Starting in September, school lunch prices across all Tri-Town schools will increase by 25 cents, said Food Services Director Caitlin Meagher on May 6 during the Marion School Committee Meeting.

The committee approved the rise in the school lunch cost at Sippican School, and other districts are expected to approve the 25-cent increase within the following week.

Meagher said the rising cost of food, aging equipment needing repairs, and the cost of replacing old equipment are the reasons behind the increase.

“It makes sense,” said School Committee member Christine Marcolini. School lunch prices at Sippican School have not increased since 2011, said Meagher, the year she took on the role of food services director.

The current price of $2.50 for lunch at Sippican School will be $2.75 come September 2015 into the 2015/2016 school year.

Also during the meeting, Sippican School Principal Evelyn Rivet said the school’s student body will increase by five students next fall as a result of round one of acceptance of qualified applicants for the 40B affordable housing development.

Rivet said the biggest impact would be on the kindergarten and third grade classrooms, with 55 students entering the three kindergarten classrooms in the fall and 66 entering the three third-grade classes.

“[That is] at the top end of the number that we would like to see,” said Rivet.

Superintendent Doug White said a total of 15 students moving to Marion Village Estates located off Front Street will enter the Old Rochester Regional and Marion school district.

In other matters, school administrators are unhappy about having to wait until November for the state to release the early data from this year’s piloting of the new PARCC testing that took the place of the MCAS.

“Which is very, very, very disappointing,” said Assistant Superintendent Elise Frangos. “And everyone in the education world has weighed in on it.”

White said one of the initial positive aspects of adopting the PARCC exam instead of continuing the MCAS for another year was the promise of the earlier availability of the resulting data.

“It’s not only bothersome to me,” said White, “but to many superintendents across the districts.”

Parents should expect to receive their child’s scores later in December.

Also during the meeting, the committee accepted a donation valuing $500 to $750 for free tick spraying around the perimeter of Sippican School from a local business.

Facilities Manager Gene Jones said the all-natural product consisting of oils such as rosemary and peppermint would be applied several times throughout the season early in the morning over certain weekends.

School Committee Chairman Joseph Scott and committee member Jay Pateakos both said their good-byes to the committee, the administration, and their constituents during their last meeting as School Committee members. They were both honored with a book for the library at Sippican School dedicated to each of them.

The next meeting of the Marion School Committee is scheduled for June 3 at 6:30 pm at the Marion Town House.

By Jean Perry

Rochester Memorial School Principal Derek Medeiros told the Rochester School Committee on May 7 that he is hopeful a two-day trial run of a tentative breakfast program will appeal to students and parents and lead to a full-time breakfast program come next school year.

On May 21 and June 18, students will arrive at school as usual; however, students in kindergarten through grade two will go to the cafeteria and sit according to grade for a healthy breakfast that includes breakfast bars and yogurt. Meanwhile, grades three through five will engage in a walking and socializing exercise activity in the gym before grabbing a breakfast bag to take to homeroom to eat in class.

Medeiros said the optional breakfast – meaning kids are not required to eat what is provided – could be successful enough to establish regularly in the fall. For now, though, the school will try the program out on these two days only, assess the process, and send a survey to parents and students for feedback.

“There’s a real push to bring breakfast into schools,” said Superintendent Doug White, adding that the time spent at the breakfast program would be counted as learning time “as part of the steps to ensure that kids are in a good space.” He called it a win-win for everybody.

In other matters, the committee voted to allow Business Manager Patrick Spencer to engage in negotiations to again rent out classroom space at the school, this time to Countryside Child Care who will provide before and after school care.

After sending out an RFP for offers on the space, Countryside Child Care expressed interest in the space, offering a two-year lease at $1,600 per month for the first year and $2,000 per month the second year.

“It’s money that we can use,” said Spencer, adding that the previous tenant who briefly rented the space to pilot a preschool provided funding for the school to purchase HVAC filters through the $1,000 per month lease.

“I think there’s definitely a need in the community, and I think it will be something that’s very beneficial to our community,” said Medeiros.

Also during the meeting, ORR Junior High School Principal Kevin Brogioli presented the committee with his transition plan for sixth graders entering the junior high next year, a time that can be riddled with anxiety for students and parents alike.

Focus of the discussion started with the general shift in paradigm from elementary school to junior high, and waned toward lining students up academically with the junior high school’s math program, keeping in mind the significant dip in students’ MCAS scores in math last year.

All math teachers have attended PARCC workshops run by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and a math consultant, as well as one of the authors of the Mathematics curriculum, has spent time inside ORRJHS classrooms performing assessments and observing instruction.

Sixth grade classrooms are also observed as part of the schools “vertical teaming work,” and seventh grade teachers will be meeting and observing sixth graders before the school year is over.

Sixth grade students will also visit the junior high and have lunch in the cafeteria for the first time.

Starting next school year, said Medeiros, RMS will be changing its structure of fifth grade classrooms as a way to introduce a slow transition before switching over to junior high. Fifth grade classes will be compartmentalized, with a homeroom, one teacher for math, one for English language arts, science, and so on, with students switching throughout the day.

The sixth grade class structure will transition toward a “STEM approach.”

At the junior high, pedagogy is no longer viewed as an effective way to teach math to students, with admin now favoring more group work, student engagement, with less teacher talk and more student talk.

Brogioli also had other ideas for future trials for transition and teaching at the junior high.

“I would still like to see longer classes, longer periods,” said Brogioli. “I do think a 50- to 56-minute … somewhere inside there is the sweet spot.”

Periods at the junior high are currently 47 minutes long.

“We can still do a good job in the 47 that we have,” said Brogioli. “I’m not going to rest on where we’re at…. We’re going to keep going.”

The committee also approved the 25-cent hike in the school lunch price for the next school year, which will be implemented at all schools across the Old Rochester Regional school districts. At RMS, the price will increase from $2.50 to $2.75.

The next meeting of the Rochester School Committee is scheduled for June 2 at 6:30 pm at Rochester Memorial School.

By Jean Perry