hard deadlines

Members of the PMS Best Buddies program with teacher Samantha Cavanaugh receive recognition from School Committee Chair Sylvia Wedge (r).

Mary Sahady of the audit firm Hague, Sahady & Company delivered the results of the FY 2007 report on the Portsmouth School department, and she reported that last year the schools ended with a positive balance and that financial control processes were moving in the right direction.

"I've seen some great improvements within the School Finance Department over last few months," said Sahady. "You spent a great deal of the last fiscal year without a business manager," she said, noting that there had been serious issues in keeping up before new finance director Christine Tague's arrival. "You spent a lot of time just getting the general ledger posted."

In addition to the good news about process, Sahady's team also determined that the schools had managed to end the year with a positive balance, as some unanticipated funding came in late in the year.

Said Sahady, "You did — I'm not going to use the word well — you were able to increase your unreserved fund balance. Historically, the school department has had very little money left over, but this year you ended with positive variance of $230K, the majority of which was money you received in June." But Sahady was quick to point out that this was not a planned surplus, but rather a combination of decreases in expenditures and unexpected revenue. "Take away that $230K," said Sahady, "And you would have ended year with $18K — not a lot for a district with a $32M budget."

The 22 citizens at the meeting also saw the School Committee recognize the work of the Portsmouth Middle School Best Buddies program, for organizing a food drive to support the Martin Luther King Community Center in December. Teachers Samantha Cavanaugh and Alyse Jacobsen, as well as the Best Buddies students were thanked by the committee, and resident Chris Caruba also voiced his support for the Best Buddies work with special needs children in the Portsmouth schools.

In less happy news, the committee accepted with regret the retirement of several long-time teachers in the Portsmouth system. I'm particularly sad to hear about the departure of Sarah Tarducci, who is Jack's art teacher at Hathaway. We have been consistently wowed by the wonderful pieces Ms. Tarducci coaxes from her students, and the range and depth of her work with these very young kids. Last year, we had to make a special stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," because Ms. Tarducci had done a project with first graders to get them to choose a favorite art work. When I was in first grade, I didn't know who Van Gogh was. A big thanks to Ms. Tarducci and best wishes in her retirement. She will be missed.

PHS Principal Robert Littlefield presented some curriculum updates to the committee for review, most notably the addition of AP Biology and Statistics (which would bring the number of AP courses up to 12, including Physics and Calculus.) Committee member Marge Levesque asked about which students were eligible, and Littlefield described the PHS enrollment policy.

"Some schools make you jump through hoops," said Littlefield. "We have open enrollment. If a student and their family are ready to take on that challenge, we don't want prerequisites to stand in the way." But also, he noted, unlike some schools where taking the College Board test at the end of the course was option, PHS is more rigorous. "If you take an advanced course, we also require you to take the test," he said.

By this point in the evening, we were down to just 10 people in the audience, with the PCC clustered on the left side of the room, and the pro-school people on the right. You'll see it if you watch the video, it's actually pretty funny to see who shows up, time and again, to poke. Like Jeff Richard did this evening, offering his well-informed educational perspective. "I've heard if you successfully test well in AP Calculus, there is a 100% correlation you will graduate from college. If we can offer that, we know we can send our kids to Harvard and MIT." Somebody had to tell the well-informed Mr. Richard that PHS already offers AP calculus. And maybe, next year, a graduate of the statistics course can explain to him the difference between correlation and causality. But I digress. The committee passed the proposed curriculum changes unanimously.

There was some discussion of proposed policy revisions (discussed by the subcommittee last week) and Dick Carpender suggested that the community members concerned about the building fees might wish to be heard by the full committee, in addition to meeting with the subcommittee at their next meeting, January 30th at 5:30 in the PHS library.

Also on the calendar is a combined meeting with the Town Council to discuss finances, scheduled for February 13. Meeting adjourned at 8:50.