CCS Board Considers Code of Conduct for Members
by Nancy Wood
April 8, 2010, page 7.....

During the School Board public hearing on the revised budget school board member Clyde Baldwin reiterated his opposition to the budget, and disputed comments by Chair Lynn Jaunich about the rationale for hiring two principals. His commentary in the last issue of The Charlotte News spoke against the budget. Comments by Baldwin and school director Sue Thibault in opposition to the original budget proposal were quoted in a Burlington Free Press article before Town Meeting.

Will this type of public disagreement among our elected school directors become a thing of the past? The School Board is considering a “code of conduct” that would require members to agree, “after careful board deliberations of an issue,” to “support board decisions regardless of individual positions.”

This is one of the statements embedded in the Hinesburg School District Board of Directors Code of Conduct. Much of the code outlines responsible and sensible actions for an elected official, such as “attend regularly scheduled board meetings and review advance materials about the issues to be considered on each agenda” and “maintain confidentiality of information and discussion conducted in executive session.”

Discussions about adopting a code of conduct began at the end of the School Board’s March 9 meeting, with the review of a model code of conduct from the Vermont School Board Association. That code would require agreement that once a vote was taken, the members would support the decision, and that one person would speak for the board.

Chair Lynne Jaunich said, “The time for dissent is during deliberations.” Dan Luce said he felt the suggested code was “reactionary to the big Free Press article.” Clyde Baldwin called it an “infringement of freedom of speech” and described it as an “ethical, moral issue.” He indicated that he would vote against it and that he would not abide by it if passed.
Discussions continue, with a review of the Hinesburg code on the agenda of the April 6 meeting.
(Follow up note: The Board passed an amended version of the Hinesburg Code of Conduct at the April 6 meeting, with four directors in favor and Clyde Baldwin opposed.)

Math Programs Add Up to (not so) Big Bucks
by Nancy Wood

(Note: This article has been updated with corrections from the printed version. My apologies for misrepresenting the purpose of the forum, and for the math error in the comparison of NECAP scores.)

Charlotte is opting out of a district-wide change in math programs. Molly McClaskey, CSSU Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, organized the recent district-wide event called “Summing It Up.” She said in her introduction to the meeting, “This evening’s purpose is to provide a setting and opportunity in which parents and educators together, in a formal and informal manner, can listen, learn, and engage in constructive conversation about research indications, understanding of math proficiency, instructional best practice, and other current findings in the field of math education. Topics are intentionally broad in an attempt to help all of us think more deeply about the ‘big picture’, the foundations of learning math.”

The District has been examining two math programs, Investigations II and Bridges, to replace the Everyday Mathematics® program that has been used throughout the district for about ten years. Once a program is chosen, it is expected that Shelburne, Williston and Hinesburg will begin introducing it in the fall.

CCS plans to continue using Everyday Math for at least another year, as more research is done. According to CCS board chair Lynne Jaunich, "We are offering a course with the Vermont Math Institute so that we will have teachers with greater knowledge in math, something that was stressed in the evening's program. In addition, unlike the rest of the SU, Charlotte is piloting a third program."

Cost apparently has not been an issue on the table, as suggested in the original version of this article. The district has not yet estimated the cost. At "Summing Up" a teacher from another district commented that it was expensive, which was why they were phasing in a new program. Her estimate of about $20,000 for each grade level appears to be exaggerated. The prices listed on their websites by both Bridges and Investigations II, for their teaching materials and manipulatives, are approximately $1500 per classroom of 30 children. The cost could be less if a program is adopted by multiple schools for multiple grades.

CCS School Board directors Lynne Jaunich and Dan Luce and incoming co-principal Greg Marino were among the crowd of directors, parents, teachers and staff from throughout the district who gathered at CVU for “Summing It Up.” They listened to a panel of experts and broke out into smaller groups for discussion.

Bonnie Bourne, principal of Middlebury Elementary School,commented that the top three or four math programs are all good. She believes the challenge is in the instruction. She said that many teachers are inadequately prepared to teach math and that they need to be open about that. In her district all teachers are required to take nine credits of college-level math courses.

Charlotte grade 3-8 students scored somewhat higher than Shelburne, Williston and Hinesburg on the Fall 2009 New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) math tests. In Charlotte, 88% of the students were either proficient or proficient with distinction in math, versus 84% in Shelburne and 78% each in Williston and Hinesburg.