1975-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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f REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS ii Much progress along with many problems: in a few words, this is the record of public school education and community action in 1975. Increased staff and the impact of inflation resulted in a larger school budget, with tuition charges for Mashpee students attending schools in Bourne, Falmouth, and elsewhere adding the largest amounts. A 29%growth in total enrollment from October 1, 1974 to December 31, 1974, resulted in crowded classroom conditions in the Samuel G. Davis Elementary School; and, at this writing, the housing J problem in that building for the 1976-1977 school year has not been solved. The decision, meanwhile, of the Falmouth School Committee to begin phasing out its ^, r acceptance of Mashpee students in their high school starting in September, 1977, is a favor, in the sense of letting the Town know where it stands, but another problem in terms of housing of those students. Then too, the cost of school construction together with unavailability of State funding to help with the building of the new middle school is yet another dimension of this difficulty. Our middle school architects, Nulty, Merithew, Palk& Sterling Partnership, are doing their best to design a school facility to meet the Town's needs through Grade 8 even though to do so within the$4 million ceiling voted at the Special Town Meeting in December will be difficult. Such are just some of the problems we have had to confront in the last twelve months during 1975. a+ All the while though, there has been satisfying and meaningful progress in the direction of our goal of offering varied and high quality education for all of the citizens of Mashpee. In the area of government Title Grant Programs and Projects, for instance, there was another successful ESEA Title I Summer School Program, while further funding under the same Title I now makes possi- ble a full-time reading instructor, who is currently working with the first ? through third grade pupils in the corner of the main corridor at the Davis Elementary School. Additional federal and state funding under the "Right-to- Read" Program will make possible curriculum studies and improvements in this most important of many concerns in elementary education. Indeed, a commitment to the teaching of the basic skills in Reading, Writing, and Arith- ' uretic is shared by all who are associated with the Mashpee Public Schools, and progress during 1975 was very satisfying in this area. In adult education too, there has been worthwhile progress to note. A federal grant of$51,200. has been awarded to Project BEAD - "Better Adult Education Development" - with Mr. Francis Whitebird from South Dakota as Director and Mrs. Mary Lopez and three teachers assisting him. Evening sessions are being held Monday through Thursday at the Davis School, pro- viding interested adults with an opportunity to improve their basic skills and to prepare for high school equivalency testing. How much further our hopes for community adult education can be carried will depend, of course, on new school facilities. But in 1975 real progress was made. Two other valuable projects were developed and started during 1975 in an effort to make possible some degree of vocational training for Mashpee resi- dents, who are still denied access to both of Cape Cod's two regional vocational- technical high schools. One of these programs, known as Project FOCUS, began in 1974 as a pilot program in occupational competence training. Using Federal funding that amounted to$54,616. during 1975, eighty students from Bourne, Falmouth, and Mashpee have been participating in this project. The FOCUS instructors and curriculum seek to integrate human and career develop- ment, learning of skills, and family relationship experiences, in an occupa- tional competence plan that utilizes both classroom and community-based projects and learning experiences. The other new vocational training program was funded at the Special Town Meeting in December of 1975. With matching k, •n.: 129