Agenda Preview: November 20 School Committee Meeting
District Improvement Plan, Competency Determination for High School Graduation, Master Based Grading Policy
Post-election, the work continues. Please consider helping us settle back into the groove with a paid subscription!
November 20 School Committee Meeting
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 20. Executive session starts at 5 p.m. and the regular meeting is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. The actual start time depends on how long the executive session takes. There’s a lot of collective bargaining scheduled for executive session, so it may go longer. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Youtube Live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.
Here’s what’s on the agenda:
Reconsideration and the “Friday letter”
Mailman (at-large) has filed for reconsideration of her item requesting “a report which includes information by sport by season by high school and middle school describing which sport uses which fields and when. Also include our district process for ensuring equitable access to fields for games and practices and explain how we ensure alignment with title 9 requirements.”
The item was amended to be included in a “Friday letter” rather than a report back to a school committee meeting from administration. Mailman requested “reconsideration that it be sent to administration so that it can come back to a public meeting. If parents or residents want to weigh in it gives them an opportunity to.” The “Friday letter” is a weekly email sent from the Superintendent to school committee members, and under Dr. Monárrez it became more and more common for reports or data that school committee requested at school committee meetings to be sent in a Friday letter. (This also meant if the public wanted the information, it had to be requested by a public records request, which I had to do almost every week for many months until the district started putting the updates online.)
Reconsideration can be filed within 48 business hours of a vote and according to the school committee rules, a reason needs to be supplied by the requesting member.
Report of the Superintendent.
This meeting’s Report of the Superintendent is the district improvement plan.
High School Graduation Competency Determination.
Up for final approval is the proposed competency determination for high school graduation (since it’s no longer determined by the MCAS). This one is a little misleading because it’s under an item called “handbook revisions” in the report on FOG and isn’t explicitly called out as a new competency determination policy on the agenda.
Mastery-Based Grading Policy.
After many iterations and negotiations with the union, the Proposed Mastery-Based Grading Practices Written Policy is up for final approval, which includes changing the grading scale for a “D” to 60-69.
Doherty High School Athletic Field.
The school committee will vote on final approval of naming the Doherty High School Athletic Field after Lt. Jason Menard.
School volunteer policy changes.
The FOG committee suggested an update to the volunteer policy, with the addition of language that allows the Superintendent, or a designee, to be the final decision maker for approving or denying a volunteer, beyond a CORI check.
Revision of pickup and drop off policies.
Molly McCullough (district A) has an item requesting that the safety department work with the schools, particularly those in high traffic areas, to review pick up and drop off policies and require right turn only into and out of school driveways during specific drop off and pick up times to
improve significant congestion in those areas, with a particular focus on middle and
high schools. (I’m a big fan of this. My kids’ school site council requested a right turn only out of the school driveway from the city last year and it was denied. I’ll also add it would be helpful to do a school survey asking families why kids get dropped off or picked up at school instead of walking or taking the bus. There might be some solutions there, too).
Superintendent’s Disclosure.
Superintendent Brian Allen has filed a disclosure by Non-Elected Municipal Employee of Financial Interest and Determination by Appointing Authority form for school committee’s review.
That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com