Last night's SC meeting (starting at 6 pm regarding School Improvement Plans)
https://vimeo.com/176400176 34:00
(Glad to be able to watch this bilge online because it would be intolerable sitting in that chamber with its hideously dirty pink carpet and bad air!)
Cyndy Taymore: "I think where the academics comes into play, the high school has the most statistics, and where we hold them accountable is in this chamber."
Oh really. Actually there is no accountability, just a lot of self-congratulatory nonsense and hundreds of pages of whitewash garbage.
Here's what Farrell's stellar leadership came up with for the MHS School Improvement Plan reporting of data (how does this bode for her reporting of financial data as the new business manager???):
http://melrosecityma.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=2643&Inline=True
How about Page 126, where some of the worst data about the district was "reported" last night, about MHS students SAT scores, some of the worst our city has ever seen, including those below the state average.
Or how about the AP "Data" that only cleverly reports HOW MANY were enrolled test-takers, not any of the actual results?! So by implication, parents are supposed to feel comforted that more students were coerced into taking these classes, meanwhile bypassing some of the consistently awful results that so many of these classes still produce with their lack of qualified teaching staff and with too many ill-prepared students being "encouraged" to "challenge themselves" by taking these inappropriate courses.
There was an interesting segment where the ever-bloviating JD asked about the fact that the MHS Plan included nothing about academics, to which the super droned on about how she really has no control over this. Funny how she can so easily abdicate when it's expedient but micromanage (along with MD and JD, of course) when anyone can go to the bathroom the rest of the time.
This whole "presentation" was ridiculous, as was the absolute total glossing over of the Superintendent Evaluation later in the meeting.
https://vimeo.com/176400176 34:00
2:22 ZERO discussion or rankings, just Driscoll's "as noted in the packet...everyone was invited to pass in their completed rubric...pass in to Mrs. Hogan...at the Aug. 23 meeting I will have aggregated everyone's comments and ratings into an executive summary...." (with careful screening/editing out of anything deemed negative) Just great. What a process. Talk about transparency! They should have brought in a brass band from Cyndy's pet band director and given Taymore another phony "award" for her "exemplary" (Dolan) "performance"!
Lots of frooforah about Ed's proud new Field Trip policy and how they are going to make great efforts to coordinate with METCO director before adding Margaret's multitude of silly amendments to see about "equity" (favorite meaningless buzzword for these phonies) and making sure METCO students can avail themselves of field trips. Bunk! They don't care, never have, and this is all for show. Humorous bloviating about the "Next Steps" (mandated by OCR findings) program, too , Jaime meanwhile nodding frantically at every sagacious utterance by anyone in the room so we'd all know how much of a team player she is. So embarrassing and gross. But apparently this is the best that Melrose has to offer. What a sad and pathetic thing, punctuated at every juncture with "thanks for this excellent/impressive work...."
wow, lots of detail here
thanks for listening, notating, explaining
very helpful
lots of disturbing material embedded in all of this, stuff that I should have been paying attention to but didn't realize
thanks again
The schools are failing, mismanaged and a statewide embarrassment. I feel sorry for the kids and teachers. I do not support one more cent to be spent on the schools until they change this dysfunctional system.
The high school submitted one of the worst school improvement plans I have ever seen....it wasn't even in compliance with the state law, because it included NOTHING about academics. Two out of four goals were just about "communication", and everything listed under their "action plan" was essentially low hanging fruit.... create a focus group, do a survey, ask a few staff members to read a book in the hopes that they will somehow share the strategies in the book with other teachers.
The data included in the plan must have been something they found laying around the office, because it was old data....they were apparently too lazy to take the two minutes to go online and find the current SAT and AP scores. They actually submitted SAT scores from 2010-2013! The AP scores submitted were from 2014, they couldn't be bothered to include the 2015 data which is easily available on the doe website.
What a disgrace. The members of the high school site counsel should be thoroughly embarrassed by this. This farce of a document should have been rejected by the superintendent . Jessica Dugan was the only one to at least ask if it met state law, the superintendent danced around the question and decided she was "comfortable" with it. The superintendent had the right to reject it and send it back to be redone, and she didn't care enough about the school to do it. The school committee just accepted it.
I would encourage parents and community members to go online and read the agenda packet and the enclosed school improvement plans, including the high school. Look at the obvious lack of thought and effort expended on behalf of our flagship school. City leaders, administrators, and school committee members should be ashamed of this.