(I've been griping about the Town's website for years. The Selectmen adopted a policy outlining basic things that should be on the website. We are now one month shy of the two year anniversary of that vote, and it's still not being done. - promoted by Brian)
In general, the Town of Dedham website is very useful. However, I wonder why it is not cleaned up when postings are stale.
In particular, news and announcements frequently seem to remain on the site well past useful dates. For example, the Recreation Department page has a section for News and Announcements. There are 10 items there at the moment. The newest is for Flag Day (6/10/2010). The oldest discusses TV Turn Off Week (4/13/2009).
Suggestions:
- System-wide, delete old notices.
- Determine if the web site software permits automatic deletions on a predetermined date.
- Create a single News and Announcements page for the Town. This would be easier to maintain and would save end-users a lot of searching through individual departments. End users can ignore messages and announcements that are of no personal interest.
I like the website, but think it could be administered in a better fashion....
(Because these are not Title I schools (the low income students don't amount to more than 40% of the student population) the schools don't receive federal funding. As such, the school choice provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind don't apply to these schools. - promoted by Brian)
Much to my suprise today I received 2 letters in the mail from each one of my children's schools. First from Dedham High School stating that they did not meet AYP for 2010's mcas in ELA and another from the Oakdale School stating the same; That they also didn't meet AYP in ELA in 2010. Does anyone know if the Greenlodge, Riverdale or the Middle School made AYP for 2010? Last year (2009) Greenlodge and Avery did not make AYP and it was not made public I found that information on the DOE website. Why were the covers pulled over this matter last year? Why has this taken so long to be addressed from the principals, administration and the school committee? These matters should be addressed asap and not a year later. Our administration needs to be more transparent. It begins with the top and works its way down. I am completely disheartened by this whole matter.
What question would you ask Congressional candidates Stephen Lynch and Mac D'Alessandro to answer if you had the chance? The editors of community web sites from Milton (02186 MyTownMatters), Dedham (MyDedham), and Westwood (Our Westwood) are inviting you to submit your questions as comments below from now until August 31. We will select 10 questions and submit those to both campaigns, then publish their responses online before the September 14 Democratic Primary.
Please suggest questions both candidates can answer--don't try to debate/discuss the merits of the candidates under this topic yet. Save that for after they respond. Please follow the community guidelines as you make comments.
(There are a number of things that could be done. For the things that the School Committee has promised would be done, see the end of this presentation. - promoted by Brian)
I have been following the recent situation at Avery School. I don't understand the comment by the superintendent at the parent meeting that "all staff would recieve the same professional development". Does that mean all staff have not been trained in new curriculum? If so that is poor policy. Upon investigation I learned that only some staff recieved training in the math (Everyday Math) program and the writing program (Lucy Caulkins). The teachers who were not trained were expected to read the materials on their own and "wing it". Paraprofessionals were not and have not been trained in curriculum for years. How does a school system expect to utilize its staff to their full capabilities without training? How do you service a child efficiently without training? Upon further discussion with other parents and neighbors the common thread was "How could the administration be so foolish? It must all come down to money." I assume that instructors of these various programs charge for their services.Do they charge by the attendance?
I and several others would like answers to these questions.
Also are they really considering eliminating the 15 minute morning break. Do they expect kids to "sit and learn" without some release of their natural energy? Once again panic sets in fuelled by administrators who missed the boat.
A teacher can only reach a child with the cooperation of parents. Instead of pointing fingers of blame to those on the front lines, look inside your heart, are you invested in your child's education? Do you keep tabs on your elected school committee? Do you communicate with administration and teachers and question their policies?
Since news broke on myDedham last week about the Avery School being identified for improvement by the federal government - and parents subsequently being offered the choice to transfer their kids to other schools - its been a hot topic of discussion around town. Traffic to the blog has been way up, and when I ran into an Avery parent at a bar on the Cape last weekend it's all we talked about.
It's also got me thinking about the research I did in grad school. My Master's thesis was on what cities and towns in Massachusetts can do to improve their education systems. My single biggest surprise was reading over and over again about just how critically important teachers are. Obviously everyone understands that they play a crucial role; without them a school is just a building full of books and kids.
However, teacher effectiveness is the single biggest variable when you look at how successful students are. It's more important than poverty, language spoken at home, parents' education level, and the like. A disadvantaged student with a great teacher will leap ahead while a student with everything going for her will likely fall behind if she is stuck with an ineffective teacher. Studies show this over and over again.
To mention one recent study, a Harvard economist has found that by age 27, students with good kindergarten teachers are earning about $1,000 more per year than students who had average teachers. In fact, they "estimate that a standout kindergarten teacher is worth about $320,000 a year. That's the present value of the additional money that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers."
(While it's true each of our schools has its own issues - and strengths - it's not the School Committee that is voluntarily offering up placement in other elementaries. That is something the School Department must offer under the No Child Left Behind Act. I think this and previous Committees have shown a commitment to neighborhood schools. - promoted by Brian)
After reading about the opt out of Avery to go to Oakdale or Riverdale elementary, I thought quickly of all the questions running thru my head, do I take my child from the neighborhood schools, the neighborhood friends the familiarity of it all, just because these "MCAS scores in math" then slowly but surely I started thinking about particularly Riverdale and all the talk about the principle there that so many parents are not happy with, so many stories i have heard, then realize that 2 teachers had been there for so long "chose to leave supposedly due to her" And isnt Oakdale bursting at the seams i mean my goodness is this truly the best that Dedham can do a quick fix bandaid lets send them to another school and see what those teachers can do... opt in and support the teachers at Avery and let them do what teachers do best and teach... Come on School committee you can do better than this...
I'm the parent of an Avery School student. Today, I received a letter from the Avery principal stating that the school was indentified for improvement in mathematics under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Seeing the school receives federal Title I funds, my child is now eligible to attend another school in the district that is not identified for improvement.
I have a week to decide whether to keep my child at Avery next year or transfer him to either Oakdale or Riverdale. The district will provide transportation.
(While doing something great with that property will undoubtedly be a benefit to the neighborhood, the real linchpin is the plaza across the street. Not much is going to be happening there any time soon, unfortunately. - promoted by Brian)
Does anyone know what is going on with the Rick's Pub property in East Dedham? It was for sale some time ago and now there is a sign on the roof that states it was sold by a real estate company. A few weeks ago, I noticed that a landscaping company came in and cleaned up the area. I've heard rumors that a coffee/donut franchise bought the building. Any truth to that?
(That house is a disgrace, but I don't think Gobi has any plans to do anything with it. It's a shame. - promoted by Brian)
What is the situation with the house and property across from the Endicott Estate? Zillow.com has the house on what appears to be a new neighborhood (new roads called Kennedy Dr & Reagan Ln) but I have seen zero construction in over a year. The house is in complete disrepair.
When I moved to Dedham almost two years ago, there was a giant tree in front of the house with a yard that was at least green. Now its simply an embarrassment. The address is 637 East St. Any news on this?
(This is one of the best written, best thought out posts I've seen here in a while, but even if it were shorter and not nearly as articulate I'd put it on the front page just for the use of words like "pollyquaddle." Corporate jargon that is not. - promoted by Brian)
I hear that the Library Board will be attending this Thursday's Selectman's meeting. Judging by the minutes of the June Board meeting (The July meeting has yet to be posted. What takes so long to submit the minutes, particularly when the secretary is using a laptop to record them?) and by the statements made at the July meeting, I think the subject will be hours, staffing and money.
(We do have an animal control officer, but they are not on duty 24 hours a day. I don't know what their hours are, but they could have been off duty by then. - promoted by Brian)
I was at Endicott circle around 5.30 yesterday and came upon a very sad scene.A dog who was injured somehow was being attended by some folks who came upon the scene. I pulled over and watched as the police were summoned to assist . I overheard conversation that stunned me, we have a dog officer in this Town, and that person never showed up to help this poor dog. Why??? . That poor dog died while waiting for help to arrive.Where was the Animal Control officer?..We were heartbroken watching this drama unfold.So The Animal Rescue League people showed up and took the poor dead dog.
(The Facebook group has nearly 200 members already. Let's use this space to discuss what we would like to see for celebrations. - promoted by Brian)
I recently became aware of the fact that next year Dedham will be turning 375 years old. I learned of this by joining the facebook group Dedham 375 created by Paul Reynolds. They are looking for some creative suggestions on how to celebrate. I just wanted to let anyone who's interested know that there will be a kick off meeting on Tuesday 7/27 at 5:30 at the Endicott Estate.
(This issue came up during the community meetings the Selectmen held, but I never really heard a good answer why not. I think the real reason is the cost of weekly pickup. - promoted by Brian)
I have read that the Town wants to increase the volume of trash recycling. Would that goal be encouraged by collecting the recycle barrel every week and the trash barrel every two weeks? In other words, switch the pickup intervals of trash and recycle.
My preference would be to use the Readville model. Recycle is in the same type of barrel that Dedham uses while trash is "free form". Any trash barrel or container is collected.
(Glad to see you back on the blog, Gary. It's been a while. - promoted by Brian)
At 7 PM tonight there will be the monthly board meeting. As I understand it, one topic will be the recent survey, what it is supposed to infer regarding library hours, staffing, etc. There has been much misinformation of late on this topic.
For instance, there is the statement that the Dedham Library is open considerably more than other local libraries. Sorry, no. When tabulating the total hours for a town library system, you do not tabulate different buildings as separate entities. The open hours are the number of hours the SYSTEM is open. If both the Main and the Endicott are open at the same time, you don't double the hours.
(It was the Planning Board who made the deal with HSL for the PILOT. Since this is a reoccurring theme here, I'll try and get one of them to respond. - promoted by Brian)
I have commented on the taxation of the Hebrew Senior Life development before, but figured with the receipt of new tax bills due August 2 it is time to start a new diary. People at town hall tell me that HSL is paying some taxes, but are not sure how much. Stebivule in comments earlier this week in another diary said that HSL has guaranteed the town $650,000 per year with payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) beginning February 2010. If the property was paying little in taxes prior to its development then $650,000 is of course a nice windfall. But HSL residents use our roads and our policemen and firemen, and other services. The HSL website brags about residents "not having to worry about cutting a lawn, fixing plumbing, or paying property taxes." The website states that there will be 91 apartments to be sold at $450,000 each and 256 "cottages" to be sold for $1.4 million each. So doing a little math, using our current residential tax rate of $13.57 per thousand of valuation, these residences should be paying the town well over $5 million per year. Now I do not know if all of them have been built or whether they will be sold at lower prices due to the current real estate slowdown (Dedham's high taxes have contributed to the difficulty of selling homes here, a bit of irony), but their payment should be a lot more than $650,000, that is for sure. It does not matter if they are built and not sold (I have a two bedroom condo in Dedham that is empty that I have been trying to sell for two years and the taxes are $4,700 per year on it). It does not matter that HSL has its own school (I pay taxes and voted yes on the Avery override but have no children of my own). While their school and hospital facilities of course should not be taxed, these residences are hardly low-income (they have HOA fees of as much as $3,000 per month on top of the purchase price!), so these folks can afford to pay their fair share of property taxes. With revenues from Legacy Place and HSL at fair levels, it might even be possible to lower overall tax rates while maintaining town services...wouldn't that be nice! The stakes seem high here, yet there is little discussion of the issue. It might be well worth it for the town to pay for some expert outside legal help on this one. ( e.g., the Globe recently reported that Belmont and several other towns are now trying to tax church properties that are not being used for religious purposes or that are closed)
