September 2007
BOARD BRIEFS

A moment of silence was observed in memory of the community members
who died on September 11, 2001.

§         Welcome. Amy Levere, president of the Board, welcomed the community to the first Board meeting of the year.

§         Report from Dr. Fried on the opening of school. The opening went smoothly, thanks to the hard work of our custodial, secretarial and teaching staff. Mamaroneck Avenue School saw some water during the summer and we hope to work with the community on a long-term solution to this problem.  Special thanks to George McNally, Steve Bruegge, Dan Genova and Debbie Barber for the work done at the high school. Peter Scordo, interim Assistant Superintendent for Personnel reported that the schools are fully staffed thanks to many administrators and staff who worked all summer conducting interviews.

§         Tenure award. The board congratulated Henry Smith, a teaching assistant at Murray Avenue School, who was awarded tenure earlier this month.

§         Consent Agenda. The board adopted a new procedure for approving routine resolutions as a group rather than individually, which should save time and be more efficient.

§         Change in After School Sports Clubs. Dr. Fried explained the need for the district to find an outside group to facilitate the after school sports clubs in the elementary schools. SCOPE, an outside group that operates on Long Island, has been hired by the district to administer the program in all four elementary schools with the hope that teachers in the district will work with them in this program.

§         Board Committees and Liaisons. The board discussed the role of their various subcommittees (Budget Development, Audit Advisory, Communications, Law & Policy) and how they can best communicate with each other and the full Board. It was suggested that each committee submit their goals to the full Board. The Board also has a task force focused on Athletic Fields. Board members serve as liaisons to various school groups and community organizations including planning councils, athletic advisory committee, wellness committee, high school safety & security, CFAC, Teachers Institute, PTAs, Human Rights Commission, and The Schools Foundation. A new community organization has been formed called M.O.R.E. (Mamaroneck Organization for Revenue Enhancement), a non-partisan citizens committee that will look for additional revenues to support the school and relieve the tax burden on local homeowners. The committee intends to focus on two issues: the basis for our tax aid from the state as well as acquisition of some direct grants from the legislature. Interested volunteers should contact Emily Saltzman at esaltzman@hotmail.com. In addition a community outreach committee is being considered.

§         Report of Study Session of September 4: Rick Marsico reported on the Board’s tour of the renovations completed this summer at Mamaroneck High School. The work represents the final phase of work funded by the $49.7 million bond approved by the community in 2001. The staff did an incredible job completing so much work in a relatively short period of time. The work includes: (1) Ten new classrooms were created by the reconfiguration of other spaces with many other classrooms getting new floors, new lighting and ceilings (2) the APPLE program, recently expanded to include about 75 students, has a new home in the old Post Road cafeteria. The space was reconfigured to include three classrooms, a large group instruction space, a computer room, a conference room and its first ever science lab. The historic WPA murals have been preserved and the terrazzo floors polished. (3) The first floor of Post is now host to brand new band and chorus rooms and includes large instrument storage space and a percussion room. (4) The Palmer building is home to a new humanities center for the English, Social Studies and foreign language departments. (5) The offices of the district administrators were moved into one end of the high school building to allow for the music corridor. Finally, the District filed its five year capital plan, as required, with the State Education Department and will share their recommendations for future work with the board at the November meeting.

§         Student Honors. These Hommocks students are recognized for their participation and success in the rigorous academic summer M-PALS program at Manhattanville College: Augusto Barrios, Brigitte Vargas, Katherine Flores, Laytsia Allen, Michele Zimmerman, Sofia Naqui and Teena Parameswaran.

§         Staff Honors. Congratulations to MHS Band teacher, Tim Hooker for being appointed WCSMA Senior High Jazz Festival Coordinator for the next three years. Hommocks teacher Brian Duignan was featured in the August issue of INTOWN Westchester magazine as one of the “16 Top Educators who bring out our children’s best”.

§         Sharing Curriculum Initiatives: Annie Ward, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, along with Ellen Kenny, retired literacy coach, and Joan Staudinger, Murray 4^th grade teacher, shared the work of the Literary Design Team.  Last January, a group of 18 elementary teachers from across all elementary grades and schools, including both new and experienced teachers, worked collaboratively throughout the year to develop new curriculum for teaching poetry in grades K-5. The process for accomplishing this work was able to tap the tremendous talent and expertise in our own faculty, give voice to teachers’ own passions for literature and allow teachers to develop leadership skills at the same time that it produced a unified curriculum in writing. The process benefits every child in the district and was well received by teachers. Andrew Hess, technology integration coach, shared clips from a video called “Celebrating Poetry” in which students describe their understandings of poetry and their processes as poets. While delightful on its own, the video is a useful staff development tool and was used at last June’s Superintendent Conference Day.  
The work in curriculum continues. Over the summer, a group of teachers created a district wide writing conventions map which outlines what, when and how writing skills are being taught across the grades. Encouraged by the success of the Poetry work, a new Literary Design Team is being assembled to begin the work of creating curriculum units in the nonfiction area.

§         Future Meeting Dates:
Tuesday, October 9 at 7:30pm-Study Session: Presentation of Goals/MHS Library Classroom
Tuesday, October 16 at 7:30pm-Regular Meeting/MHS Tiered Classroom  

FAMILY DAY is September 24—A day to eat a meal with your children.

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