At last night’s School Committee meeting MHS Principal John Drottar and site council member Vernon Nelson appeared before the committee. Mr. Drottar reviewed the process the council follows, addressing student scores (AYP, SATs, etc), the budget, and the bridge program. Mr. Nelson discussed the bridge program which ran for 4 weeks this past August. It assists students coming into the high school and provides math and reading reinforcement. It is funded by a state grant.

A good portion of the discussion involved the high school’s preparations for upcoming accreditation review by NEASC. The visit by NEAC will not take place unitl October of 2011. However, the lion’s share of the work in terms of performing a comprehensive review of the school’s mission and how the actual practice of instruction fulfills that mission. As Mr. Drottar said, “NEASC expects a school to be mission driven. . . do we have a focus and are our actions driving towards that.”

There was also some discussion about the number of science classes offered. At their next meeting there will be a review of the amended cuts due to budget constraints and their impacts.

Holly Concannon also appeared before the committee to update them on the status of math assessment. She reported that she is continuing on with the work that had been initiated prior to her arriving regarding the common assessment project for the elementary schools.

The topic of the Common Core came up. The Common Core being the standards to be complied with as required by participation in the Race to the Top federal program. Ms. Concannon said that Massachusetts in general and Milton specifically were in a very good position as the math standards we had in place were equivalent to and sometimes exceeded the Common Core standards.