The School Committee and Whitman Select Board face an embarrassment of riches in guise of the 13 applicants expressing interest in the two vacancies on the committee.
“That’s more than I expected,” said Hanson member Glen DiGravio of the 13 applicants to fill vacancies left by the death of Fred Small and the resignation of David Forth over the past two months..
“It’s more than we all did,” said Chair Beth Stafford. “Which is wonderful, but …”
The School Committee must have their homework done by the Oct. 1 joint meeting with the Whitman Select Board when the applicants will be interviewed and selected.
“Because of the number, and we have been working with town counsel – it had to be town counsel because this is a town election, town process.” Stafford said. Whitman’s town counsel has said the joint boards must interview all 13, but suggested a couple different ways to do it.
“We cannot do it over two days, because that is inappropriate, according to Town Counsel,” she said.
It was decided the applicants would receive a letter mailed out on Sept. 11, explaining the process and they will be given 10 minutes to speak to the two boards.
“You have a resume to know what they have to offer,” Stafford said. “We really don’t need to hear that again.” She echoed Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski’s view that the applicants should address what they would do to benefit the School Committee, the students and the region.
“There will be no questions by us,” she said [as of the Wednesday, Sept. 11 meeting date]. “Right now, Carl and I are still discussing this because we both kind of agree, but counsel suggested other.” Kowalski said the members of the two boards would take their turns casting a vote, Stafford suggested everyone be put into nomination and then giving the post to the first two candidates garnering five votes.
“Their position is only good for eight months,” she said, noting they would have to run in May if they want to stay on the committee.
“This is the best way we could do this with that many applicants,” Stafford said.
The Committee unanimously voted to present a list of 10 high-priority capital projects totaling $434,760.55 approved by the Facilities Subcommittee, for consideration by town meetings. The list had to be submitted to Whitman by Oct. 1 for their spring annual Town Meeting. Whitman’s share is $248,330.05 and Hanson’s would be $186,430.
Hanson capital items have already been sent to Hanson because they were due in July for the October special Town Meeting. The capital items include 10 items the district is moving forward from the schools’ capital improvement committee for the towns.
“Nine of them are the exact same ones that were last year,” Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said. “There is one new one and that is the boiler replacement is not a full replacement of the boiler at the Hanson Middle School, it is simply making the boiler more sufficient … and that is equitable for rebates.”
The Facilities Subcommitttee also went through all the cost breakdowns.
Among the items on the list are the high school’s 20-year-old chiller component of the HVAC system; the high school fire panel is end-of-life/end-of-support and has been on the repair matrix for the last few years.
If the high school alarm panel is not repaired, the school must have a fire watch, a firefighter would have to maintain watch on the building, which runs into overtime, Ferro noted.
“We try to do our best to just say, ‘What is the most critical that we think we can either put off or move forward?’” he said. “In a perfect world we would be able to work something out, hopefully through a Regional Agreement that says X-amount, based on percentage, based on inflation is put aside for the schools and then the proper diligence, respect and needs of the schools would be taken into account so we would know what’s coming in and what could be earmarked in normal years.”
After that the schools would be able to prioritize that on their own.
Committee member Dawn Byers said she has asked Szymaniak if he would submit the entire capital matrix to the towns.
“These are not the only 10 needs of the district,” she said.
DiGravio asked if there was a reason the towns couldn’t synch up their budgeting processes, since waiting between town meetings often leads to increased costs.
In other business, the School Committee took a look at the state of class sizes in the district.
“I tried to be as efficient as possible with class sizes in the district,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak. “We’ll see some changes at the high school with some numbers that are a little bit more than what we’re used to.”
That resulted from the combination of a few staff positions reduced and a change to an eight-period day on the schedule.
“Every student picked up a seventh class,” he said. As a result, elective classes are “really, really full, but some of our core classes [have] a little bit more than I’d like.”
Szymaniak suggested that might be something to be addressed next year.
“I know we’ve had diminishing enrollment, but I’m not super-comfortable having 28 kids in a class,” he said.
All high school students have a study hall as well, he noted.
Committee member Kara Moser said, thinking through the lens of a parent as well, she is always mindful that the cohorts of kids going through the high school are the same kids who had oversized elementary classes and reductions in services.
The intangibles involved in predicting enrollment include declining birth rate, student transitions in and out of the district and the amount on developable land in the towns, especially Hanson – and “Indian Head is full and Hanson Middle could be full,” Szymaniak noted.
“This high school can handle more kids,” he said. “But our elementaries going to be more challenged, especially on the Hanson side.”
Right now, class averages are in the 20s for kindergarten to grade five; middle school in the “23s-ish” and about 25 in the high school Szymaniak said.
“It’s nice to see these numbers,” Stafford said. “I was with [Ferro] when the numbers were huge and we had everyone… I did have the classes if 28-29 students while I was teaching.”
Member Rosemary Connolly suggested a study of what types of construction produces what percent of new students, such as occupancy permits.
“We’re using historical numbers as we’re shifting,” she said,
He is really happy with the focus on elementary as a straw poll he conducted showed class sizes at that level are “better than our neighbors.”
The bubble class is Conley’s grade five, the district’s biggest elementary class, and the anomaly seems to be Duval’s second grade, which is one of the smallest classes the district has ever had, he said, but otherwise class sizes are relatively consistent.
“What we’re doing is working,” he said.
“Even though – and I am by no means begrudging these class sizes at the elementary schools, I think those are good class sizes, although I think the smaller the better – I do worry about these high school numbers because these are kids who, as they’ve moved through, have unfortunately gotten the short end of the stick every time,” Moser said, noting the cumulative effect of that is food for thought.
“That’s good feedback,” Szymaniak said.
The high school freshman class, at 225, is the “smallest we’ve ever had,” he added.
“That’s why I see the kindergarten numbers coming back up, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We have to remember, though, we lose about 60 kids a year to vocational schools from eighth grade.”
Members Hillary Kniffen and Dawn Byers also called attention to the different levels and need for English language instruction for students in the district’s middle schools, which are also affected by class size.
The district had 398 students enroll between May and September, including kindergarten, 20 school choice students and 41 English learners. Righ now, school choice students entering the district are offsetting those going out.
In other business, Director of Equity and MTSS, Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis presented a slide show on summer programs in the district.
“We wanted to give you the opportunity to see and enjoy some of the experiences out students have,” she said.
“We’re busy all summer,” Szymaniak said. “We never, ever close – and I think that gets lost sometimes because, trying to get the building ready for opening when your last program ends two weeks before … our maintenance teams really work hard to get things ready for the school year.”
Semas-Schneeweis touched on the district’s unique free summer enrichment program supporting the two middle schools and the high school – this summer it included 141 students; sports clinics; science camp for grades two through eight; a four-week robotics camp for rising seventh through ninth graders; 3-D printing camp; Camp Conley’’s academic reinforcement, arts and cratfs and physical education activities.
“We’re keeping our buildings open for our communities,” Semas-Schneeweis said as the YMCA summer programs and enricment are offered at Duval.
The enrichment program includes a paid internship for seniors. Science, robotics and 3-D printer camps have to limit numbers of participants due to the cost of materials.
“The programs we have at the high school, its important to know that because we have such different age ranges … you get students familiar with what the high school looks like,” said Assistant Superintendent George Ferro. “It keeps our students here and wanting to go here as they continue their education.”
