- The graduation on 6/9/07 went well despite the bad weather. The event was moved indoors to the gym, and went well even though we were in cramped quarters. There was a video feed into the cafeteria for the overflow crowd. The administration did their usual fine job with the event, and it went off without any major problems. All the student speakers gave excellent speeches, and Dr. Craven gave a nice speech of his own.
- The annual scholarships awards night was held, and $126,810 was distributed during the evening. [I'm proud to say that my daughter Jenna won several of the awards. I had never been to one of these events before this year, and I was very impressed with the generosity of the Milford community. I'd like to give a heartfelt thank-you to all that donated in any way to the scholarship programs.]
- The High School Destination Imagination team placed 4th out of 13 in their category at the Global finals in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Middle School team placed 35th out of 65 in their category. Attending the Global Finals was a rewarding but tiring experience for all that attended.
- There was an evening for parents of incoming first grade students that were identified by DIBELS testing as perhaps in need of special services. Parents for 58 students attended the event, and they received home packs for use over the summer.
- The Superintendent issued a press release on several topics including a summer reading program being put on in conjunction with the Wadleigh Library, an announcement that we will be restarting an adult education program this fall with classes in Conversational Spanish, We the People…the Citizen and the Constitution, Digital Scrap Booking with Photoshop, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel, and an announcement that we will be offering night school for high school students that have failed or are struggling with Math and English.
- All schools are now approved by the state without any qualifications. The Jacques Memorial had a qualified approval last year since we did not have an approved homework policy in place. We instituted this policy during the past year, so the qualification was lifted.
The ATC group presented their annual report. Presenting at the meeting were Rosie Deloge, Director of Technical Studies; John Leslie, Committee Chair; and Steve Martin, Computer Technology Chair.
They distributed a nice booklet that described the programs. While nothing is perfect, it seemed as if the program is doing well and is headed in a good direction. They reviewed the various pages in the booklet highlighting areas of interest, including listings of student achievement, awards, State Expo results, Business partnerships, Technical Honor Society inductees, and a review of each program. We had some discussion concerning the possibility of building houses on the two potential lots that may be split off from the Heron Pond School site.
John Leslie is stepping down as Committee Chair after six years in the position. He has done a great job in moving the ATC program forward. Steve Martin will be the Committee Chair this coming year.
Professional Development Master Plan
Chantal Alcox and Laurie Johnson presented the new Professional Development Master Plan that will be submitted to the state by the end of the month. This is the five-year update to the plan, and it contained some significant changes. Most of the changes that were incorporated were dictated by the recent changes in the State requirements. The Professional Development Committee has worked hard over the past year in developing the new plan.
The old method worked well, but the expectation is that the new methods will work even better. The old method was based on obtaining designated clock hours (CEU's, credit equivalency units) for professional development work during the year. This has the benefit of being easy to administer, but does not focus on outcomes and instead just focuses on the process.
There are several methods that can now be used, including the old clock hours (CEU's) approach. The primary method that will be used involves the development of three year goals for professional development, and the creation of portfolios that provide evidence of development. Since District professionals often have multiple certifications, they may decide to use a different approach for their various certifications depending on the suitability for each one.
High School Renovations Committee
We decided to appoint all ten applicants to the Committee rather than try to cull it down to a smaller list. The thought process was that each person provides a point of view and a strength that will add to the group, so having more people will add to the group. Some will be more interested in the track, and others will be more interested in the facility renovations. We also expect that not everyone will attend every meeting, so the meetings should not be too unwieldy despite the large committee size.
We modified the charge to the committee to match the larger size group. We changed the spending approval limits for the committee, set up the emergency approval procedures, and set up the quorum and voting parameters. I was appointed as the School Board representative to the committee.
Policy Proposals
Most were moved on to the next reading. The only one that wasn't was the Computer Software and Hardware policy. The proposed new first paragraph is very restrictive in that it basically bans the use of non-school district equipment from being used in the schools, except for personal printers. I expressed my thoughts that this was too restrictive and asked the administration to review the requirements again to see if it could be toned down. John Leslie had expressed similar thoughts at the beginning of the meeting.
We had a long discussion on this topic at the Technology Committee meeting the next day. The net result is that Matt Ballou will go back and develop a revised version that is somewhat less restrictive. One area in particular that will probably be loosened up is the restriction on PDA's. This will probably be rescinded since many administrators and faculty use PDA's to coordinate their home and work schedules.
Bales Study Committee
This committee will be set up in the fall.
I asked that the district change the sign on the front of the Bales School during the summer, so we will have a fresh start in the fall. Right now the sign says "Bales Elementary School" since that is what the building was used for when the sign was created years ago. The school is only used for the Sage program today, and this is for Middle and High School students. I hadn't thought about it before, but it just struck me a few weeks ago that it must be demoralizing for a Middle or High School student to enter a building identified as an elementary school each day.
The sign is in bad shape and needs to be redone in any event, so it makes sense to do it now before school starts. I think that it should be changed to "Bales Building" since that would allow it to be used as a multi-purpose building, but "Bales School" would be acceptable also since that is what it is right now.
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