The ORR School Committee voted unanimously to both continue the School Choice program and expand the number of available spots at their meeting on the evening of Wednesday, April 11. According to committee members, the program has been extremely well received and successful for its three years in existence.
“I don’t have a bad thing to say about it,” said Superintendent Doug White. “It helps bring in additional revenue and we’ve got the space to do it.”
The School Choice program gives students who live in neighboring communities, or students from the Tri-town who are currently attending private schools, the opportunity to attend Old Rochester Regional High School. However, each year there are a limited number of spots available.
For the 2011-2012 school year, there are 51 students enrolled at ORRHS under the School Choice program. Those students hail from towns such as Acushnet, Fairhaven, New Bedford, Westport, Dartmouth and Plymouth. The vote in favor of expanding the School Choice program would add 21 spots, making the total 72. White assured that the tuition for these new spots ($5,000 apiece) have already been configured in the 2013 budget and would not affect the total.
ORRHS Business Administrator Kathleen Isernio asked the board permission to use funds from revolving funds in order to cut down the budget balance for 2013. As it stands, the 2013 budget is $233.433.03, or 1.4 percent higher than the 2012 budget. Isernio said by shifting money from various revolving accounts in town, it could generate $209,987.74 to put towards the deficit. The committee approved unanimously.
The committee that is being established to help with the search of a new District Facilities Manager will call on custodial employees in both the junior and senior schools to help with the process. The search committee will meet the first Tuesday after April vacation. So far 16 resumes have been submitted for the job.
The Rochester Memorial School is also narrowing down candidates to replace retiring Principal Jay Ryan. White said the three finalists visited the school last week and a decision will be reached soon.
Isernio also introduced Ken Mann, a gentleman who is looking to implement wind power and sustainable energy in the Tri-Town. He recently started a program in Plymouth with four turbines. The turbines provide 10mw of power, which is enough to supply 3,000 households with electricity. He wants to bring this program to the region at a discounted price, and is also looking for a long-term contract and to potentially start the program in 2013. School Committee Chair Peter Bangs said a meeting could be scheduled to discuss the project further.
ORRHS Athletic Director Bill Tilden will welcome two new sports teams to the high school officially. After last month’s meeting, Tilden had the go-ahead to allow eighth graders from the junior high school to play on both the girls and boy JV Lacrosse teams. However, the committee never officially approved the establishment of the JV squads – an accidental oversight. The committee voted in favor of the teams, who have already been practicing, unanimously. Tilden said the program has generated an exceptional amount of interest among athletes and there has been a great turnout at practices.
The School Improvement Plans for both schools in 2013 were approved unanimously. Principal Mike Devoll said that the high school will focus on student achievement, communication, professional development, student services and school climate as its general areas for improvement on its action plan.
Creating more internships for students, increasing art opportunities around the school, ridding the school curriculum of “B” level courses, offering more Advanced Placement classes and utilizing PowerSchool (an online school notification program) to keep parents in the loop, are all examples of improvements the high school is looking to make over the next year.
Junior High School Principal Kevin Brogioli said the areas his school wants to improve on are academic engagement, global awareness, citizenship and technology. Brogioli said the implementation of a new computer lab, integration of literature of authors from different cultures, revision of the school’s mission statement and holding student roundtable discussions every two weeks would help bring these goals to reality.
Both principals talked about the benefits of the Galileo assessments that their students recently took. As results are coming in, both Brogioli and Devoll agreed that exams are great tools for teachers to use when deciding to intervene with a student who might have a problem subject area. Also, the multiple choice question exams allow teachers to generate questions to replace ones they do not see fit for their students. 2012 marks the inaugural year these exams were taken in the district.
The committee also approved the use of DonorsChoose.org for the district. The website allows teachers to create websites for various projects that would need funding that the budget may not be able to provide. The websites would then allow people to donate money electronically to that project specifically.
Lastly, the committee voted to approve the establishment of an Advisory Council and Public Employee Committee in order to redesign the health insurance policies for its employees.
The ORR School Committee will meet again on Wednesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm in the Superintendent’s Office.
By Katy Fitzpatrick