Superintendent evaluated ‘proficient’; 2 Ottoson language teachers get awards

Elizabeth Homan receives third evaluation.

The Arlington School Committee Dec. 5 approved the town’s climate road map, congratulated two Ottoson Middle School world-language teachers for receiving teaching awards and presented an evaluation of the superintendent as “proficient.”

The committee also heard about expanding access to advanced academics, accepted a financial gift to develop Mill Brook Park.

All members attended the four-hour session in person at 14 Mill Brook Drive, as did Superintendent Elizabeth Homan and Juli Keyes, teachers’ union president and Ottoson teacher.

The committee shared its annual evaluation of Homan’s performance. Homan received an overall summative rating of “Proficient.”

Comments in report were generally favorable toward Homan, but not uncritical.

They praise her for her successfully handling this year’s teachers’ union negotiations, her implementation of the district’s new English language curriculum, her navigation of staff turnover and the steps she’s taken to implement her strategic plan. It also generally frames the past year as transitional, as many of Homan’s projects are multiyear and have yet to see results. 

Committee members declined to read any excerpts of their review into the record during the meeting, citing a desire to provide feedback in a less formal setting, as well as the fact that it was already thirty minutes beyond the meeting’s scheduled end. Homan thanked the board for their feedback.

Download the report from the agenda documents >>

Environmental initiatives

The School Committee voted 7-0 to approve the town’s Municipal Decarbonization Roadmap, going against their standard procedure of not voting on policy during the meeting in which it is first introduced. 

The road map is a document describing how the town intends to meet its goal of eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Arlington Sustainability Manager Talia Fox described the road map as “a hopeful, visionary document” meant to start conversations about decarbonization, and added that “with each school, we’re going to need to evaluate what our realistic options are.”

School Committee approval of this road map is the final criteria allowing Arlington to be certified as a “Climate Leader Community” by the state of Massachusetts, providing access to state funds for decarbonization initiatives. 

Fox also shared her intentions to apply for 2024 Clean School Bus Rebate program, which would grant the town money to replace a diesel school bus with an electric one. The town currently has two electric school buses, and last year won money to purchase a third. 

Following the vote, Chair Paul Schlichtman briefly engaged Fox in a conversation about EV-charging infrastructure, and Fox said she would look into why the town’s electric parking-enforcement vehicle charges at a public charger instead of using the one in the police station garage.

Read the documents for this agenda item >>

Teachers recognized with awards

The committee congratulated OMS Mandarin teacher Na Lu-Hogan, who recently won the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association’s Teacher of the Year award, and OMS Latin teacher Abbi Holt, who won an Excellence in Teaching award from the Classical Association of Massachusetts.

The teachers received an ovation from all in attendance, and Schlichtman thanked them on behalf of the committee for their service to the students of Arlington. Holt has previously been featured in The Boston Globe as an example of modern Latin teachers teaching Latin as a spoken, living language and ACMi interviewed Lu-Hogan about her award last month. 

Superintendent’s update

As part of her brief update, Homan shared that Arlington was one of five towns selected by the state for their competitive Advanced Learner Pilot program, https://www.doe.mass.edu/csi/equitable-stu-access/continuum-of-services.html which aims to produce “equitable opportunities for advanced and accelerated learning for all students, especially marginalized students who are historically underrepresented in advanced programs and services,” according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The five-year program will train Gibbs and Ottoson staff and administrators “to extend, accelerate and differentiate” course content for high-achieving students. 

Earlier in the meeting, during public comment, six parents spoke in support of expanding access to accelerated pathways to advanced math and science. Many of these parents shared that their high-achieving students were unengaged in their classes, and expressed concerns that the district makes it difficult for these students to pursue course loads that will interest them and provide pathways to careers in STEM. At its Nov. 14 meeting, the School Committee identified the pilot program as one way of expanding advanced STEM access. 

Adjusting financial procedures

During her update, Homan also shared that her office is adjusting financial-aid procedures for Arlington Community Education (ACE) and the Arlington After School Program, aiming to make financial assistance more available. “We’re trying to give ourselves as much latitude to make decisions as we can while being clear about what the procedures are that will allow for tuition assistance,” she said.

To qualify for financial assistance, families can provide documentation of their participation in a town or state public-assistance program. ACE also expanded its tuition assistance for the highest-need APS students from 75 percent to 100 percent.

Elementary, middle-school improvement plans

Most of the meeting was dedicated to hearing school-improvement presentations from the principals of Hardy Elementary, Bishop Elementary, Gibbs Middle School and Ottoson Middle School.

All four schools were rated highly by the state. Hardy, Bishop and Ottoson all saw approximately nine in 10 students meet or exceed expectations according to the state, while Gibbs, which faces unique challenges as a relatively new, single-grade school, saw 73 percent of students meet or exceed expectations.

In particular, the Ottoson, which Schlichtman praised as “a broadly commendable school,” was recently named the 13th best middle school in Massachusetts by U.S. News & World Report. Simultaneously, though, all four schools are working to address a significant performance gap between high-needs students — including low-income students, English learners and students with individual education plans — and non-high-needs students.

Following the presentation by Gibbs’ leadership, Vice Chair Jane Morgan sparked a heated discussion about some potentially alarming elements of a cohort analysis data that was later found to have been misreported. The cohort analysis provided to the School Committee incorrectly showed an as much as 20-point drop in the percentage of high-needs and disabled students meeting or exceeding expectations after a year at Gibbs.

Based on the analysis of data provided by the Massachusetts Department of Education, ELA saw a 13-point decrease of high-needs and disabled students meeting or exceeding expectations after a year at Gibbs, while math saw a six-point decrease for high-needs students and a two-point decrease for students with individual education plans.

Morgan described it as “very frustrating” that such extreme figures got all the way to the School Committee before anyone thought to question their accuracy. 

Cullinane gift

The committee voted 7-0 after a second reading to approve a financial gift from tech pioneer and Arlington native John Cullinane that will allow APS to develop Mill Brook Park.

“We think it’s a wonderful gift, and we thank Mr. Cullinane and his family for their generosity,” said committee member Jeff Thielman.

Following the vote, Cullinane thanked the committee for accepting his gift and said he looked forward to making the Mill Brook area something really great. 

Cullinane, who witnessed the public comment portion, then remarked, “To listen to these people push for even more difficult courses was quite interesting.”

“Maybe we’ll put a calculus tree in the park,” Chair Schlichtman replied.

Nov. 19, 2022: Homan rated proficient; assistant super leaving; new position in works

This news summary by YourArlington freelancer writer Sabrina Blasik was published Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.

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