A Look At Wakefield's 2012 MCAS Results

School district generally outperformed state average.

Students in Wakefield generally outperformed the state average in the various MCAS categories, and they also largely showed improvement over last year’s performance. For example, 10th grade students went from 50 to 63% advanced in mathematics, and from 26 to 39% advanced in English Language Arts. Science also showed improvement for the 10th graders, with 27% scoring in the advanced category compared to 18% last year. However, the number in the “needs improvement” category rose in the past year from 13 to 16% among 10th graders. The 8th grade actually saw a slight drop from advanced into proficient in both the math and English categories. Science was a mixed bag for the 8th graders – 37% of them need improvement in the category but that’s …

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Letter to the Editor: Wakefield State Legislators Ask Voters to Support Debt Exclusion

Read State Sen. Katherine Clark and State Rep. Paul Brodeur's entire letter below.

[Editor's note: The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by State Sen. Katherine Clark's Office.] To the Editor:  This Saturday, June 9, residents of Wakefield have the opportunity to demonstrate support for the town’s students and school system. We encourage residents to vote in favor of the debt exclusion override. This vote will mark a major milestone in the effort to construct a new middle school for Wakefield, one that replaces the existing aging building with an energy-efficient, 21st century educational facility for 1,070 students in grades 5-8. The middle school project has been in development for many years and represents the hard work and dedication of many members of the Wakefield community. The total project cost of $73…

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Wakefield Teacher Salaries: How Do They Compare?

View a chart showing how average teacher salaries compare in the area, and a map of salaries across Massachusetts.

Teacher salaries in Wakefield are about average for the Greater Boston area, according to a new map showing how average teacher salaries compare across Massachusetts created by WBUR.  On the map, the darker the city or town, the higher the average salary. The map can be viewed for elementary teacher salaries (red), middle school salaries (green) and high school salaries (blue). To the north, Lynnfield eclipses Wakefield with an average teacher salary of $70,980, and to the south, Melrose has the lowest average salary in the area at $55,897.  Wakefield is on the lower side in terms of expenditure per pupil. Although it's $11,299 per pupil is higher than Melrose or Reading which both spend about $10k, it's dwarfed by the amount of spending …

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Event Spotlight: School Committee Meeting

Tonight at WCAT, 7 p.m.

The Wakefield School Committee meets tonight. On the agenda, among other items, is a welcome to Marie McNamee, the new principal of the Woodville School, an update to the school's IT reorganization, a full report on fiscal year 2011, and an update from the Galvin Middle School Building Committee. The full agenda may be found here:August 9 2011.pdf.

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School Committee Goals: Fix IT System, Improve Middle School Retention

Lisa Butler, chairman of the School Committee, laid out her 12 goals for the upcoming year.

Lisa Butler, chairman of the School Committee, laid out her goals for the coming year at Tuesday night’s meeting, the first of which is to establish a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen for the operation, administration and financing of consolidating the town and school’s information technology department. The school’s IT department has been under heavy scrutiny recently after a review unveiled significant inefficiencies and failures, Butler wants the School Committee and the town to find a solution by Sept. 1, in time for the start of school, and she assigned vice chairman Tom Markham, III to work towards that goal. There were 12 goals in all, which ranged from investigating problems …

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Katie Bilicki

2:20 pm on Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I agree with you Karen on the lack of parent and teacher communication, there should definately be more input to the parents instead of leaving them in the learch.   more ›

Wakefield Schools Superintendent Landers To Receive a 7.8% Raise, Contract Extended Four Years

As a result of contract negotiations, Wakefield Public Schools Superintendent Joan Landers' contract has been extended through 2015, and includes a 7.8 percent increase for FY2011, then gradual increases.

For the first time during her time as Superintendent of Wakefield Public Schools, Superintendent Joan Landers has accepted a 7.8% raise for fiscal year 2011, upping her salary from $120k to $130,200, as a result of contract negotiations with the Wakefield School Committee on June 14. However, according to figures provided by the School Committee, this salary increase comes at a zero percent cost burden to the town this year and next year through the elimination of several reimbursement clauses in her contract, including tuition, life insurance and travel. “Given the fact that Superintendent Landers has not been granted a salary increase in her time as superintendent of Wakefield schools along with the difficult fiscal times we are facing, …

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Latest State Budget Figures Released - Wakefield Could Receive $6.49 Million in State Aid

The Senate Ways and Means Committee released its budget on May 18, with overall aid to Wakefield up by $4.5k from the House Budget, and up $19k from the Governor's proposed budget.

In the latest step in the Massachusetts state budget process, the Senate Ways and Means Committee released its budget projections, in which Wakefield could receive $4.5k more than projected in the House Budget and $19k more than projected in the Governor's Budget in Fisal Year 2012, according to the latest estimates from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Last year, Wakefield received a net of $6.75 million in state aid. The previously proposed Governor’s Budget allotted $6.5 million for Wakefield, already down by more than $248,000 from FY2011. The proposed House Ways and Means Committee’s FY2012 budget would see Wakefield down $262,313 compared to last year. The Senate Ways and Means Committee's FY2012 budget, which increased …

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You Said It!

You Said It: What Are Some Of The Successes Of The Wakefield School District?

PTO Members and state legislators talk about some of the successes of the Wakefield School District.

Each week, Wakefield Patch will find five people to share their opinions on a given topic. This week's question: What are some of the successes you've seen in the Wakefield School District?

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