Minutes for the Joint Regional and Union 26 School Committee Meeting of March 9, 2010

 

Farshid Hajir, Chair                                                     

Irv Rhodes                                                                  

Catherine Sanderson                                                    

Steve Rivkin                                                                

Kathleen Anderson                                                      

Debbie Gould                                                              

Kristen Luschen                                                

Andy Churchill                                                 

Tracy Farnham                                                            

Hailey Andler, Regional Student Representative

Kathy Weilerstein, Union 26 Member              

 

Maria Geryk, Acting Superintendent

Dave Slovin, Student Services Administrator

Mark Jackson, ARHS Principal

Mike Hayes, ARMS Senior Assistant Principal

Jerry Champagne, Information Systems Director

Rob Detweiler, Director of Finance and Operations

Marta Guevara, Interim Director of ELE

Diane Chamberland, ARHS Assistant Principal

Annie Leonard, ARHS Assistant Principal

Libby Hurley, ARMS Assistant Principal

JoAnn Smith, Student Services Administrator

Jeanne White, Student Services Administrator

Kathy Mazur, Human Resources Director

Doug Slaughter, IT Data Analyst

Mike Morris, CF Principal

Ray Sharick, FR Principal

Nick Yaffe, MM Principal

Rena Moore, Pelham Principal

Public

Press

Debbie Westmoreland, Recorder

 

A. Call to Order and Agenda Review—Mr. Hajir called the meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. He noted that the committee will enter Executive Session for ten minutes under Massachusetts General Law 39, Section 23B, Purpose 3 and will then return to open session. Mr. Rhodes moved to enter Executive Session and Mr. Churchill seconded. By roll call vote, the committee entered Executive session at 6:38 p.m. The committees returned to open session at 6:54 p.m.

B. Agenda Review and Welcoming Remarks—Mr. Hajir reviewed the agenda, noting that there will be an opportunity for public comment after Dr. Beers’ report.

C. Approve Minutes—Ms. Gould made a motion to approve the minutes of February 9 and March 1, 2010. Ms. Anderson seconded and the motion passed unanimously, with Ms. Weilerstein abstaining.

 

A. Presentation on Middle School Report by Dr. Barry Beers—Mr. Hajir introduced Dr. Barry Beers who gave a presentation of his findings reported in the document Comprehensive Needs Assessment of Amherst Regional Middle School, including his recommendations for addressing identified needs.  Dr. Beers also reviewed steps that have been taken by ARMS staff and the School Council since his report was finalized, noting that implementation has already begun on a number of his recommendations. Mr. Rivkin asked Dr. Beers what he thinks of the level of expectations for children, noting that the data shows that students who are not doing well on MCAS are often making good grades at ARMS. Dr. Beers stated that he does not use grades as a measure of success for students, noting that he prefers common assessments.   Mr. Rivkin asked Dr. Beers to elaborate on his finding that all teachers stated that they believe they are meeting expectations. Dr. Beers stated that in the absence of criteria for expectations, teachers think they are doing well. He said that work has begun on setting criteria for all teachers. Mr. Rivkin then asked if Dr. Beers has any recommendations for characteristics the district should be seeking in a permanent Principal for the Middle School.   Dr. Beers noted that important characteristics are care and concern for students, first and foremost; the administrative skills to provide a safe environment for students so learning can take place; someone who is a transformational leader who divides the power and empowers staff to be involved in leadership; and someone who is a continual learner themselves and has the ability to work with faculty because they understand what it is like to be a teacher. Ms. Luschen asked if Dr. Beers has a sense of why 69% of teachers reported that they do not feel comfortable with differentiated instruction. Dr. Beers noted that part of it was a lack of professional development in offering differentiated instruction. Ms. Luschen asked if Dr. Beers looked at discipline. He noted that he had the data on discipline and did not find it to be a priority issue at ARMS. Ms. Luschen asked about Dr. Beers’ findings on teacher evaluation. He explained that too often teacher evaluation does not center on challenging teachers to grow and provide development. He stated that it should be a collaborative process that brings the teacher into the conversation for growth. Ms. Sanderson expressed her appreciation for Dr. Beers’ comprehensive, helpful report. Mr. Churchill asked for Dr. Beers’ sense of whether teachers are willing to improve based on his report. Dr. Beers stated that he is seeing a real willingness on the part of the leadership, the School Council and the Curriculum Leaders to make improvements, as evidenced as their current development of a data-driven School Improvement Plan. He did not have the opportunity to meet with all members of the faculty, but he believes this willingness to change begins with leadership. Ms. Anderson asked to what Dr. Beers attributes the discrepancy between teachers believing they are differentiating when Dr. Beers did not see it in his observations.    Dr. Beers stated that he believes it goes back to written expectations of teachers. If teachers do not know what is expected of them, they will assume they are meeting expectations. Ms. Gould asked Dr. Beers for strategies of how to engage parents who are not typically involved. Dr. Beers said some strategies are as simple as not sending surveys home with students, but spending the money to mail them. In addition, he suggested getting out of the school into places in the community, such as churches and malls, in order to get to parent feedback because not all parents can get to 3:30 p.m. meetings at the school. Mr. Rhodes stated that he is grateful to Dr. Beers for his report and for the teachers’ response to his findings. Dr. Beers noted that he believes the School Governance Council should be reviewing the School Improvement plans to either give their blessing or ask for changes. However, as lay people he does not believe it is their role to write the goals and objectives. Mr. Jackson made a brief statement regarding Dr. Beers’ report. He reported on the guiding questions that teachers were asked to consider during a voluntary faculty meeting at which the report was shared earlier today. Mr. Jackson expressed his commitment that the findings in the report will be addressed. Mr. Hajir thanked Dr. Beers and the ARMS leadership, faculty and School Council for their involvement in the comprehensive review process.

 

Mr. Hajir read the statement that was posted on the district website today regarding the decision between the Regional and Union 26 School Committees and Dr. Alberto Rodriguez to end his tenure as Superintendent of Schools, effective immediately. He noted that although Massachusetts General Law gives the Superintendent of Schools extensive power as the educational leader, there are extremely dedicated, caring teachers in the classroom who will continue their work with students every day. Mr. Hajir then opened the floor for public comments.   Ernie Dalkas, School Committee candidate, noted that a group of students at ARHS put together the first ever candidates forum for School Committee candidates and expressed his appreciation. Mr. Dalkas stated that he has had conversations with a number of district employees who have reported that morale has been deteriorating greatly over the course of the year, which concerns him. Rick Hood, parent, stated that he believes the district has a very strong second level of administration, and he sees no reason that the district cannot move forward down the path of self evaluation under their leadership. Kip Fonsch, Leverett School Committee Chair, stated that the residents of Leverett are very reluctant to look at the possibility of moving their sixth grade to the Region. He noted that there is a real disconnect between the factual findings of the Middle School report and the perception of the school, and until that perception is repaired, Leverett residents will be reluctant to support a move. Pat Ononobaku, parent, stated that most parents of color are afraid to speak up and expressed concern about how the Superintendent was treated in his departure. She stated that the Principal of Wildwood, who was a man of color, was forced out and that other administrators of color have left abruptly. She said she is worried about this and about continuing to have interim leadership over a longer period of time. Ms. Ononobaku stated that she believes it will take a leader from outside the system to address these issues. Mr. Hajir thanked Ms. Ononobaku for her comments and noted that the decision last night was a very somber and sad event for all of the members of the School Committee. He noted that since Education Reform, the role of superintendent has so many facets that it is a very difficult position. He stated that the decision was a joint one with Dr. Rodriguez and he believes it was the best decision for both the district and Dr. Rodriguez. Rebecca Gajda, UMass professor and Crocker Farm parent, stated that each meeting she had with Dr. Rodriguez was very positive and she expressed appreciation for what he did for the district during his time here. She expressed her commitment to working with Ms. Geryk and the new leadership to develop and strengthen the schools’ partnership with UMass, noting that the most important thing is to support teachers in their learning and development of their craft. Sally Fitz, parent, made a statement expressing her hope that, in spite of these traumatic times, we do not lose sight of the future and positive outcomes for our children. She stated that she hopes that at the end of the night, the newspapers and blogs will not focus on negativity because our kids and teachers have to get up every day and keep going despite everything else that is taking place. Ms. Fitz then reported briefly on the Family Fun Night fundraising event that was held last Friday night, which raised approximately $1,000 to support clubs at ARMS.

 

A. Accept Gift—Ms. Anderson made a motion to accept a gift of $4,715 from Cumberland Farms for the Amherst High School student activities fund. Mr. Rhodes seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

B. Subcommittee Appointments—Mr. Hajir noted that an audit subcommittee is needed to review the Regional audit. He appointed himself and Irv Rhodes to the subcommittee with no dissent from the committee.

 

C. Calendar Review—Mr. Hajir proposed moving the April meeting of the Regional School Committee back to April 13 instead of April 6. The committee agreed to the change. He then noted that Massachusetts General Law requires that a budget be voted by March 31^st, which will require two meetings prior to that date. He proposed a joint meeting of Amherst and Region on March 25 and a Regional meeting on March 30. The committee agreed that March 25 will work; however, March 30 is Passover. After discussion, the School Committee agreed to meet on March 24 and 25 at 6:30 p.m.

 

D. Transition Planning—Mr. Hajir noted that the three areas for discussion are a possible superintendent search, other searches going on in the district, and the choice for interim superintendent. Ms. Sanderson expressed her preference for conducting an immediate superintendent search and outlined her reasons, noting particularly a desire to have a permanent superintendent in place on July1st. Ms. Anderson supported Ms. Sanderson’s view. Ms. Gould stated that she agrees it will benefit the districts to have a permanent Superintendent in place on July 1; however, she stated that she hopes to be very cautious about the cost of the search. Ms. Weilerstein stated that she would support an immediate search, but it is important to go into the search with the clear understanding that we will not simply settle. Mr. Rivkin supported Ms. Weilerstein’s statement that it would be important not to settle regardless of when the search is done. He stated that it is important to consider why Amherst does not get very many applicants and spoke regarding the importance of the advertising to convey our districts’ commitment to hiring a strong educational leader. Mr. Churchill stated that he believes the Committee needs to look at the trade offs between the energy involved in conducting a search and the potential for a successful search. He stated that he does not believe we are ready, as a community, to say what our expectations for our schools are at this time. He noted that the first thing potential candidates will do after looking at the salary will be to Google Amherst and they will not find particularly good things. He recommended doing a strategic planning process to maximize the chance of a successful search. Mr. Rhodes stated that he believes the district has had a year in which a strong foundation has been laid, there is a very strong staff and teachers in place, and the goals set for this year are still legitimate goals. He suggested using MASS or MASC to do the search at no cost and expressed his desire to at least try to find a permanent leader. Ms. Andler stated that she believes the community and the schools need to see positive progression in the form of a Superintendent search. Ms. Sanderson stated that her strong belief is that the district absolutely should not settle; however, she trusts that the School Committee will be comfortable failing the search if they do not believe an appropriate finalist is found. She stated her belief that the district should contact Jackie Roy because she believes her firm potentially owes the district a free search. Ms. Sanderson also expressed her belief in the value of having an outside view of the district. Mr. Hajir asked for input from district administration with regard to what a search process will entail. Ms. Mazur reported on the process, noting that it took a full year to conduct the process from focus group meetings to a hire when Dr. Rodriguez was hired. She stated that her question would be “What will be the plan if an immediate search is conducted and it fails?”    Mr. Jackson spoke regarding the rhythm of the profession in the hiring process. He stated that he does not trust our ability as a community to make the hard decision to walk away from the search if that becomes warranted; noting that the search did not turn out to be successful even after starting at the best time of year to hire in the last search. Mr. Jackson stated that his preference would be to work with an interim for the upcoming year in order to settle the ship and help us move forward. Ms. Farnham stated that she would like to hear more at this time from the senior administrative staff regarding the impact of having a search and the impact of having an interim Superintendent. She stated that she believes it would be beneficial to have time to do some damage control and take some time to let things settle. Ms. Luschen stated that she believes the district deserves a transformational leader, and expressed her concern that the district has to be very clear in articulating what does make us special as a district in order to draw a transformational leader. Mr. Rhodes called the question. Mr. Hajir noted that no motion has been made; therefore, Mr. Rhodes cannot call the question. After discussion, Mr. Hajir called on Ms. Mazur to speak. Ms. Mazur outlined all of the activities that are happening in the district at the present, noting that there are not a lot of people on staff to do all of the work at this time. She expressed concern about starting a search prior to the override vote in case it fails. Mr. Yaffe stated that he believes it would be a sigh of relief on the part of the administration if Ms. Geryk is put in place for a period longer than four months so the work can go forward and there can be a time of reflection regarding the Superintendent hire. Mr. Rivkin stated that he is sympathetic to many of these comments; however, he stated that he respectfully disagrees with the senior staff and believes it requires an outside person, with a successful track record as a superintendent, to make the kind of changes needed in this district. Discussion followed regarding the cost of a search at either the national or regional level. Ms. Mazur stated that a regional search will cost approximately $10,000. Mr. Hajir noted that he believes it is important to consider the possibility of conducting an immediate search based on a cost/benefit analysis. Ms. Gould thanked the senior staff for providing their input, noting that there were a great many details of a search that she did not know about. Ms. Sanderson stated that she believes there is a real value in the district to having a set of outside eyes, noting that she would support hiring an outside interim superintendent for a year. Mr. Rhodes made a motion to immediately open a full search for a permanent superintendent to start work July 1, 2010. Ms. Sanderson seconded the motion.   Mr. Hajir opened the floor for discussion of the motion. Mr. Churchill spoke against the motion, noting that in the immediate future we need steady leadership for the district and real leadership over curriculum. Ms. Weilerstein stated that she appreciates the conversation around this issue and the comments have helped her form her decision.    Mr. Rivkin called the question, which requires a 2/3 vote to pass. The motion to call the question passed unanimously.   Mr. Rhodes’ motion to open an immediate search for a permanent Superintendent then failed unanimously. Mr. Rivkin then made a motion to begin the search for an interim Superintendent to serve from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. Ms. Sanderson seconded the motion for the Regional School Committee. Mr. Rhodes made the same motion on behalf of the Union 26 School Committee and Ms. Sanderson seconded. Mr. Rhodes stated that he believes strongly that it is very important to put in place a strong superintendent from outside the system who has no connections with the system. Ms. Sanderson stated that she has heard comments that Dr. Rodriguez came into the district, ruffled some feathers and that is why he is no longer in the district. She believes that this is a reason for hiring an outside interim principal. Mr. Hajir stated that when Dr. Rodriguez started in the summer, he met with him extensively over the summer and noted the extensive entry plan required when a new Superintendent comes on board.  He expressed concern about an outside Interim Superintendent’s ability to be effective as a result. Mr. Churchill stated that several members of the committee had experience with doing the last interim search and it was not highly successful. Ms. Gould stated that she has a lot of concerns about hiring an interim, noting that she finds it hard to believe that an outside interim would give enough value for the cost of bringing him or her on board. Mr. Jackson stated that he finds it hugely problematic for Ms. Sanderson to make the comments she did about her reasons for wanting to hire an outside interim superintendent knowing what she knows about the evaluation documents she read. He also stated that the district has been down the road of using an outside interim Superintendent and it was not successful, noting that he is very reluctant to move down that road again. Ms. Weilerstein stated that she sees this as an opportunity to recognize the wonderful leadership the district has and to give them an opportunity to move the work of the district forward. Ms. Farnham stated that she is also troubled by any notion of using an outside interim Superintendent for all the reasons already stated. She said we have a trusted person in place and the staff to support her to successfully lead the district during the transition year. Mr. Morris made a statement regarding the upcoming redistricting for the elementary schools, noting that he wants to spend next year making that successful for students and staff. Given all the district changes happening next year, he believes it will be more important for the elementary principals to spend their time supporting kids and families rather than an outside Superintendent. Mr. Rhodes made a motion to call the question. Ms. Sanderson seconded. The motion failed with Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Rivkin, Ms. Sanderson, Mr. Churchill and Mr. Hajir in favor. Mr. Rivkin stated that he takes exception to Mr. Jackson’s comments regarding Ms. Sanderson’s statement, noting that the School Committee members took the evaluations very seriously. He said it is the School Committee’s role to hire a Superintendent and School Committee members have a right to their judgments. He expressed concern about the insular nature of the district. Ms. Anderson asked if people on the job are likely to leave their positions if an outside person is hired as the interim Superintendent. Ms. Geryk stated that the district has had outside evaluations many times so broad statements about being insular are incorrect. She said that her goal is to help the school district move forward for our children, and she can state that the people in this room will make every effort to make that happen. Mr. Hajir stated that he believes the reaction tonight reflects the fact that we are all suffering from a wound from having something that did not work out. He said we are a team that has to work together, and we are having some issues with that right now because we are hurting.  Mr. Rhodes stated that it is important to acknowledge that there are some good things Dr. Rodriguez did and he made a positive impression on some when you look at the whole of comments received. He named the Hamer report, Dr. Beers’ evaluation of the Middle School and Dr. Rodriguez’s work with the RaDAR group. Ms. Gould called the question. Ms. Sanderson seconded. The motion passed with Mr. Hajir opposed. Discussion followed regarding the intent of Mr. Rivkin’s original motion. Mr. Rhodes again called the question after the motion was clarified. Ms. Sanderson seconded and the motion passed with Mr. Hajir opposed. The motion to begin the search process for a one year interim Superintendent to serve from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011 then failed with Mr. Rivkin, Ms. Sanderson, Mr. Rhodes and Ms. Anderson in favor. Mr. Rivkin moved to appoint Maria Geryk to serve as Interim Superintendent from the time an agreement is reached through June 30, 2010. Ms. Gould seconded. Ms. Weilerstein made the same motion for Union 26 and Ms. Farnham seconded. Ms. Farnham made a statement regarding the stability that would be expressed to district faculty and staff, as well as the community, if a motion was made to appoint Ms. Geryk for a term of 16 months. Ms. Farnham made a motion to amend Mr. Rivkin’s motion to appoint Ms. Geryk to serve through June 30, 2011. Ms. Luschen seconded and Mr. Churchill seconded for Union 26. Ms. Anderson stated that she wants to be sure that the goals the School Committee has laid out for the district will be carried out and that the interim Superintendent will not simply mark time for a year. Mr. Churchill expressed his support for the amended motion. Ms. Anderson stated that other options have not been explored because there may be other administrators, either still working in the district or retired from the district, who may be interested in serving in the Interim Superintendent role. Ms. Geryk stated that she believes it would be inappropriate to appoint anyone who would mark time for a year. Mr. Rivkin called the question on whether to amend his original motion. Ms. Sanderson seconded and Ms. Gould seconded for Union 26. The motion passed with Ms. Luschen opposed. Mr. Rivkin then called the question for a vote on the motion. Ms. Sanderson seconded for the Region and Ms. Weilerstein seconded for Union 26. The motion to call the question passed with Ms. Luschen opposed. The motion to appoint Maria Geryk as Interim Superintendent from the time an agreement is reached through June 30, 2011 then passed for both the Region and Union 26 with Mr. Rhodes, Ms. Sanderson, Mr. Rivkin and Ms. Anderson opposed. 

Mr. Hajir made a motion to enter Executive Session under Massachusetts General Law 39, Section 23B, Purpose 3. Ms. Anderson seconded for the Region and Ms. Farnham seconded for Union 26.  By roll call vote, the committee adjourned to executive session at 10:35 p.m. with no intention to return to open session.

 

                                                                                    Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                    Debbie Westmoreland

 

Approved March 25, 2010