By Chris Schafer

Chairs were hard to come by for the Princeton School Board’s Nov. 10 meeting and Princeton math teacher Elaine Maples was nearly removed from hers.

Maples had come before the board during the citizen comment portion of the meeting to speak when board chair Dan Whitcomb informed her that as the president of the Princeton Education Association, she could not discuss the ongoing negotiations between the district and its teachers over a new contract.
The negotiations are in mediation and the mediator has told both sides not to discuss them publicly.
Maples stated she was doing no such thing and was only trying to talk about why a teacher had been removed from the citizen comment list and denied a right to speak. She was reading her prepared message when Whitcomb hit his gavel and informed her her time was over.

Maples kept reading at which point Whitcomb asked police officer Eric Minks to remove her from the board room. Maples told Minks no such move was necessary and she took her seat.

The exchange offered a brief insight into the ongoing negotiations between the district and its teachers.
Every seat was full for the board meeting with Princeton teachers filling most of the chairs. Several other chairs were filled by students attending the meeting for a government class. More people — again, mostly teachers and their supporters — were standing in the room until Whitcomb informed the crowd they could not stand in the room because the high volume of people violated the fire code. Those who were standing moved into the hallway where a television was available for them to watch the broadcast on.

Maples was the second speaker that evening, following Dave Beckers. The father of teacher Jeff Beckers, Dave Beckers asked that the district do what it could to help retain teachers already in the district. He returned to his seat after his comments were finished and he was applauded by many in the audience to which Whitcomb responded that this was a board meeting, not a rally and further clapping would not be tolerated, and the room would be emptied.

“We allow public comments,” Whitcomb said. “We don’t have to.”

The board entered into a closed session after its regular meeting to discuss contract negotiations. The district and the PEA will meet again with the mediator helping the two sides, Dec. 15.

In other business the board:

• Heard from Barb Muckenhirn, Princeton’s director of teaching and learning, and North Principal John Beach who presented the Adequate Yearly Progress improvement plan update.

The goals of the plan call for a 6.2-percent increase in student proficiency in reading. This amounts to an additional 93 students testing proficient in reading. Hitting this goal would mean 76.2 percent of the district’s students are proficient in reading.

The district is also striving for a math proficiency increase of 9.1 percent, meaning an additional 139 students would test proficient in math. If the goal is achieved, Princeton’s total math proficiency rate would climb to 63.7 percent.

In order to meet these goals, the plan calls for three conditions that must be met. First, the district’s math and reading curriculum must be aligned to state academic standards. Secondly, data will be used more effectively to identify students who are struggling in math or reading and to monitor the progress of those students. Finally, interventions will be implemented for students who are at-risk of failing in either math or reading.

• Approved granting Superintendent Lahn the authority to access Title 1 stimulus money to be used for the students. The discussion of this money first came to the board a month ago and board members were unsure whether the money ($23,000 in one-time money) would be better spent on several paraprofessionals or a part-time teacher.

At the Nov. 10 meeting it was approved that the money will be used to hire several tutors who will help students struggling in reading and/or math. The district will seek to hire retired teachers and paraprofessionals to fill these positions.

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