Clarksburg Endorses Charter School Cap, Education Funding
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The School Committee on Thursday endorsed resolutions against lifting the cap on charter schools and calling for better school funding.
The resolutions from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees are being presented around the state; the funding resolution was backed on Tuesday by the North Adams School Committee, although that board delayed a decision on the charter school petition.
Superintendent Jonathan Lev said he believed that alternative education can "definitely do some good," but had issues with the lax regulations of the state's charter schools.
"The things that I personally have problems with is charter schools ... do not have to have certified teachers ... their special education students do not have to be taught by a certified special education teacher," he said.
Charter schools also don't have to follow initiatives and mandates set by the state, nor do so-called Commonwealth Charter Schools have elected school committees.
"It just seems it's not fair for the students and the taxpayers to be supporting a school that's maybe not overseen as well as it should be," said Lev, adding that local taxpayers should have some oversight of the schools.
The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and MASC are willing to support charter schools if some changes are made, specifically the funding aspect that they say is hurting regular public schools.
The state Senate on Thursday passed a bill that maintains the cap on all but schools serving at-risk populations and increases spending on the lowest-performing charter schools by 5 percent over the next decade to allow for more classroom seats. It also would enact some procurement and reporting requirements and, in fiscal 2019, begin efforts to align funding goals along the lines of the Foundation Budget Review Commission.
The bill — and resolutions — are in response to a ballot measure that would create 12 charters annually.
The resolution on funding calls for implementation of the recommendations by the Foundation Budget Review Commission, which found that the school spending formula enacted in 1993 is not reflective of contemporary costs.
"Since then there's been a lot of changes and costs that have gone up that Chapter 70 education money, the way it's been determined, hasn't gone up with it," said Lev.
School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Levanos and member John Solari voted to endorse both petitions; Lev said he had spoken to committee member Patricia Prenguber, who was absent, and that she was supportive of the resolutions.
The school's Project 351 ambassador and Student Council member Julia Jammalo reported on some of the activities she's been involved with.
Julia, who started a clothing drive as her Project 351 community service, said the collection resulted 14 bags of clothings and shoes, all from the school. There were no drop offs at Town Hall.
"We went through the clothing and made sure it was up to the Cradles to Crayon standards," she said. The result was six bags of clothes and two of shoes for the program that will be delivered to BJ's Wholesale Club in Pittsfield; six more bags will be donated to the secondary charity, Goodwill.
Julia was also one for the organizers of the Spirit Week food drive, which collected cans for the Friendship Center Food Pantry in North Adams.
"We had a very good turnout," she said."I think we had over 700 cans."
Julia also attended the Strive leadership program hosted by the Berkshire County district attorney's office at the Crowne Plaza in Pittsfield on Thursday. She reported that the attending students heard from speakers on domestic violence, social media safety, peer mentoring, and how not to be judgmental.
Her favorite part was a lesson on guidelines for "living a fearless and positive life."
She and the council are also looking at ways of getting students excited about Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing. One idea was to put together some "brain bags" with items to help memory and stamina, like mints and chocolate.
In other business:
• Lev gave a potential outline for school-choice slots. The current numbers are four in kindergarten; one in 1st Grade; two each in Grades 2, 3 and 6; five in Grade 7 and one in Grade 8. The number of children in a grade is normally capped at 17.
Nine children are expected to begin kindergarten in the fall but the administration does not want to fill up the class in case more show up.
"We leave it at four and keep a waiting list and if we only have 13 kids in August we can open up a couple more slots, but we don't want to go higher than that," Lev said.
The numbers will be provided to teachers for input and the School Committee will vote next month.
• Cafeteria manager Susan Berger is retiring after 27 years at Clarksburg, effective June 30. While she will help out part time as needed, Lev said the school will be sorry to lose her.
"She's done a tremendous job ... she's been a help to all of our schools," he said. "She has a great system and it's something we never have to worry about."
He said the position will be posted soon.
• Principal Tara Barnes reported on several emergency drills the school has done, saying they worked very well. She said State Trooper Andrew Canata has been very helpful with the process.
The reunification drill on Thursday included a process on how parents and guardians would be reunited with the children in case of emergency. Parents would have to show identification and the person and time would be recorded; children would be kept in a separate area and escorted to parents as they arrive.
"It was a great dry run to see how things would go," Barnes said.
Tags: chapter 70, charter school, Clarksburg School, project 351, resolution, school choice,
