Rochester School Department Blog

Elementary Parents and Pre-School Parents
Are you interested in providing your child with a unique and innovative school experience?

If your answer is yes, then please join us for the:

Maple Street Magnet School

Parent/Community Focus Group

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

6:00 p.m.

Central Office Downstairs Board Room

We look forward to sharing this exciting elementary school proposal with you!

Maple Street Magnet School will provide:

• A 200 day school year.
• Students in Kindergarten to Grade 5.  Grade 4  students in August 2012 and adding Grade 5 students in August 2013.
• A personal Learning plan to accelerate all student’s learning.
• French language instruction starting at Kindergarten.
• A core instructional program focused on reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing. 
• An project  based academic/arts instruction on a daily basis.
• Five terms based on an overriding theme of the school. Each term will have a theme based on the school year theme.  The integrated activities and content activities will be based on the themes.
• Kindergarten will follow the regular school schedule 8:30 to 3 p.m.

Here is a summary of November 15, 2011 meeting.

The Committee reviewed the proposed Hybrid Magnet School Calendar.  It was supported by consensus with just two changes.  The October 12^th and April 26^th Teacher’s workshops would be changed to the end of the year.  Two early release days may be added for parent conferences, one in October and one in April. 

The Committee discussed which language to teach and how to schedule and plan it.  The Committee supports French as the language for several reasons.  Everyone agreed that any language would be an improvement.  With Rochester’s heritage and history, plus a possible partnership with Club Victoire, French made a lot of sense.  Spanish and Chinese were considered, but French was the consensus decision.  Mrs. Brown has a great background in speaking French.  The classes would be 3 to 5 days per week, from 20 to 40 minutes depending on grade level.  The focus would be on proficiency in listening, speaking, understanding of cultures, and some proficiency in reading and writing.  

The Committee discussed the academic time schedule and a timeline for decision making.  It was agreed that we have several more items to finalize.  Once we have those finalized, we will have a focus group meeting with as many parents as possible.  Then the proposal would go to the Board.  The timeline may require a special Board meeting in January. 

 The Committee discussed several other areas to get agreement on.  They are listed below.

 Themes, focus of the school, logistics, 8 week themes, overall themes, kindergarten classes until 3, Child care, Art integration, Staffing issues, budget issues, transitioning new students, technology, transportation, teacher conferences, parental expectations, staff expectations, How to get the word out to the community.

 The committee is scheduled to meet again on November 22^nd and November 29^th from 5 to 7 p.m.

 The meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m.

Here is a link to an article from the Wire. 

http://www.wirenh.com/features-mainmenu-18/cover-stories-mainmenu-53/5243-higher-education.html

Maple Street School
Magnet Meeting
Boardroom #2

October 11, 2011
6:00 PM

The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.

Mr. Hopkins reviewed the agenda and proceeded to introductions.

The Committee discussed working rules for the Committee.  It was agreed to the following rules:

1. The Superintendent will keep the minutes, and they will reflect actions and recommendations of the steering committee. 
2. Decision making will be by consensus. 
3. We will try to schedule regular weekly meetings for the first six weeks.
4. The Steering Committee will make recommendations to the Board and items to share with the focus groups.
5. The Superintendent will facilitate the meetings. 

The Committee schedule the next several meetings:  October 18^th,  5 to 7 p.m., October 25, 5 to 5:50 p.m, November 1, 5 to 7 p.m.

The Committee discussed personal learning plans.  It was suggested some examples of personal learning plans would help the Committee. These will be brought to the next meeting.

The Committee discussed two 200 day calendars.  Examples of both calendars will be brought to the next meeting.

The third items of discussion included needing to clearly explain the expectations for students, staff, and parents in the magnet school.  The Steering Committee agreed that this should be part of its recommendations. 

The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. The motion passed unanimously.

September 20, 2011 6 p.m. in Conference Room # 2 in the Community Center is the next focus group meeting.  The School Board meeting room on the first floor of the Community Center, is where we will be meeting.

If you have questions about the magnet school, please review the posts in the blog.  You can also email me at hopkins.m@rochesterschools.com.

Thanks,
Mike

Below is a powerpoint presenation that has been used for the magnet school presentations.  We are planning another focus group meeting in the next two weeks.  We will publish the date and time by the end of this week. 

Magnet School Powerpoint