Today is April 29, 2024 and it’s been 11 years since a Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) meeting on an April 29. Here’s a recap of what happened at that meeting.
Common Core consulting fees approved
In a 13-1 vote, the BOSC approved $83,000 in Title I funding to be awarded to Public Consulting Group for the purpose of getting Manchester’s elementary and middle school teachers up to state common core curriculum alignment standards.
The dissenting votes came from Arthur Beaudry and Debra Langton.
Beaudry’s concerns followed those he raised on April 17 at the Curriculum and Instruction Committee. There, he was uncertain why the training could not be done by building level instructional leaders (BLILs) and other district leadership focused on curricular issues rather than bringing in an outside consultant.
On April 17, Manchester School District Assistant Superintendent Michael Tursi that the district currently did not have the resources to professionally develop such a large group of teachers. Additionally, Tursi indicated that Public Consulting Group had done similar work with school districts in Massachusetts and Florida, leaving to their recommendation over two other firms that came in with a lower bid during a request for proposals.
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas asked if the $83,000 could be given directly to the teachers, Tursi said it could only be spent on professional development, leading to Langton’s opposition. Like Beaudry, Langton felt the instruction could be done without the consultants, citing the need for other priorities such as hiring new teachers to lower the teacher/student ratio.
“My concern is the cost involved with this. We have an Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction and to me that is the position that should be overseeing this along with our BLILs. I think we have enough talent in-house to do that,” she said. “To spend the taxpayers’ money for something like this to me is not something that needs to be done at this time.”
Later, Beaudry said that he had been getting a lot of feedback regarding the common core standards, stating his concern with what he saw as de-emphasis on classic literature over things like technical manuals and governmental documents in new reading curricula.
Vice Chair Sarah Ambrogi said that there would be an upcoming public meeting on the subject of common core implementation at Northwest Elementary School as well as at a future Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting.
Gatsas noted that the schools were required to make these changes given the state standards and Committee Member John Avard stated that he heard from school principals that efforts to that point regarding the transition had been positive.
DECA fund discrepancy
Beaudry expressed concern over $3,000 donations from AMR given to high school DECA programs heading to an upcoming event. Both Manchester West, Memorial and Central each got $3,000 per school. However, West had four students going to the event while Central had 10 and Memorial had 30. Constituents told him that they felt this was unfair. Gatsas disagreed.
“My suggestion is next time they go out and raise the money,” said Gatsas.
The Mayor added that he had contacted leaders of the DECA program asking if they needed any fundraising help and had gotten no reply. Still, that answer was not satisfactory for Beaudry.
“I just hope you realize that they’re happy that they’re getting the money but it is truly an inequity when you look at the amount per student,” said Beaudry. “These students all have to go out and raise ‘x’ amount of dollars to go to the same conference, that’s all. Thank you.”
West principal hunt
Beaudry asked Manchester School District Superintendent Tom Brennan for an update on the search for a new principal at Manchester West High School, expressing concern that several weeks had gone by without a new principal and that the board was not made aware of why three recent applicants were not qualified or who they even were.
Beaudry also asked Brennan if attendance at events occurring at West after school hours were expected, with Brennan saying they would not be, leading to Beaudry wondering if a principal did attend a basketball game and a fight broke out if they would be expected to break it up given that he would technically not be there as part of their official duties.
Gatsas said that whoever the principal would likely be expected to break up the fight as part of their duties as a responsible citizen of the city. Beaudry agreed, although he hoped the principal would also see breaking up fights at those events as part of their responsibilities as a principal in addition to their responsibilities as a citizen.
Beaudry pressed Gatsas for clarification on the responsibilities of principals at these events and Gatsas attempted to move onto a question posed by Committeewoman Kathy Staub. Beaudry asked Staub to cede the floor until he could get an answer, which she did.
Brennan said that the individual would be expected to step in as part of their responsibilities and praised the school’s leadership during what had been a difficult period.
West Principal Mary Ellen McGorry had been suspended with pay since September and resigned a month later, effective retroactively to April 15. A month later, she was replaced by Chris Motika.
