Board of Ed. Discusses Latin Courses, CAPT and CMT Performance

The Suffield Board of Education discussed the future of Latin program and received an overview of the district’s Connecticut Academic Perfomance Test (CAPT) and Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) performance.

In one of her final meetings as interim superintendent for Suffield schools, Mary Greenlaw-Dixon raised concerns about the future of the Latin language program at Suffield High School, and gave the other board members an overview of the CAPT and CMT score breakdown.

Greenlaw-Dixon said the search for a new Latin teacher has not been successful after Gail Katz retired at the end of the 2010-2011 school year, with plans to spend time with her family in Australia.

Katz retired once before, which caused the Board of Education problems with finding a replacement. She eventually returned to the position.

The board actively searched for alternatives, including virtual education partnerships with other schools and colleges, but Greenlaw-Dixon said they could not find a viable plan to continue providing instruction in Latin.

Greenlaw-Dixon said students currently in the program will have to look for alternative classes or languages to take, which she said would not be too damaging for first-year students.

Jeanne Gee, a fellow board member, brought up concerns over the impact this will have on juniors and seniors, some of whom are applying for college in the fall.

Though the school system is having problems filling the position, Greenlaw-Dixon said options for the 13 juniors and seniors who have been dedicated to the program are being considered.

The final decision on the program has not yet been made.

"Now is a time for the district to look at other languages like Italian or German," Greenlaw-Dixon said.

CAPT and CMT scores were released recently and Greenlaw-Dixon gave the board an overview of the successes and shortcomings in her report to the board.

Greenlaw-Dixon was pleased with the results; she noted improvements in most of the key areas for both the CAPT and CMT.

"All the [CAPT] scores went up a bit," Greenlaw-Dixon said. "But the reading scores went up by about 10 percent."

Another point of pride was having more high school students move into the advanced scoring area as compared to previous years.

Greenlaw-Dixon cited statistics for CMT scores including moderate score increases for students in fourth and fifth grade, but noted that reading scores were down slightly for third graders.

"In general, as a snapshot, it is good to see the scores mostly going up," Greenlaw-Dixon said, who noted further information on the scores would be available at a later date.

The board gave other updates during the meeting. Mary Roy, chairwoman of the board, gave an update on labor negotiations with the teamsters union, which will be continued on August 16.

"The negotiations with the teamsters continue, we met on Tuesday and we will meet again on August 16," Roy said. "The next meeting will be our last before we have a meeting with a mediator the state appoints."

The Board is set to meet next in August. Future business on the agenda included a facilities status report, updates on the district's technology systems, more CAPT and CMT performance information and information on updates to the district crisis manual.