Minutes for the Pelham School Committee Meeting of April 7, 2011

The parent survey is complete. Lisa plans to send it out electronically on Monday. If School Committee members have any feedback, she needs it by tomorrow.

The Artist in Residence program kicked off on Tuesday. Lisa heard good feedback from both parents and students.

The last Wednesday in April the WOW (Watershed on Wheels) Express will be coming to Pelham Elementary. All classes will have the opportunity to participate.

Lisa looked into the funding the School has provided in the past to the Library for books. Elementary budget used to contain around $2,500 for books. This was cut a few years ago when the budget became tight. The PTO has stepped up to fill some of the gap by giving proceeds from the fall book sale to the Library. Lisa has suggested a spring book sale to supplement that amount. Lennie Ware has offered to make up the difference between proceeds of the spring book sale and prior budget funding from After School funds. 

Lisa and Joanne Smith will be filmed by ACTV on Tuesday. The topic of discussion is RTI.

The Pelham Educational Visioning Committee presented an overview of the work they have accomplished to date. The School Committee members thanked the Visioning Committee. After much discussion, the School Committee and Visioning Committee agreed to continue work on financial scenarios based on various enrollment and school choice options. The School Committee, Finance Committee, and Select Board would use these scenarios to help formulate a 5 year plan.

Math Plan - Beth Graham presented the Math curriculum plan. The School Committee members expressed appreciation for the plan and a general agreement in the direction. Kathy expressed concern that the supplementary items that we are purchasing for Investigations are “throw away” if we end up selecting another text book. Debbie expressed her opinion that math at Pelham is not “broken” and would be concerned if Pelham was forced to spend a lot of money on new text books that were not supported by the teachers.

School Choice – Janet Scott reported that there are 7 Pelham residents and 2 siblings of current choice students eligible for Kindergarten next year. There is a third sibling of a current choice student who is already in Kindergarten but would like to choice into Pelham. The School Committee discussed the need to demonstrate to the Town that we seriously considering future possibilities for structuring the school. Minimizing the choice slots in Kindergarten would leave open the possibility of structural changes in the future if we decide to go that way. At the same time, the School Committee expressed a commitment to the choice families that are currently part of the school and a desire to give them sufficient information to plan for next year. Kathy made a motion to open 2 school choice slots in the Kindergarten now with the option of opening additional slots later. Annie seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Lisa needs to work with the teachers to determine how many choice slots could be made available in grades 1 through 6.

School Tuitioning – The Finance Committee brought up the possibility of tuitioning students into Pelham rather than using school choice. Maria will ask Ginny Tate to provide legal guidelines on school tuition policies.