After the state’s education commissioner announced last week that he wouldn’t support the proposed Somerville Progressive Charter School, the welcome note on the school’s website changed to reflect the creators’ revised goal.  “There is a new public school which will hopefully be opening in Somerville in the Fall [sic] of 2013.” For months, Somerville School Committee members, parents and teachers debated, among many issues, whether or not this publicly funded independent Commonwealth charter school would educate English language learners and teach science better than the district’s …

With a grant and cooperation from the city, a group of students and their teacher will finally carry out their goal of bringing recycling to Somerville High's cafeteria.  The Alliance for Climate Education and the National Grid Foundation recently awarded the Green Club a $1,000 grant to install recycling stations, publicize the program and reward students who participate.  The club tried to do such a program last school year, but social studies teacher and the club's advisor Kara Carpenter said they didn't educate people well about the recycling bins they had put out, which regrettably …

As the state's Board of Education scrutinzes the application for a new charter school in Somerville, some educators have put forth an alternative for parents, teachers and staff who want to practice experimental teaching and management methods.  The Somerville School Committee passed a motion last week requesting that the superintendent and assistant superintendent meet with the Somerville Teachers Association to discuss innovation schools.   About 20 parents and teachers, including figures for and against the proposed Somerville Progressive Charter School, packed a small conference room in …

Somerville High School sophomores and juniors will dine and dance in their school's field house this March to save money on the dances, which have become more expensive every year, Dea Dodi, a student, announced at a recent Somerville School Committee meeting.  For the past 10 years, said Headmaster Tony Ciccariello, students have selected the ballroom of the Hilton Boston Logan Airport as the site for their semi-formal and formal dances. They hold fundraisers to pay part of the cost of renting the venue. But after tickets topped out at around $55 last year, and fewer students attended, class…

The city held the second of two meetings Tuesday night to tell residents about the reconstruction of the East Somerville Community School, which began this fall, but members of the School Committee have asked for more regular updates. At the Jan. 3 meeting of the finance and facilities subcommittee, member Adam Sweeting asked that the project manager of the building company give a written report every month to that committee. Further, he would like an in-person summary every two months about construction progress.  The chairwoman of the finance and facilities committee, Mary Jo Rossetti, …

Somerville's School Committee voted unanimously to elect two new leaders Monday during a night of inaugurations.  Paul Bockelman, the former vice chairman of the committee, is now chairman, and Mary Jo Rossetti will serve as chairwoman. Bockelman, who has lived in Somerville for more than 25 years, is the director of administration and finance at the Massachusetts Municipal Association and has a master’s degree in city planning from MIT, according to his biography on the Somerville Public Schools website. He has been a member of the School Committee since 2006 and held the position of vice …

  A lot happened in Somerville schools this year. Here's a look at some of the top school stories of 2011:  The East Somerville Community School hit a $5 million snag. But city officials came up with a plan to move forward with the project, and construction on the school resumed in November.  The Somerville Group for Progressive Education submitted an application to the state's Board of Education to open the Somerville Progressive Charter School. The school would open in September 2012. A public hearing about the proposed charter school took place in December, and the board will decide in …

  Students in the Somerville Public Schools who are learning English are in most cases doing it more quickly than similar students across the state, according to a report recently published by the Massachusetts Department of Education. English language learners take the Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment (MEPA) once a year to show their ability to read, write, speak and understand the language. A total of 882 ELL students in the district took the exam this spring.  Public officials made references to the report during the Dec. 14 hearing about the proposed Somerville Progressive …

Parents, teachers, public officials and others filled Somerville High School’s auditorium Wednesday for a pubic hearing about the proposed Somerville Progressive Charter School. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education held the hearing, in part to guage public support for the proposed school, which would teach kindergarten through eighth grade and enroll up to 425 students. As an independent Commonwealth charter school, the school would be publicly funded and governed by a board of trustees. Education Secretary Paul Reville oversaw the event, which lasted approximately two hours. …

  Somerville resident Meghan Bouchard has taught students learning English in the Lynn Public Schools and is the mother of two young children, one of whom is a student at the Argenziano School. And for the past few weeks, she's organized Progress Together for Somerville, a group of parents and others that formed to oppose the proposed Somerville Progressive Charter School. Some 250 people have signed the group’s petition online appealing to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to reject the application for the charter. Bouchard invited Somerville Patch into her kitchen to talk …

  Editor's note: In previous articles about the Somerville Progressive Charter School, Somerville Patch has touched upon a few reasons some people are opposed to the school. We felt it was important to speak with those who have proposed the charter school and present their point of view. Amanda Kersey, who wrote this article, is also speaking to members of a parents group that opposes the charter school, and we plan to post that article on Friday, Dec. 9. -- C.O. A conversation with Selena Fitanides Selena Fitanides is one of 30 parents who put together the application to the Massachusetts …

  The state will hold a hearing about the proposed Somerville Progressive Charter School on Dec. 14, according to a press release from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education The group that applied to open the charter school, the Somerville Group for Progressive Education, seeks to open the school in September 2012, and by 2018 it could have 425 Somerville children in kindergarten through eighth grade. You can read the Somerville Group for Progressive Education’s final application to the state, and about the group iteself, here.  The hearing The Dec. 14 hearing is from 4 p.m. to …

Mid-morning last Thursday, six women sat in black leather swivel chairs as teenage girls stood behind them, carefully cutting, coloring and styling their hair. Most were regulars at the Somerville High School Cosmetology Clinic, where students in their senior year practice the skills they’ve learned in the classroom on the trustful public. Their teachers, Stella Apostolakos and Gregory Wright, supervised the girls as they attended to their customers, many of whom learned about the clinic through word-of-mouth or advertisements at senior centers. Carol Specter was having her hair dyed red, cut…

School Committee members said at a meeting last week they were disappointed the mayor didn’t apportion more money to improving the city’s public school buildings. Mayor Joseph Curtatone’s Capital Investment Plan outlines how the city will pay for building construction, building upgrades, equipment and other capital projects from fiscal year 2012 to 2016.   As it stands now, the plan devotes about $38.6 million to improving school buildings. Paul Bockelman, who presides over the School Committee’s finance and facilities subcommittee, said he was struck by how “skinny” the allocation was, …

If you were searching for inexpensive, all-day childcare, you might not have known that the Somerville High School has an accredited center for children between 2 and 9 months and 5 years old.   The Somerville Child Care Center, at Somerville High School, is the least expensive option in the city, said School Committee members at a Nov. 1 meeting.  Paul Bockelman, the committee’s vice chair, said though the center isn’t part of the mission of the Somerville Public Schools it is a “great thing” to have and a “hidden gem.” The center runs year-round. During the school year, it’s open Monday …

The Somerville School Committee voted unanimously on Oct. 11 to write a letter objecting to a proposed new chater school in the city. The committee plans to present its written opposition during a public hearing that will likely take place in November. The School Committee is concerned about the proposed Somerville Progressive Charter School, which would cater to students whose first language isn’t English, according to a Boston.com news story. The charter school would teach students from kindergarten through 8th grade and would have a maximum enrollment of 425 students. The Somerville School…

The need for tutors at elementary after-school programs has nearly doubled over the past few years, said Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi at a recent Somerville School Committee meeting. Last year, program coordinators managed to match tutors with students who needed the most help, he said, but they had to put others on a waitlist. As a Title I district, Somerville Public Schools receives federal money for programs that serve students who are at risk of failing classes or standardized tests. Because of its designation, the schools must first offer tutoring to needy students, defined as those …

Vocational students in Somerville High School's Center for Career and Technical Education have converted a wing of their building into an imitation hospital and dentist's office. The new space will help train students in the school's health careers program. Over the summer, the center's assistant principal, Leo DeSimone, hired three teachers and 20 students to turn the space, where the painting and decorating program used to be, into a simulated medical environment.  The school decided to move and revamp the health careers program, which used to be held in the basement, to cultivate …

Starting Oct. 3, all Somerville Public School students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades can meet after school at the East Somerville Community School for special instruction and programs, said Jenny McGoldrick, who supervises the district’s after-school programs. The “magnet” program at the Cummings building seeks to attract a diverse student body from throughout the school district, she said.  Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi had suggested the idea to the School Committee in June as a way to increase the number of academic, music, art and athletics programs to fulfill the committee’s …

Somerville High collects paper and plastic for recycling in containers throughout the building's classrooms, offices and hallways. But now students, Headmaster Tony Ciccariello and other school staff are trying to figure out how to hygienically save emptied containers from cafeteria breakfasts and lunches for the weekly collection. For at least as long as he has been headmaster, Ciccariello said, the school has had blue plastic bins for students, teachers and staff to toss cardboard, computer paper, magazines and other paper products into. And toward the end of the 2010-2011 school year, the …