July 27, 2006

Woman picked to lead schools

Leominster looks to Peabody    

LEOMINSTER— Nadine B. Binkley, the Peabody superintendent, was chosen last night to take over leadership of the Leominster Public Schools.

The Leominster School Committee overwhelmingly supported Ms. Binkley in an initial straw vote, with two other finalists who currently work in the district only garnering one vote apiece.

When the committee members then held a voice vote, Ms. Binkley received unanimous support from the nine-member committee. She was appointed subject to the successful negotiation of a contract that is mutually agreeable to Ms. Binkley and the School Committee.

Ms. Binkley will replace retiring Superintendent Marilyn H. Fratturelli

June 6, 2006

Sentinel and Enterprise new "Twin city" blog concerning small school  allows freedom to tell it the way it is, without fear of reprisal.

please read comments by concerned parents

June 4, 2006

Small schools getting mixed grades

By Marisa Donelan Sentinel and enterprise

LEOMINSTER -- Leominster High School students are giving the small schools program mixed grades as they near the end of its first full year at the high school.

Junior Dana Hurwitz said she hasn't noticed much of a change since the school-wide program began this year.

"At first I was kind of hesitant about it, but there's really not too much difference, except that you don't see people from other schools," she said Wednesday.

The conversion may have made an impact on the overall school, but Hurwitz, 17, said she doesn't feel as if she's benefited or suffered from it.

"I think for it to succeed, they really need to explain where they see the advantages," she said. "I really have no idea what they could do to improve it, I guess it depends on where they want it to go, but they could get more people on board by explaining how it's working, if it is."

But freshman Isaac Marble, 16, believes the new approach at the high school is working.

"When I first heard about it, I didn't know anything about it. It's not really how I pictured high school," Marble said. "Then they explained it, and we met with our advisory groups, and it's gone pretty well. I think it's working."

The small schools initiative divided 1,832 LHS students into four separate schools with fewer than 400 students -- plus the Center for Technical Education -- beginning in September.

Some students said they had hoped the small schools model would mean smaller class sizes, but it turned out not to be true.

"I still have classes with 25 kids or more, so I don't see the difference there," Hurwitz said.

Sophomore Kayleigh Force, 16, said some of her classes are overcrowded.

"There are 32 kids in my chemistry class," she said Tuesday. "The teacher is finally getting to know all of us, but it's taken the entire year."

The average class size at LHS is 26 students, a number that was never anticipated to change with the small schools conversion, Principal William Hart said.

Instead, faculty members' student load has decreased, because they now teach six 72-minute classes per day, rather than seven shorter periods.

"The most important thing is that within each small school, we have 25 teachers with a smaller number of students they see every day," Hart said. "We went from having 125 students to every faculty member to 90 students per faculty member. When you drop the seventh section, you reallocate that staffing."

Hart added, "We can't have much smaller class sizes without additional faculty and additional space, things I don't see happening anytime soon."

The hard numbers

Hard data, such as MCAS scores, dropout rates and disciplinary reports will show the impact of the small schools program, but only if they're viewed over a number of years, many said this week.

But for the most part they don't exist yet, although Hart has said absenses and disciplinary problems have decreased under the small schools model.

Overall, Hart couldn't be more pleased.

"For the first year of implementation in such a comprehensive project, I feel that the faculty has done just a tremendous job," Hart said Thursday.

Students in School 4 had an extra year to adapt, because they were part of a pilot program for small schools during the 2004-2005 school year - but the major change this year was unsettling, Force said.

"Everyone had to deal with this big change," she said. "It started with the pilot program, then Dr. Hart kind of snowballed us with the whole school changeover. I don't know anyone who was completely happy about it at first."

Force is not convinced the small schools program was a good idea.

"It's rare that you'll find people who enjoy being in small schools," she said.

Junior Brittany Lanza, 17, is worried the school's academic standards are slipping under the new setup.

"The teachers give higher grades. There's a lot less work than before, there are probably more group projects, but less busy work," she said Tuesday. "The standards are definitely lower. They want to say people are doing better, they want to make it look good."

Superintendent Marilyn Fratturelli argues academic standards have remained consistent, or even increased under small schools.

"I think if you talk to the teachers at the school, it would not be the case that any standards are lowered," Fratturelli said. "... I imagine under this program, classes have taken a different structure, but they are still focusing on high academic standards for all."

Less choices?

Lanza is also concerned the removal of the seventh class period limits students' choices when it comes to selecting classes.

"You don't have as many options," she said. "I wanted to switch out of a class because I'd heard that the teacher wasn't good, but I couldn't, because she was the only person teaching it in my school. They just shoot you down."

School Committee Vice-Chair Donna DiNinno said limited class offerings may be a challenge LHS officials need toexamine.

"One thing I've heard from parents and students is that they don't see all classes being offered to all students," she said Thursday. "I think it could be a legitimate concern."

But Hart said when compared with college semesters, in which students can only take about three to five classes, LHS still allows students plenty of choices.

"Students do have to be more selective in a six-period day, but I would argue that level of choice is more effective," he said.

Ward 3 School Committee member Christopher Orareo said the program must be studied over several years.

"I think in my eyes, the jury is still out," he said. "My personal view is that this obviously is the first full year of implementation, and you have to look at trends over a period of time to see whether they are consistent."

Orareo wants to see data on whether the conversion has improved graduation rates and test scores, he said. 

"I would like to see whether it's affected dropout rates and raised MCAS scores," he said. "(Hart) presented us with data on this year's attendance records, but we can't be sure without looking at it over time."

Junior Bryan Waldron, 17, said he has noticed a drop in behavioral problems and classroom distractions, but said he was not certain if the small schools program is the reason why.

"I have noticed that it seems like disciplinary problems have gone down, I don't know what the reason for that is," Waldron said Tuesday. "A lot of us didn't really see it as making a big difference."

Sophomore Lenny Masciangioli doubted the small schools conversion will influence student behavior.

"Attitudes are going to be the same," Masciangioli, 16, said Wednesday. "It's still all the same kids as before, so it's probably been consistent."

Romina Olivera, an LHS junior, said she thinks students are behaving better because they have more interaction with faculty members through regular advisory meetings in small schools.

"I thought this year has gone a lot better," Olivera, 17, said. "It's really a lot better. It was worse before. You could get lost. Teachers focus more on your learning, they work with us better."

The conversion is still a work in progress, and its success will depend on analyses of educational improvement and financial cost to the school district, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said.

"I understand there are mixed reviews," he said. "Some people like it, some don't. I say so far, so good."

The small schools initiative is funded by about $1.7 million in grants from the Federal Department of Education and the Coalition of Essential Schools, according to Hart and a Commonwealth Corporation report.

The DOE grant expires at the end of this school year, and the school will submit another grant application this summer, Hart said.

The other funding will expire in two years.

"The grant funding covered faculty training and comprehensive planning and development," Hart said. "At the end of the grants, there will be a cost to operate small schools, but it will be minimal."

Grants funded almost $300,000 in salaries for four new headmasters in each small school.

"You have to remember, yes, we've added four headmasters, but we've also eliminated an assistant principal position with a salary that was greater than a headmaster salary," Hart said. "In the next year, there will be additional restructuring of administrative staff."

Hart would not elaborate on the status of specific positions within the school, but said administrative structure is set to change.

"Ultimately, we're not going to have as many administrators at the end of the next year, and that's been part of the planning process since the beginning," he said.

Mazzarella said the cost of operating small schools at LHS is something school committee members will continue to monitor closely.

"We have to ask ourselves, 'Is the cost worth the success of the program?'" he said. "It's something we're going to have to keep watching."

Editor's note: Please visit our new Sentinel & Enterprise blog, Twin-Citiesblog.com, to tell us how you think small schools is working.

Yearbook debacle needs accountability

Editorial / OpinionTo the editor: Sentinel and Enterprise

I live in Leominster, but my kids are now well beyond high school age; the article just rang in my ears, so I need to comment. Kindly note that all I know of this issue was as reported in the article.

What jumps out of the article, as reported, is the apparent lack of accountability for the mistakes. Even as the issue 'broke open' to the news and the public, the principal had not bothered to find out who the advisor was, or if in fact it was a new advisor ("I can't say, I understand there was a new advisor this year"). Nonetheless, the fact that the advisor may be "new" is irrelevant; that faculty member was responsible for a major project and it went bad and the administration was struggling to find who was responsible. (Even suggesting some comments about students submitting their bios after the deadline, implying of course that it is the students' fault.)

In the real world, the faculty advisor (the project leader) would be totally accountable for and take the hit for a bad project. No excuses allowed. You get the glory or you take the hit. At LHS, I guess they spread the blame around to anyone even remotely attached to the project so no-one gets tagged too hard. Nice setup. no accountabilty for making big mistakes.

Here's an idea: Take all my 2005 real estate taxes and help fund a complete new edition of the yearbook. Then have somebody with 'moxie' step up front, take the hit for the mistake and straight out personally apologize to the kids. That would be most courageous and respectable.

Dave Leo

Leominster 

May 31, 2006

Leominster High program too big to be small

DARRI WENNING, Leominster Telegram

I want to make a correction of sorts. I’ve noticed most of the articles written about Leominster High School describe it as having a population of 1,900 students, and that it has been split into five small schools.

Well, they are half right. I feel a more accurate description would be four small schools and the Center for Technical Education, which is made up of roughly 800 students. Clearly there is nothing small about CTE and that’s evident in the academic class sizes.

Additionally, I would like to see the CTE students be challenged academically by being able to choose honors-level courses. The way it stands now, as juniors and seniors they can only take one honors-level course, and they lose shop hours as a result.

If people could take a moment from patting themselves on the back and talk to the other half of the school population, maybe some changes could be made to include more of Leominster High School’s students in the benefits of the small schools program.

May 20, 2006

Survey finds more than a dozen area schools are in rough shape

By Erik Arvidson, Lowell Sun 

BOSTON -- A state survey has found that more than a dozen public school buildings in the North Central Massachusetts area are in rough shape, and will likely be a high priority for state funding over the next several years.

Five school buildings in Fitchburg and five in Leominster are rated as somewhere between "fair" and "poor" in a recent "needs analysis" study of all 1,817 K-12 school buildings in Massachusetts.

School buildings received a rating of between 1 and 4, with 1 being the best. A school building ranked 4 is considered to be in "poor condition and a possible candidate for major renovation or replacement. Schools receiving a 3 are judged to be in "fair to poor condition" and a candidate for "moderate to major renovation."

The report described the condition of school buildings as "generally good," adding that some 76 percent of school buildings got a rating of either 1 or 2.

But 13 school buildings in the area ranked either 3 or 4 according to the analysis, released April 28 and done by three consultants: DeJong, Magellan K-12 and Summit Consulting Services.

Leominster Superintendent of Schools Marilyn H. Fratturelli expressed concern that two of the schools in Leominster, the 130-year-old Bennett Elementary School and the 116-year-old Priest Street Kindergarten Center, got a 3 rating instead of a 4.

"If you have a building that's more than 100 years old, I certainly think there is some rationale for them to be replaced or renovated," Fratturelli said. "I was quite surprised that those two buildings did not rate the lowest."

She added that the roofing is "certainly a problem" at Leominster High School and Lincoln Elementary School, two other buildings that received a rating of 3.

Leominster:

Bennett EC (3)

Leominster center for tec ed (3)

Leominster High School (3)

Lincoln School (3)

Priest Street (3)

School officials submitted a budget request to the city for $320,000 for roofing repair, and Fratturelli added she was hopeful it would be looked at favorably.

"We have a meeting this fall to decide what our building priorities are," she added.

The consultants used eight criteria to find that schools were not up to par. Among them were that the current condition of the school is either structurally unsound or that it "seriously jeopardizes the health and safety of children"; that the school has "severe overcrowding"; and that the school is in danger of losing its accreditation.

The consultants' report was also critical of the state's former program of assisting local school projects. On average, the state paid for 72 percent of the cost of all local capital school construction projects in 2005.

The state saw a "school building boom" between 2000 and 2005, despite the fact that public school enrollment actually declined during that period.

Also, the consultants found that the average Massachusetts school was between 32 percent and 39 percent larger than the per-student square footage requirements of the Department of Education.

Gov. Mitt Romney in 2003 imposed a moratorium on the state's program of reimbursing school districts for school construction or renovation, freezing the waiting list at 428 schools.

The state had promised some $11 billion in construction or renovation money to school districts, a price tag that critics called unsustainable.

That moratorium is scheduled to be lifted next summer, at which time districts will submit notices of intent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority saying they are pursuing school improvement projects.

Erik Arvidson's e-mail address is earvidson@lowellsun.com.

Mary Jean and Teri Bisbee used public forum time to distribute pamphlets Jean made showing photographs of water-soaked ceilings and a rusted, moldy auditorium chair inside the Leominster High School.

The pamphlets begin by asking parents if their child has suffered from chronic illness, asthma, sinusitis, headaches, pneumonia and other symptoms this school year.

"It is just so disgusting," Jean said. "When I received these photos, I was floored. ... They need to stop denying now."