Monday, November 25, 2013

Marshall School Council Meeting 11/23 Minutes

The Thurgood Marshall Middle School Council met on Saturday, November 23rd for its first meeting of the school year. Marshall is currently a Level 3 school with a population that, as of last year, was 63.4% First Language not English, 16.4% English Language Learner, and 17.6% Special Education. Nearly 96% of the student population has been categorized as 'High Needs.' 

Below are the minutes from Saturday's School Council meeting:


Minutes of Meeting 11/23/13
Present:
Dr. Cowdell, Ms. Harrington, Ms. Hereford, Mr. O’Connell, Ms. Perry, Ms. Raymond, Mr. Shurtleff
Absent:
Ms. Castillo, Ms. Quinonez
 
Meeting called to order at 9:12 AM…No one present for open mic.
-          Brief introduction activity with educator matched with parent/community member for introductions.
-          Discussion on similar format to last year’s structure of meetings: open mic, followed by an agenda-driven meeting with new business being discussed at the end to add items to the next meeting agenda
-          Discussion pertaining to other committees/teams: explanation of various committees/teams with a handout of the members of each team. Leadership Team; PIM Team; Cluster Leaders Team; Lead Teachers Team; also Content Collab (grade level, content specific teams).
-          MCAS results from last year were explained, along with a realization of the sense of urgency that we need to improve our scores; discussion around Marshall being the district focal point and a call to action to push our achievement scores up on the MCAS tests.  Realization that several of the recent evaluation teams have pointed out that student culture and building climate is strong, yet achievement is not.  Specific areas of weakness are math and science. 
-          Initiatives discussed were:
o   A. the district’s data-gathering visit that occurred yesterday and debriefing to occur next week.
o   First-in-Math
o   “Gradual Release of Responsibility” instructional approach: schoolwide transition to push students to take more ownership in the learning.
o   “School Works” action plan as a result of last spring’s visit (Gradual Release of Responsibility…and more valuable participation by teacher teams)
o   School Works principal consultant assigned to all level 3 schools.  Our consultant. Janelle Bradshaw, will be here December 10, 16 and 17.
o   Discussion pertaining to more initiatives to support First-In-Math, especially the students who have not engaged the program.  Subcommittee consisting of (Ms. Perry, Ms. Raymond and Mr. O’Connell) will meet with Dr. Cowdell on an afternoon (TBD) to discuss appropriate levels of incentives to award to students for their achievement levels. 
-          School Council members were invited to come to the school to do walk-through observations.  The parents/community member decided on December 9th (9 AM – 12 PM) as the date for their visit.  Council members were also invited to attend (and observe) any of the team meetings that were mentioned above.  Parents requested a schedule of when those meetings occur.  Dr. Cowdell to forward those dates and times.
-          Kyle Shurtleff was unanimously elected co-chair of the committee.
-          Dates were set for three quarterly meetings for the council: January 11, March 15 and May 10.
-          -Agenda items planned for next meeting are:
o   Open Mic
o   Report out from council members on their walk-through visits on December 9
o   Update on MCAS/Academic initiatives
o   Determination of any additional meetings needed (additional to the quarterly meetings scheduled)
-          Meeting adjourned at 11:10 AM.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Lynn Tech, Fecteau-Leary See Increase in Post-Secondary Education Enrollment

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has a new tool on its website called DART Detail: Success After High School. This tool contains data  that cover a range of school, district, post-secondary and career readiness information including demographics, high school indicators, high school performance, program of study, post-secondary education outcomes, and career development education over a number of school years. 

Here we look specifically at the post-secondary outcomes of Lynn students over the past few years. Below is a graph indicating the percentage of Lynn public school students who enrolled in post-secondary education within 16 months of graduating high school. 



The percentage of students enrolling in post-secondary education at Fecteau-Leary, for example, has increased from 23% in 2009 to 44% in 2011 (the most recent data available). At the state level, post-secondary school enrollment within 16 months has remained at approximately 75% over the last few years.



The data tool also lists the percentage of students who enrolled in post-secondary education immediately after graduating high school as well as the percentage who continued their education for at least two years following graduation (persisted).



Here we see that the percentage of students still enrolled in some sort of post-secondary education two years after graduating decreased for all Lynn schools and at the state level as well. All decreases at the Lynn level between the percentage that enrolled during the fall immediately following graduation and those still enrolled two years later were between 9 and 10 percent.



Below we also look at the same information for our neighbors in Chelsea, Revere, and Salem. The percentage of low income students at these schools are as follows: Chelsea High - 88.9%; Revere High - 71%; and Salem High - 57.2%.

 


 


All data taken from: www.doe.mass.edu

Friday, November 8, 2013

Ward One Lynn Accounts for Nearly One-Third of Voters in Tuesday's Election

In the Lynn municipal elections held on Tuesday, November 5th, 31.09% of registered voters in the city went to the polls in order to cast their vote. Below is how the number of voters broke down by ward.
 
Ward One accounted for just over 29% of the total number of those registered who actually voted this past Tuesday. Ward Six accounted for the smallest percentage of voters this week with just under 8% of the total. 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Lynn Election Results 2013

Registered Voters 51351 - Cards Cast 15967 31.09%Num. Report Precinct 28 - Num. Reporting 28 100.00%


MAYOR
Total
Number of Precincts28
Precincts Reporting28100.0 %
Times Counted15967/5135131.1 %
Total Votes15705

J. FLANAGAN KENNEDY925858.95%
JOHN TIMOTHY PHELAN640340.77%
Write-in Votes440.28%


COUNCILLOR-AT-LARGE
Total
Number of Precincts28
Precincts Reporting28100.0 %
Times Counted15967/5135131.1 %
Total Votes39786

HONG L NET604515.19%
PAUL T CROWLEY577714.52%
AIKATERINI KOUDANIS16564.16%
MIGUEL FUNEZ23595.93%
ROBERT CLAY WALSH457311.49%
BRENDAN CRIGHTON603315.16%
DANIEL CAHILL661516.63%
G. BUZZY BARTON663616.68%
Write-in Votes920.23%


SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Total
Number of Precincts28
Precincts Reporting28100.0 %
Times Counted15967/5135131.1 %
Total Votes47446

RICHARD B STARBARD630613.29%
DONNA M COPPOLA731415.42%
JOHN E FORD, JR609012.84%
CHARLIE GALLO647813.65%
LORRAINE GATELY544911.48%
MARIA O CARRASCO555411.71%
MELISSA L ROMANIELLO20084.23%
PATRICIA M CAPANO648113.66%
STANLEY H WOTRING,JR16953.57%
Write-in Votes710.15%


WARD 1 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted4667/926250.4 %
Total Votes4577

WAYNE A LOZZI258456.46%
DEBRA A PLUNKETT197943.24%
Write-in Votes140.31%


WARD 2 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted2419/716633.8 %
Total Votes2269

WILLIAM R TRAHANT,JR143963.42%
JESSE C JAEGER82836.49%
Write-in Votes20.09%


WARD 3 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted2079/765127.2 %
Total Votes1927

DARREN P CYR113658.95%
M. RONALD MENDES78640.79%
Write-in Votes50.26%


WARD 4 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted1355/687919.7 %
Total Votes1250

RICHARD C COLUCCI78562.80%
A. MURRELL-ROSARIO45936.72%
Write-in Votes60.48%


WARD 5 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted1701/657525.9 %
Total Votes1484

DIANNA CHAKOUTIS83156.00%
JAKE KEO64743.60%
Write-in Votes60.40%


WARD 6 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted1242/587521.1 %
Total Votes868

PETER L CAPANO85298.16%
Write-in Votes161.84%


WARD 7 COUNCILLOR
Total
Number of Precincts4
Precincts Reporting4100.0 %
Times Counted2504/794331.5 %
Total Votes1942

RICHARD J FORD187296.40%
Write-in Votes703.60%

Source: Chief of Elections
http://www.ci.lynn.ma.us/citydepartments_clerk_votingresults_election_2013.shtml