Next Up Natick

At our next business meeting on Monday June 7th, the Natick School Committee will hear recommendations and updates from our administration about the federal and state grants that we have and will receive.   Guidance on  Essers: Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief.   Screen shot from doe.mass.edu/federalgrants/esser/esser3-qrg.pdf At this point, it's a trilogy... Essers III is the largest and is scheduled to be used by 9/2024. To stay up to speed and learn the fiduciary role of a school committee, I've been grateful to follow this  blog , Whos of Worcester, by a seasoned School Committee member in that state, Tracey Novick.  Click on the link above to see the resources she's provided to understand ESSERS III.

I had that awful moment this morning when a child says to you, "I thought you'd be home for bedtime."  A meeting went long, child didn't know and now I'm processing as mom, resident and School Committee Member. I'm not killing myself over this one but I am using it as a moment to reflect: With that comes the question how will I spend my time wisely?  I go back to my roots in Jesuit, Catholic theology and the reflective practices that I learned as a spiritual tool. I was taught to be curious and mindful, grateful and to act with urgency when it mattered.  Questions like:  Where am I experiencing true joy - not the quick fix, adrenalin induced happy but sustained and confirmed contentment? What is getting in the way? Am I being consistent with my words and actions? What is life teaching me about where I need to grow and what I have to give?  Said more simply, reflective questions are how I get through life. The one question that I keep coming back to is:  WHAT

The Natick Public Schools recently received the final report from the  Beloved Audit-  a resource made available to us in 2020 because of our participation in the METCO Program (THANK YOU METCO and ALL of the administrators who helped complete the audit!).  It was developed and run by  The Beloved Community .   Descriptions from the Report: What is it?   The Equity Audit is designed to provide comprehensive feedback on Natick Public Schools’ capacity for diversity, equity, and inclusion with all stakeholder groups. How was it developed:   A group of key leaders at Natick Public Schools spent hours completing this self-study and identifying relevant data sets for each area. The Equity Audit is designed with 14 sub-standards and 180+ indicators about nearly every facet of organizational work life. Some concrete suggestions that I read in the report: /Diversity - Ask questions like who is participating and why? / Inclusion - Some are better than others, now is the time to make efforts f

Over the next several meetings the School Committee will focus much of its time on the progress being made in our district goals. For example, tonight  Goal #2 will be discussed.   These goals are an essential anchor for my work on this board with the hope that they always reflect deep listening to our students & families and our professionals.   As we go through these goals, I am looking for the SMARRT objective under each of the 4 main goals and interested in how a district adapts a 5 year plan in the middle of the course. As a new member, I have some basic questions to understand the document and how to best serve it:  Who helped take the plan from yearly district goals to our multi-year  strategic plan ? What's the process like to form these goals? What is the process like to evaluate them? Has the change from yearly goals to a multi-year strategic plan helped us be more prepared financially for things coming down the line?  What is the process that is undergone for revisi

Copy and past this link from Pegasus to watch the 4/26 School Committee Meeting where we heard the first consideration of virtual schools in the fall:  https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/994DtmGEsi0VDYK3jJI2BJ72GfgNIpU2/media/637251?autostart=false&showtabssearch=true See all of the Pegasus Videos from Committees here .  Cues to the Video are listed below:   1:11:42 - 1:25 Introduction from Dr. Nolin of a DESE memo on Single District Virtual Schools and her  observations about the application: 1) We don't know what the fall is going to look like.  2) What is the criteria for who is allowed to be remote based on medical need?  Does this put our families in a bind, for example, if the child is in a home with someone who has a compromised immune system? Will that child be allowed to attend a virtual school based on a family member? Committee Questions begin at (1:25)  3) If we don't run a remote learning academy AND we need to bring everyone back with 3ft. of distancing we