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Nearly three hours of the 04/10/2008 TRSD Budget Committee meeting was dedicated to The Big Picture. At the invitation of the Budget Committee, SAU leadership — joined by members of the School Board — presented their view of the state of the district and the role of the Budget Committee. The meeting was in town meeting format — Mr. La Salle presented some information then he and others answered questions from Budget Committee members.  My notes on this meeting are presented for your information. Unless I identify a quote as a paraphrase, assume it is a direct quote. I present these notes chronologically.

State of the Schools

Mr. La Salle began by distinguishing southern tier schools from northern tier schools — southern tier schools are more expensive due to their proximity to Massachusetts and the higher cost of living in this part of the state.  For this reason, our salaries are higher than state average.  Despite this, our costs per student are just below state average — due, in large part, to the fact that our class sizes are 10% higher than the state average.  So our costs are average, our classes are large, and our performance is below average.

Mr. La Salle went on to characterize our staff as ‘a talented pool,’ noting that 68% have advanced degrees — 10% higher than the state average.

This information can be found here.

Why is Hampstead excellent while Timberlane is not?

[Hampstead has] kids who come to school motivated to learn and parents who support the school significantly.

Mr. La Salle believes we need to ‘jazz’ kids and has an aggressive five year plan to do that.  He thinks the secondary schools are ‘very, very poor’ and that we should replace the middle school and the high school.

On the New Contract

Mr. La Salle does not expect a strike and has made no plans to deal with one.  He does not think the contract will be a factor in budgeting, ‘unless it is heavily frontloaded.’

The Facilities

I can’t tell you, quite honestly, whether of not, for instance, that high school has another renovation left in it. The construction in the 60s and the 70s was very subpar by today’s standards…second to that look at what we’re spending to maintain what we have versus what would it cost to put something new in place.  With new your major repair bills go down to zero and your efficiency from the standpoint of utilities goes up…you have to look at what is the real cost of that bond. I don’t want to sell a concept of renovation or a new high school or a new middle school

The Problem

one area we need to focus on…is creating an environment of high aspirations.  it’s not just the necap scores.  we have a diminishing number of students that are going on to college

Mr. La Salle went on to discuss opportunities to engage the kids.  He compared the experience of a Timberlane student being unable to play presentation on a school PC to that of a child at a school with a $10,000,000 tv studio and talked about children at modern schools like Exeter and Nashua being engaged in genetic splicing and cloning while our kids can only read about it.  Because of our poor facilities, it’s difficult to motivate students to perform…

problem is getting willing workers – getting kids to commit the time and effort (it’s just not there)

He went on to say that…

the highly motivated kid that goes to Timberlane, works hard does very well.  A lot of it has to do with the individual student.

Peg Ralph: Get Ready for Change!

There’s a tremendous amount of work that’s going on around the district — from kindergarten teachers to 12th grade teachers — taking a look at where…it always boils down to the child and what should we be doing…and looking at some of the necap scores, it’s painful.  but at the same time it’s a way for us to look at how we can make improvements.

The committee that I’m on is working on questions like: What is timberlane known for; what does timberlane want to be known for…so we can define goals that are really going to be important — so that they will drive the district.  [We] need to look at facilities as it relates to curriculum.  The facility needs to meet the needs of the curriculum.  Right now we’re being held back in designing some curriculum because we do not have the facility…

Mr. La Salle agreed…

We don’t need small changes, we need some major restructuring…What we’re asking students and teachers to do at the high school has worn them down…There are Well trained people wanting to do good work but feeling overwhelmed and feeling frustrated with their attempts to do that work…we have a system in place that is a failed model and we have to change that model first…good people trying to good work.  some of them frustrated, some of the tired, some of them overwhelmed.  we have to create a condition that allows for success.

Epilog

Those are my notes.  It was an excellent presentation and the speakers were articulate.  I’m glad I was there and encourage others to witness meetings like this.  There’s no other way to understand what is going on at 30 Greenough Road.

Comments are welcome.  If you wish to engage in discussion, please use the forum topic I created for this post.  See this story for help registering anonymously.