NEASC Extends Deadline For MHS Progress Report

has an additional three months to outline how it will correct areas of concern that earned the school warning status from NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) during its reaccreditation process earlier this year.

Principal Dan Richards told Melrose Patch on Tuesday that Janet Allison, director of NEASC's Commission on Public Secondary Schools, extended the deadline for the high school's mandatory special progress report from Dec. 1 of this week to March 1, 2012.

Richards said that he met with Allison to ensure the school was on the right track before submitting the special progress report and that "she was impressed" with the progress being made at the school.

"She offered to extend the deadline to March 1, which is great for us, because I have to categorize everything (in the report) as either 'in progress,' 'completed' or 'no action,'" he said. "She saw a lot of work in progress and near completion, so she gave us that window ... we’ll have it completed (by March 1)."

Allison confirmed to Melrose Patch that she offered to extend the deadline by three months.

"Yes. I’ve given them extra time," Allison said. "He’s a brand new principal there. I met him and talked with him and extended the deadline."

Allison said that NEASC does not comment on progress being made by schools except in official communications from NEASC directly to the school, especially when the school has not yet submitted any materials to the accrediting agency for review.

"I wouldn’t say anything until any report is submitted to us," Allison said. "We communicate with the school via official notification letters. We don’t publicly comment on something the school hasn't submitted, when it hasn’t even been reviewed by the commission."

In May this year, NEASC informed Melrose High School officials that the school had earned reaccreditation, but had also regarding the lack of a curriculum alignment plan, crowded classrooms and the aging building's condition.

That warning status requires the school to submit a special progress report delineating how the school is addressing those areas of concern, at which time the school's warning status will be reviewed.

In its May 20 letter to school officials, NEASC specifically asked for the special progress report to address seven areas:

• Submit the school's formal plan and timeline to align the curriculum with the academic expectations for learning

• Provide sufficient instructional materials, including textbooks, for the implementation of the curriculum

• Develop a plan to ensure an adequate and dependable source of revenue to provide and maintain a variety of areas for student learning

• Develop a plan to repair or replace the leaking roof immediately

• Provide a timeline to resolve all facilities issues identified in the evaluation report

• Assess the facility for safety concerns, with particular attention given to hallways and exists for emergency evacuations and make appropriate adjustments

• Evaluate the performance of the cleaning company to keep the school environment consistently clean and conducive to teaching and learning.

Writing a Formal Curriculum

Richards said the foremost goal has been working on the school's curriculum, which he said is a "living document ... but we need to start somewhere." In asking for a formal plan and timeline to align the curriculum, Richards said NEASC wants to see Melrose High School have a delineated process for developing the curriculum, including a template used by every department when formalizing the curriculum in each subject area.

"We have put together the process, we’ve created a template and we’ve gone above that, we’re writing a curriculum which is above and beyond what they asked for," he said. "All my professional development has been focused on writing the curriculum.

"If I were to submit it, I’m confident we’d come off warning," he added.

The common template addresses the sometimes drastically different approaches in various departments, such as science versus the humanities, Richards said, by developing essential questions used to measure students' knowledge. It also attempts to ensure that no matter the teacher in the front of the classroom, each student will consistently be exposed to the same material and information.

Also, , Melrose High School's curriculum has to match the , Richards said. That needs to be in place by September next year for Melrose to receive Race To The Top funds.

"So we had to do this anyways," Richards added. "The timing was perfect for this."

Richards ascribed the lack of a written curriculum at Melrose High School to teachers being considered "independent contractors," who may have come in and done a stellar job, but nothing was ever formally written down as a school-wide standard.

"We're trying to write the curriculum for the institution, so the institution can survive any one person," he said. "That’s why I'm so dedicated to getting this written and getting away from that independent contractor mindset. My goal is to have a good majority of that, if not all of it, completed by June."

Influx of Textbook Funding

Regarding NEASC's request that the school "provide sufficient instructional materials, including textbooks, for the implementation of the curriculum," before the NEASC report, the city had pledged for extra funding and the School Committee voted to .

Richards said last school year, an additional $45,000 was allocated to purchase textbooks for biology, math, environmental science, physical science, physics and history. Another $5,000 went to additional English Language Learner materials and $2,400 was spent on graphic calculators.

Also, the fiscal 2012 school budget boosts the textbooks line item by $28,279, Richards noted, for a total of $71,317, a 65.5 percent increase.

"So there's more coming, and that’s always going to be an issue—if it isn't math this year, it’s science next year, social studies the year after," he said. "We actually have a book replacement cycle. It’s making sure we stay to the cycle in replacing some of them. I think in the past Melrose didn’t have a cycle—years and years ago—and bought books randomly ... it just so happens we’re getting hitting with so many cycles at the same time."

Fixing an Aging Building

Repairing the Melrose High School roof immediately was on NEASC's list of must-do items and is something that was fixed over the summer, as the city had .

A punchlist of physical plant items has been addressed, Richard said—from frayed carpets to a patched hole in a floor that has been permanently repair, but he added, "Is the building done? Not even close ... there's a lot of work to be done here."

On Monday night, the Melrose Board of Aldermen's Appropriations Committee, comprised of the full board, recommended spending $25,000 from the city's free cash on a feasibility study for Melrose High School, which Mayor Rob Dolan called "phase three of major renovation" at the school.

In 2007, Dolan announced a $3.2 million plan to renovate Melrose High School, starting with a $1.2 million technology project that upgraded the school's data and wiring and installed interactive whiteboards in each classroom. Two years later, Dolan said that the physical overhaul of the school's interior and replacing the roof that constituted phase two had been stalled due to local aid cuts and a failing economy. However, .

On Monday night, Dolan told the aldermen that a building committee would be formed and apply for funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to tackle building problems within Melrose High School, including science labs—something specifically mentioned in the NEASC reaccreditation report—as well as upgrades to the heating system "and the guts of the building."