After reading yesterday’s Newburyport Daily News it appears that there is the possibility that the Newburyport School Committee would not feel it needed to ask for a ballot override. The question appears to be still very much up in the air.

But the fact that this issue of a ballot override for teachers (which is still a question mark,) even at the beginning of a possible process, is so emotionally charged, intrigues me. It begs the question, why should those of us who are older 20-95 and everything in between care about the education of the children in Newburyport Massachusetts?

The bottom line for many, and frankly for most of us, is “What’s in it for me?”

And I’ve thought about that question a lot.

What’s in it for all of us is that the children of today will be taking care of us in the not too distant future. They will be our doctors, lawyers, politicians, sanitation workers.

There comes an unnerving time in one’s life when one day you realize that your doctor is younger than you are.

It also begins to dawn on one that the politicians representing you are starting to be made up of a whole other younger generation.

All of a sudden one day the “blue collar worker” who used to be your uncle’s age, is now your nephew’s age.

And you start to feel very old. And you also hope they know what the heck they are doing.

And that’s why education is so important from Kindergarten to High School in all municipalities.

I want my doctor to know what she or he is doing. I want the person at the UN who may have started to learn languages early in Middle School to get their translation right. I want the reporter to have an understanding of both the English language and a host of other things so that she or he can report the news correctly. Obviously the list is endless.

Educating our children well is vital. So if you are a law maker on Capital Hill or a taxpayer who doesn’t want to dig into their pocket, remember, when you are sitting in a doctor’s office, you probably would want the children of today to have had a first rate education so that when it’s their turn, they can make the right diagnosis and possibly save your life.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

The Newburyport School Committee’s efforts in conjunction with administration has always been to try and do what is best for the children, to provide continuity and stability and prevent crisis.

That is our ethical, and primary responsibility within all of our dealings with the community. And we are entrusted, by vote, to do this to the best of our ability.

Administrative positions in the Newburyport schools have been looked at, have been cut, and while we have maintained small class size, we have made lean our supervision ratio.

In FY ’06 there was a total cut to administration of 1.6 FTE to save $107,500. But at what cost?

The supervision ratio between administrator / supervisor to teachers today, in the Newburyport district could be 8 : 1 ? 10 : 1 ? or 20 : 1.

However, it is not. Instead it is: 30 : 1, and 34 : 1.

Administration is related to the supervision of teachers. Cuts to administration has tremendous impact on the climate and culture of our schools, but especially on the supervision and evaluation of staff, curriculum and instruction, as well as the organization and administration of MCAS.

Dean of Student life equates to “Assistant Principal” at the high school. Dean of Student services has the role of working closely with guidance, and with all of our students, including those with special needs, to see that their educational plans are properly implemented.

The Curriculum Coordinator works closely with building administration and teaching staff to ensure that the curriculum is well aligned and that efforts in curriculum and instruction are effective.

One type of administrator is the Curriculum Director. These administrators are closely involved with K-12 support and monitoring of curriculum, instruction and assessment practices, oversight of the continuity of all instruction, helping to provide professional development opportunities, and more.

The Student Services person at the Middle School, actually heads up all special education, as Special Education Director in our school system. A key position, which when slippage occurs, can be very costly. I believe this is one area that has hurt Pentucket in the last year, resulting in special education costs failing to be reimbursed.

Special Education costs and programs are well managed in Newburyport, providing appropriate services, which prevent students from needing to go out of district for these services, which would end up costing the district more.

The two House Coordinators at the Middle School are analogous to two assistant principals, one for grades 5 & 6, and the other for grades 7 & 8. The separation of these two groups is essential in our middle school model, and was recognized as very innovative in this state when the Middle School first opened in 1972 – it was one of the first middle schools.

As a member of the Newburyport School Committee I look forward to opportunities to increase the value of public education in Newburyport, so that it is a win-win for all involved, the children and the community. I am thankful to the citizens of Newburyport who have supported improvements to our schools. And yes, there is still work to be done, and personally, I want to be a part of that.

Steven Cole
Vice Chairman, Newburyport School Committee

(Editor’s note: A longer version of this post can be found on Around the North Shore Blog.)

Many people have expressed concern about what the Newburyport School Committee has done in terms of reducing expenses.

We have supported our school district administration’s effort in this regard. The administration has acted prudently and in good faith, and has reduced expenses.

First, the school district has had a spending freeze since October 17, 2005, on all discretionary expenses, and those not related to student needs. Yes, that is most of the school year.

The administration has implemented energy conservation efforts, to include shutting down all of the school buildings during winter vacation periods, and turning down the thermostats during those periods, as well as on weekends, to 55 degrees.

School administration also asked, and received cooperation from custodial staff to use vacation time during these periods, and the staff were graciously supportive, and participated with this plan.

By doing all of this, Newburyport has maximized the number of days to save dollars, which has led to more dollars being saved. There are some cities in this state that did not make these efforts in as timely of a way, and now they are looking at huge shortfalls, or have had to lay off personnel in January of ’06, as a result.

As a School Committee member, I was pleased to learn today, that Mayor Moak has been able to add approximately $100,000 more of an appropriation for the schools in the budget that he presented to the City Council. And I hope that the Massachusetts State Senate can add more dollars to Chapter 70, and I have lobbied legislators in regard to this, as recently as April 26, 2006, joining Mayor John Moak at the State House.

We hope to get more dollars for extraordinary relief from the Special Education Circuit Breaker account, perhaps as much as $100,000. And there is the possibility of attracting “Choice” tuition students to our schools. We especially have room in next year’s grades 5, 7, & 9, with limited availability in other grades — especially limited in our elementary schools.

Students who enroll as “Choice” in grades 5, 7, & 9 will not threaten class size guidelines, as there are desks to fill, in each one of these grades.

To summarize, efforts by the administration to save dollars have been prudent, and done in good faith, especially with the expectation of increasing utility costs, and done with the idea that the more that can be saved today, the less that will require reduction, or cuts, later.

At the expense of this year’s canceled Winter Carnival, Mother Nature’s help with a pretty mild January and February certainly is something to be thankful for, as well.

Steven P. Cole
Vice Chairman, Newburyport School Committee

This year the School Committee has already voted to cut $265,675 from the FY ’07 budget. Reductions include areas like summer help, supplies and materials, athletic budget, secretarial hours, custodial support and personnel, and more restrictive hiring in some areas to replace teachers who are retiring at the middle and high school levels.

However, the School Committee stopped there. After much deliberation, the vote was to pass an unbalanced budget to Mayor John Moak. If this budget becomes balanced via the Mayor and City Council, it will include the following cuts totaling $328,388:

Library Assistants at the Brown and Kelley Schools.

Elimination of one Instructional Assistant in the high school learning lab – the position is designed to assist 30-50 students in the program especially those who are struggling.

Elimination of one high school teaching staff.

Elimination of one art teacher at the Nock Middle School which will reduce the number of times that students in grades 5 – 8 have art to one time per week.

Reduction by 90% of one foreign language teacher at the middle school which would reduce foreign language instruction for 5th and 6th graders by 33%, limit the student choice of three foreign languages to grades 7 & 8, and restrict 5th and 6th graders to choose Spanish as the only available language. Sections of foreign language would likely increase to 26 or more students, as well.

Eliminate four electives at the high school, which reduces the availability of elective offerings and limits the options for students while increasing the class size of some electives.

An elimination of two elementary school teachers at the Bresnahan School, one from 1st grade, and one from 2nd grade, was taken off of cut consideration on May 1, 2006 when it was announced, during the Working Meeting of the School Committee, that enrollment would be increasing in these grades at the Bresnahan by 11 students over FY ’06 figures.

And that does not include any children that move into the large Bresnahan neighborhood between now and when school begins in September. Four Bresnahan parents were also on hand at the Budget Hearing, that preceded the Working Meeting to speak against these cuts, as well. And they were the only four parents to speak at the hearing.

While these positions will be preserved out of necessity, it means that Superintendent Mary Murray, along with the Administrative Council of the school district, will have to find an additional $82,000 in cuts in place of these two teaching positions, and present those to the School Committee, likely at our Business Meeting, on May 15, 2006.

Cuts on top of cuts . . . consider foreign language. A student who took Spanish as a 2nd grader last year, did not have it this year as a 3rd grader. The student will now have to wait until grade 5 to take Spanish again, and at best, with the current proposed program cuts, have it 33% less than a 5th grader taking Spanish, right now.

Or consider a fourth grade student who wishes to learn German or French. They now will have to wait until the 7th grade to get started . . . cuts on top of cuts . . .

Steven Cole
Vice Chairman, Newburyport School Committee

Thank you for letting me use the Newburyport Political Blog as a way to communicate what we as a City are facing in regard to the education of our children.

Last year the Newburyport School Committee was forced to make over $1 million dollars of cuts to our school programs.

Especially difficult were cuts eliminating foreign languages at the elementary school level — a critical period to learn foreign languages. As a result, this school district’s foreign language department, which took 20 years to build to this point, has now lost its elementary foundation. Our school district’s foreign language program was so well structured that other Massachusetts school districts would inquire, and even visit to find out how Newburyport got the job done.

Another was the elimination of a popular theater arts program that touched just about every student at the Nock Middle School. It was hoped to be replaced, or at least fill some of the need, with the help of a fee based after school drama program. When the substitute program was conceived, developed and ready for sign-up, it drew less than 10 children.

Finally, one of the smallest cuts involved the total elimination of the music department’s strings program. At a cost of less than $8,000, the program included a part time and very flexible strings instructor. The program served 40 middle school students, five of which came from other districts as “Choice” students.

Steven Cole
Vice Chair, Newburyport School Committee

I would like to thank Steven Cole, the chair of the Newburyport School Committee, for writing to the Newburyport Political Blog to give the public more information on what our schools are dealing with and what our children are facing.

The issue of a possible, proposed Newburyport School Committee override is already emotionally charged, and from what I understand the issue thus far has only been sent to a subcommittee.

Mr. Cole has already sent in the first short post and is now working on others. I look forward to learning more about all the questions and concerns involved before making up my mind one way or another on how I would vote on such an override if it were to be an actual ballot question.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Dear Mary:

I am humbled and honored to be a member of the Newburyport School Committee. As a School Committee member, within my relations with the community my primary responsibility is to the children. And as an elected official, I have been entrusted by the voters with the responsibility to help provide the best education possible for the children of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

If it would be all right with you, I would like to use the Newburyport Political Blog to share and communicate issues that we as a School Committee deal with, and that I am able to appropriately report on.

For example, related to the issue of the idea of an override that was recently published in the local newspaper. On May 1, 2006, in our Working Meeting open to the public, as a School Committee we did: “Vote to refer the issue of a Prop 2 1/2 override to the Finance subcommittee for preparation of a ballot question to present to the City Council.”

I look forward to more opportunities to communicate issues, again, that I am able to report on.

Thanks,

Steven P. Cole
Vice Chairman, Newburyport School Committee