This is from page 170 of the History of Milford N.H. 1738-1901 by George Ramsdell.
1805. Caleb Jones died April 16, aged seventy-nine years. He was one of the early settlers locating upon the Mile slip soon after he became of age, and was one of the most eccentric persons ever residing in town. He planted and cultivated a cherry tree for the purpose of furnishing boards for his own coffin. After it had grown to sufficient size, he cut the tree and had it sawed into boards, from which the coffin in which he was buried, was made. He was succeeded on his farm by his son, Zadoc Jones, who in turn was succeeded by his son William, who now occupies the ancestral acres.
I first read this passage a couple of years ago, and it has stuck with me ever since. It's hard to imagine anyone doing something weird like this today.
I can just picture good ole Caleb looking out the window of his house and thinking to himself, Gee, I just had a great idea! I'm going to plant a cherry tree out there right now, and then cut it down in twenty years and make my own coffin!
I think that he took the old saw "If you want something done right, then do it yourself" to a new level.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Full-Day vs. Half-Day Kindergarten Programs
There has been debate for years in Milford regarding the inclusion of public kindergarten. However, I remain convinced that Milford needs to offer public kindergarten, and the sooner the better.
I think that one issue that has held back the incorporation of public kindergarten into Milford is that some voters have wanted to see convincing evidence that public kindergarten is advantageous as compared to private kindergarten. The problem with this is that it is difficult (perhaps impossible) to find any relatively recent peer-reviewed scholarship that identifies the value of offering public kindergarten as compared to private kindergarten. The reason for this is that public kindergarten has long since been considered by mainstream educators to be an integral part of public education, and that there is no controversy regarding the value of public kindergarten that needs studying. It is unfortunate that there remains a need for this type of analysis in New Hampshire.
There have been some studies that compare the value of full-day versus half-day public kindergarten programs since this is a topic that does not have a consensus opinion among educators. One fairly comprehensive analysis of data from the 1998-99 school year was published in 2004, and can be found at this URL:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004078.pdf
The title of this study was “Full-day and Half-day Kindergarten in the United States, Findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99.” This 154 page document is chock full of all types of analysis about various kindergarten issues.
This is the beginning of the executive summary of the study:
“A major trend in kindergarten programs that has occurred in the past few decades is an increase in the prevalence of kindergarten classes that meet for the entire school day rather than just a part of the day. The increase has been attributed to various social, economic and educational factors. Increases in the number of single parent households and households with both parents working are commonly cited as important factors contributing to the need for full-day programs… Arranging childcare during the workday is less costly and less complicated for these families when the child is in school for the whole day rather than half of the day. Another rationale in support of full-day kindergarten is that children who have spent some of their pre-kindergarten years in nursery school classes or child care arrangements (often full-day) are ready for the cognitive, social and physical demands of a full-day kindergarten… Proponents of full-day kindergarten also emphasize the potential educational benefit—teachers have more time to get to know their children and individualize their instruction, and children have more time to acquire the early academic skills taught in kindergarten… In some cases, the move to full-day classes has been made to provide sufficient time for children to complete kindergarten curriculum that has become increasingly rigorous…”
One section that I found of particular interest was a chart that showed that from 1970 to 1998, there was a steady rise in the nationwide percentage of students attending full-day kindergarten as compared to half-day programs. The percentage going full-time rose from about 18% to about 56% during that time period.
Another finding of the study was that students attending full-day kindergarten programs had slightly better cognitive gains during the school year as compared to half-day programs.
The implication of the study is that full-day kindergarten programs provide benefits that make them worthwhile. It seems that the trend towards full-day programs will continue due to these advantages.
From my perspective, I would be happy to simply institute a half-day public kindergarten program in Milford, and leave it at that level for a long period of time. There is a large difference between no program and a half-day program, while the difference between a half-day program and a full-day program is much smaller.
I think that one issue that has held back the incorporation of public kindergarten into Milford is that some voters have wanted to see convincing evidence that public kindergarten is advantageous as compared to private kindergarten. The problem with this is that it is difficult (perhaps impossible) to find any relatively recent peer-reviewed scholarship that identifies the value of offering public kindergarten as compared to private kindergarten. The reason for this is that public kindergarten has long since been considered by mainstream educators to be an integral part of public education, and that there is no controversy regarding the value of public kindergarten that needs studying. It is unfortunate that there remains a need for this type of analysis in New Hampshire.
There have been some studies that compare the value of full-day versus half-day public kindergarten programs since this is a topic that does not have a consensus opinion among educators. One fairly comprehensive analysis of data from the 1998-99 school year was published in 2004, and can be found at this URL:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004078.pdf
The title of this study was “Full-day and Half-day Kindergarten in the United States, Findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99.” This 154 page document is chock full of all types of analysis about various kindergarten issues.
This is the beginning of the executive summary of the study:
“A major trend in kindergarten programs that has occurred in the past few decades is an increase in the prevalence of kindergarten classes that meet for the entire school day rather than just a part of the day. The increase has been attributed to various social, economic and educational factors. Increases in the number of single parent households and households with both parents working are commonly cited as important factors contributing to the need for full-day programs… Arranging childcare during the workday is less costly and less complicated for these families when the child is in school for the whole day rather than half of the day. Another rationale in support of full-day kindergarten is that children who have spent some of their pre-kindergarten years in nursery school classes or child care arrangements (often full-day) are ready for the cognitive, social and physical demands of a full-day kindergarten… Proponents of full-day kindergarten also emphasize the potential educational benefit—teachers have more time to get to know their children and individualize their instruction, and children have more time to acquire the early academic skills taught in kindergarten… In some cases, the move to full-day classes has been made to provide sufficient time for children to complete kindergarten curriculum that has become increasingly rigorous…”
One section that I found of particular interest was a chart that showed that from 1970 to 1998, there was a steady rise in the nationwide percentage of students attending full-day kindergarten as compared to half-day programs. The percentage going full-time rose from about 18% to about 56% during that time period.
Another finding of the study was that students attending full-day kindergarten programs had slightly better cognitive gains during the school year as compared to half-day programs.
The implication of the study is that full-day kindergarten programs provide benefits that make them worthwhile. It seems that the trend towards full-day programs will continue due to these advantages.
From my perspective, I would be happy to simply institute a half-day public kindergarten program in Milford, and leave it at that level for a long period of time. There is a large difference between no program and a half-day program, while the difference between a half-day program and a full-day program is much smaller.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Virgina Tech - Lessons for Milford Schools
The tragic occurance at Virgina Tech was a horrible experience, but there are some lessons to be learned from it for Milford.
1. The key lesson to learn is that this could happen anywhere, at any time. It could just as easily have been Milford instead of Virgina Tech. There are people with mental defects everywhere, and they can snap at any time. Therefore, we need to continue to create and implement contingency plans to deal with as many situations as we can envision.
At least since Columbine, the Milford School District has worked each year to upgrade our overall security. There have been a series of initiatives to try to make things safer, and we need to continue to make safety improvements.
Some of the initiatives have been to add video cameras at each school, designing the Heron Pond School to enable effective lock-downs, requiring photo ID’s for everyone at the High School, signing up for the emergency phone system, locking the doors at all schools to limit access, and requiring all visitors to be buzzed in by office personnel.
One significant safety initiative will be implemented soon as one portion of the High School upgrade bond that was recently passed. This renovation will replace most of the doors in the building with new doors and hardware that allows the rooms to be locked from the inside each room. This is a key feature that will enable the school to safely go into an effective lock-down mode. Right now the doors can only be locked from the hallway side, which means that the person locking the door to the room would be exposed to a threat in the hallway. After the renovation, the rooms could be locked from inside the room without being exposed in the hallways. The windows on the new doors will also be limited in size, which will allow them to be covered so someone in the hallway would not be able to look into the room from the hallway.
Perhaps it makes sense to revisit some of our decisions to see if additional security upgrades are warranted. One possibility would be to add a second SRO (School Resource Officer) to the one that we have now. Officer Durham does a great job, but he can only be in one building at a time. He spends most of his time at the Middle School and that seems to work very well. Maybe we need to have another full-time SRO at the High School to be on hand to act quickly in an emergency. Another possibility is metal detectors at the High School. I have been adamantly against them in the past since they have a large operational cost and they don’t work very well, but they do work to some extent and perhaps they would make the difference. It is certainly worth discussing the pros and cons on them again to see if they would help.
2. Another lesson to learn is that it is better to over-react to a safety issue rather than try to find the best solution. There is a lot of second-guessing going on regarding the Virgina Tech response to the initial shootings. From my perspective, it seems that their response of just locking-down the building where the initial shooting occurred was reasonable based on what they knew at the time, but in retrospect, was the completely wrong answer. They would have been much better off if they had hit the panic button immediately instead of trying to be logical.
How does this relate to Milford? I think that it would be a good idea to have the administration make it known to everyone in authority that they should assume a worst case scenario whenever they are confronted with a situation that they don’t understand fully, and to act accordingly. The old saw “it is better to be safe than sorry” really applies to these types of situations. In today’s world, no one is going to second-guess a decision to go into lock-down mode when the evidence that prompted the lock-down is flimsy. Some judgment needs to be applied so that the panic button is not hit indiscriminately, but the message is that one should not try to be too logical and instead should focus on the potential downsides.
3. A third lesson is that we all need to be vigilant regarding potential warning signs that individuals may exhibit that point to future problems. In every population there are people with varying levels of mental problems, and we need to try to identify as soon as possible those that need help. Some people are a danger to others, and some are a danger to themselves. We need to worry about both scenarios and try to make a difference if possible.
I’m not sure what to do about this from a practical perspective. The district does have a solid special education department that works with students with apparent issues, but it is much more difficult to identify those students and faculty that seem to be progressing well on the surface, but have underlying issues that can surface at any time. I guess that the message is that we need to look below the surface, and probe when something seems amiss.
1. The key lesson to learn is that this could happen anywhere, at any time. It could just as easily have been Milford instead of Virgina Tech. There are people with mental defects everywhere, and they can snap at any time. Therefore, we need to continue to create and implement contingency plans to deal with as many situations as we can envision.
At least since Columbine, the Milford School District has worked each year to upgrade our overall security. There have been a series of initiatives to try to make things safer, and we need to continue to make safety improvements.
Some of the initiatives have been to add video cameras at each school, designing the Heron Pond School to enable effective lock-downs, requiring photo ID’s for everyone at the High School, signing up for the emergency phone system, locking the doors at all schools to limit access, and requiring all visitors to be buzzed in by office personnel.
One significant safety initiative will be implemented soon as one portion of the High School upgrade bond that was recently passed. This renovation will replace most of the doors in the building with new doors and hardware that allows the rooms to be locked from the inside each room. This is a key feature that will enable the school to safely go into an effective lock-down mode. Right now the doors can only be locked from the hallway side, which means that the person locking the door to the room would be exposed to a threat in the hallway. After the renovation, the rooms could be locked from inside the room without being exposed in the hallways. The windows on the new doors will also be limited in size, which will allow them to be covered so someone in the hallway would not be able to look into the room from the hallway.
Perhaps it makes sense to revisit some of our decisions to see if additional security upgrades are warranted. One possibility would be to add a second SRO (School Resource Officer) to the one that we have now. Officer Durham does a great job, but he can only be in one building at a time. He spends most of his time at the Middle School and that seems to work very well. Maybe we need to have another full-time SRO at the High School to be on hand to act quickly in an emergency. Another possibility is metal detectors at the High School. I have been adamantly against them in the past since they have a large operational cost and they don’t work very well, but they do work to some extent and perhaps they would make the difference. It is certainly worth discussing the pros and cons on them again to see if they would help.
2. Another lesson to learn is that it is better to over-react to a safety issue rather than try to find the best solution. There is a lot of second-guessing going on regarding the Virgina Tech response to the initial shootings. From my perspective, it seems that their response of just locking-down the building where the initial shooting occurred was reasonable based on what they knew at the time, but in retrospect, was the completely wrong answer. They would have been much better off if they had hit the panic button immediately instead of trying to be logical.
How does this relate to Milford? I think that it would be a good idea to have the administration make it known to everyone in authority that they should assume a worst case scenario whenever they are confronted with a situation that they don’t understand fully, and to act accordingly. The old saw “it is better to be safe than sorry” really applies to these types of situations. In today’s world, no one is going to second-guess a decision to go into lock-down mode when the evidence that prompted the lock-down is flimsy. Some judgment needs to be applied so that the panic button is not hit indiscriminately, but the message is that one should not try to be too logical and instead should focus on the potential downsides.
3. A third lesson is that we all need to be vigilant regarding potential warning signs that individuals may exhibit that point to future problems. In every population there are people with varying levels of mental problems, and we need to try to identify as soon as possible those that need help. Some people are a danger to others, and some are a danger to themselves. We need to worry about both scenarios and try to make a difference if possible.
I’m not sure what to do about this from a practical perspective. The district does have a solid special education department that works with students with apparent issues, but it is much more difficult to identify those students and faculty that seem to be progressing well on the surface, but have underlying issues that can surface at any time. I guess that the message is that we need to look below the surface, and probe when something seems amiss.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
School Board Meeting Monday 4/16/07
I've read several of the blogs in town for the past few months, and I've decided that I'd like to make some occasional postings on my own rather than just reply to the postings of others.
I expect that I will post on a variety of topics, but I plan to focus on school issues.
My first posting will be a summary of the school board meeting held on Monday 4/16/07:
Attendees
School had been canceled on Monday due to the floods in town, so the meeting was cut back somewhat. Some of the regular attendees did not make it to the meeting for various reasons and some of the scheduled topics were postponed.
The regular meeting attendees were Bob Suprenant (Superintendent), Peter Bragdon, Bob Willette, Len Mannino, and Paul Dargie. Bert Becker was sick and did not make the meeting. Tim Finan (our new Selectman) was the only member of the public in attendance.
High School Graduation Date
At the first April meeting, the board had decided that the High School graduation would be held on June 9th. It is standard practice to wait until the beginning of April to set the graduation date to ensure that the snow days were behind us. However, this year was different, with three no-school days since then. The Superintendent reported at the meeting that he is planning to petition the state to allow us to keep the graduation date on the 9th, despite the extra no-school days. He said that he was hopeful that the petition would be approved, since having no-school days at this time of year is rare. The main issue is that a graduation is a big deal, and people make plans around it. It is common for some relatives to have to travel a long distance to attend, and they have already started making arrangements. It is a major inconvenience to change the date once it has been established. So the net result is that the graduation is still scheduled for June 9th at this time.
High School Art Exhibit
The Superintendent reported that the annual High School Art Exhibit would be held on Thursday April 19th. There will be displays set up in the lobby to showcase a variety of art presentations.
Summer School Plans
An effort is being made to coordinate the district summer school plans with the Library. Meetings have been held with Michelle Sampson at the Library to try to improve the reading activities that are offered during the summer. The main focus is on helping students that are struggling with reading to try to minimize the loss that normally occurs over the summer months.
Student Management System
The current computerized student management system that is used by the district is having support problems, and the District is looking to switch to a different system. We are looking to switch to Powerschool, which has 32 users in New Hampshire and seems to be on more solid footing. It looks like most of the cost for switching over will be supported by entitlement grants.
One interesting feature that the new system would offer is the ability for parents to log into a password-protected area and view what their children are eating for lunch.
Full Time Career Development Specialist Request, Perkins Fund
Rosie Deloge, Director of Technical Studies, was scheduled to make a presentation on her request to fund a Career Development Specialist position using Perkins grant money. This presentation was postponed due to the bad weather.
Several members of the board made the comment that even though the position would be grant funded and would be at no charge to the taxpayers, that the position would need to be justified as if it were a new permanent position. The reason for this is that the Perkins funding will only last a few years, and it is likely that once a position is integrated into the system, it is hard to eliminate the position when the funding runs out.
Hearing to Receive and Expend Unanticipated Revenue
This is a standard procedure that is done at this time each year. When the budget for a school year is put together during the fall of the preceding year, an estimate is made of the revenues and expenses that will occur in areas that do not relate to property taxes. The two main areas are Food Service and Grant spending. There are always variations to the budget in these areas, and if money in excess of the budget is received, then we are not legally allowed to spend it without a hearing.
This year we received about $126,171 more than we had budgeted, so we needed to hold a hearing to allow us to spend the extra money. This money is grant money and can only be used for the specific purpose defined by the grant. If we do not spend the money as detailed in the grants, then we would just have to return it. Getting more grant money than expected is a very good thing for us, as it allows us to accomplish a variety of things that we would not normally be able to do.
Meeting Location
The Selectmen are upgrading the Selectman’s meeting room in town hall, and they informally offered to allow the School Board to hold their meetings there instead of the High School Library.
We discussed the pros and cons of this, and no decision was made. The biggest pro is that the room will soon have a very nice PEG access setup. The biggest negative is that the room is small and does not handle a large crowd.
Heron Pond Building Fund
No action was taken on this since Mike Trojano was not able to make it to the meeting. The basic idea is that 5th grade addition is mostly complete, and we want to wind up this fund.
Policy Proposals
Dispute procedure # 2409 was approved to a second reading with some minor modifications from the first reading. There was a lot of discussion surrounding the language describing the rights of individuals to contact the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights, with the net result being that the language was left in as drafted.
High school graduation requirements # 3531 was approved to a second reading with some minor modifications from the first reading.
High School Renovations - Architectural Services
Purchasing policy 2330 requires that there be three bids for purchases over $10,000, if feasible, unless waived by the School Board. Based on a number of factors, the board decided to waive this requirement for the hiring of the Architect for the High School renovation project. The main issue is that David Lauren has been working on the high school for years, and he has intimate knowledge of the issues surrounding the school. Since this is primarily a renovation project and not new construction, this specialized knowledge is very important in being able to cost effectively design the renovations that need to be done. The board authorized the Superintendent to negotiate with David Laurin to create a contract that is advantageous to the District.
The meeting only lasted for 1-½ hours due to some of the items on the agenda being postponed.
There was no need for a non-public meeting.
I expect that I will post on a variety of topics, but I plan to focus on school issues.
My first posting will be a summary of the school board meeting held on Monday 4/16/07:
Attendees
School had been canceled on Monday due to the floods in town, so the meeting was cut back somewhat. Some of the regular attendees did not make it to the meeting for various reasons and some of the scheduled topics were postponed.
The regular meeting attendees were Bob Suprenant (Superintendent), Peter Bragdon, Bob Willette, Len Mannino, and Paul Dargie. Bert Becker was sick and did not make the meeting. Tim Finan (our new Selectman) was the only member of the public in attendance.
High School Graduation Date
At the first April meeting, the board had decided that the High School graduation would be held on June 9th. It is standard practice to wait until the beginning of April to set the graduation date to ensure that the snow days were behind us. However, this year was different, with three no-school days since then. The Superintendent reported at the meeting that he is planning to petition the state to allow us to keep the graduation date on the 9th, despite the extra no-school days. He said that he was hopeful that the petition would be approved, since having no-school days at this time of year is rare. The main issue is that a graduation is a big deal, and people make plans around it. It is common for some relatives to have to travel a long distance to attend, and they have already started making arrangements. It is a major inconvenience to change the date once it has been established. So the net result is that the graduation is still scheduled for June 9th at this time.
High School Art Exhibit
The Superintendent reported that the annual High School Art Exhibit would be held on Thursday April 19th. There will be displays set up in the lobby to showcase a variety of art presentations.
Summer School Plans
An effort is being made to coordinate the district summer school plans with the Library. Meetings have been held with Michelle Sampson at the Library to try to improve the reading activities that are offered during the summer. The main focus is on helping students that are struggling with reading to try to minimize the loss that normally occurs over the summer months.
Student Management System
The current computerized student management system that is used by the district is having support problems, and the District is looking to switch to a different system. We are looking to switch to Powerschool, which has 32 users in New Hampshire and seems to be on more solid footing. It looks like most of the cost for switching over will be supported by entitlement grants.
One interesting feature that the new system would offer is the ability for parents to log into a password-protected area and view what their children are eating for lunch.
Full Time Career Development Specialist Request, Perkins Fund
Rosie Deloge, Director of Technical Studies, was scheduled to make a presentation on her request to fund a Career Development Specialist position using Perkins grant money. This presentation was postponed due to the bad weather.
Several members of the board made the comment that even though the position would be grant funded and would be at no charge to the taxpayers, that the position would need to be justified as if it were a new permanent position. The reason for this is that the Perkins funding will only last a few years, and it is likely that once a position is integrated into the system, it is hard to eliminate the position when the funding runs out.
Hearing to Receive and Expend Unanticipated Revenue
This is a standard procedure that is done at this time each year. When the budget for a school year is put together during the fall of the preceding year, an estimate is made of the revenues and expenses that will occur in areas that do not relate to property taxes. The two main areas are Food Service and Grant spending. There are always variations to the budget in these areas, and if money in excess of the budget is received, then we are not legally allowed to spend it without a hearing.
This year we received about $126,171 more than we had budgeted, so we needed to hold a hearing to allow us to spend the extra money. This money is grant money and can only be used for the specific purpose defined by the grant. If we do not spend the money as detailed in the grants, then we would just have to return it. Getting more grant money than expected is a very good thing for us, as it allows us to accomplish a variety of things that we would not normally be able to do.
Meeting Location
The Selectmen are upgrading the Selectman’s meeting room in town hall, and they informally offered to allow the School Board to hold their meetings there instead of the High School Library.
We discussed the pros and cons of this, and no decision was made. The biggest pro is that the room will soon have a very nice PEG access setup. The biggest negative is that the room is small and does not handle a large crowd.
Heron Pond Building Fund
No action was taken on this since Mike Trojano was not able to make it to the meeting. The basic idea is that 5th grade addition is mostly complete, and we want to wind up this fund.
Policy Proposals
Dispute procedure # 2409 was approved to a second reading with some minor modifications from the first reading. There was a lot of discussion surrounding the language describing the rights of individuals to contact the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights, with the net result being that the language was left in as drafted.
High school graduation requirements # 3531 was approved to a second reading with some minor modifications from the first reading.
High School Renovations - Architectural Services
Purchasing policy 2330 requires that there be three bids for purchases over $10,000, if feasible, unless waived by the School Board. Based on a number of factors, the board decided to waive this requirement for the hiring of the Architect for the High School renovation project. The main issue is that David Lauren has been working on the high school for years, and he has intimate knowledge of the issues surrounding the school. Since this is primarily a renovation project and not new construction, this specialized knowledge is very important in being able to cost effectively design the renovations that need to be done. The board authorized the Superintendent to negotiate with David Laurin to create a contract that is advantageous to the District.
The meeting only lasted for 1-½ hours due to some of the items on the agenda being postponed.
There was no need for a non-public meeting.
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