School Committee Round-Up

Last night's School Committee meeting was well attended and included discussion about guidance at the Ottoson Middle School as well as several other issues, including:

Bridge the Gap Update

A letter drafted by the school committee to be sent to the Arlington Advocate was discussed, which detailed the deficit the school system is facing. "As most know, we face a gap of over $4 million," read the letter, "which is largely a result of the nation's financial crisis and other factors beyond our control."

The letter urges readers to support the Bridge the Gap fund, and donate to the education system.

Superintendent Kathleen Bodie expressed her support of the effort, hoping that the fundraising mission would "retain more staff than the current budget allows."

Julie Brazile, a representative for Bridge the Gap, explained the present success of the fundraiser, saying that the campaign "raised $100,000 in a week," with over "600 donors so far."

However, there's a lot more that the campaign needs to cover. Several events are being held in support of the Bridge the Gap fund, including an online auction and two benefit concerts, one on June 3rd in the Arlington High School and the other on June 6th (where school committee member Judson Pierce will be playing with his band Trial Run). Later in the evening, the school committee unanimously passed a motion to waive the fees for the June 3 concert, which are traditionally required of renters of space for events in Arlington High School.

Schools Discuss Emercency Preparedness

Kathy Kaditz hosted a discussion on a possible grant for REMS, the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools, which is a federally funded program that provides a comprehensive plan in the case of an emergency.

Kaditz, REMS project director, discussed plans for evacuation possibilites, stating that prior to REMS, there was a "lack of coordination" in terms of a cohesive plan on what to do in case of a city-wide emergency.

REMS has at least eight people in each school trained with the National Incident Management System, which fema.gov describes as a "systematic, proactive approach to guide departments... to work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents."

Kaditz applauded the organization, saying of the training in Arlington that "we are right in line with where we need to be."

Thompson Redistricting

An additional motion was passed, mandating that 50 students be redistricted to the Thompson Elementary School in order to curb the increased amount of students that will be attending public schools in the years to come.

Chief Financial Officer Diane Johnson said that the reality of the situation hasn't been properly speculated yet, and that the actual population size is "growing by leaps and bounds" while School Committee Member Cindy Starks pointed out that despite the increased amount of students that would attend the Thompson Elementary School because of this, the average class size would only be around 21 students, which is still "lower than in other buildings."