The School Board is making preparations for the fall when 11th-graders enter Bedford High School, and is considering filling additional positions for all three elementary schools.

Instead of hiring a vocal and drama teacher, the School Board is using the salary for that position on a math and science instructor, said Chairman David Sacks. The board will hire an additional math/science teacher within the approved budget for the 2008-09 school year, when the high school adds 11th-graders.

In the third change, the board decided to hire a technical help-desk person, instead of a database manager. Sacks said the latter position is still needed, but the former is more urgent.

He said the district, which has about 400 professional educators and 4,000 students, would benefit by having someone dedicated to computer, software and network help. It will especially make a difference for the high school, where there is the greatest number of new teachers, Sacks said.

The fourth position, which has not been finalized, is a writing coach, who would spearhead professional development efforts for teachers. Sacks said the new position is needed to boost the writing abilities of students in the school district.

The position will last four years, then responsibilities of the coach will be taken over by teams of teachers.

“This will be more like a kick start, a shot in the arm,” Sacks said.

The latest NECAP test scores from the fall show that 32 percent of fifth-graders and 54 percent of eighth-graders are not proficient in writing.

“It doesn’t meet Bedford standards,” Sacks said. “We definitely felt that there was an area here we have certainly identified as an area of focus.”

The writing coach would be funded through a federal Title II-A grant. The district expects to receive about $100,000 next year from the grant, about a third of that would be for the salary of the writing coach, according to Sacks.

The grant would fully fund the position in the first and fourth year, while the remainder would be paid through the annual school district budget.

School repairs

In other business, the School Board awarded a bid for roof work to Skyline Contracting and Roofing of Taunton, Mass. The company will replace the roof on a wing of Memorial School, repair the roof at Peter Woodbury and do masonry repairs to both schools for $254,381, about $40,000 less than what was budgeted, according to Mark Conrad, chief financial officer for the district.

The work will commence as soon as school is out for the summer, with an end date of mid- July. Once the roof is finished, Hudson Paving and Excavation of Hudson will reconstruct and re-pave the back parking area, bus turnaround loop, and pave a portion of the playground at Memorial, Conrad added. That should be done by mid-August.

The paving work will cost $187,000, again less than the $200,000 budgeted amount. That will be funded out of the 2007-08 budget. The other project was budgeted for next year, said Conrad.

Sacks said the facility improvements have been a long time coming for Memorial School.

“They’ve waited a long time for this. (It) has been cut out of budget after budget since 2004,” he said. “I’m appreciative of their patience and I’m delighted this is being done for them.”