The Old Rochester Regional Joint School Committee/Superintendents Union #55 met on Monday night and approved the calendar for the 2024-25 school year, but not without substantial discussion regarding the Christmas break.
Because New Year’s Day 2025 falls on a Wednesday, the calendar is set up to bring back students for two days of school before the weekend.
According to feedback received by committee members, some parents find that to be problematic when planning family vacations and wish there were two weeks of vacation and a slightly longer school year.
As planned, students will get early release on Friday, December 20 and come back on Thursday, January 2.
ORR committee member Margaret McSweeny said she received a lot of feedback preferring two full weeks at Christmas and wanted to make sure, in keeping with those residents’ wishes, the committee that requested community feedback follow up with discussion of the matter.
Cristin Cowles (union side) cited feedback from working parents, noting their preference to add two days to the end of the school year to get two full weeks of holiday vacation.
The academic calendar will reach the 180-day mark on June 11 and as usual, build in five days for potential cancellations, so that Day 185 is June 18. If school needed to extend further, it cannot be held on June 19, the Juneteenth holiday.
If, however, school extended into a new week, Matt Monteiro (ORR) cautioned that the “last day of school being a Monday is not a recipe for success.”
Monteiro mused at the idea of tweaking the calendar so that students would return on Friday, January 3, lessening the risk of them missing two days and then only adding one day to the back end of school. He suggested, in such a case, that the administration could maybe encourage curriculum to be more enrichment based.
“I think of our teachers,” said Michelle Smith, the ORR School Committee chairperson, not in favor of asking them to come back on Friday, January 3.
Another subject of debate was early release for professional development on Wednesday, May 28, due to the competing interests of MCAS in the elementary schools and final exams at the high school.
Both sides voted to approve the calendar as proposed without voting on Kindergarten dates pending further information from the administration.
Nelson said the administration shared the draft of the calendar earlier in this cycle than in years past.
Opening Day will be Wednesday, August 28. New teachers will enter the program on August 22, and August 26-27 will see teachers meetings in advance of the students’ arrival.
September 25 is the first early release for professional development.
Member Carly Lavin (union), the chair of the Mattapoisett School Committee, explained that the election community had asked the school committees to consider November 5 (presidential election) as a day without students in the buildings, so that will be a full professional-development day.
Wednesday, November 27, the day before Thanksgiving, is early release.
February vacation will be held February 17-21, and April vacation on April 21-25.
The committees had their most substantial policy discussion on fundraising.
Nelson had introduced a lengthy list of policies that the JSC would discuss and vote upon, along with new policies that they would digest and then vote upon when the committee next convenes.
While discussing “JJE Student Fund-Raising Activities,” there was confusion between fundraising for school-sponsored activities, groups and events and fundraising for the sports boosters, which are supported by the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO.)
April Nye (ORR) was concerned with the policy as written, especially as it may affect the Fun Run held annually, but McSweeny argued that the policy does not address the boosters because they file under a different tax number and the Fun Run should be treated as an outside activity.
Nye then sought clarification as to whether the PTO organizations in the ORR district are exempt to the JSC’s policies.
“I think we need to clarify with our principals,” said McSweeny, reiterating her contention that PTO’s report their own taxes.
Monteiro suggested an addendum “by the school itself” or “school-sponsored fundraising” in order to clarify the language, but Nye reiterated her confusion and said, “Reading this verbatim, we’d be violating our policy doing any fundraising.”
Union #55 Chairperson Sharon Hartley suggested the policy be sent back for further study before a vote is taken. Both sides of the JSC voted to do so.
The rest of the policies were voted for approval without dissent on either side of the committee.
New policies that will not be voted on until the next JSC meeting included the following: Community Use of Digital Resources (an umbrella policy for security when visitors are in ORR buildings); District Website and Social Media VIII; District Security Relating to Technology; Data and Records Retention; Personnel Use of Technology and Student Use of Technology in School (code of conduct.)
Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Operations Howie Barber joined the meeting to update the JSC on the bus contract with Amaral that is sunsetting after this school year.
Barber said the district has three separate contracts with Amaral. ORR attempted to do a joint, consolidated contract, but it did not work out very well, according to Barber, who cited “significant increases” and said the district sought a rebate.
At present, contract proposals for the 2024-25 school year are being collected, and Barber explained that ORR has “created scenarios and results of what we would do” in various hypothetical negotiations scenarios. The goal, he said, is to “have the least amount of (financial) impact, especially when you look at academic costs these days.”
In their chairpersons’ reports, both Smith and Hartley made brief remarks, Hartley encouraging attendees to build on unity by asking questions and Smith thanking the community for its dedication and collaborative effort, noting her confidence in positive change and the commitment to foster an environment of mutual respect with respectful dialogue.
In his opening remarks, Nelson said that since coming together with school-improvement plans, all schools in the ORR District are now on a one-year plan and that strategic planning is in a good place as the schools take on a new-year perspective. The four districts have received grants from the Department of Education that he says will reinforce ORR’s acceleration road map from February to April.
Dr. Shari Fedorowicz, ORR’s assistant superintendent of Teaching & Learning, said that included in that funding is the ability to enact the “SOA” (Student Opportunity Act), which mandates that schools create plans to bridge achievement gaps with a review process required. ORR’s SOA will include “actionable strategies” to address low academic performance related but not limited to English Language Learning.
ORR’s SOA plan is due on April 1 and will need committee approval. Nelson said the approval process goes through the district. He assured the committee that its aspirations will find achievement despite the limitations of the budget.
Nelson also discussed the weekly newsletter and ORR’s Facebook page, which has 400 likes. He says the page, part of the ORR Connect theme, has helped the district communicate with the parents of Kindergarten children.
The JSC voted to enter an executive session for purposes of exceptions #3 (strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation) and #7 (compliance with the law or federal grant-in-aid requirements) and planned to return to open session only to adjourn.
The next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, at 6:30 pm at the ORR Junior High School media room and via Zoom.
ORR Joint School Committee/Superintendents Union #55
By Mick Colageo