Thursday, March 22, 2007 Older Editions

School Committee race: Candidates answer questions

1. What should be the top three priorities for the School Committee this year?

Robert Coffill Jr.

"First, I would call for an immediate Department of Education audit of all Andover's special education costs, and also the collaborative. I would look at ways we could regionalize special education cost sharing and maximize revenue. You can get more money from the federal government by having a large consortion of public schools. If you look at the residential program, costs have increased. It's time for consolidation. I would challenge a chief financial officer in the school district on the reporting process of special education figures. In fairness to the children and teachers, they deserve the same kind of program Andover was recognized for in 1987 and 1988, which, when I was a young superintendent, I studied at Boston College. Everybody wanted to be like Andover. Look at the way they worked together with town officials. They all worked in harmony. That's the way it was. But it's a matter of give and take. A year ago, I called for regionalization. Now we're in our 25th hour. Third, I would direct the superintendent to find the $650,000 given to the School Committee. With Andover's athletic success, there's no reason for students to pay to play sports.

Richard 'Dick' Collins

"One thing certainly is that we get the funds to do the things that the superintendent indicated we need to do. The biggest thing is to restore the programs that we've cut away from our kids, such as elementary school physical education. So my main priority is to restore the programs that have been missing in this town for many years and had to be cut due to budget constraints. We also need to maintain our class sizes, not to lay off people and force us to increase the size of our classes. I think that's an extremely important thing...a serious disadvantage. Third, we can advocate for the state to give us more help with special education. These kids deserve everything they can get and I am very much in favor of the special education program. What I'm concerned about though is the burden that's been predominantly thrown on our local schools. We're talking in the neighborhood of $6 million per year. The School Committee can advocate for the state and federal government to pick up more of the budget."

Debra Silberstein

"The three are building partnerships, fiscal discipline and balance. 1. (One priority) is building effective and lasting partnerships with all our citizens, local officials, Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee, neighboring school districts and state legislators. What we need to do is strengthen Andover's position both for state funding and policy changes. We need to work with the neighboring communities on regionalization, sharing best practices and looking at areas within contracts that can be changed. 2. To succeed, we need to do things differently. The school district achieved important operational efficiencies in 2006 and 2007, but more changes are needed. We need to maximize the effective use of every dollar and link each dollar to student achievement. 3. Balance is listening to the concerns of all our citizens and balancing the needs of our entire town. This also means focusing on economic growth, such as the new I-93 exchange."

2. Many MCAS critics say that the MCAS focuses too much of a school system's attention on struggling students and not enough attention on advanced students.

The League of Women Voters asked the three candidates for School Committee:

1) Do you think the current focus of the Andover school system strikes an appropriate balance?

2) Is this decision a policy decision belonging to the School Committee, a curriculum decision belonging to the administration, or something else?

Robert Coffill Jr.

In reviewing the last 10 years of instruction in public schools there is way too much teaching to the MCAS test and not teaching to students' individual needs. By putting an emphasis on teaching to the test our schools taught to the middle student, dumbing down the curriculum. This is not the fault of the faculty. We need the School Committee to encourage faculty to challenge all students and remember the MCAS is only one indicator of student progress.

Bottom line, too many students are being tutored in our public schools. School Committee has full responsibility to set curriculum policy.

Note: Robert Coffill's response was longer than the 100 words allowed, and was edited.

Richard 'Dick' Collins

MCAS tests are extremely important but there is more to education than test results. I believe Andover puts equal emphasis on all its students, although I would support advanced mathematics for our most qualified middle school students. We must be careful in judging school systems by MCAS results as the level of academic abilities varies in different communities and we cannot judge a school system by results from different groups of students each year.

Finally, the School Committee certainly has a voice in this matter and should make recommendations, but curriculum decisions should be made by the administration.

Debra Silberstein

Schools must be accountable for the effective use of public dollars and for improving student achievement. Testing is one measure of accountability resulting from a recent series of state and federal legislative mandates. MCAS is only one assessment of student learning. The mission of our public schools focuses on the whole child. Systematic district-wide efforts are made to strike the appropriate balance. Efforts to improve educational services and challenge all students across the spectrum must continue.

Andover is a high performing district. Balance is driven by the shared values and common goals of the community, School Committee, and professional educators.

3. Candidates for School Committee differ over whether to support a proposal to use Proposition 2-1/2 debt exclusions to replace school roofs.

The town estimates the cost for a five-year roof replacement plan at around $10.5 million, $1.5 million less than its original estimates. Andover High School is said to be in most urgent need of a new roof, followed by Doherty Middle School and Bancroft, West, Sanborn, South and Shawsheen elementary schools.

All the candidates believe that some of the roofs in the district's schools are in need of repair. But here is what the candidates had to say about whether they would support the proposed debt exclusion as the way to pay for repairs:

Robert Coffill Jr.

"I'm against it. There's no place for it. It's a matter of a lack of proactive facility planning, especially in these financial times. What it's called is avoiding fiscal responsibility in one budget year and putting it in the next year's cycle. I saw this coming last year. It's a hidden way to increase taxes and not an ethical way of running [the] school budget.

"You must use fiscal discipline within the budget. Using special education, health care and roofs are lame-duck excuses; the same ones are used every year."

Richard Collins

"I don't think we have a choice on that. I've listened to Joe Piantedosi [director of plant and facilities] talk and he says we'll be in serious trouble if we don't replace these roofs. Though I wish we didn't have to, the money could be used for so many other things."

Debra Silberstein

"Unlikely. Debt exclusions shouldn't be used for capital projects that we absolutely must do. Repairing, maintaining and replacing roofs are must do's for a community like Andover that invests in its infrastructure. I also still have a number of questions. I understand that the amount requested is going to be reduced, so we may be able to bring this in with existing revenues. I'd like to know what the impact would be of slowing the rate of repair and replacement, and be reassured we're pursuing the most cost-effective and efficient options."

4. Should the middle school math curriculum be changed?

Robert Coffill Jr.

"For one, it clearly needs examination. The group of educators on my campaign committee have assessed it. One question is 'will proper implementation for teacher development be put into place?' There's too many students that are getting outside tutoring, so this says that something is wrong with the instruction. There are too many potholes in the algebra department, for one. Curriculum is an ongoing process of development and evaluation. If you say you're going to put kids first, you must get in the trench and see who's giving the instruction and which curriculum is being implemented and have sound evaluation of the instructional pattern. When you compare Andover's with that of surrounding middle schools, this is a good question for the School Committee to answer. A big concern is leaving a large part of the student population behind. We're trying to make life better for all students."

Richard 'Dick' Collins

"That's a very difficult question. For most people in the school, it should not be changed. On the other hand, I do believe there are some extremely advanced math students out there - we should offer programs for them. So keep the math program the way it is, but also offer an advanced math program for those students who have demonstrated that they're qualified."

Debra Silberstein

"Yes, some change is needed. I think the data presented at the recent forum indicated that there were some concerns and that we need to do what's best for all the kids. The role of the School Committee should be to ask the right questions and make sure that education reflects the values and expectations of the community. The role of educators is to do something to move us forward. Our comparable communities do advanced math with a middle school concept and also bring in math coaches. We should look at both those options."