What You Missed at School Committee Last Night; Officers Elected, School Choice Skipped for Another Year

The Regional School Committee on Wednesday, May 18, elected its officers, talked about School Choice and listened to the Principal's Report.

Here's a nicely packaged rundown:

1.The committee opened nominations for officers, all which will hold the title for 12 months. Susan Dargan, was nominated as chairman, and unanimously voted in. Kathleen Polutchko was unanimously chosen for vice-chair, and Paul Butka was voted as secretary.

2. Opening it up to a public hearing, followed by debate amongst the committee, the option of participating in School Choice was considered, but not for long. Based on a recommendation from Superintendent of Schools Charles Gobron, they decided to table the idea for another year. "We have not come to a consensus at this point," he said. "There are so many pros and cons that I am going to recommend that we don’t participate. I don’t think we’re in a position this year to recommend School Choice."

Committee member Paul Butka added, "I am not convinced a subcommittee spending another year on this will even shed any more light on it. Frankly, we’ll never know until we do it. I would maybe talk about the possibility of opening it up to maybe four or five students, because then we’ll learn when we get kids into the system."

Dargan suggested forming a subcommittee to research School Choice, which, by law, must be considered by the committee each year.

3. There is a vacancy on the Northborough Southborough Regional School Committee, and the timeframe was discussed as to how long to open up the application process. For the first round, applicants will have until mid June to submit their request. "We want people to apply and really want to encourage people," said Dargan. 

4. Gobron expounded on the ratification of the three-year agreement with the Algonquin Regional Teachers Association and the Northborough Soutborough Regional School Committee. Among the changes are that teachers have agreed to pay 25 percent of their healthcare coverage, up five percent from the previous agreement.

5. "School Council has been very busy," said Principal Tom Mead, who introduced members of the council and their "School Improvement Plan." These members gave a PowerPoint presentation. Click on the video for part of their presentation. "Earlier this year the students took the MetroWest Health Survey and it included questions about the bully issue and risky behavior," said one member. "Based on what we learn on the results we will respond accordingly."

6. The integration of techonology plays an important role in Algonquin's overarching goals," said Gobron, who introduced Jean Tower, director of technology, and her "Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough Technology Plan: 2011-2014, Learning With Technology."

"Working on the plan was really fun for me, because it's my first one," said Tower. "It was just a joy to see how much good technology we have at Algonquin. It's not in every single classroom yet, but that's our goal."

Highlighting the goals of the 65 page report, Tower addressed issues such as staffing, infrastructure (the school is still well below the broadband standard), improving wireless capabilities and SIF (School Interoperability Framework). "We now have a lot of our data that we have to report to the state moving directly from our servers to their servers," she said.

7. "Important things are happening on a regular basis," said Principal Mead in his Principal's Report. "Our students teamed with the American Cancer Society and held a relay for life. This was our largest ever. They raised over $63,000 for cancer research and care." Mead also mentioned that the Algonquin chapter of SADD hosted a program, which is a cooperation between the Northborough and Southborough Police Departments, which simulate a terrible accident and "really demonstrate what goes on at the accident scene, and it's a searing experience for our students to be that close to such a thing." 

8. The FY12 budget is very very tight, according to Gobron. "I felt that the time we spent last fall really was helpful as we went through budget season. I like the fact that we have the goals and continue to make them. We've gotten through this and we will continue to get through. We are on the right budget."