School Board Discusses Reed Schedule, Full-Day Kindergarten

By Eliza Hallabeck

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson briefed the Board of Education on an update to recently voiced parent concerns regarding Reed Intermediate School’s schedule, during the board’s meeting on Tuesday, November 4.

The school board also heard an update on the Newtown High School expansion and renovation project and a presentation from Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda on full-day kindergarten.

According to Dr Robinson’s Superintendent’s Report, a new schedule will be put in place at Reed for the next grading period on November 11. The new schedule follows three parent forums at the school, input from a scheduling consultant, and many parent concerns voiced both publicly and privately to school administrators.

As Reed Parent Laura Roche said during the meeting’s public participation, “It has taken nine weeks: Changes are finally being made.”

Ms Roche was one of two concerned Reed parents who spoke during public participation on Tuesday. Former Board of Education vice chair and current Legislative Council member Kathryn Fetchick also spoke to her concerns, reminding all she was speaking as a parent, not a town official.

Ms Fetchick said she had reviewed the minutes from the school board’s Coffee With The Board meeting on October 26, and noticed little detail on concerns voiced by parents during the meeting and no names. Communication, she said, is one of the school board’s goals for the coming year, and added detailed minutes for future Coffee With The Board meetings would be appreciated by parents and others.

(For The Newtown Bee’s article on the October 26 Coffee With The Board meeting and a full audio recording go online to https://newtownbee.com/2010-10-28__13-20-35.)

The new schedule at Reed, according to Dr Robinson’s report, “was presented to a schoolwide committee, a meeting of some parents, and then the entire staff.”

According to a letter signed by more than 100 parents at Reed and sent to school administrators, parent concerns with the schedule included having the school’s Accelerated Reader program assigned into the schedule, holding grade level assemblies once a week on the rotation’s Day 6, “inadequate” guidelines for the school’s Learning Lab program, not utilizing specials teachers over the school’s six-day cycle, and an inequality between student experiences.

“It is my understanding,” Dr Robinson told the school board, “that Reed has always had a Day 6, and it is my understanding that every year it has been open it has had a new schedule each year.”

Dr Robinson said the new schedule will have a rotating schedule for the planned Day 6 in the school’s schedule. For example, the first Day 6 in the rotation will be the same schedule as Day 1, the second Day 6 in the rotation will have the same schedule as Day 2. The sixth Day 6 in the schedule, she said, will hold the grade assemblies. Also in the new schedule Accelerated Reader will be taken out of the schedule, and will be implemented at the teacher’s direction.

Dr Robinson also said she was blindsided by parent concerns over Reed’s schedule during a public meeting on the budget, and the proper way to voice concerns is through the “chain of command.” She suggested parents speak first to their child’s teacher, then to the school’s principal, and finally to the superintendent’s office.

“This is a school-based problem,” she said, “they have to have the opportunity to work things out.”

Board of Ed Vice Chair Debbie Leidlein said she felt Reed parents did voice their concerns through the proper procedure.

During the final public participation of the night, Ms Roche said she is looking forward to scheduling a meeting with Dr Robinson, and added she is worried the new schedule is set up to fail, due to a lack of consistency in the school’s guidelines.

In other news, Newtown High School is again preparing a delegation to travel to its sister school, Liaocheng Middle School #3 in the Shandong Province of China, in April. New this year, Dr Robinson said at the meeting, the middle school and Reed Intermediate School are also sending representatives to begin talks on partnerships with the lower school in the area. (For further information on this topic, see the, “Newtown Teachers And Students Prepare To Travel To Chinese Partner School In April,” story in this week’s Education Section.)

 

Full-Day Kindergarten

The school board also heard a presentation from Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda on implementing full-day kindergarten in the school district. Before the presentation began, Dr Robinson told the school board Dr Gejda’s research is the first step in a three-step process in determining whether full-day kindergarten is appropriate for Newtown. (A full audio recording of Dr Gejda’s presentation is available online with this article.)

“Full-day kindergarten programs increase the time spent with students,” Dr Gejda said. A half-day kindergarten program has students in class for 450 hours a school, and a full-day program has students in class for 900 hours each school year, according to the presentation.

Dr Gejda said having a full-day kindergarten program, or a combination of a full-day and half-day schedule, would align with Newtown’s Strategic Plan, offer greater learning opportunities, help further consistency in the district’s curriculum, and would align Newtown’s practice with similar towns.

According to Dr Gejda’s presentation, 126 Connecticut school districts provide longer school days for kindergarten students, 63 school districts offer full-day kindergarten to all students, 32 offer full-day kindergarten to some students, 17 districts offer an extended-day kindergarten program, and 14 school districts offer extended-day programs to some students. An extended-day program, she said, might have students in school for only one extra hour a day.

When a survey was released last school year for parents to answer, the majority of parents said they would be interested in having their child attend a full-day kindergarten program, according to Dr Gejda.

Dr Gejda finished her presentation by explaining a full-day kindergarten program would further foundation skills and conceptual knowledge for students, help develop students emotionally along with developing behavioral skills, and would allow for additional time for interventions and supports.

The school board will next look into the space concerns associated with implementing a full-day kindergarten program.

School Expansion

Dr Robinson and school board Chair William Hart also updated the board on the continuing work on the Newtown High School expansion and renovation project. Dr Robinson said the school is still expecting to have use of the expansion by December 1, and a report is being prepared for the NHS greenhouse bids to bring to the Public Building & Site Commission’s next meeting. According to Dr Robinson, quotes on the greenhouse project range from $76,000 to $205,000, and, while not saying the cost, said the second cheapest option is the preferred choice for the project.

Mr Hart said he visited the school last week, and saw work on the school’s gymnasium moving along smoothly, and reported work on the school’s stadium track is also moving along further, as expected.