October 18 School Committee Update

by Erica Plunkett 10/22/12

In comments, Mrs. Plunkett shared the update on the FY13 Capital Budget:

The Finance Committee met Tuesday night to review all town capital requests.  The Finance Committee voted to recommend a Capital appropriation of $67,900 to the schools for five items on the priority list:

 

FY13 Capital Priorities:

    Backup system (District) $10,000.00

    Laptop cart (HHS) $22,100.00

    Additional wireless access points (HHS) $6,000.00

    Repair/replace cafeteria wall (Placentino/Miller)  $10,000.00

    One iPad cart (Adams)- (three orig. requested)  $19,800.00

    Resurface track (HHS) $0.00

Total: $67,900.00

The School Committee would like to deeply express its appreciation to the Finance Committee for its support of the schools.  With over $623K in town-wide requests, theirs is not an easy job.

Also on the warrant is a recommendation to appropriate $106K to complete the Miller School Playground project, with 85% of the funds coming from the Community Preservation Fund, and 15% coming from capital.  The group supporting this initiative has already raised over $100K and is continuing to raise funds. Please note while these are the Fin Com’s recommendations for schools, they still need to be voted on at Town Meeting.  Parents are traditionally very under-represented at Town Meeting, and it is imperative that folks make every effort to attend.   Here is the link to the warrant and hope to see you there. http://www.townofholliston.us/Selectmen/STM%2010%2012%20Warrant.pdf. 

The first presentation of the meeting was an overview of the District MCAS results from last year by Dr. Sara Ahern.  The information was extremely comprehensive; there are new accountability measures that are complex.  Interested individuals can find her report in its entirety on the District website http://www.holliston.k12.ma.us/curriculum/MCAS2012.htm .  Dr. Ahern’s overview included:

1.      2012 highlights (high achievement and high growth)

    ELA
        Increased achievement at most grade levels
        Zero% failure in Grade 10
        % Advanced jumps in grades 4, 6, 7, and 10
    Math
        Increased achievement at many grade levels
        % Advanced jumps in grades 3, 8, and 10
    Science and Technology
        Increased achievement at all grade levels

2.      Accountability Summary (new goal is to narrow proficiency gaps by half by 2017)

    These new measures are replacing AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), as part of the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) waiver. They are intended to give more flexibility to schools and districts, with the ultimate goal of narrowing proficiency gaps by 2017, taking into account a new measure called Progress and Performance Indices (PPI) which includes performance on English, Math, and Science, Student Growth Percentiles (SGP), and Graduation and Dropout rates.

    HPS has been classified as a Level 1 District, because all of Holliston’s schools have been classified as Level 1, where the Cumulative Progress and Performance (PPI) Index for both “all students” and “high needs students” must be 75 or higher AND at least 95% of the students belonging to each group in the school are assessed on ELA, Math, and Science. The cumulative PPI is a weighted average of four years of annual PPIs based on the previous four years MCAS data. (“High needs students” are defined by the Commonwealth as students who fall into one or more of the following categories:  Special Education students; current or former English Language Learners (ELL); and/or Low-Income students [defined as being eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch]).

    PPI is the new accountability measure, which includes multiple measures of achievement and growth.  If a CPI for a school or district is 100, all students are proficient or advanced. And, a district is classified into the level of its lowest performing school.
    Annual PPI is a district’s, school’s or subgroup’s measure of improvement towards its own targets over a two-year period on up to seven indicators:
        Narrowing proficiency gaps (CPI: ELA, Math, Science)
        Growth (SGP- Student Growth Percentiles: ELA and Math
        Annual dropout rate
        Cohort graduation rate

3.      Accountability results for 2012:

    Holliston has met or exceeded targets for improvement in most measures of achievement and growth consistently since 2009 (the area for improvement is high needs students in math) for the category of ALL students.
        In ELA:
            Holliston has met improvement targets for achievement for four years running
            Holliston has met the targets for growth for three years running, and in 2012, exceeded the target for growth.
            Holliston has decreased percent of students in Warning/Failing by 10% in 2010
            Holliston has increased percent of students in Advanced by 10% in 2009, 2011, and 2012
        In Math:
            Holliston has met improvement targets for achievement for four years running
            Holliston has met the targets for growth for four years running
            Holliston has decreased percent of students in Warning/Failing by 10% in 2010 and 2012
            Holliston has increased percent Advanced by 10% in 2010 and 2012.
        In Science:
            Holliston has met improvement targets for achievement for three years running
            Holliston has exceeded the target for achievement in 2012
            Holliston has decreased the percent of students in Warning/Failing by 10% in 2010
            In Science, Holliston has increased the percent of students in Advanced by 10% in 2009 and 2012.
        With regard to the annual dropout rate for All Students, Holliston is above the target and is in the 95th percentile in the grade span statewide.  Graduation rate for All Students are also above target, and the four-year cohort rate is greater than the 95% target (at 96.9%).  Lastly, All Students have a high MCAS participation rate.
    For high needs students, the highlights are as follows:
        In ELA:
            Three out of four years, Holliston has met improvement targets for achievement
            Three out of four years, Holliston has met targets for growth
            Holliston has decreased the percent of student in Warning/Failing by 10% in 2009 and 2012
            Holliston has increased the percent of students in Advanced by 10% in 2011
        In Math:
            Holliston has improved, but is below targets for achievement in the past four years.
            Three out of four years, Holliston has met improvement targets for growth; but in 2012 SGP was below target
            Holliston has decreased the percent of student in Warning/Failing by 10% in 2010 and 2011
            Holliston has increased the percent of students in Advanced by 10% in 2009
        In Science:
            Three out of four years, Holliston has met or exceeded improvement targets for achievement
            In 2012, CPI was lower than in previous years
            Holliston has decreased the percent of student in Warning/Failing by 10% in 2010 and 2011
            Holliston has increased the percent of students in Advanced by 10% in 2009, 2011, and 2012
        With regard to annual dropout rates, there has been no change in High Needs students.  The target is 1.3% and Holliston is at 1.4%. Holliston has met the improvement target in graduation rates for High Needs students for a four-year cohort at 89.5%. Lastly, Holliston has a high MCAS participation rate for High Needs students.

4.      Next Steps:

    Principals, Curriculum Specialists, and Teachers will continue data analysis of results.
    Principals, Curriculum Specialists, and Teachers will identify strengths in curriculum and instruction and areas in need of improvement
    Holliston will continue to remain informed on changes to MCAS and potential transition to PARCC
    School Improvements plans will be developed with goals and action steps.

5.      What’s the takeaway message?

Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks are widely recognized as the most rigorous in the country.  Our state’s children are being held to the highest standards.  Holliston’s students are achieving at the highest levels in the state and in the nation.  Dr. Jackson commented that these are the best MCAS results in the eight years since he arrived in Holliston. Much of the success is a direct result of the work being done to revamp and rework curriculums.  He also said that he hopes these results are a source of pride in our children, in our teachers, and for the entire community who vigorously supports public education.  The big picture reveals Holliston as a District of high achievement and high growth, and the School Committee offers their deepest appreciation to everyone for their hard work in making this possible.

Next, the Committee voted to approve the overnight field trip request for the 6th grade class visit to Nature’s Classroom next April.  Under New Business, Dr. Jackson presented a first draft of the Budget Development calendar.  As always, the budget season begins with the mid-year updates of the School Improvement Plans (January 3). Tentatively, the remainder of the schedule is:

·         Budget Workshop- Friday, Jan. 25

·         Superintendent’s Recommended FY14 Budget- Thursday, Feb. 7

·         Budget Discussion- Thursday, Feb. 28

·         School Committee (preliminary) vote on FY14 Budget- Thursday, Mar. 7

·         Budget Discussion (if needed)- Thursday, Mar. 21

·         School Committee FY14 Budget Presentation to Finance Committee- TBD

·         Public Hearing on FY14 Budget- Thursday, Apr. 4

·         Budget Discussion (if needed)- Thursday, Apr. 25

·         ANNUAL TOWN MEETING- Monday, May 6

Dr. Jackson then shared the October 1 Enrollment report with the Committee.  Holliston has a total of 2,860 students across the four schools, 130 of whom are School Choice students.  Enrollment remains at basically stable levels. In the Class Size report, Dr. Jackson was pleased to inform the Committee that Placentino classes are in the low 20’s.  At Miller, they are a little higher, but within guidelines.  At Adams and the High School, a few classes are outliers. Additionally, some of the bigger class sizes, particularly at the upper levels, are due to school administrators being deferential to parent input (i.e. placing a student in an advanced class because the parent has requested it, as opposed to the student necessarily being ready for it.  This is slowly being addressed).  As Committee members have indicated a number of times in discussing class size: the more choice you have, the harder it is to maintain balance in class size. But the community has made it clear that they value the choices Holliston has to offer, and so some flexibility is sacrificed in order to support this. 

Dr. Jackson then presented two possible first drafts of the 2013-2014 School Calendar.  This draft has school beginning for teachers on Monday, August 26, with the first day of school for students on Tuesday, August 27.  In one iteration, students and teachers would go for four days, and there would be a three-day Labor Day weekend.  In another iteration, students would have a four-day weekend, and Friday, August 30th would be the first Professional Day. The 180th day of school would be June 17th or 18th.  These drafts are being brought back to the administrators for a closer look and will be reviewed again at the next School Committee meeting.  

The next School Committee meeting is Thursday, November 15th.  Central to the agenda will be: the Principal’s reports of the individual school MCAS results; the SY13-14 Calendar; the Nov. 6th Professional Day preview; and policy. School Committee Office Hours will be Thursday, October 25th, 8-9 am at Coffee Haven (Office Hours through December are available on the District website). As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Central Office or any member of the School Committee. 

Kindest regards,

Erica Plunkett

Chair, Holliston School Committee

DID YOU KNOW….… that in the most recent rankings published by the Boston Globe, that our 10th grade MCAS scores were ranked:

o   5th best in Massachusetts in Mathematics;

o   4th best in Massachusetts in Science; and

o   2nd best in Massachusetts in English

Posted in Schools.

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