USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1963 > Part 9
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Space was rented at the Reading Depot for the first time since the Town's acquisition from the Boston & Maine Railroad. On or about the same time, the Depot was redecorated, both interior and exterior. The Board also took an active part in a promotional gimmick known as Eelphant Days. This developed from the controversy over the color of the paint to be used on the Depot, and the entire program was con- sidered most successful both from a merchant's point of view and as national publicity for the Town of Reading.
A "Bill Russell Night" was sponsored by this Board in honor of Mr. Russell, a world renowned athlete and a resident of the Town of Reading.
Once every five years the Town boundaries have to be perambula- ted. This was accomplished with the complete cooperation of the sur- rounding towns.
A long standing problem with regard to "Sick Leave" for Police and Fire personnel was handled with the establishment of a definite Sick Leave Policy.
This Board authorized the Town Treasurer to have the Selectmen's signatures engraved or printed on bonds or notes of indebtedness, thus eliminating considerable detail and loss of time.
On June 9, the Chief Fire Officer of Reading, England, and his wife were entertained on behalf of the Town. Our former Fire Chief had previously visited with them, and the goodwill between these two communities has been considered to be sincere and of value to the Town of Reading.
In addition to the above highlights, the Board handled the many requests for licenses, Tag Days, etc. This was also an active year per- taining to dog hearings and gasoline storage hearings. The names of 36 residents of the town were drawn for jury duty.
Many appointments were made within the year, and it was neces- sary to accept with regret a few resignations. One of the new commis- sions to be established this year was that of an Industrial and De- velopment Commission consisting of seven members.
The various departments under the jurisdiction of the Board have made their individual reports, which appear on other pages.
The Board wishes to express appreciation to the other departments in the Town for their fine spirit and cooperation on several occasions during the past year.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert A. Curtis, Secretary
98
ANNUAL REPORT
of
THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE of
The Town of Reading, Massachusetts
for the year ending December 31, 1963
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Dr. Donald R. Walker, 33 Edgemont Avenue Mrs. Barbara E. Winkler, 52 Pearl Street Dr. Henry M. Paynter, 132 West Street Mr. Robert S. Toperzer, 99 Pine Ridge Road Mr. Edward W. Palmer, 45 Pratt Street Mr. Stanley I. Robinson, 273 Pearl Street
Term expires 1964
"
1964
1965
"
1965
"
1966
1966
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
Superintendent of Schools
Mr. Robert F. Perry
22 Dudley Street
Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Charge of Maintenance
Mr. Roderick E. Macdonald
11 John Carver Road
School Committee Office Reading Memorial High School Building 62 Oakland Road
Office Hours - Monday through Friday - 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. During School Vacations - 9:00 to 4:00 Telephones - 944-0180 and 944-5220
Winifred G. Foye Anna G. Freeman Mae A. Tanner
Clerk School Committee Accountant
Norma C. Walsh
Executive Secretary Payroll Supervisor
Supervisor of Cafeterias
Mrs. Lois C. Piper
268 Franklin Street
School Physician
Dr. Robert W. Wakeling
60 Lowell Street
100
RETIRED
Robert Bronner, B.A., M.Ed.
Teacher of Civics and Driver Education, Reading Memorial High School Appointed September 1939
Retired June 1963
Mary Moore Chapman, B.S.
Teacher of Grade V and Assistant Principal, Pearl Street School
Appointed September 1941 Retired June 1963
IN MEMORIAM
MARILYN N. HOWARD, R.N. SCHOOL NURSE
Appointed September 1962 Died March 1963
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
To the Citizens of Reading:
From year to year changes in any area of human endeavor appear minor and unimportant. Indeed, to some critics of our schools these changes have been maddeningly slow. If we look back, however, over a series of annual reports we will become aware of the gradual accumula- tion of very considerable improvements. For instance, the Town Report for the year ending December 1953, only ten years ago, carried two photographs of a partially finished high school buiding. The six hun- dred twenty-five students were still crowded into the building we now know as the Community Center. In fact, the enrollment in all Reading's public schools that year was just under three thousand. On October 1, 1963, there were 4471 young people attending our schools. In 1953 the total staff numbered 159, including 110 teachers. By 1963 the figures had jumped to a staff total of 208, 180 of whom were teachers. The school appropriation for that year was $642,101.49, while the appropria- tion for this year was $1,799,507.00. Just from sheer numbers alone Reading schools have become big business and big money.
In that ten-year period we have finished the Memorial High School and built the 18-room Birch Meadow School and the Coolidge Junior High School. In September 1964 we expect to open the Alice M. Barrows Elementary School with 14 additional rooms for elementary pupils. Nor is the end in sight. From the building activity and estimates already available there is an apparent need for another elementary school in the near future. The needs at the junior and senior high school level are more difficult to predict closely at this time because we do not yet know what effects the Austin Preparatory School and the proposed regional vocational technical high school will have on our enrollment. We have become increasingly aware, however, of crowding in the Su- perintendent's office space. Some solution to this condition will have to be found, possibly in some other facility the town will provide within the next few years.
These problems which attend the mushrooming enrollment are more or less housekeeping problems. Our most important concern is properly the type of education we are offering our young people. The changes and upgrading in this area have been particularly outstanding. For instance, the 1953 report states in connection with the high school: "All members of the class who planned to go to college passed the entrance requirements this year." To parents who have been watching their high school seniors apply for college admission, such a simple, naive statement must come as an echo from a time far in the past. Yet this was only ten years ago.
Students today are under so many pressures from various elements in our society that their educational requirements are far more severe than were those of their parents. A look at the kind of books these high school pupils are reading, both as required class work and as recrea- tional reading, indicates a degree of intellectual sophistication un-
103
known a generation ago. The common acceptance and increased use of paperbacks in schools everywhere has had a tremendous impact on the reading habits of adolescents. The "new mathematics," which is only the old mathematics taught in newer and better ways, is preparing students for college so well that the colleges are finding it necessary to improve their offerings. It has been estimated that our body of knowl- edge doubled in the 1950-1960 decade. Certainly educated people today must race in the attempt to keep up with all kinds of scientific ad- vances. In the area of social studies we must also provide a stronger background if our young people are going to be able to make the intelligent decisions required of citizens in a democracy today.
These are but a few of the urgent reasons calling for a constant examination and revision of curriculum in all schools everywhere. What may very well turn out to be one of the most important innovations in the Reading school system is the summer workshop program for teach- ers now in its third year. Teachers are asked to serve for approximately a month during the summer vacation and are paid additional salary for this work. The subjects to receive particular attention during any one summer are chosen after discussion by the Superintendent, prin- cipals, heads of departments, and teachers. In this way teachers are able to concentrate on curriculum development and improvement with- out the inevitable distractions and pressures of the regular school year. The School Committee has been most favorably impressed with the reports from staff members participating in this program. Much valu- able work has been accomplished and much more will be done as the program expands and develops. The teachers who have participated are also enthusiastic about it and the opportunity it offers for pro- fessional planning and coordinating of courses.
More detailed descriptions of other aspects of the operation of your schools will be found under other headings in this report. It is the hope of your School Committee that as you review and study these individual sections you will become familiar with what your schools are doing.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Henry M. Paynter, Chairman
Mr. Edward W. Palmer
Mr. Stanley I. Robinson Mr. Robert S. Toperzer Dr. Donald R. Walker Mrs. Barbara E. Winkler
104
SCHOOL COMMITTEE BUDGET - 1963
Appropriations
Transfers & Refunds
Expended
1963 Salaries
1963
$ 76,611.00
Supt., Clerks & Enf. of Law
$ 75,119.04
54,550.00
Directors
55,349.44
1,500.00
Misc. Salaries of Instruction
1,300.00
77,083.00
Principals
76,804.24
1,115,172.00
Teachers
1,108,096.61
45,483.00
Counselors
45,799.52
124,213.00
Custodians & Matrons
124,522.66
18,615.00
Health
17,552.73
3,380.00
Pension Account
3,380.00
3,024.00
Cafeteria Supervision Acct
3,024.00
$1,519,631.00
Total Salaries
$1,510,948.24
Maintenance
$ 1,000.00
Supt.'s Office Expense
$ 1,311.86
500.00
Research & Prof. Study, NESDEC
500.00
100.00
Assessment, Exec. Sec., M.S.S.A.
100.00
185.00
Membership, Mass. Assn. Sch. Com'tees ..
185.00
1,925.00
Printing
1,088.35
500.00
Travel Expense (including out of state) ..
119.67
1,500.00
Principals' Office Expense
1,097.07
4,500.00
Telephones
4,405.53
$ 10,210.00
Total General Control
$ 8,807.48
Instruction
$ 1,200.00
Travel Exp., Dir., Prins., Hds. of Depts. etc. $
1,495.41
32,575.00
Textbooks & Supplementary Books
34,628.35
23,400.00
Supplies - School
18,629.50
3,600.00
Supplies - Shop
3,531.69
1,500.00
Supplies - Home Economics
1,461.85
3,305.00
Audio-Visual
2,488.74
1,100.00
Educational TV
1,077.25
1,800.00
Physical Education Equipment
2,588.71
1,500.00
Tests & Guidance Material
588.27
6,063.00
Instructional Apparatus, New & Repairs ..
5,406.14
100.00
Express Charges
24.95
$ 76,143.00
Total Expenses of Instruction ..... $ 71,890.86
105
Operation of Plant
$ 28,000.00 3,000.00
Fuel
$
26,208.10
Water & Sewer
2,382.87
23,750.00
Electricity
23,460.63
525.00
Gas
345.86
200.00
Laundry & Summer Cleaning
170.39
1,000.00
Travel & Operation of Vehicles
741.40
8,500.00
Janitors' Supplies
8,746.38
$
64,975.00
Total Operations of Plant $ 62,055.63
Maintenance of Plant
$
6,200.00
Grounds
$ 6,587.74
18,925.00
Buildings
17,692.45
915.00
Service Systems
1,072.75
7,825.00
Plumbing & Heating
8,158.76
Furniture Repairs & Replacement
-
$
33,865.00
Total Maintenance of Plant ...... $ 33,511.70
Auxiliary Agencies
$
6,647.97
Libraries
$ 5,953.49
650.00
Health Expense
700.35
500.00
Commencement
629.86
$
7,797.97
Total Auxiliary Agencies
$ 7,283.70
Capital Outlay
$
15,300.00
New Equipment & Furniture
$ 15,897.34
Driver Education
$ 3,500.00
Salaries, Texts & Supplies, Etc. $ 2,989.96
Summer School Program
$ 9,000.00
Salaries, Texts & Supplies, Etc. $ 8,156.08
$ 208,290.97
Total General Maintenance
$ 199,446.71
3,500.00
Total Driver Education
2,989.96
9,000.00
Total Summer School Program
8,156.08
$1,519,631.00
Total Salaries
$1,510,948.24
$1,740,421.97
TOTAL
$1,721,540.99
$ 35,704.00
Transportation $ 35,234.35
$ 8,300.00
Vocational Tuition
$ 8,203.67
$ 25,135.09
Athletic Acct (Rotating Acct) $ 21,210.91
$ 9,083.25
Adult Education (Rotating Acct) $ 3,340.00
106
READING SCHOOL COMMITTEE - 1963 Receipts not from Tax Levy - Showing Net Cost to Town January 1964
General Account 1963
Estimate 1964 Appropriation Credits $1,873,266.50
Total Expenditures (less Transportation) $1,710,394.95
(less Vocational Tuition)
Receipts:
$ 197,051.71
State Reimbursements
$ 187,951.71
3,297.76
Tuition State Wards
3,577.97
10,776.25
Mentally Retarded and Phy. Handicapped
10,776.25
4,500.00
Reim. of Salary of Youth Counsellor
4,500.00
-216,625.72
1,000.00
Sundry
2,734.00
-209,539.93
$1,656,600.78
Net Cost to Town
$1,500,855.02
Vocational Tuition
$
10,220.00
Total Expenditures
$ 8,203.67
Receipts: State Reimbursement
-3,146.57
-903.63
$ 7,073.43
Net Cost to Town $ 7,300.04
Transportation Account
$
37,404.00
Total Expenditures Receipts: State Reimbursements
$
35,234.35
682.50
219.23
$ 36,721.50
$ 35,015.12
Driver Education Account
Total Expenditures
$ 2,989.96
Receipts:
Pupil Tuition Fees
-3,690.00
632.00
Net Cost to Town
$ 0.00
Summer School Program
$ 6,700.00
Total Expenditures
$ 8,156.08
Receipts:
Pupil Tuition Fees
-6,185.00
Net Cost to Town
$ 1,971.08
Federal Funds from P. L. No. 874
Balance January 1, 1963
Total Received during Fiscal Year 1963
$ 23,261.79 +26,461.00
Expenditures Fiscal Year 1963
-41,142.89
Balance on Hand January 2, 1964
$ 8,579.90
$
4,322.00
-3,690.00
-5,185.00
$ 1,515.00
$ 49,722.79
National Defense Education Act from P. L. No. 864 Title III
Balance January 1, 1963 Total Receipts during Fiscal Year 1963
$ 3,865.72 + 7,652.17
$ 11,517.89
Expenditures June 28, 1963
$ 80.47
Returned to the Town as 12/31 11,437.42 $ 11,517.89
$ 0.00
National Defense Education Act from P. L. No. 864 Title V
Balance January 1, 1963
$ 6,329.05
Total Received during Fiscal Year 1963
+ 1,192.80
$ 7,521.85
Expenditures Fiscal Year 1963
-3,186.01
Balance on Hand January 2, 1964 $ 4,335.84
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
To the School Committee and Citizens of Reading:
I herewith submit the report of the Superintendent of Schools for the year ending December 31, 1963, it being the seventy-first in a series of such annual reports.
Enrollment
The enrollment of the public schools as of October 1, 1963, was 4472, an increase of 163 over the enrollment in 1962. In addition, there were 656 pupils enrolled in the St. Agnes Parochial School in grades one through eight. In September the Austin Preparatory School, a regional private school for boys, was opened with 36 students enrolled from Reading. This regional private college preparatory school is designed to accommodate eventually an enrollment of approximately 1200 boys in grades nine through twelve. This will affect to some extent the growth in enrollment of the public secondary schools of the town. How- ever, enrollment projections and the following summary of numbers of pupils enrolled by grades during the past four years indicate that there will continue to be a steady increase in the elementary schools.
The number of pupils enrolled in the various grades as of October 1, 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1963 is as follows:
Grade
1960
1961
1962
1963
1
379
428
386
412
2
378
374
436
381
3
357
379
372
440
4
378
364
370
379
5
321
379
361
382
6
332
320
377
365
7
351
357
325
386
8
367
341
350
363
9
353
383
370
325
10
267
351
360
362
11
251
268
325
339
12
271
238
256
316
PG
1
3
Sp. Ed
16
18
21
18
Home Tutored
1
4022
4201
4309
4472
Staff
The School Department has 274 people on the payroll serving in various capacities as follows:
I. Administration
Superintendent and Principals
10
II. Supervisors, Directors, Counselors 15
110
III. Teachers:
High School Junior High Schools Elementary 78
48
52
IV. Health Department, Nurses - Doctors 5
V. Secretarial and Clerical 14
VI. Custodians and Matrons 26
VII. Cafeterias 26
274
During the year it was necessary for the administrative staff to recruit a total of 24 teachers to replace 18 teachers who resigned plus 6 additional teachers to take care of the increased enrollment. Of the 18 teachers who resigned, only five left to accept teaching positions in other communities. Twelve teachers left the teaching profession for various other reasons. At the close of the school year Mrs. Mary Chap- man, a teacher and assistant principal at the Pearl Street School, re- tired after many years of faithful, loyal and dedicated service to the boys and girls who were fortunate to work under her direction and supervision.
Those responsible for the recruiting of able and well qualified teachers during the past year feel that the improvement of the salary schedule made it possible to attract a group of competent and able new teachers to our staff for the present school year. Salary is not the only factor that persuades teachers to accept positions in Reading; never- theless, it is a very important consideration and the reason for main- taining a salary schedule that is competitive with salaries paid by other towns in this area of the Commonwealth. After careful study, the School Committee decided to maintain the same basic salary schedule for the 1964-65 school year. However, minimums and maximums of the Career-Salary Schedule for the various degree classifications were changed as follows:
BA
MA
MA+30
Minimum
$7900
$8200
$8450
Maximum
8800
9200
9500
This Career-Salary Schedule is established to hold on our staff those competent and capable teachers of experience who have demon- strated qualities of leadership and ability. The salary regulations for this schedule are as follows:
Teachers to be employed on the Career-Leadership-12- month Schedule-are eligible one year after reaching the max- imum salary for any one of the three degree classifications established by the regular Salary Schedule for teachers. Maxi- mum salaries for the three degree classifications are estab- lished with no definite step-rate or annual increments. These salaries will be paid on the basis of additional responsibilities
111
and duties assumed by those teachers who are willing to be employed on a 12-month basis. The teachers will be employed at the discretion of the School Committee and will assume whatever duties the Supervising Principals or Superintendent of Schools may direct; such duties as working singly or on committees dealing with research and development of curricu- lum; assuming leadership in workshops designed to improve instruction in the Reading Schools; service as head of a de- partment in the secondary schools; special professional study related directly to problems of the local school system; leader- ship in programs of in-service teacher training in the teacher's own school or in the school system, etc.
The procedure used in making recommendations to the School
Committee for the employment of a teacher under this program will be as follows:
A. The teacher will file a form "Request to Participate in the Career-Leadership Program" with the Superintendent of Schools. This form should be filed with the Superintendent of Schools on or before October 30th of each year.
B. In relation to this request, the principal and-or department head, administrative or supervisory personnel will make recom- mendations to the Superintendent of Schools concerning those areas to which they are assigned and are familiar.
C. Based on a joint conference with those administrative or supervisory personnel concerned with the teacher participating in this program, a recommendation will be made by the Super- intendent of Schools to the School Committee.
Some people have the impression that the Reading Public Schools are staffed with young, inexperienced teachers. It is true that each year we employ beginning teachers who have been trained in various colleges and universities to teach at the various grade levels in our school system. These teachers fill some of the vacancies which occur for various reasons and also are the teachers who are hired because of the increase in the population of the schools. However, it is impor- tant to keep in mind that we do have a total of 46 teachers who, on September 1, 1963, were at the maximum salary for the various degree classifications, as follows: BA-29; MA-8; MA+30-2; Career Sched- ule-7.
School Department Budget - 1964
The proposed School Department Budget for 1964 is in the amount of $1,952,730. This represents an increase of $149,623, or a percentage increase of 8.3 per cent, the smallest since 1959. Salaries of School Department personnel account for 85 per cent of the proposed budget for 1964. The new Alice M. Barrows Elementary School will be in operation in September. The cost of staffing and operating this school is reflected in the new 1964 budget.
112
Funds for the operation of the Reading Public Schools come from the appropriations voted at the Annual Town Meeting out of revenue from the property tax. However, the School Department does receive income from a variety of sources which is returned directly to the Town and not available for expenditure by the School Department, the sole exception being the money received from the Federal Government under the provisions of Public Law 874. Estimated receipts for 1964 are as follows:
STATE AID
General
$197,051.70
Mentally Retarded Children
10,776.29
Transportation - Vocational Pupils
682.50
Reimbursement-Salary Youth Counselor
4,500.00
Tuition
Vocational
3,146.57
State Wards - Reimbursement
3,297.76
Sundry
Miscellaneous Receipts
1,000.00
Driver Education
3,690.00
Summer School
6,185.00
$230,329.82
School Construction
Joshua Eaton School
12,629.02
Senior High School
46,659.31
Birch Meadow School
16,051.14
Arthur W. Coolidge Junior High School
23,046.45
Alice M. Barrows School
13,534.40
Grand Total Receipts - from State
$342,250.14
Receipts from Federal Government
Public Law 874
$ 26,461.00
PL 864, NDEA, Title V
1,192.80
PL 864, NDEA, Title III
7,652.17
Total from Federal Government
$ 35,305.97
113
The New Alice M. Barrows Elementary School - Report of Progress
1. The elementary school, now under construction in the Glen Meadow area, is under the supervision, management and control of the special committee appointed by the Town Moderator as authorized by the vote of the Town Meeting in 1962. This committee includes the following citizens:
John H. Austin, Chairman
Kenneth P. Roberts, Secretary
William E. Burpee
Stanford C. Cameron, Jr.
Thomas F. Galvin, Finance Committee member
Fred C. Kenney, Jr., Board of Public Works member
Robert S. Toperzer, School Committee member
2. After interviewing a selected group of architects the Building Committee chose Mr. Clinton Foster Goodwin of Haverhill, who was the architect for the Birch Meadow School and the renovation of the High- land School.
3. The educational specifications, as prepared by the Superintend- ent of Schools, and preliminary plans and sketches as made by the architect, were submitted to the Committee for study, and finally ap- proved by the Massachusetts School Building Assistance Commission.
4. It was estimated that the cost and the equipment of the school would amount to $890,000. The Commonwealth will share in the cost of the school to the extent of approximately 40 per cent.
5. A Special Town Meeting in October '62 voted the sum of $40,000 for working drawings and specifications to be prepared by the Architect.
6. At a Special Town Meeting in January '63 funds were appro- priated to complete the project as recommended by the Building Com- mittee as follows:
Cost of Project
Building (including site work)
$745,000
Equipment
62,000
Architect's Fees
60,000
Clerk of Works and Contingency
38,000
$905,000
Financing
Of the total of $905,000, approximately $45,000 was expended from previous appropriations leaving the sum of $860,000 necessary for com- pletion. The Annual Meeting of 1962 voted into the Stabilization Fund the sum of $100,000. State law provides matching funds for this stabili- zation money if voted out for school construction in a subsequent cal- endar year. This $100,000, plus the State matching funds, left the sum of $660,000 to be raised and appropriated from other means.
114
7. Upon completion of the working drawings and specifications, the project was advertised for bids. Bid proposals from sub-contractors were received on March 13, 1963, and from the general contractor on March 20th. After a thorough analysis of all bid proposals the Building Committee awarded the general contract to the low bidder, Leonard Rugo, Inc., in the amount of $787,000.
8. Work was started on the project on May 1, 1963, and has con- tinued to the present date. The building should be completed by August 1st, 1964, and ready for occupancy by September 1st. The building in- cludes 14 classrooms, Library, Remedial Classroom, playroom combina- tion cafeteria and auditorium, and auxiliary space and storerooms.
9. With the opening of the schools in September the elementary schools will be reorganized, new district lines established, and pupils distributed to the various schools as follows:
School
Grades
Classrooms
Capacity
1.
Joshua Eaton
1-6
17
18
2. Prospect St.
1-4
4
4
3. Birch Meadow
1-6
18
18
4. Highland
1-6
13
13
5. Lowell St.
1-4
4
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