December 2nd discussion follows recent debate on “multilevel” classrooms.
The Monday December 2nd scheduled School Committee meeting took place at METCO headquarters in Roxbury, Boston. Committee Chair Chris Brezski began the meeting by thanking the well-respected Newton METCO director, Lisa Gilbert-Smith, as well as Superintendent Anna Nolin, for arranging the venue. One of the Newton Public Schools (NPS) administrators presenting analysis later in the meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Gene Rountree, noted that his grandmother was the METCO coordinator for Hingham, MA from that program’s inception in 1967 through 2010.
The meeting began with two public commenters, including an NPS educator who had also commented at the prior two meetings, continuing recent negative sentiment toward “multilevel” classrooms. Superintendent Nolin then gave her regular update, which focused on the district’s Portrait of a Learner project, and specifically the competencies that were reported in the project’s community focus group to be valued in high school graduates.
Following this, Dr. Rountree gave a presentation with the observations of his entry plan research into NPS’ middle schools and high schools. Dr. Rountree’s presentation continued prior School Committee meeting discussions on topics such as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and the merits of multilevel classrooms, however it also highlighted new topics such as the high number of cancelled high school classes (page 13 of presentation), the need for a universal mental health screener, and his recommendation for additional NPS staff for psychology and academic intervention.
The change to Newton’s high school schedule in Fall 2021, recommended by prior Superintendent David Fleishman and approved by the School Committee chaired by Ruth Goldman, created 75-minute scheduling blocks during the school day, including WIN (“What I Need”) blocks. WIN blocks were intended to be time for dedicated academic support, but on Monday Paul Levy (Ward 6) noted they were often used for students’ social time. Further, the long schedule blocks came under criticism as being partly responsible for the number of cancelled classes as a proportion of total classes.
Next, Superintendent Nolin gave a recap of the district’s Election Day professional development, which was followed by a discussion of pay increases for “non-aligned” (non-union) NPS employees, the categories of which can be found in this memorandum from the NPS office of Finance and Planning. No vote was taken, but some School Committee members expressed concern that the pay increases did not appear large and expressed concerns over recruitment.
The Committee then turned to fee increases for various NPS programs and facility usage. A memorandum prepared by Assistant Superintendent Liam Hurley noted that $3.5 million of the FY 2025 (current academic year) NPS budget was expected to come from fees. The memorandum notably did not recommend fee increases for facility rentals by outside groups classified as Use of Building (USB) User Categories A, B, and C. While no vote was taken yet, there was some debate over whether these USB User groups should have also have fee increases, with members including Mr. Brezski, Mr. Levy, and Tamika Olzsewski (Ward 4) expressing that NPS should ot subsidize outside groups, and Emily Prenner (Ward 5) cautioning that many important community groups rely on NPS buildings for their activities.
The meeting replay is available on NewTV.
