Newsletter 7-12-16

Posted on Jul 12, 2016
 
Rotary Club of Needham
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Location: Needham Sheraton
 
Past President Jim Brown opened the meeting and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ron Sockol led us in singing ‘God Bless America’, and Karen delivered the invocation.
 
 
Announcements:  
  • Thanks went out to Rich Forte for again hosting the Needham Rotary Cookout. Everyone enjoyed the fine food and great hospitality, and, our sting of ‘It never rains on a Needham Rotary Cookout’ continued, but, there was a late sprinkle. Thanks to the Forte’s!!!
  • We had a great review of our 4th of July Float in the 4th of July Parade. Pictures appeared in the Needham Paper and District Newsletter!
  • We now have 4 additional Rotary Clubs signed up for the India Solar project. This includes:
    • Waltham
    • Newton
    • Watertown
    • Framingham
We believe we still need one or two more clubs to sign up so we reach our goal!! Stay tuned….
  • The speaker committee is a little light on future guest speakers. Any thoughts? Let Ken Davis know…
Happy $$$: 
 
50:50: Next week.
 
Joke of the day: No joking today.
 
Presidential Moment: Lois gave us the low down on John Quincy Adams, the Second President of the United States.
 
Guest Speaker:
Today we welcomed Tamatha Bibbo, Principal of the Pollard Junior High, and John Shea, head of the grade 9-12 Math Department at Needham High School. They are heading up a program which is now in grades 7 and 8 at the Junior High, hopefully it will grow through grade 12 at NHS entitled ‘Launching Scholars’. Here after the 6th grade, the school identifies students who are not doing well in math, and starts them with a 1 week intensive math class during the summer before the next school year. First year (14/15) they identified 28 students and 18 accepted the invitation to be tutored and helped in math. The thought is that raising their proficiency helps in raising that students overall school scores, more than just math.
 
This program started in Brookline. It is target at children who are METCO students, financially challenged students, and struggling students. The NEF funded this as an experiment 2 years ago, and it appears to be going well.
 
The students and teachers are all feeling this math proficiency makes a noticeable difference in the students, and they hope (over time) it will grow to service all grades 7-12.
We had a small group of Rotarians, so there was plenty of time to ask questions.