[Rich Girard]

Natalie Brankin: Ward 6

Compliments teachers on hard work. Everything I do as a teacher should stand up to questioning. If you have something that is truthful, it should stand up to questioning. Parents should have the opportunity to question the teachers who worked on the standards. Public hearing.

Geometry standards are much improved, however, the use of the word “explain” is troubling. “Explain” has no correlation to understanding math.

I would think, as with anything, you’d want it properly questioned by the public and parents to be more involved in the process.

that was actually nicely done.

[Rich Girard]

Scott Marion, National Center for the something in Dover, been in business since 1998, national recognized experts in standards, curriculum and assessment. Works in 35 states.

Instrumental in the development of NH Standards, then GLE’s (hm, hasn’t everybody said they suck?)

Wow…Drs Hess and Thompson

The offered to review pro-bono to give back to the state. Unlike Stotsky and Milgram, their doctors have actually developed and implemented standards in multiple states and communities…wow, the professional arrogance of that statement was sharp.

Admitting they used Common Core and Smarter Balanced.

Hm, he’s obviously defending his handiwork.

He’s still talking…here’s their Web site. http://www.nciea.org

[Rich Girard]

Process was critical to helping your teachers understand the Common Core Standards better than anybody in the state.

Gatsas allowing him to continue, saying he’d hoped the district would have made him do a presentation following theirs, will open it up to questions.

[Rich Girard]

He was sitting next to Bill Duncan, kibitzing all the time.

[Rich Girard]

Beaudry to egg head: Wasn’t their money attached to their moving away from MCAS and going to the Common Core test.

Egg head: PARCC is a much more rigorous test than MCAS…he’s involved with PARCC, on their committees, etc…he has a bias toward the Core and its assessments.

Gatsas: What does Senate Bill 422, what does that mean for our assessment tests going forward.

Terrio: You just mentioned PARCC, what’s it designed to measure? Common Core, then he starts to babble and backtrack, tried to pull it back, could be anything.

Gatsas: you’re a test designer. Do you have a test that’s not Smarter Balanced or PARCC that could be available for the Manchester Academic Standards? Nope. Urges the mayor to look outside Manchester for assessments because kids are competing globally…

[Rich Girard]

Staub: standards set baseline for continuous improvement process…will the standards themselves be subject to a continuous improvement process? How often should we go back and look at them again.

Egg head: do it on a schedule you keep to, at least initially and not to frequently. Might find stuff in 1st year to tweak, but the 5 or 6 year cycle so you collect the changes and have a thoughtful review. consistency.

[Rich Girard]

Bill Duncan is signaling his approval of egg head’s comments.

[Rich Girard]

Superintendent’s report.

[Rich Girard]

Saying that a vote is not being asked for on T-MAS, will go to committee, have public hearing.

Gatsas: Would hope that the forums would be with the committee, and the standards writers be there. One on East Side, one on West Side.

Beaudry: what is thought process on implementation?

Livingston: Wants them in September.

Beaudry: Need to give teachers enough notice. How do we do that over the summer?

Liv: We have standards, but need curriculum and assessment. Once approved, teachers can study. Professional Development in sept.

Gatsas: If they’re not ready, then wait. I don’t want any hiccup on this. The eyes of the state and nation will be on us. We shouldn’t go forward unless they’re ready for prime time. I will have my ways of knowing if they are or aren’t.

Van Houten: Will you go forward without written curriculum?

Ryan: yes. Whoa!

[Rich Girard]

Dunphy to teachers: Do you feel it can be ready to go in Sept? Gatsas says they can’t answer now, but will have opportunity at public hearings.

Beaudry: Wouldn’t it be better for us to align curriculum to standards before standards are in the school? Caused problems this year where we threw standards without alignment and different teachers were doing different things even in the same school.

[Rich Girard]

Liv: If I were a teacher, I’d want to know what the standards are so I can start gathering materials. It is going to take another year to develop a district wide curriculum, but they can get started.

Beaudry: But do we want teachers using different methods because there’s noting in place?

Ryan: Teachers will be away in July for vacation, not much input will be coming from them. Went through a thoughtful process to develop standards, common template through all grade levels. Will be a little bit messy, but not like this year.

[Rich Girard]

Administration to present to State Board of Ed regarding waivers for MST for building.

Report concluded.

[Rich Girard]

Coordination Committee recommends extending Livingston’s contract for 1 year with a 1% increase.

Beaudry: I thought the contract called for a board evaluation by January and determine the increase then. We just extended her contract in December, so why are we accelerating the contract deadline now? Are we extending it for another year?

Gatsas: It’s for July 1 of this year to June 30 for next year.

Beaudry: But we already did that in December, it was only the pay increase we held off on.

Avard: so, this is only for th 1%, 2, 3, 9, 10 opposed.

[Rich Girard]

Terrio raises OCR report,

Gatsas: The person dealing with this at the state was the same person who’s said that 80% of the refugee population is employed. The refugees will tell you that isn’t the case. I find this interesting that the same person is involved in this.

[Rich Girard]

New business: Art Beaudry 138,784 visits to the school nurse through the end of May, 68,760 are acute/chronic cases. Who knew…

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