SAD 29 board OKs teachers’ contract

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Teachers in SAD 29 were presented with a new contract Monday evening when the district’s school board unanimously approved Teacher Unit contracts following an hour-long executive session.
    The contract’s acceptance brings closure to a 16-month process.
    “During that process, we went into negotiations when everything was OK in terms of the state’s economics, but then as we progressed, the state’s budget crisis came up,” Superintendent Steve Fitzpatrick said. “The board had to make some tough decisions because so much had changed. It’s been a cloud over the teacher’s association. They are a very prideful group and expected a contract.”
    The lengthy process of approving the contracts was not a reflection on the teacher’s performances, Fitzpatrick said.
    “It was not a case of under-appreciating the teachers,” Fitzpatrick said. “The board and myself appreciate everything they have done for the district. It was a factor of the state and national fiscal roller coast we have all been on for the past year and a half.”
    Fitzpatrick said the new contract features a 1.5 percent increase in salaries and a minor increase in health care benefits.
    “I’m very happy that this piece has reached a conclusion,” Fitzpatrick added. “They deserve even more.”
RSU plan moving forward
    In what turned out to be a busy night for the group, the school board also voted 10-2 (with board members Kim Thompson and Lisa Harvey in opposition) to officially sign a “Letter of Intent” to continue talks with SAD 70 on forming a Regional School Unit (RSU). That letter will now be sent to the Department of Education and the two groups will continue exploring consolidation efforts first with its central offices.
    A joint Regional Planning Committee, made up of members from both school boards and some members of the public, has held two meetings thus far. A third meeting will be held Tuesday, April 13 at 6 p.m. in the Houlton High School library.
    “This vote answers the questions I had after the last meeting,” Fitzpatrick said, referencing last month’s school board meeting in which the board voted not to sign the letter. After that meeting Fitzpatrick said he individually polled the board members to see which direction the group wanted to go. He said the majority of those polled wanted to continue discussions with SAD 70.
    “It [regionalization] still has to be the very best plan for the district and show benefit in terms of cost savings or better programs for our students,” Fitzpatrick said.
    Before any such consolidation efforts take place, both school boards would need to approve the measure. A referendum vote would then be required first in SAD 70 and then, if it passes, in SAD 29 before the two schools could join forces.
    For SAD 70, joining an RSU is a necessity since the state-mandated smaller schools had to consolidate. SAD 29 is already a regional school unit based on its enrollment size. If the two districts do join forces to combine central offices, the first step would be the creation of one, consolidated school board that would then need to hire a superintendent.
District petitions state
    The board also learned that its superintendent has petitioned the Department of Education to have Houlton High School removed from the list of 10 “persistently lowest-achieving schools” based on SAT scores.
    “I put a letter into the Commissioner of Education [Monday] requesting that Houlton High School be removed from the list,” Fitzpatrick said. “I did this based on the fact that the MEA scores from the seventh and eighth grade were not averaged in with the SAT scores.”
    Fitzpatrick said the DOE designated some schools in the state as junior-senior high schools. He cited Central Aroostook High School in Mars Hill as an example. Houlton is a junior-senior high school, based on the seventh and eighth grade being housed in the same building. Those schools that were classified as a junior-senior high school were allowed to factor in the MEA scoring from the seventh and eight grade classes into the three-year average of learning results the state used in naming the 10 “persistently lowest-achieving schools” eligible for grant money.
    Fitzpatrick said that if the seventh and eighth grade data had been included, Houlton High School would not have been among the 10 schools listed in the DOE’s report for the School Improvement Grants.
    “We asked why Houlton was not listed as a junior-senior high school, and did not get a reasonable answer,” he said. “Obviously, our biggest concern with the SIG grant was the elimination of our principal and some of the staff. If we can find something that enables us to provide deeper resources for our kids district-wide, that is in our best interest.”
    The decision to request being removed from the list stems from the Department’s release of the complete list of schools and their scores.
    “We looked closely at this list and found out the state identified schools by type,” Dawn Dougan, curriculum coordinator said. “Those types were combined, elementary and secondary.”
    Dougan said with the combined schools, of which there were 22 schools, the state did its three-year averages based on all the students in that school. She cited Central Aroostook in Mars Hill as an example, stating at CAHS the seventh and eighth grade MEA scores were factored into 11th grade SAT scores to calculate a three-year average for determining Adequate Yearly Progress.
    “Students do much better on the MEAs so when you add those three groups together you get a much higher average than you would if you just took the 11th grade SATs,” Dougan said. “It seems like a technicality, but if you calculated our scores that way, we had a score that was very much higher. We would not have been identified on this list.”
    Fitzpatrick said that even if his request is accepted, the district still recognizes that work is needed to improve throughout the district.
    “This was a very foundation-shaking designation that was perhaps unwarranted,” Fitzpatrick said. “We will take the positive from this and move forward.”
    HHS principal Marty Bouchard presented board members with information on what the high school was already doing to make improvements before the upcoming SAT exams on May 1. Bouchard said the high school was conducting daily SAT prep work in most classes, in addition to a special SAT prep class.
    An SAT “practice” session has been scheduled for April 14 where juniors will receive an abbreviated test similar to what they will see in May. Junior class advisors are also working on a personal level with students regarding the importance of taking the SAT test seriously.
    Numerous administrative and school leadership meetings have also taken place to come up with strategies for improving.
    Loraine Wilson, a kindergarten teacher at Houlton Elementary School, reminded the school board that it was not just the teacher’s responsibility to educate.
    “The first teachers are the parents,” Wilson said. “If we really want to make changes, let’s begin at the home.”
    In other agenda items, the board:
    • Approved Tim Tweedie as junior high softball coach and Sue Miller as junior varsity softball coach.
    • Elected Elizabeth Anderson as its new chairman and Sandra Wilkins as vice chairman.
    • Authorized the superintendent to negotiate for No. 2 fuel oil with local distributors.
    • Welcomed Paul Prosser as the new Maintenance and Building Supervisor. Prosser replaced Dale Clark who retired in February after 40 years with the district.
    • Learned enrollment figures at the high school declined by six in April, but the district as a whole went up by one student thanks to five new pupils at Houlton Southside and two at Houlton Elementary School.
    • Set Wednesday, April 14 for its next budget committee workshop to discuss the 2010-11 school budget.
    The next regular meeting of the SAD 29 school board will be Monday, May 3 at 6 p.m. in the Superintendent’s conference room.