PRINCIPALS, PARENTS SAD TO SEE DARE GO

Woburn - A day after the City Council approved a budget eliminating
the DARE program, elementary principals said they were sad to see it
go.

"I think our kids are rather devastated," said Shamrock School
Principal Wayne Clark, who joined his counterpart from
Linscott-Rumford School in offering School Improvement Plans to the
School Committee Tuesday night.

In the next school year, the police and School Committee agreed to
start a "resource officer" program, with one police officer stationed
at the high school and one splitting time between the two middle
schools. To fund the program, though, officials had followed Police
Chief Philip L. Mahoney's suggestion and eliminated the popular Drug
Abuse Resistance Education curriculum, which had put a police
presence in all 12 city schools.

Clark said he understood why a school resource officer in the high
school and middle schools is important, although he added that it's
already had an impact on Shamrock.

"We had an incident where a few kids saw cruelty to an animal, and
the kids came to me asking where Officer Imperioso was," Clark said.
"But we didn't sacrifice DARE for nothing, and I truly understand
that."

The night before, David Kimmelman, parent of a soon-to-be ninth
grader, told the City Council he was concerned about the elimination
of DARE.

"This is a program of great value to these students," Kimmelman said,
after reading two letters from disappointed fifth graders who heard
the program was being eliminated. "I'm all in favor of what Chief
Mahoney and Principal [Robert] Norton want to do, but I think there
are other ways. There are a lot of solutions that we can put forward,
and I ask that you work with Chief Mahoney to make something happen
here."

Kimmelman suggested that parents could help run the program, or raise
the money to keep it running.

Another parent Monday night stressed that the DARE program is
important to teach students crucial lessons about drugs, drinking and
making the right choices before the enter middle school.

"They children need to have the resources in fifth grade," Karen Hyte
said. "Parents can only teach their children so much, and a person
outside their home life can help them more. My son is entering high
school next year and would love to be a DARE role model. I'm sure
there are tons [of kids] who would be willing to help out."

On Tuesday, School Committee member John M. Wells asked how the
elimination of the DARE officer would affect the elementary schools.
Linscott Principal Gary Reese said it would be a concern, though the
health teachers would be covering some of the skills and concepts
that the officer had taught previously.

Reese was also asked about another cornerstone of the school budget,
the planned redistricting of elementary students from Kimball Court.
While children from the North Woburn development formerly went to a
crowded Linscott building, next year they will attend Altavesta and
Wyman schools.

Reese said he had many calls from parents, but that the students were
not as concerned. The redistricting would eliminate about 50 students
from the school, freeing up two classrooms, he said.

"We had some specialists that have had to travel between classrooms,"
Reese said. "Because we have one that will be free because of this we
can put all the specialists in one room and they'll be able to share
that space."

Math a priority

Both principals said their schools will put an emphasis on math
education and parent involvement in the coming year, building on the
successes of 2006-07.

"We started a parent volunteer program," Reese said. "Parents came in
once a week and worked with students struggling in the classroom and
also the students that were advanced and had finished the work. This
allowed the teacher the opportunity to do some remedial work with
the students who needed extra help."

Reese also said he wanted to get parents more involved in helping
their children with math. This was accomplished through two parent
evenings and a family math night. The math night was a success, he
said. Stations were set up, allowing parents to work with their
children on different math-related projects.

"It was a pirate theme, which got kids excited about coming," Reese
said, explaining that the students all wore eye patches and dressed
like pirates. "It was a nice night."

Clark also said that his school had trouble with math. In an effort
to amend this without changing curriculum, Clark said he held a
faculty meeting where all teachers exchanged different ideas.

"My point was, let's not break from curriculum," Clark said. "Our
focus was, what are some of the extras we can do around what we're
already doing? Can we have some sort of extra credit questions? One
of the third grade teachers took the wall outside her classroom and
did a lesson and left rulers and scrap paper so kids, while getting
water, could tackle a problem."

Another goal was to get more family and community involvement, Clark
went on. This was achieved through a Boys and Girls Club after-school
program that will continue in the fall. Students could go to the club
after school and have a snack and also get working on their homework
with adults nearby in case they needed help. This was very
successful, he said.

Getting parents involved in back-to-school night in the fall has been
a concern in the past and a goal for the future, said Clark.

"There's so much great info that's given, yet our participation could
improve," he said. "So the PTO is going to have an evening program
the night of the after school night. Kids will come in for enrichment
program and parents will go upstairs. That provides a motive for
kids to drag parents along but also solves that daycare issue that is
a tremendous impasse for parents."