Tuesday, May 14, 2013
The Abrahams Group audited the Braintree School Department late last year.
An independent audit presented Monday night to the School Committee calls for streamlining administrative and financial processes, improving technology infrastructure and looking at outsourcing departments such as food service and maintenance as a way of saving Braintree hundreds of thousands of dollars. Committee members said they will take the report under advisement and did not take any action on it during their meeting at Hollis School, the same place where a different makeup of the board approved the audit two years ago. Outsourcing certain services to save money by reducing employee salaries and benefits was the one recommendation quickly dismissed by several committee members as not worth the potential monetary savings. "There's …
Thursday, May 9, 2013
The Braintree High fee is going up and new offerings are being made at the middle schools.
An expanded summer program at South and East middle schools will offer an academic bridge for students between grades, help ease elementary students' transition to a new school and offer new revenue streams to keep summer school solvent, East Principal John Sheehan told the School Committee earlier this week. The committee approved the changes with the expectation that Sheehan and Assistant Superintendent Maureen Murray will return in June with expected enrollment numbers to see if the expansion will be viable. In a separate but related vote, committee members unanimously raised the Braintree resident fee for summer classes at the high school level from $200 to $225. Non-residents will still pay $240 per course. Braintree High School will …
Friday, April 5, 2013
A state law took effect in July 2012 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
The Braintree School Committee voted earlier this week to adjust the district's bullying and other nondiscrimination policies in light of a new state law that bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The law became effective last July and adds gender identity to a list that includes race, color, sex, religion, national origin and sexual orientation. Into Braintree's "Bullying, Harassment, Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, Hate Crimes and Hazing Policy," administrators added gender identity to a similar list, which locally also includes physical appearance, economic situation, age, political belief and "other personal characteristics." The state provides definitions surrounding the term gender identity in a document provided to…
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Braintree High School student Jacqueline Flynn's research into how to kill ticks is being looked at by the federal government.
Jacqueline Flynn was working on an entirely different angle of tick research when she came across findings that would launch her project into first place at the Braintree High School Science Fair, second at regionals and garner the interest of state and federal officials. Flynn, a sophomore at BHS, was worried about making sure she removed ticks from herself and her clothing after collecting them for a different project when she researched how to kill them in a laundry cycle. She found a lack of data, and what she did find indicated that ticks frequently survive a clothes washer cycle because they are difficult to drown, but that a full hour in the dryer can kill them. After 13 cycles of testing, Flynn discovered that the deer ticks she …
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The committee did not vote Monday night and is reviewing whether and how much to raise the fees.
Under what Athletic Director Michael Denise called the "most feasible" option, the annual fee paid by Braintree High School students if they play at least one sport or participate in at least one extra-curricular activity would increase from $150 to $225. That plan would also impose a $75 per season fee at the middle school level, require varsity ice hockey athletes to pay a $400 fee and increase the family caps to $450 for non-hockey playing families or $800 for those who participate in varsity hockey. Junior varsity hockey players would pay $325 with a $650 family cap. The option, one of four presented Monday night to the School Committee, is being considered for adoption next year. It is the lowest-cost option Denise laid out for …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The Braintree School Committee approved the fiscal year 2014 budget Monday night.
Bill Gerety and his wife Maureen, like other parents of Liberty Elementary School fourth graders, are waiting anxiously to see how the Braintree Public Schools budget will evolve. In recent years, Braintree officials have approved annual expenditures in the spring, and by the end of summer additional funds – typically state education money – are made available, allowing the district to hire more teachers. If the same happens this year, one of the priorities identified by the school department is a Liberty teacher, which would enable the district to avoid collapsing four fourth grade classes into three fifth grade classes next year. The School Committee unanimously approved a $2 million increase to the department's budget for fiscal year …
All three new Braintree Public Schools administrators were congratulated by the School Committee Monday night.
The Braintree School Committee welcomed three longtime educators to their new administrative positions Monday night. Elaine Pagliarulo After a search process run by a committee of teachers, administrators and parents, Pagliarulo is now Assistant Principal at South Middle School. Pagliarulo has been a guidance counselor for nine years at South and was substitute there for one year before that. She has a bachelor's degree from Providence College, and a master's and advanced graduate certificate from UMass. She previously worked as a victim's advocate for Suffolk County and is an assistant coach for the women's basketball team at Emerson College. "I'm very excited to start this new position," Pagliarulo told the committee. Matt Reardon After …
Friday, March 22, 2013
Superintendent Dr. Peter Kurzberg said he is both philosophically and financially against the program.
As it has since the program was introduced statewide in 1993, the Braintree School Committee earlier this week decided against participating in School Choice, which allows students to seek education outside of their home district. Braintree Public Schools routinely opts out, Superintendent Dr. Peter Kurzberg said, because the town already has limited educational space, there is a significant cost, and, more philosophically, the program is not consistent with the goal of equal education. School Choice is essentially saying, "We don't believe that every school can provide an equal educational opportunity," Dr. Kurzberg said. Students from Braintree may still leave for other communities that are accepting out-of-towners. During the 2010-2011 …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Braintree is looking at spending $4 million on capital project town-wide during the upcoming fiscal year.
Of the approximately $4 million in capital spending that the town will likely undertake next year, nearly $1.3 million is earmarked for school improvements. Earlier this week, the School Committee approved plans to spend $700,000 on various projects, including an overhaul of the Braintree High School gymnasium. Those expenditures, which still need approval from the Town Council, are part of an annual outlay that the school department uses to keep up with building needs and other large-scale maintenance. On top of that, the town is also looking at spending $305,000 to pave the parking lots and driveways at East Middle School, and $279,000 on improvements to school security. The overal costs may come down somewhat, depending on where bids …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Hollis Principal Tim MacDonald has been selected as the Monatiquot full-day kindergarten program director.
Based on the 142 full-day kindergarten deposits made by Monday, there could be seven to eight classrooms available system-wide next year. That could mean up to three classrooms at Monatiquot School, plus three at Braintree High School and one each at Hollis and Morrison, depending on who from the waiting lists are willing to commit, Superintendent Dr. Peter Kurzberg told the School Committee Monday night. Enrollment could also depend on the resolution of concerns that parents and School Committee members have raised about the lack of a full-time nurse and secretary at Monatiquot. Hollis Principal Tim McDonald has been selected to oversee the program at Monatiquot. He would spend some time there along with his duties at the nearby …
Matt
6:52 pm on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Mr Markman. Do you know if the dog park on route 37 is open yet? If not do you know when it will open? Its the dog park that cost the town 1.8 million to get. more ›