Olson reports that schools are ready
Published on September 3rd, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - The School Committee spent its last meeting of summer vacation dotting i's and crossing t's in time for this week's school opening.
Teachers reported to school on Tuesday while students vacation until Thursday, when they'll trade beach bags for back packs and begin their first day of the new school year. Stoneham School Superintendent Dr. Les Olson advised the School Committee last Thursday of the work that has progressed behind the scenes this summer, including securing and acclimating new teachers to the system.
"We had an outstanding orientation day for new staff."
According to Olson, the only position not filled as of August 28 was a qualified Speech and Language teacher for the Central School. If a fitting candidate has not surfaced by opening day, this need will likely be addressed through an outside contracted service. Though typically more expensive, contracted services are used by school systems, particularly for special education, to provide students with quality service when job postings have been unsuccessful.
In another area, the opposite scenario has played out. Olson requested and received School Committee approval to transfer $30,000 from the special education contracted services budget to the support staff/therapist salary budget when a qualified part time therapist was recently hired to serve Stoneham students. This move is expected to save the system about $20,000 over what it would have spent had the service been contracted out for the year.
Though official enrollment numbers are not presented until October 1, Olson did point out some areas where enrollments may be higher than desired, including South School 4th and 5th grades, and Robin Hood 1st grade. The October enrollment figures will also suggest reasons behind any increases or decreases, but Olson stated that it looks like less movement out of the district, paired with students coming from private schools is the biggest reason.
The School Committee approved the hiring of a paraprofessional for the all day Kindergarten program at Robin Hood School, which will yield the same level of service as that provided by the full day Kindergartens already in place at South and Colonial Park Schools. Olson anticipates this position likely to be filled by an internal transfer.
"I'm almost ready to say the all day Kindergarten program is full," Olson said regarding the numbers of sign ups thus far, which expects 22 Kindergarteners at South School, 22 at Colonial Park, and 21 at Robin Hood.
The School Committee also approved action taken by the superintendent last month when he submitted a 5-year capital improvement plan to the town's new capital plan advisory committee. This committee is responsible for overseeing capital plans for the entire town. Included on the plan submitted by Olson for fiscal years 2009 through 2013 is funding for capital projects ranging from $6,000 for repair of the Central School driveway to "a 7 to 8 figure renovation/repair for the Middle School," which Olson hopes to bring to the town for consideration in the next couple of years. Looking out even further Olson said that once the Middle School is addressed, he would like to see Stoneham High School be considered for upgrading.
"The high school is a great building as is the Middle School. They are all structurally sound," said Olson. However most of the systems in place are original to the buildings, and updating and replacement needs to be considered.
If and when such projects come to fruition, the School Committee will seek federal and state grant funding available for "green" or energy efficient buildings.
In other news, with the imminent retirement of Stoneham's Director of Technology Services Bob Hogan, the School Committee moved to fill just one of the many responsibilities Hogan has undertaken in his long tenure in the Stoneham system. Superintendent Olson will now serve as interim school department representative to the Stoneham TV Board of Directors, until a more permanent representative to the board is designated.
The issue of student handbooks arose and the School Committee would like to see all handbooks include a page for parent and student signatures attesting that they have read and understood the handbook.
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