Skip to main content

Natick's Strategic Plan

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 revisions to the plan?  (Obviously thing change - COVID, more awareness around race relations in the Unites States, new guidelines around dyslexia from the state, audits completed in subject areas, SEL competency updates, core programs like Open circle discontinuing.) What is the process for how we adapt a 5 year plan?
  • How do we best gather input from teachers, staff, administration, students, families, residents and town leaders so that we can assess the direction we need to go and how to adapt? 
  • When do we start planning for after 2023 what does that process look like? 
To start with these questions, I found some helpful information in some previous years minutes: 

It looks like the current strategic plan was developed with a desire to show work through a multi year format in August 1st, 2019 and possibly to link better the district goals to the Superintendent's evaluation.  Before that, the goals are listed as yearly goals for the district,  for example, July 21st, 2015.  

more to come... 


Popular posts from this blog

Statement on Recusal

Here are the remarks I gave last night when letting my committee know my decision to recuse:  After the School Committee meeting on October 15th, several individuals wrote into the SpeakUp Natick portal requesting that I recuse myself from voting on the possible closure of Johnson.  The substance of these messages, sent to the full committee, carried a familiar refrain. The messages - often using the same language – said some version of the following:  Catherine Brunell should recuse herself from deliberating and voting on the closure of Johnson because she lacks objectivity, as her children go to school there and she is from that neighborhood. I asked myself the question if there was any merit to the request for me to recuse myself and started to do some research about why people recuse  From what I can tell from the minutes, in Natick, It’s never happened before - not with the Kennedy, Wilson or the High School - not even for members whose children were to attend t...
Read more

Let’s Have a Vision for Elementary Schools.

Faced with some monumental school facility and space decisions, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the quote that Dr. Nolin has below the signature line in her email:       The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on                building the new.     The emphasis in the quote is on what can come next. It is not about holding on tightly to what was, nor looking at an issue through only a technical, logistical lens but on moving forward with vision .  The administration, under advisement of the School Committee, is charged with setting that vision. The School Committee is charged with protecting that vision using the three roles within our domain - budget, policy and supervision of the Superintendent. All of us are working for the kids that are here today and those who will be here in the future.   Thankfully this time, as our School Committee grapp...
Read more

Vaccines

  The School Committee agenda for Monday, September 20th can be seen here .  (separate blog coming about the rest of the agenda...)  Mandates for student vaccinations for students participating in extracurricular activities, school and club sponsored events and athletics will be discussed and possibly voted on.   I have asked that the documents be linked asap so you can read it yourself but until then... The Quick Summary:  The draft policy is a mandate for students who are age-eligible through FDA approved vaccinations. In the case of a student who age eligible and is not vaccinated, a weekly PCR test is required. How many of our students are vaccinated? Department of Health (DPH) -   Vaccine tracker    - click on weekly municipal report to see chart below and compare. columns are: county, town, age range, # of people in that group, % that is that age, # of age group partially vaxed, proportion of full town partially vaxed, fully ...
Read more