Ms. Dobrow thanked her colleagues and thanked Mr. Picker for his service as Chair. Ms. Dobrow appointed Ms. Hessler as Vice-Chair. Ms. Dobrow made subcommittee assignments. Mr. Picker will continue on the Finance Subcommittee and Ms. Manos will join him. Ms. Hessler will be the representative to the town-wide Capital Planning Committee. Mr. Picker will represent the School Committee on the pre-BRAC planning committee. Ms. Manos will be the School Committee representative to the Communications subcommittee. Ms. Rogers will serve on the Policy Committee. Ms. Dobrow will be the School Committee representative on the Facilities Committee.
Ms. Dobrow mentioned that she, Ms. Hessler and Mr. Picker will each serve as mentor to the new and relatively new School Committee members.
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Ms. Dobrow said that she saw the production of �Fiddler on the Roof �and that it was a huge success. She also said that a School Committee coffee had taken place earlier in the week; it was attended by Ms. Dobrow and Ms. Manos and four members of the public.
Massachusetts licenses are granted by the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. Once licensed, teachers must renew their licenses every five years. For license renewal teachers must earn either 120 or 150 professional development points (PDPs) (the exact number depends on date of original license).
For compliance with NCLB, core subject teachers must meet the standard of �highly qualified� by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. To be �highly qualified,� teachers must (1) possess a Bachelor�s Degree, (2) possess a Massachusetts teaching license, and (3) demonstrate subject matter competency. To demonstrate competency, teachers must either pass a test, complete a Massachusetts HOUSSE individual Professional Development Plan, or for middle and secondary teachers (but not elementary) complete certain academic coursework. Under HOUSSE, teachers must obtain 120 PDPs and 80% of the PDPs must be related to the core academic subjects the teacher teaches. Teachers will be considered highly qualified when they have obtained 50% of the content area PDPs so long as they complete 120 PDPs by the end of the 2006 school year.
Mr. Brandmeyer presented charts regarding Lincoln teachers� licensure, �highly qualified� status, degrees, and years in service. 132 of the 136 teachers are licensed. Of the unlicensed teachers, some hold licenses in other states and are working to complete Massachusetts licensure. For others, there is a lag between completion of licensing requirements and the actual issuance of the license. 106 FTE are �highly qualified� in core subjects, with 7.8 FTE not yet core subjects highly qualified. The District seeks to be 100% licensed and 100% highly qualified and doesn�t anticipate any difficulty in reaching this goal..
Ms. Dobrow moved that the Committee accept the grants. Ms. Hessler seconded the motion. All members voted in favor, with Ms. Borgert concurring.
Mr. Naso described three activities that the District sponsored this year: math differentiation, writing in all areas of the curriculum, and looking at student work. Additional training on looking at student work is being planned for teachers who took part in the first offering.
The teachers completed a survey on Institute Day about their interests for professional development. Plans for next year are being built around these interests and also around alignment with district initiatives. Mr. Naso said that at the Middle School level it will be hard for the district to present core level subject courses that will meet teachers� needs, due to the relatively small number of teachers in each core teaching area. He is considering options such as partnering with Sudbury and sending teachers to courses offered by Primary Source. Regarding differentiation of teaching, Mr. Naso wants to have more training that is specifically focused on practical issues in the classrooms.
The Principals are responsible for working with individual faculty members regarding their individual professional development plans. They review the plans to see that they comply with the regulations and that the teachers are doing what they need to do to improve their practice. Following up on professional development will become part of the regular teacher evaluation process.
Ms. Dobrow asked the members to email her regarding their availability for a School Committee workshop will be held on a weekday morning in May to initiate and mentor the new and relatively new members.
The Committee determined that the April 27 meeting should be held on the Lincoln campus and that the May 12 meeting will be held on the Hanscom campus and the dates for consideration of various items will be changed. Mr. Picker moved that the long-term agenda be revised to reflect these calendar and meeting content changes. Ms. Dobrow seconded the motion. All voted in favor, with Ms. Borgert concurring.
Respectfully submitted,
Sara Rolley, School Committee Recording Secretary