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PAGE B1

Friday, February 28, 2014

WHATS INSIDE

Vol. 22, No. 18 $2

www.WickedLocalEaston.com

Train time

PUBLIC WORKS

Salt
supply
low

PAGE A6

Side roads may

be plowed, but
not treated

IDLE-FREE ZONES

By Susan Parkou Weinstein

sweinstein@wickedlocal.com

PAGE A7

Paul said all students

taking an AP course are
required to take the end-ofthe-year exam the College
Board offers. However in
some districts only select
students take the exam
which could skew grades.
He also said he is aware
of seniors who take AP
courses that do not bother
to study for the exam
because by the time the
scores are released they
do not factor into a college
admission because they
have already been accepted.
Paul said students tend
to score high on microeconomics and history but
lower on biology, English
composition, and physics.
Microeconomics in the
AP realm is not that challenging of a course, Paul
said. We have the second
highest number of students in the state for high
school students taking that

Residents living on the

towns side streets may have
noticed the ice lingering for
days on their roads after
the latest wintry round of
snow, rain and refreeze hit
the area.
They can blame it on
Mother Nature and the
statewide shortage of road
salt.
The short supply has
forced Easton and other
cities and towns across the
Northeast to ration their
stockpiles to ensure they last
until the spring thaw.
In Easton, that means
some side roads may be
plowed but not salted.
The application of road
salt is based on conditions,
Public Works Director David
Field says.
In some cases we spot
salt isolated trouble spots
only. Sometimes we salt
main roads only, sometime
we salt main and secondary
roads with the exception of
subdivision roads, and other
times we salt all roads, he
said.
With supplies very low,
the town had to forgo salting subdivision roads last
week in order to maintain
sufficient supplies to allow
plows to treat higher traffic
roads in future storm events.
The amount of salt used
this winter so far is daunting.
The town has spread
approximately 2,500 tons
of salt and 19,500 gallons
of magnesium chloride
since December to keep up
with the seemingly endless
snowfall.
Field says he purchases
the salt for $45 a ton through

SEE SCORES, A5

SEE SALT, A7

CHARLOTTES
WEB ONSTAGE
Owen Sanders, 3, having fun at the train table Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Childrens Museum in Easton. See more
photos at easton.wickedlocal.com. WICKED LOCAL PHOTO / CHARLENE A. MCNEIL

PAGE A7

SCHOOLS

LIBRARY
HAPPENINGS

AP exam scores questioned

By Paula Vogler
easton@wickedlocal.com

Harry Chase

Oliver Ames High School

students outscore state
and national averages on
Advanced Placement (AP)
tests, according to principal
Wes Paul.
But school committee
members questioned why
AP students were scoring
higher on their exams.
At its Feb. 21 morning
meeting, Paul told the
school committee that
OAHS is classified as an
AP honor roll school by
the College Board and
since 2009 the school has
doubled the number of students taking AP classes and
increased the number who
pass the test with a 3, 4, or
5 grade.
Yet school committee
members want to know
why for example, 41 percent of students taking AP
Calculus AB scored just a 1
or 2 and 71 percent taking

INDEX

COMMUNITY

WINTER BREAK
Send us your February vacation photos
Whats your family
doing for February
vacation? Whether
youre visiting relatives, going on a family
vacation - skiing? sun
and sand? - or relaxing at home, share
your good times with
us in photos. Be sure
to identify who is in
the photo, what town
theyre from, and
where you went. Email
a jpg attachment to
mansfield@wickedlocal.com. Well run
some in the newspaper and all on our
website.

COMING IN PRINT
This Old Town with

Community events .......................B7

Landmarks. ...................................B7
Library news ..................................A7
Obituaries ..................................... B6
Opinion ..........................................A6
Police ..........................................A2
Religion ...................................... B6
Sports ......................................... B1
Your News ...................................A4

The EASTON JOURNAL (USPS 011-743) is

published weekly by GateHouse Media New
England, 5 Cohannet St., Taunton, MA 02780.
Periodicals postage paid at Taunton, Mass.,
and additional mailing offices. Annual cost
for home delivery is $45 in-town, $85 outof-town. POSTMASTER: Send change of
address to GateHouse Media, 400 Crown
Colony Drive, Quincy, MA 02169.

Calculus BC scored a 1 or 2
on the tests.
I dont understand how
a kid can get a 90 as a nal
grade in a course and get
a 1 or 2 on an AP exam,
school committee chairman Colleen Less said.
Paul said there was no
direct correlation when
comparing a term grade
or year grade to an AP test
grade.
Less said if multiple students have a nal grades in
AP calculus BC of 90 and
then score 1 or 2 on the
AP exam, theres got to be
some correlation.
School committee
m e m b e r L a u r i e Ha n
wanted to know if students
were being appropriately
placed in AP classes and if
teachers were instructing
them properly to succeed
in those classes.
Paul said students must
be recommended for an
AP class by a teacher and
cannot just sign up for one

on their own. He said statistically, students who are

challenged in high school
by taking AP courses tend
to do better in college.
I think the content and
delivery of the content is
what the College Board is
asking us to do, Paul said.
I think the teachers do
appropriate training in the
summer to get the technology and appropriate skill
sets to teach.
Paul said he would check
with math department
head Mary Romans and
teacher Jack Tuite to get
a better understanding of
where the discrepancies
could come from.
Less wanted to know
what the main philosophy
of AP courses was, if it was
to expose as many students
as possible to the courses or
not.
If the result is we have to
slow down the course then
we need to talk about that,
Less said.

Easton woman in McDonalds ad

Chain has been family
business for McBee
By Alana Santos
easton@wickedlocal.com

Gabrielle McBee of Easton is

currently appearing in a television advertising campaign
involving McDonalds crew
members who surprised Bostonians on the streets with a
warm, McDonalds breakfast
at the MBTA Aquarium Station in Boston.
The commercial culminates

a long career working for

McDonalds for McBee. Her
family owns 12 McDonalds
franchises in the South Shore.
She started working for her
familys McDonalds franchise
in Brockton at age 14.
The most important thing
Ive learned by both watching and working with my
parents is that there is absolutely no shame in doing
what you believe in, McBee
said. Whether someone else
believes in you and your dreams
or not, at the end of the day,

you are the one who has to live

with the decisions youve made.
The most important person to
impress is yourself.
McBee graduated with a
bachelors degree in communication from the University
of Rhode Island in 2012. Now
24, she is the director of human
resources for her familys
McDonalds franchises. She has
been in this position for about
18 months.
I work very closely with
SEE MCBEE, A7

Gabrielle McBee, of Easton, is currently

appearing in a commercial for McDonalds,
where she works. COURTESY PHOTO