A new school enrollment policy and budget items that included a proposal to expand the school lunch program in West Tisbury and renovations to the Chilmark School dominated the discussion at an Up-Island school committee meeting Thursday.
Repairs to Chilmark School heating system will likely cost up to $70,000, Chilmark School principal Susan Stevens said. That will include new thermostats, heating control valves, valve actuators, an energy recovery ventilator (ERV), and a new boiler. Currently, all rooms have heat, but the heat cannot be turned off in two rooms. The school is working with Nelson Mechanical Designs to fix that, but must leave windows open in the meantime.
The West Tisbury School currently employs two full-time and two part-time cafeteria employees. One of the part-time employees is responsible for packing, delivering, serving, cleaning up, returning lunch serviceware, and cleaning; the other for processing money, data, and point of sales, cafeteria director Jenny Devivo said.
Ms. Devivo estimated the two employees prepping and cooking the food were responsible for 32 meals per labor-hour in the month of October. The cafeteria has already added a 20-hour part-time position in the month of November to meet the lunch demand. Over a seven-year period, there has been a 408 percent participation growth, based on meals sold, she said.
Ms. Devivo recommended the addition of a part-time staff member (25 hours per week), renovation of the dry storage unit, and attaching the outdoor refrigeration/freezer to the building. She also would like to see school breakfast added to the lunch program.
“The increase in participation is amazing,” committee chairman Robert Lionette of Chilmark said. “The increase alone warrants the labor.” He said he would like to work toward using more local foods, which is inherently more labor-intensive and costly than using prepackaged content.
The committee discussed raising the student meal cost, currently $2.75. Ms. Devivo said the ideal cost would be $3.50, which many committee members agreed was too big a jump in one year.
“The price increase, irrespective of the labor, would be to ensure that you continue to have access and opportunity to increase the quality and integrity of your product,” Mr. Lionette said.
The committee agreed to revisit the school lunch budget and take a more detailed look at labor costs, school lunch rates, and a recommendation from Ms. Devivo on pricing when they meet next month.
Enrollment shift
A draft Up-Island Regional School District Kindergarten Enrollment Policy sparked a lengthy conversation. The policy proposes the parent/guardian of a student in the towns of Aquinnah, Chilmark, and West Tisbury declare which school his or her student will attend by March 1. Students that enroll after the March 1 deadline may request either school, but if the classroom requested has already reached maximum class size — determined by the school principal — he or she will be enrolled in a class that is not full. If both options are full, the student would be enrolled in the classroom with the smallest class size. If, midyear, the parent/guardian decides the school is not a good fit, a change could not be requested until the following year.
The policy is an attempt to clarify the school choice process for students who move into the district, school leaders said. Now the policy stipulates that if a student moves into West Tisbury or Aquinnah, he or she can enroll at any time at the West Tisbury School. The same policy applies to the Chilmark School with new Chilmark and Aquinnah students. Island-wide, the deadline for choosing a school is June 15, with a second round in July and a third look in August.
Citing too many vagaries in the language of the policy, the committee opted to take time to review the draft, as well as the inter-district school enrollment policy, and send notes to Superintendent of Schools Matthew D’Andrea, who will compose a second draft.
Spanish teacher Theresa Holmes gave an update on the first year of the restructured Spanish program in the seventh and eighth grade. Last spring, a placement test was developed and rated by the high school for Spanish, and administered to all Island eighth-grade students. A total of 11 students Island-wide placed into Spanish 2, nine of which were from West Tisbury, she said. All other West Tisbury students were placed into Spanish 1 Honors. Seventh and eighth graders currently meet for Spanish four times a week. One class is dedicated to a language lab in which students use computers to work on the Realidades program, which flows into the high school curriculum.
“I really want to commend Theresa, because we did a whole overhaul of the system, and I really wanted to make sure that our students did qualify for Spanish 2,” West Tisbury Principal Donna Lowell-Bettencourt said. “A couple kids would have been good progress in the first year, but having this many kids is honestly sheer dedication and work on the part of Theresa to really restructure and make a solid program to prepare our students.”
A report by the New England School Development Council on projected school enrollment in the Up-Island regional school district estimated a steady increase in students over the next 10 years. The projected number for the 2015-16 school year is 383, and by 2025 the report estimated there will be 521 students. The data is based on an estimate of births, children already born, and students already enrolled.
The third draft of the Up-Island Regional School District FY17 budget revealed a 4.14 percent assessment increase over FY16 for the West Tisbury School. The difference, about $282,257, includes salary increases, science curriculum and supplies costs, furniture, home instruction, Island Grown Schools, substitutes, custodial services, and long-term maintenance. The Chilmark School assessment is down .07 percent due to the loss of one classroom and a teacher and assistant along with it.
The committee agreed to reconvene in December for a meeting focused solely on the FY17 budget.