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Monday 4/26 School Committee Meeting

 On Monday April 26th, the Natick School Committee continues with its regular business meeting.  Agenda here.  

We will be hearing about Natick's Open Space and Recreation Plan.  

When I read the plan, as a school committee member, my mind goes to enrollment and what it will  look like for Natick in the future.... The Open Space report is an amazing amount of work done by our town leaders and citizen volunteers dedicated to maintaining open space. In the summary, the report reads, "Natick, like many eastern Massachusetts communities, is being faced with population growth, which results in demands for increased local recreational services."   

Minutes of the 3/23 Space Study Committee Meeting details a downward trend in elementary enrollment. 

We're going to need to reconcile these reports and understand better the enrollment* and therefore budget & space needs for NPS in the coming decade. 

Dr. Nolin's Space Study Committee will be presenting in June to the School Committee so stay tuned. 

*NPS commissioned an official enrollment study with the architectural firm who completed the space study below. The firm in turn sub-contracted an enrollment study but the projections were rejected by the firm, Dr. Nolin, Dr. Gray and the School Committee, in part, because the sub-contracted company would not share the methodology used to arrive at the enrollment projections. Thus the need to better understand what is happening with any population growth in Natick and what that means for the schools.  

Find the initial Space Study Document here
 (If you are interested in learning more or getting involved in the space study, reach out to your School Council member who is on the space study committee. Members can be reached via the principal or on the website of your child's school. The May School council meetings will center on this space study.)

Back to Monday night...  the School Committee will also hear reports on virtual school options for the 2021-2022 school year, contracts in food services and transportation for next year, return to school updates for the end of this year and the continued efforts to increase pool testing in Natick.  

And.. if you're like me - you are anxiously awaiting the end of this very long year! We will be voting on the end of the school year, Friday, June 18th (because of the 2 snow days we took during the year.) 

As for Member Concerns:  

Budget 

I will continue to share information on how I think our budget process could be improved. I found some great resources created through the Franklin School Budget Sub Committee here.  

Communication

I recently learned that emails sent to the schoolcommittee@natickps.org are also distributed to the school's administrative team. I've requested that our committee discuss the benefits to having an email address that is separate or rename the account so it is clear to anyone sending an email who is receiving the message. (Emails sent to individual school committee members go only to that member although its important to note that any email sent or received via natickps.org is a public document.) 


*****

Chat with Catherine - please join me!

Thursday, April 29th
Noon and 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

Zoom link here.

Meeting ID: 811 1234 7515

Passcode: expgA1






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