state. It is estimated that over the last six years that Medford has been shortchanged approximately 38 million dollars.

All of the above is further compromised by the sharp increases in energy and health care costs. It must also be understood that even modest salary settlements with employee groups contribute to the cost of operating public education. The most recent settlement with the teachers calls for a 2.5% increase. The dollar value for the teachers alone is over $700,000 of new money.

There is a cost to maintenance of our facilities and for the cyclical replacement of technology keeping our schools state of the art requires investment.

The Federal Education Act No Child Left Behind imposes many new mandates on school system but the funding has not followed the requirements. Instead we receive about half of what we previously received

The schools serve more medically challenged students than ever before and there is a significant cost to providing these services. We often have to provide specialized nursing services and assistive learning devices to medically challenged students. There are six students who are so severe that the cost to educate them is in excess of 1 million dollars in the aggregate per year. One student alone in this category costs $250,000.

The local property tax has been affected by these ill-advised state and federal cutbacks. Medford has steadfastly refused to implement fees on most public education services including transportation and kindergarten. (we do have a comparatively small fee for athletics)

Medford has not cut essential school services like many area communities. We have maintained excellent class size overall and have not cut any major programs. In fact we have added several.

Medford has generated significant resources from many sources to augment programs and to offset the loss of state and federal funds. These include:

• Vocational Construction Program with Laborers International valued at over $300,000 per year.
• Tritec technology grants
• Public Health Department nursing services
• Tuition in for alternative programs (Curtis - Tuft/Fulton) approximately $400,000 per year
• Medicaid Reimbursement $700,000 to $900,000 per year
• Education Collaboratives to share costs of low incidence-high cost programs (Shore)
• Yearly Comcast Grant $100,000 plus
• We are still benefiting form our new schools construction reimbursement of 90% and the sale of older school facilities
• Universal Literacy funding/E-Rate
• Collaborative projects with Tufts University
• District Based Licensure Program with Salem State to offset costs of professional development for new teachers
• Private and public grant and revenues generate over 6 million dollars per year to help support and sustain school programs. This is an exemplary amount for a school system our size.
• Currently launching the Ed-Nets program to enhance our web-based communication and to generate new funding.

Skerry: (Q5) Expansion of After-School Programs for All Students

The Medford Schools provides many after school programs and works with the PTO’s and school councils to increase opportunities at each building.

• Stipends are provided to many teachers at the middle and high school levels for after school clubs, organizations and athletic programs.
• We provide free busing from elementary and middle school students to such after school programs as "Bright Stars," "Graceworks" and The Boys and Girls Club. We also provide help to the area YMCA.
• We currently operate three elementary after school programs for below market costs (with some scholarship). The programs are growing at the Roberts, McGlynn, and Columbus. These are over 150 students involved at this time.
• We are launching several new youth programs this year to accommodate students modeled on this most recent summer programs.

Our primary responsibility is to fund the "regular school day." Nevertheless we are trying to advance after school options consistent with the demand for these them and our resources.

I have been a strong advocate of after school programs during my tenure on the board and insist that any student who wishes to partake in the activities do so regardless of their means.

Skerry: (Q6) Arts Education: Funding, Staffing, Quality, Diversity

Medford has not cut Art Education despite severe budget constraints.

Further, the requirement of MCAS and NCLB have made it imperative that we schedule sufficient time in each of the core academic subjects.

There is no extra funding to expand the regular school day in a reasonable fashion at this time. However, we can expand after school arts education opportunities to students at a reasonable cost.

Our new schools have provided us with excellent facilities and equipment to encourage the arts. We employ a very good art/music faculty.

Here are some short-term ways to expand art/music opportunities in our schools:

• Increase the number of after school activities in the arts
• Bring in artists in residence to share their skills and experience with students
• Schedule some extra filled trips to performing arts presentations and/or to museums, etc.
• Collaborate with organizations like Springstep and the local arts council
• Sponsor a limited number of scholarships for specialized lesions to identified gifted artist
• Integrate artwork (interdisciplinary) into projects assigned by the core academic teachers

Skerry: (Q7) Fostering a Hate-Free, Supportive Environment

The new school enabled Medford to ensure that all children would go to an integrated school. Medford has worked hard to group students in ways that allow for integration by school, by grade, and by class.

There are many programs in place to foster respect for the differences and diversity. We have such programs as Second Step and Peer Mediation that can help prevent conflict and resolve differences.

We must continue to celebrate the achievements of all groups within our schools and promote activities that bring student and families together.

We will continue to work at acquiring a faculty and staff that is more representative of our student’s demographics.

Skerry: (Q8) Leadership to Improve Quality of Education

Medford has a long history of students attending parochial schools. There are five Situated in Medford. There are also several parochial high schools in the area. Many families have a long tradition of attending parochial schools. We are not in Competition with them. We support parent choice and concentrate on the Students who elect to come to the public schools.

State rankings are based upon MCAS results. There is a very strong correlation Between population demographics and performance on standardized test. This is Especially true when the average score is the main comparative factor. Medford Is an Urban Run community. We have a school population that mixes students From diverse socio-economic backgrounds. When compared with like Communities we do well. We are making very good strides when we look at Students who stay with us for more than four years. We like many other Communities are challenged by large numbers of non-native English language Speakers and severe special education students. In most instances we out perform Our urban neighbors.

Education is the business of improvement and we must always strive to do better

We use data from the test to give feedback to teachers and to improve our Professional practices.

We provide extensive professional development to staff so that they are better Prepared.

We work with families to help them encourage their children to do better in School.

We provide good overall class size and a rich offering of courses given the Economic constraint. We offer more AP courses than many of the very wealthy towns.

School Committee members encourage our educators to make the necessary Adjustments that will lead to improvement.

School Committee members fight hard to provide the resources to support the Educational programs.

School Committee members provide feedback to the schools on what the public Perceives and what problems need to be addressed.

School Committee members hold our Administrators accountable for the results.

Skerry: (Q9) Green Initiatives

• Instituted a 3 year phase in of a bio-degradeable paper products into our cafeterias replacing Styrofoam
• Encouraging recycling of all products in schools
• Eliminated oil as a fuel in the schools and went to a cleaner energy source namely natural gas
• Working on automatic shutdown (sleep mode) for all technology
• Encouraging conservation of electricity and fuel in all buildings
• Nighttime cleaning is done systematically so that entire floors can be shutdown in stage
• Retrofit all school buses to meet clean air standards. Instituted a no idling policy for buses and other vehicles near schools
• Exploring alternative energy sources at schools like the wind turbines at the McGlynn

The School Committee will work with all the staff, parents, students, and vendors to achieve the best results.

Skerry: (Q10) Nutrition and Activity Against Obesity

The Medford Schools have been active on many fronts:

• Eliminate certain foods from school lunch programs
• Eliminated soda from vending machines
• Discouraged the bringing in of high calorie/low nutrition foods into the school for events
• Began identifying nutritional values on foods that are served
• Promoted the Whole Child concept as a structure for talking about health
• Approved a school wide wellness plan
• Promoted the Homefront Initiative that engages parents in the process of ensuring the student avoid junk food and eat food that proves fuel for learning
• Encourages good nutrition through health classes
• Provides physical education programs with a growing emphasis on Health and Exercise
• Heath office conducts annyal Body Mass Index Screening
• Started walking clubs in many schools

We need to keep going. Get more involved and build momentum around this important topic.