School Board Resumes Regular Meeting Schedule, Hears Reports

By Eliza Hallabeck

Following weeks of budget hearings, the Board of Education returned to its regular meeting schedule on Tuesday, February 7, and heard from Bureau of Special Education Chief Ann Louise Thompson from the State Department of Special Education regarding her department’s roles and responsibilities It also heard from Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda regarding ongoing work on parent resources for writing instruction, and more. Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson also presented a report on her communications with Baldwin Media Marketing. (See related story in this week’s Newtown Bee for more information on that report.)

Ms Thompson explained the State Department of Special Education oversees fiscal resources such as funding reimbursements for districts, monitors districts through surveys and reports, oversees disputes between districts and parents, and offers assistance to help improve educational programs.

She also said information on reports and surveys conducted by the State Department of Special Education, along with information regarding how to report a dispute, are available on the department’s website, www.sde.ct.gov.

School board Chair Debbie Leidlein asked Ms Thompson her thoughts on Newtown’s results in a 2010-11 parent survey prepared for the State Department of Special Education by Glen Martin Associates of Troy, N.Y. The department surveys random towns in the state each year with the survey, as Dr Robinson told the school board in October.

Ms Thompson said Newtown’s results in the survey were lower than the state average, but that was her only reason to state concern with the results.

With district conversations taking place on planned early release days for professional learning communities, Dr Gejda said the district has been given an opportunity to focus on student writing even more.

“What you have in front of you is a guide that articulates some of the curriculum that is part of our writing program,” Dr Gejda told the school board.

The documents are in draft form, but Dr Gejda said she expects the writing guides will be available for parents before the scheduled March parent nights. Each grade will have a curriculum guide for parents to use to understand what will be expected of students and activities to complete at home to expand on the learning process.

“I think it is coming together,” said Dr Gejda. “It has been coordinated.”

2012-13 School Calendar

The school board was also presented with a draft of the expected 2012-13 school calendar during its meeting.

Dr Robinson said the draft calendar was created with a regional calendar in mind, to be as similar to local district calendars as possible. Doing so, as Dr Robinson explained during the meeting, will help school districts plan sharing professional learning opportunities to save money. She also said it will help streamline transportation for students who are brought out of district, to schools like Henry Abbott Technical High School and the Danbury AIS Magnet School.

 One difference between Newtown’s proposed calendar and the district calendars, Dr Robinson said, is the April break in Newtown has been moved up one week before the other districts have it scheduled, to avoid being the same week as Newtown’s referendum. The superintendent asked the school board members to consider that decision or changing the scheduled break to match the regional calendar.

By the end of the meeting, the school board postpone voting on the calendar until a future meeting.

Vice Chair Laura Roche said the board members had just been given the schedule of proposed conference dates that night and needed further time to look at those compared to the calendar.

Ms Roche also brought up the issue of when dates are finalized at the individual schools, and Ms Leidlein asked the school board to consider adding four days to the calendar to compensate for the average loss of four school days a school year to weather. The last couple years, Ms Leidlein said, have been anomalies, and the four days could be taken away from the calendar if no days are lost during the school year.

An alternative to Ms Leidlein’s suggestion was offered by BOE member Keith Alexander, who said Ridgefield highlights its projected make up days on its calendar for residents to better determine when lost days would be made up.