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LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Cary Hall
1605 Massachusetts Avenue
Present: Superintendent Paul Ash, School Committee Chair Tom Diaz, School Committee
Members Helen Cohen, Tom Griffiths, Olga Guttag and Ravi Sakhuja. Minutes taken by
Leora Tec.
I.Call to Order and Welcome (Tom Diaz)
II. Public Comment
Masha Traber: About redistricting, I want to reassure parents that switching middle
schools is not a horrible thing.
III.Superintendent’s Report:
Honoring Arjun Ramamurti — Third Place Award Winner
in the National Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology—the most
prestigious competition in the United States. Arjun placed third in the United States.
IV. Members’ Reports / Members’ Concerns:
Helen Cohen: The forms for the Sara Harrington Sharyn Wong Chan Diversity Award
will be out soon.
Tom Griffiths: I participated in a negotiation with Jeanne Krieger concerning joint
facilities.
Olga Guttag: I want the community to remember our honoring this fine student and our
fine department. I attended a PTA presidents meeting where Robin DiGiammarino
discussed the fundraising policy that we are working on. The redistricting committee is
th
trying to reconcile public input. Current 5 graders will be allowed to go to the middle
school they would be going to without redistricting. There will be redistricting. If the plan
is different there will be another public hearing. Reimbursement on secondary projects is
good news.
Tom Diaz: Thanks to the redistricting committee.
Ravi Sakhuja: I admire the work of the redistricting committee. We have a projection of
a reduced number of kids. This is an opportunity to optimize our costs.
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V. Discussion Items:
A. Phasing Out the Weighted GPA, Improving Instruction and Creating a Fairer
Assessment Process at the High School: Presented by Dr. Michael Jones.
Dr. Ash: Even as a candidate I was aware of the issue of weighted GPA. Dr. Jones
wanted to take the time to properly research the issue. I deeply respect the quality of
the faculty of the high school. What is a fair evaluation system? Where did weighted
GPA come from? Years ago students were tracked. Some students went to vocational
school for example. Today it is illegal to track students. We also don’t have rank in
class. Is it a fair system? If a student drops a level or goes up a level what happens to
his or her grade? There is a complete swing of three grades in both directions. There is
no correlation between the weighting system and the grade that the student gets.
Colleges recompute based on the criteria they are looking for. We want academic
excellence, rigorous courses, clear standards for a course and grading rubrics.
Dr. Jones and other staff members made a presentation on the phasing out of the
weighted GPA and the creation of fair and equitable assessment tools.
There was discussion from the Committee on the rubrics and the phasing out of the
weighted GPA. Dr. Ash believes this will improve the quality of the teaching.
B. Status of the White House and the Old Harrington
The Committee will probably prefer to use the Old Harrington rather than the White
House for the Central Administration. Town officials are walking through the Old
Harrington to put together an estimate for the costs of a temporary use. The PBC has
not yet seen Mr. Finney’s full report.
There was a discussion of this including how it affects a potential senior center, the
implications of putting facilities on the ground floor of the Old Harrington and the
Committee releasing the White House for another use.
Motion to notify the Selectmen that contingent upon the approval of the PBC and
on passing the necessary capital article at Town Meeting, the School Committee is
ready to release the White House sometime in fiscal ‘08. (Cohen, Griffiths). The
motion passed 5-0.
Then the Committee discussed possible uses for the Old Harrington: facilities
department, swing space, senior center.
Jim Goell: Thank you for what you did this evening (releasing the White House).
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VI. Action Items:
A. Vote to Accept $100.00 Donation from Lueders Environmental, Inc.
Motion to accept the $100 donation from Lueders Environmental, Inc. with
gratitude (Guttag, Griffiths). The motion passed 5-0.
B. Vote to Approve LHS French Exchange Trip to France
Maureen Murphy, Chair of Foreign Language Department of Lexington High School
and Ms. Girondel.
The Committee discussed the trip including student drinking and gender of
chaperones.
Motion to approve the 2007 French exchange (Cohen, Guttag). The motion passed
5-0.
C. Vote to Approve the Formation of a School Committee Subcommittee to Review
Financial Operations
This will be taken up at a subsequent meeting. Tom Griffiths handed out a resume of a
potential candidate to the committee. Olga Guttag asked if a process for finding
members had been defined. Tom Griffiths replied in the negative. The School
Committee agreed that they would like two members from the public on the financial
review committee.
VII. Motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing collective bargaining
and potential litigation not to return to public session (Guttag, Cohen). Guttag-aye;
Sakhuja-aye; Griffiths-aye; Cohen-aye; Diaz-aye.
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