The Standard Times - April 2, 2012
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130402/NEWS/304020341/
By Natalie Sherman, Writer for The Standard Times
nsherman@s-t.com
Relevant Quotes: (Please follow the link above to read the complete article.)
"New Bedford must change as a district. To obtain that change we must begin somewhere," said Andrea Galipeau, a design team member for one of the proposals. "If these schools are not approved, what is your plan?"
The School Committee will vote next week on the two proposals: one for the bilingual, immersion Esperanza School of Language and Culture and another for the Renaissance Community School for the Arts.
The schools would receive about $4,200 per pupil in district funding — the average of other elementary schools in the district — in exchange for autonomy over areas such as staffing and curriculum.
They would offer options — foreign language classes in the elementary and middle school grades and integrated arts programming — that are currently unavailable in the district and would share space inside the Roosevelt Middle and Gomes Elementary, respectively. (To hear more about the plans, visit the Editorial Board Audio on SouthCoastToday.com.)
Notes from the Esperanza Team:
The school would not receive the per-pupil-expenditure "in exchange for" any autonomies. In writing the innovation school plan, all available autonomies were requested. The autonomies are listed in Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 71, Section 92, Subsection b.
Also, all schools in the district will have a site-based budget. Each school will have its own budget based on per-pupil-expenditure to pay for salaries and materials. The PPE allocated to the innovation schools is an average of the PPE at six New Bedford elementary schools. The legislation cited above states: "An Innovation School shall receive each school year from the school committee the same per pupil allocation as any other district school receives."
Lastly, the Esperanza School of Language and Culture is proposing the implementation of a two-way dual language immersion program. For more information about this program model, click the "for_parents" or "para_padres" labels on the right.
