School Board Holds First ‘Coffee With The Board’ Meeting

By Eliza Hallabeck

After lingering in the Newtown Middle School lobby, with coffee, assorted snacks, and community members, Board of Education members made their way into the school’s auditorium to respond to parents for the first Coffee With The Board meeting on Tuesday, October 27.

BOE Chair William Hart said he wanted to keep the meeting as close to a dialogue as possible, and asked community members to limit questions in order to allow time for everyone to participate. (A full audio recording of the meeting is available at www.newtownbee.com.)

“We’re doing this as part of an effort to expand our communication with the community,” said Mr Hart, while opening the meeting. “Normally when we do public participation at board meetings, it’s a one-way communication. We just listen, there is no chance for dialogue. What we want to do here, is have a chance to have a conversation.”

Mr Hart also said the meeting was the first of seven the board will hold. Future Coffee With The Board meetings will be held at each school in the district, and meetings will also be held during different times of the day and night to accommodate schedules.

One lingering topic during the evening was the change to the schedule at Reed Intermediate School. Residents also questioned the school board on the Newtown High School expansion and renovation project, and more.

Reed Schedule

Multiple Reed Intermediate School parents voiced concern over the school’s new schedule implemented at the start of the school year. Parent Laura Roche spoke to a letter she forwarded to school board members, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, and Reed administration earlier in the day.

“The letter speaks for itself,” she said, adding 100 signatures had been received for the letter within a 24-hour time period. Ms Roche also gave a brief history on the schedule situation at Reed.

After attending open house events at the school, held between September 13 and 23, parents expressed a growing concern over the schedule. Principal Sharon Epple and Assistant Principal Anthony Salvatore responded by holding three Parent Forum meetings to discuss the schedule with parents.

“At these meetings, the message was loud and clear, parents do not agree and are not happy with what is going on at Reed,” said Ms Roche. She continued saying four parents were invited to participate in a scheduling meeting with the administrators following the forums.

The letter further explained parents were initially concerned with the new schedule for the sixth day in the schedule.

“These changes caused us to review the entire schedule,” the letter reads. “While we are not education specialists, the schedule is not benefiting our children, and we find the current Day Six model to be unacceptable in carrying out the core curriculum.”

Ms Roche asked the school board to respond to the letter, and why the school board and district administration has not been involved in the process before or during the parent forum meetings.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson responded first, saying the Reed administration had met earlier on Tuesday, and a new schedule to start November 7 had been decided on.

Dr Robinson said having the school respond to concerns first is the first step in the process; if those concerns continue after the next schedule is implemented, it will be her job to step in and see that some other solution is found.

“I didn’t go to those forums, because, frankly, I felt the principal needed an opportunity to deal with her constituents first,” said Mr Hart. “If your boss’s boss is in the room, which is what the board members practically are, it is awfully hard to do your job.”

There are meetings that happen all over the district, Mr Hart continued, and it would be difficult to have the school board represented at each meeting. School board member Richard Gaines agreed.

Ms Roche interjected the school board is made up of seven elected officials, and again questioned why representation was not at the meetings.

School board member Debbie Leidlein said she agreed with the parents’ concerns. Expressing a support for block scheduling in general, Ms Leidlein also said she questioned the implementation of Reed’s current schedule. Moving forward, Ms Leidlein said, she hopes Dr Robinson and Dr Epple will monitor the scheduling situation at Reed school.

NHS Construction

Resident Lois Barber was the first to pose questions to the school board members. Ms Barber questioned spending on the high school expansion and renovation project. Spending nearly half of a million dollars, Ms Barber said, is high for the planned greenhouse.

“It’s just outrageous this kind of money is being spent, and it is taxpayer dollars,” said Ms Barber. People, she said, are becoming outraged.

The Public Building & Site Commission, Dr Robinson said, is overseeing construction for the greenhouse, and added residents should be impressed with the commission members’ attention to each dollar spent on the project.

The greenhouse, Dr Robinson said, “has to be up to code. It’s not like a backyard greenhouse.”

Completing the greenhouse as part of the NHS expansion and renovation project, Dr Robinson said, also makes the new building roughly 30 percent reimbursable from the state.

“This is the buzz,” Ms Barber said. “People are outraged at spending over $40 million dollars at the high school.”

School board member Andrew Buzzi encouraged all in attendance, and anyone concerned with the town budget, to become active during the budget process.

Resident Kate Michaud also questioned delays in the NHS expansion and renovation project.

While Dr Robinson said the district and school is distraught about not having the use of the new space, she said there is no penalty clause in the contract with the project’s construction firm, The Morganti Group, for not completing the project on time.

Fresh from attending that night’s Public Building & Site Commission meeting, NHS PTSA President Carla Kron reported the new move-in date for the expansion is December 1, and the school’s gymnasium will still be finished by the currently projected November 22 completion date. Ms Kron said she and other NHS PTSA members attended the meeting to deliver a letter of concern for the project to the commission. The letter is printed in this week’s Letter Hive.

 

Early Release Wednesdays

The once-a-month Early Release Wednesdays in the district were brought up, with Maureen Cassetta asking what parents should do with children out of school during that time each month.

The shortened days in school do not count as a full day of school, she said.

“It doesn’t count for me,” she said. “My kid deserves better than that, and I don’t understand it.”

With conference days and the Early Release Wednesday, scheduled for November 3, Ms Cassetta said the first two weeks of November at Reed Intermediate School hold a large number of early release days.

For two years, Dr Robinson said, the school district added ten minutes to the school day to add instructional time, adding the half-days are common practice in school districts.

“The research validates when teachers have time to collaborate on an ongoing basis,” said Dr Robinson, “continuous school improvement is brought into that process.”

Parents also asked why further professional development time is scheduled during school days beyond what is happening during the Early Release Wednesdays.

Dr Robinson said the Early Release Wednesdays focus on writing and a vertical coherence between the different grade levels.

“It is for the benefit of your children that we are doing this,” she said. “The only reason we are doing this is for the benefit and achievement of children. That is it 100 percent of the time.”

Resident Kinga Walsh said she understood professional development is needed, but said there is a disconnect in the implementation. It does not make rational sense, she said, to pay substitute teachers for time when teachers are taken out of the classroom for professional development during the school day.

Future Coffee With The Board meetings will be posted on the school district’s website, www.newtown.k12.ct.us. At the end of the event, Mr Hart thanked all in attendance.