Agenda Preview: August 15 School Committee Meeting
Superintendent's evaluation, two public petitions, and back to school donations.
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August 15th School Committee Meeting
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for August 15 at 4 p.m. (there is no executive session). See the full agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. Currently, there are no standing committee meetings scheduled for August.
Here’s my preview:
Superintendent’s Evaluation. The committee will evaluate the Superintendent, which is a requirement of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Like all other educators, Superintendents earn one of four ratings: Exemplary, Proficient, Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory. According to DESE, “Most effective educators will be rated Proficient on a Standard rather than Exemplary because Exemplary is reserved for educators – superintendents included – whose practice in a particular area is so strong that it can be a model for others.” Each school committee member fills out a form that evaluates Dr. Monárrez on how well she achieved her goals, and on four standards: instructional leadership, management & operations, family & community engagement, and professional culture. The chairman (Mayor Joe Petty) then takes all the evaluations and creates a summative report based on individual ratings. That summative report is what the committee votes to adopt (or not). There are no backup documents for this yet, but I will update when there are. Here’s the backup.
At the last school committee meeting there was 30 minutes of public comment in support of the superintendent, and there was recently a letter to the editor of the Telegram, signed by 31 community members, commending Dr. Monárrez’s leadership. While evaluations from school committee members have already been submitted, it doesn’t hurt to email your school committee members and let them know how you think Superintendent Monárrez is doing and how her superintendency has impacted your kids’ experience and/or your experience in the classroom. Monárrez’s contract currently runs through June 2027, so unless it gets extended, this middle of this school year is the half-way point of her tenure.
Public Petition. There are two petitions from Gordon Davis: one about making socioeconomic demographics a required consideration as part of the facilities master plan, and the other is to request the Chandler Elementary Community School building be replaced. Chandler Elementary (not to be confused with Chandler Magnet, which happens very often) has been overcrowded and up until this school year the district leased classroom space at the YMCA. But based on a discussion at the June 13 Finance, Operations, and Governance Subcommittee meeting, the next school most likely to be submitted for replacement through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will be Worcester East Middle. According to Brian Allen, the earliest East Middle would likely be completed is 2038–when current four year olds are graduating from high school.
Motions made during the budgetary discussion. There are six reports back from the administration in response to motions made by school committee members during the budgetary discussion. Topics include wrap-around coordinators, Jr. ROTC, middle school athletics, and in-house transportation. Not much new in the content of those reports, but worth noting that bringing transportation in-house reportedly saves $5 million for the FY25 budget year. Of that, $3 million was reinvested back into schools as specified below:
If you are unfamiliar with the context and history of in-house transportation read up here.
Donations up for approval.
The consent agenda has a slew of donations of school supplies (books, backpacks, reusable water bottles, hygiene kits) to start the school year that are up for approval.
Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com