School Committee and Superintendent Work on Goals

On August 22 the School Committee sat down with Superintendent Kathy Willis in an informal session to discuss the self-evaluation the committee completed earlier in the year as part of a new process of reviewing the committee's role and effectiveness.

Most of the self-evaluation questions and rubrics they used to indicate their performance on specific tasks were drawn up by the Massachusetts School Committee Association for use by any districts wishing to engage themselves in the process. This and other sources were consulted by Karen Errichetti and Cliff Bowers in drafting the document used.

O'Connell appointed

A few minutes prior to the start of Monday night's meeting the committee met in joint session with the Board of Selectmen to appoint new  Principal Cathy O'Connell to the Secondary School Building Committee.

Committee business 

By way of updating the committee before beginning the evaluation review Willis reported that all but one of the school department's collective bargaining contracts had been settled.

The feasibility study for the proposed new secondary building has been submitted to the Massachusetts Secondary Building Authority for their approval. Once their approval is given the next step will be the Strategic Planning phase.

Budgetary goals for 2011-2012, which had been identified in February have all been successfully realized.

The Burbank YMCA will be conducting all the elementary after school programs for the coming year. Click here to read more about the programs.

Once the results of the spring 2011 MCAS testing is reported by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) the districts results will be analyzed and new achievement goals will be developed by the school administrative team.

The DESE has approved the district's technology plan. Michael Kush is the committee's liaison with the state agency.

Review of school committee's role and performance  

Chairman Gerry Venezia recognized the committees general need to be updated on legal rulings and agreed with Bowers that the committee functions well as a team.

Errichetti stated that as a new member it would have been helpful to have someone on the committee brief her on the discussions and decisions already in process.

"It's challenging to get up to speed and be effectively on board," Errichetti said. The committee agreed to have new members meet with administrators and old members to facilitate their learning about the complexities of the school department.

Since the ultimate goal of the committee and all school-related personnel is the improved achievement of the district's students Mel Webster pursued that thought.

"What is the role of the school committee in student achievement?" Webster asked.  

Willis offered a reminder.

"You make decisions about the budget," Willis said. "How you distribute funds directly impacts achievement. You kept teachers a priority so that teacher-student ratios would be kept low. Research shows that smaller classes increases student learning." 

The meeting continued with the Superintendent and committee members focused on school improvement, more communication between the committee and the principals, and the educational needs of 21st century students.

The committee asked important questions of themselves as they struggled with budget limits and identified needs such as classroom technology and ways the committee can track trends in student learning.

Willis said, "We've made progress tonight. We've started an essential process that we will continue to persue as discussion leads to clarity and specific goals."