USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Middleton > Town annual report of Middleton, MA. 1963 > Part 7
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Debt Service and Debt Retirement in 1964 totals $314,775.00 or 26% of the Gross Budget. This represents an increase of $147,800.00 over 1963, or 88.5% and reflects the impact of the new building program. This gross capital debt expenditure will be offset by
ENROLLMENT GROWTH MASCONOMET REGIONAL JUNIOR - SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ACTUAL 1959-63 COMPARED WITH PROJECTED ENROLLMENT 1964 -69 OCTOBER 15, 1963
-2000-
ACTUAL-
1900
PROJECTED -+-
1800
1700
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1400
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1300
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IS
1000
900
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780
600
-
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1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966.
1967
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GRADES 7-12-
5-7
GRAD
GRADES
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MASCONOMET REGIONAL SCHOOL REPORT
$137,388.72 of construction aid grant reimbursement to be received from the State in 1964, thus reducing the capital costs to a net of $177,386.28.
General receipts anticipated in 1964 from all sources (see financial section of report) are estimated to be $167,711.28. It should be noted that included in these general receipts is an esti- mated amount of $35,000.00 for interest which the District expects to earn as a consequence of prudent handling of its construction funds. This is an item of income which will not be available in such a sizeable amount in ensuing years.
Applying these anticipated receipts towards the 1964 Gross Maintenance and Operating Budget of $899,793.00 gives an adjusted net Maintenance and Operating Budget for 1964 of $732,081.72. This added to the adjusted net budget for Capital Costs gives a total adjusted net budget in 1964 of $909,468.00, which is the assessment to be apportioned among the member towns.
On the basis of the above adjusted net total budget and using an estimated average enrollment of 1220 pupils for 1964, the total per pupil will be $745.47. Of this total, $600.07 is due to operation while $145.40 is on account of Debt and Debt Service.
The following Table gives the comparison of these costs per pupil for the 4 years 1961-1964:
Comparison of Per Pupil Costs
Per Pupil Cost
Budget
Average Enrollment
Operational
Debt' & Debt
Total
Year
Service
1964
1220
600.07
145.40
745.47
1963
1128
606.00
84.07
690.07
1962
1066
614.42
92.19
706.61
1961
938
581.02
108.45
689.47
Insurance Program
The committee has carried on an extensive study and review during the year of the District's insurance program. In March it met with a group of interested insurance agents who earlier in the year had requested such a meeting so that they could present their proposals for the District's insurance program to the committee.
This meeting proved to be most informative to the members of the committee, but inasmuch as the proposals presented were drawn to varying specifications, no specific action could be taken. The committee did vote however, to put the insurance out to bid
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realizing that only through such means could they be assured of securing the maximum coverage desired at the least possible cost to the District.
Specifications were drawn up by the Insurance Sub-Committee detailing the coverages wanted and put out for bid early in September. Bids were received from seven agents by November 15, 1963, the bid closing date. Following tabulation of the bids the committee met with the three lowest bidders to go over their re- spective proposals prior to making its decision. At its meeting of December 19, 1963, the committee awarded the contract for insur- ance to the lowest bidder, Boit, Dalton, & Church of Boston, who have been the District's insurance agent since 1959, for the total contract amount of $4393.00.
Special Curriculum Reports
Even though the committee has been obliged to spend a large portion of its meeting time on matters concerning the building ex- pansion program, it makes a deliberate effort to keep informed about the educational program and related activities of the school.
This is done through special bulletins and reports on a variety of matters pertaining to the overall operation and programming of the school prepared by the superintendent and the principal; attend- ance of members at many of the public performances put on by student groups and other organizations associated with the school; and special reports by departments on the curriculum offerings and activities of the department. During the past year four such presentations were made to the committee.
On February 6, 1963 Mr. Richard P. Merrill, chairman of the department of Foreign Languages and the members of his staff explained the work of the department and with several student groups demonstrated the methods and audio-visual materials being used in the teachings of foreign languages today.
On April 3, 1963 the committee toured the Franklin C. Roberts, Sr. Library and listened to a vivid description given by librarian, Mrs. Charlotte S. Cory and her assistant Mrs. Richard Ingraham, on the day-to-day operation of the school's library. The librarian also explained how the library staff works with students to help them develop proper library skills, and with teachers on curriculum planning and securing for them supplementary instructional materials for use in their particular subject areas.
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On October 14, 1963 Mr. Edward C. Bryant, Director of Guid- ance and the members of the Guidance department gave a most informative presentation of the guidance program at Masconomet, how it functions, and the variety of services rendered by counsel- lors to students, parents, and teachers. This was done by following a typical youngster from the time of the counsellor's first contact with him on pre-registration matters in late Spring of his sixth grade year, his entrance into grade 7 and the steps taken to orient him to his new school environment, and on through the succeeding years until his graduation six years later.
It was brought out that guidance at Masconomet seeks to assist boys and girls in the selection of their curricular and extra- curricular activities, and to help them during their six years at Masconomet to develop as fully as possible their social, physical, mental, and educational potentialities. A folder of various materials illustrative of the kind of activities carried on and studies made by the guidance staff were distributed to the committee for later study at their leisure.
On December 4, 1963 a special educational report on the School Health Program was given by Mrs. Helen Hoogerzeil, School Nurse. This report recounted the changes that have taken place over the years in school nursing, and outlined the program operating at Masconomet as well as the specific functions and duties performed by her as school nurse. This detailed and comprehensive report established unequivocally that Masconomets' Health Program being broad in scope, and well organized and administered, contributes importantly and effectively to the overall development of our boys and girls.
Public Relations
Keeping citizens fully informed about its schools so that a healthy, mutually understanding attitude of confidence and respect flourishes between the public and the schools is one of the major problems constantly facing school committees and school administra- tors everywhere. This is a difficult problem at best to resolve for a school system serving a single town. It is even more difficult when the school system, such as Masconomet, serves more than one town.
From the very beginning of Masconomet the matter of developing good public relations leading to the creation of a true image of the school, its program and its needs, has been foremost in the thoughts of everyone associated with the administration and
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MASCONOMET REGIONAL SCHOOL REPORT
operation of this educational institution. Each school system has to discover and develop its own methods for doing this. Obviously practices which work well in one community may prove totally in- adequate or inappropriate in another.
Some of the ways which the committee and the staff at Masconomet have attempted to supplement the usual practices, of newspaper releases, printed publications, letters to parents, and impressions conveyed from school activities, are worthy of special mention in this report.
The weekly meetings of the school committee are regularly attended by representatives of the press, who report on topics dis- cussed and actions taken. Several feature articles written by news- paper correspondents serving the area about Masconomet activities and projects, particularly in connection with publicizing plans for the expansion of the schools facilities, have been most helpful.
To supplement the coverage provided by the news media, the school has continued its publication of "AIM", a monthly bulletin designed to cover in more depth significant phases of the school's curriculum and purposes. Responsibility for the preparation of this series of informative bulletins is assumed by the Public Relations Committee, which is one of the nine standing committees now operating under the school's organized Curriculum Study & Improvement Program. The success with which this venture has been received by the public is due largely to the enthusiastic cooperation of the Tri-Town Transcript and its owner-publisher, Mr. Anthony Gangi, who made it possible for "AIM" to appear monthly in his newspaper which is distributed to all homes in the three member towns of the Masconomet District.
The new building program and the many questions which this generated among citizens of the District were answered in great part through a series of informal small group neighborhood meet- ings carried on by members of the committee in their respective towns over a period of several months, prior to the special Town Meetings called for the purpose of approving the bond issue for the new addition.
The most recent effort to acquaint citizens of the school com- munity with the program and purposes of the regional high school, has been the establishment of a Citizens Visitation Day, which brings together 15-20 adults, representing various community organizations, to experience and observe a portion of a typical school day. Two such visiting days are scheduled each month. The
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four such visiting days held to date have been judged as being ex- tremely valuable and worthwhile by the participants. This special program will be continued throughout the remainder of the 1963-64 school year and it is expected that many other citizens will avail themselves of the opportunity thus presented to experience at first hand a typical day of school.
CURRICULUM STUDY AND IMPROVEMENT
Much of this annual report illustrates how the time and energy of all working to keep the Masconomet Regional school system in its favorable position as an outstanding secondary school have dealt effectively with facility needs caused or associated with ever in- creasing student population. This portion of the annual report will focus attention on another and as equally important challenge for the staff at Masconomet. The challenge of constant examination, improvement, and refinement of the educational experiences planned in our total school program, which we define as the curriculum, emerges as a constantly increasing factor in the pursuit of excel- lence in a modern up-to-date comprehensive secondary school.
WHAT TO TEACH? and HOW BEST TO TEACH IT? These are two questions still not completely answered and subject to, perhaps, greater challenge today than ever before because of the accelerated changes in our society and the increased complexity of man's economic, social, and political world. Major changes are being promoted in all subject fields in both content and methods of learning and it is the major responsibility of our professional staff to examine carefully innovations and to recommend and in- stitute the adoption of content and methods that will foster an effective modern curriculum.
The responsibilities for curriculum study and change are being met in several significant ways by the staff at Masconomet. Often times unpublicized or unrecognized in the evaluation of our public schools is the amount of time and energy devoted to non-classroom activities by the teaching staff and yet it is the amount of study, preparation, cooperative planning, professional improvement, and organized inservice work by a professional staff that often makes the difference between an excellent school and an average one.
The majority of our teachers are individually involved in taking professional improvement courses during the regular school year and during the summer, and all departments, under the direc- tion of very competent department chairmen, are meeting regularly
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and working on curriculum guides and evaluating the programs being fostered by the particular departments. Worthy of special mention is the increased participation of department chairmen in efforts to integrate wherever possible the learning experiences offered by different subject fields. Of particular significance along these lines is the combined efforts of English, Social Studies, Library, and Art to promote greater emphasis on a humanities approach to study and learning which relates these subjects. These efforts will be accelerated as we return to a program with more adequate facilities and greater possibilities will exist for team teaching and large group instruction.
The talents and energies of all staff members working under the leadership of department chairmen and the principal has re- sulted in the organization of Overviews in all subject fields. These overviews consisting of course objectives, guiding principles, scope and sequence charts, and bibliographies of teacher resources are in the process of being edited and published. When completed this material should be extremely valuable for our own curriculum study and should allow us to answer the many requests for information concerning our curriculum coming from other schools.
A significant step was taken by the School Committee in recognizing the importance of regular curriculum study and improvement involving all staff members when it approved a struc- tured development which calls for extended time for curriculum workshops. The first such workshop was held in February 1963 and since that time regular monthly workshops have been scheduled from 7:30 to 10:00 A.M. with all staff members able to participate because of special scheduling of students on these days so that classes begin at 10:00 A.M. instead of the regular opening time of 8:00 A.M. These workshop days turn out to be shorter days for the students and slightly longer days for the teachers, but the 21/2 hour period once per month has proven to be of considerable value for curriculum study and has only shortened class periods for students without eliminating any periods on these particular days.
This organized or structured curriculum development plan has seen the establishment of nine standing committees designed to evaluate on a long range continuing basis the overall program and to provide recommendations for improvement. Each of these nine committees has a definite set of charges provided by a Curriculum Steering Committee made up of three teachers, three department chairmen, and three administrators. This Steering Committee is meeting bi-weekly to provide the coordination and direction neces-
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sary for the program. The functions of each committee are some- what indicated by the titles:
1. STUDENT NEEDS COMMITTEE
A) Academically Talented Learners
B) Average Learners
C) Slow Learners
2. STUDENT VALUES - SCHOOL SPIRIT COMMITTEE
3. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
4. STUDENT ACTIVITIES COORDINATING COMMITTEE
5. MARKING POLICIES and PRACTICES COMMITTEE
6. PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE
7. DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
8. PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE
9. COMMUNITY STUDY COMMITTEE
Although it is early to properly evaluate the successes and values of this formal approach to curriculum study and planning, the enthusiasm of the staff and the several examples of much work done beyond the limited time provided by one workshop each month indicates that it is a significant program which will prove its merit by influencing the educationad program made available to our youth.
Anticipating, with relief, the return to normal scheduling and programming possibilities with the completion of additional facili- ties, much time has been spent by department chairmen and admin- istrative personnel on the planning of improvements and program changes that will be possible and desirable starting in September 1964. Much of the time of weekly meetings of all department chair- men and administrators has gone into decisions dealing with the Program of Studies for 1964, Grouping Practices, Re-designing the Program for Junior High School, and Expansion of the Senior High School Program.
Another noteworthy part of our curriculum study during the past year has been the increased communication and cooperative effort between the secondary and the elementary schools. Several meetings with administrators and staff members were held to discuss the programs of each level. These meetings have centered mainly in the fields of Mathematics, Science, and Foreign Languages with an additional series of meetings held between the sixth grade teachers and Masconomet guidance personnel to com- plete the grouping of seventh grade students. The belief that the
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Masconomet program should grow from the elementary program demands that such cooperative study between the two levels con- tinue and increase.
The year 1963 has seen significant revisions continuing in the field of Mathematics with the "Modern Math Program" well established in grades seven and eight and now continuing on into the high school program. In Science we have the new materials and methods now being used as an integral part of our biology program and in all science areas we have increased our attention to inquiry or the so called "problem solving" approach to studying science. This approach directs the students to considerable more inquiry, careful observations and techniques of analysis. Our foreign language program continues to increase its use of ALM or Audio- Lingual Materials in French, Spanish, and German thus utilizing extensively the new approaches to teaching the modern languages. These specific course changes in Mathematics, Science, and Languages have been chosen as worthy of mention here for in all three areas the course revisions have meant considerable relearning on the part of the teachers involved. It is difficult to abandon the old content and methods to replace it with entirely new, but our staff has done this and done it well.
We have seen emerging in our Social Science program a com- plete revision of both content and approach to teaching these courses and beginning in September 1964, we will be using the revised program approved by the School Committee in December 1963. The details of this major revision will not be described here, but the essence of the change causes students to experience required Social Science course in each of the six yars with a great deal of emphasis being placed upon a conceptual approach to studying all of the major institutions of society. The disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and economics will be combined with history and much greater emphasis will be placed upon an approach to study and inquiry involving a variety of resources in places of the traditional single textbook approach.
PRIORITIES FOR CURRICULUM IMPROVEMENT
We would be in error to convey the notion that we are satisfied with all aspects of our school program even though we can point with pride to many satisfactions. The following arcas need our study and efforts for further possible refinement or improvement of our program.
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MASCONOMET REGIONAL SCHOOL REPORT
1. Our attention to the individual needs of students and our ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each is a great challenge still to our guidance personnel and to our teachers. We are working constantly on the improvement of scheduling techniques and grouping techniques that will permit us to do an even better job.
A) We need to examine carefully the effects of academic grouping on our slower learning students to determine if our academic service to them justifies some of the potential social problems created by this academic grouping.
B) We need to refine our grouping procedures in grades seven and eight so that we can group students separate- ly in English and in Math and possibly carry grouping techniques beyond these two major areas.
C) We need to continue our refinements of grouping in our high school programs, particularly in the language field where we are now receiving students who have had several years of language background.
D) We need to examine very thoroughly the possible values of the "Work Study Program" that seems to be some answer to the problems existing with students who lack interest in the regular school program to the point where they prefer to drop out of school rather than to continue. We do not have such a program now, but neither is our drop-out rate very high, but maybe we should be doing more for the very small minority who are unable to benefit from our present program.
E) With our energies devoted to individual programming, we need to constantly streamline our clerical chores involving records, sorting, listing, and other communi- cations devices. The use of Data Processing needs our serious attention in making student accounting more efficient and effective.
2. Our Reading Program for both junior high school and senior high school needs revitalization as soon as qualified person- nel can be obtained.
3. Continued and even accelerated energy should be directed at well organized and published curriculum guides in all areas.
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MASCONOMET REGIONAL SCHOOL REPORT
4. With the available facilities for fuller programming next year, we need to develop more fully our activity program for the junior high school and make some refinements in our high school program. Some students need to limit their participation in activities while others need to participate much more.
5. We need to continue and increase our efforts to integrate learning experiences provided by our separate departments. Of particular concern in this endeavor should be our health program, humanities program, and our Fine Arts program.
6. We need to examine carefully the possibility of providing some type of secretarial service for classroom teachers, in particular the department chairmen.
SUMMER SCHOOL CONTINUES TO SERVE RESIDENTS AND NONRESIDENTS
Our Summer School program continued to serve the needs of both residents and non-residents who wished to eliminate a deficiency in a subject field and others who wished to take enrich- ment courses. Twenty-eight different courses were included, and a total number of 119 students took a total of 192 pupil courses. It is interesting to note also that sixteen of the summer school students were non-residence of the Masconomet district and four of the students were adults.
An important part of the summer school program, but also serving more than summer school students has been the library which was open during this period and supervised by our librarian. Her report indicates that 422 attended the library during the sum- mer session and 277 books and periodicals, of which 162 were non- fiction, were circulated. The library was used by several residents, both students and adults, who were not actually enrolled in summer school classes. We hope this trend will continue and grow.
Although the financial expenses for operating our summer school program are not completely met by tuition payments, it is highly recommended that the services be continued.
HIGHLIGHTS OF STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS IN 1963
Our efforts to provide students at Masconomet with worth- while experiences leading to growth in knowledge, understandings, skills, and appreciations and attitudes both in and out of classroom
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situations are expressed in many ways. We have been successful in continuing the important and worthy activities and projects of past years and we have added some more projects and experiences for some or all of our students. The following list is an attempt to illustrate the types of student experiences that show evidence of our belief in involving students in meaningful and varied activities and projects that complement and supplement classroom learning. It has been most satisfying to witness the enthusiasm, dedication, and varied student talents that have combined to gain recognition for our school, groups, and individuals.
1. Dramatics activities have prospered and provided audiences with varied and quality entertainment as well as giving many students increased confidence and skills in acting and supporting dramatics productions.
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