Voters Ask Questions

Of Chelsea School Bd.

By Michelle Kennedy

Tensions always run a little high during the Chelsea annual school meeting and Tuesday’s was no exception.

Although the $3,109,012 school budget was approved by the 156 voters who braved frigid temperatures and an only slightly warmer town hall, school board members had to do a bit of explaining first.

Selectboard member Carol Olsen said that she often receives calls from Chelsea residents who ask her why there are so many people who work at the school.

"People call me all the time," she said. "They don’t understand why if the [school] population is down, there are more administrators and more teachers. I tell them not to let it go and call the school board."

Other residents questioned the need for an assistant principal at a school with fewer than 200 students.

"We brought on the assistant principal [now a three-quarter time position], because there was a demand that we weren’t doing enough," Principal Karl Stein said. "There is more work than any one principal can do for a K-12 school."

Chelsea resident Sherri Richardson also spoke to the need for an assistant principal.

"We are often told that we shouldn’t speak about people, but about the position," she said. "But often it is not about the position, it is about the person. We have some phenomenal people at the school—and some who are not. We have a history of hanging onto people for too long when they’re not performing and then we have to face the union. Whether or not he’s an assistant principal, I can tell you that we do need Barrett Williams [the assistant principal]. He has been about the single most important thing to happen to Chelsea School recently."

Stan Brinkman brought up other issues.

"We are faced with shrinking enrollment," he said, "but also a state that wants school consolidation. The school is the anchor of our community identity. I don’t know what the town would be like without it."

In reaction to the school’s recently-published NECAP test results, some parents at the meeting showed dissatisfaction with the school’s academic abilities. Stein explained that among students who had been at the school two years in a row, scores were up. In addition, while Chelsea School scores remain low, particularly in the elementary grades, they are, overall, on the rise, he said.

Stein also added that NECAP tests would soon be required in reading, math and writing of all 11^th graders; and that in 2008 a science NECAP would be added for 4^th, 8^th and 11^th grades.

Craig Byrne defended the test results.

"Teachers," he said, "are not 100 percent responsible for students’ performance on tests. Parents also have to play a role," he said.

The budget was eventually approved, 81-47.

Other Votes

Voters also approved measures to place $22,000, the result of a surplus last year, in a capital reserve fund for future projects and to give the balance of the surplus [$5,000], to the playground fund.

Kelly Lyford was elected to a three-year term on the school board, replacing outgoing board member Rory Allen. Lyford was uncontested. She has spent 16 years in various aspects of early education and currently is involved in both the high school and elementary school.

She works for the state of Vermont’s Child Development Division as a complaint investigator and provides intense technical assistance to programs in serious regulatory difficulties and facing civil actions. She has two children in Chelsea school.

Joe Spinella, a fourth grade teacher at Hanover Street School in Lebanon, NH, was elected, also unopposed, to a two-year term on the school board, replacing outgoing board member David Mize. He is also on Chelsea’s Library Board of Trustees, is a former member of the Orange County Parent Child Center board and is a member of the Chelsea Flea Market board. He has two children in Chelsea Public School.