Board Of Education Elects Officers, Welcomes New Members

By Martha Coville

Four Board of Education members, Anna Wiedemann, Lillian Bittman, Kathy Fetchick, and David Nanavaty, who won election in November, took their seats for a new term at a meeting of the board Tuesday evening.

As Democrats, Ms Wiedemann and Ms Bittman join fellow party member Lisa Schwartz to create a Democratic majority. Both Ms Fetchick and incumbent Elaine McClure belong to the Republican party. Mr Nanavaty was reelected as a member of the Independent Party of Newtown.

Ms Wiedemann and Ms Fetchick fill seats vacated by former members Andrew Buzzi, who decided not to seek reelection, and Paul Mangiafico, who left the Board of Education to serve on the Board of Selectmen. Ms Bittman was elected to the board after serving as an appointed interim member.

Ms Fetchick and Ms Wiedemann currently co-chair the school district’s Long-term Strategic Planning Committee. Ms Bittman actually possesses experience on the Board of Education itself. Since June 2007, she has served as an appointed interim member, replacing former member Tom Gassin.

Also in attendance was Charles Dumais, whom the Board of Education recently appointed principal at Newtown High School. Mr Dumais is scheduled to begin working at NHS on January 2. He had met with Superintendent Jokubaitis and high school administrators that afternoon do develop an entry plan.

Chairman Elaine McClure was not present at the meeting. Vice Chair Lisa Schwartz apologized for Ms McClure’s absence, saying her first grandchild had just been born. In Ms McClure’s absence, Ms Schwartz chaired the meeting.

The first and most important agenda item was the election of officers. Despite her absence from the vote, Ms McClure was reelected as chairman by a margin of four to one. Mr Nanavaty cast the only dissenting vote. He explained his “nay” by saying that he had looked forward to a change in leadership following the election.

The remaining two officers were elected unanimously. Ms Schwartz was unanimously reelected as vice chairman, and new member Ms Bittman was elected as secretary.

Meeting ‘No Child Left Behind’ Requirements

The board discussed Reed Intermediate School students’ performance on the reading portion of Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT). Reed Principal Donna Denniston explained that the Connecticut State Board of Education determined that Reed School has not met performance standards set by the Federal No Child Left Behind Act. In Connecticut, the federal government relies on the CMT to measures student performance in grades three through eight. The standards set by “No Child” increased from 2006 to 2007; the law is designed to measure students’ Adequately Yearly Progress.

Further, No Child examines the both scores of the student body as a whole, and of several “disadvantaged” subgroups. This means that while particular grade level might be judged to have made adequate yearly progress — as was the case at Reed — the school will still be designated as “In Need of Improvement” if either special education students, economically disadvantaged students, or students representing racial minorities do not make adequate progress from one year to the next.

For the 2006-2007 school year, the CMT required that 68 percent of all students achieve “proficiency” in the test’s reading section. Although fifth grade as a whole met this requirement, the special education subgroup did not. Only 45 percent of special educations met the CMT’s reading requirements last year.

Ms Denniston explained that the small number of special education students in the Newtown Public School system actually makes meeting the Adequate Yearly Progress standards more difficult. This is because the government does not require schools with less than 40 special education students to report their scores. Since there are less than 40 special education students enrolled at each of Newtown’s elementary schools, their scores are measured for the first time in the fifth grade

The school’s Vice Principal Tony Salvatore confirmed that there are only 46 special education students at Reed. He said that because middle schools collect “from all [the district’s] elementary schools in aggregate,” achieving Adequate Yearly Progress within the special education subgroup is also difficult for districts comparable to Newtown. For example, the Connecticut State Board of Education website also named Sarah Noble Middle School in New Milford as “In Need of Improvement.”

Newly elected board member Ms Bittman asked if Reed School had the resources to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress standards. She wanted to know if the school needed more special education teachers. Ms Denniston said the school was still assessing its staffing needs, and Mr Salvatore later said that the school might hire more reading teachers to help students pass the CMT’s reading section.

Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda emphasized that the CMT is all the more difficult for Reed School special education students because it is the first standardized test reporting their scores. She said this “is a district problem,” which requires “a districtwide approach.”