Next Up Natick

The School Committees of every community are charged with oversight for the budget, the policies and the evaluation of the superintendent for the districts they serve. Tonight, in Natick, we begin the Superintendent evaluation process.  Virtual Meeting Link - 6:00 p.m.    Background:  Page 2 of DESE Model system guide for Superintendent Evaluation These videos  and this PDF explain the 5 step Superintendent Evaluation Process that Natick is piloting with other communities. It was developed in partnership with Superintendents, School Committees and the Dept. of Ed.   While Natick has adjusted some of the evaluation to be in-line with the process outlined in the above resources, we are continuing to develop the full pilot program.  Also, for a point of reference and a reminder that every superintendent goes through a similar process,   here is a slide deck from one of the initial meetings for the City of Boston's Superintendent evaluation (final evaluation 6/30). I appreciate the c

During my School Committee training, it was recommended to go into a vote with an open mind and to make the decision in the meeting. So surprise - even to me ... I voted yes on the  COVID Recovery Memo . (7-0-0 passage).  I asked questions and I heard the things that I needed to hear the administration say about the use of the funds.  Link to Pegasus - June 14th video. Current COVID Recovery Plan - includes monies rolled over from FY21 and ESSERS (see tab 2 on this sheet .)    Full disclosure, I apologized to Mr. Luff, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, after the meeting for observing that it was difficult to know what the actual positions suggested were... in real time, I learned that they were both in a 2nd tab put into the spreadsheet (above) and in a memo he created and was imbedded in the slides. I missed the link ! Also, parents/families requested in this meeting, and in letters to our committee, that the district develop a thorough and timely funding strategy to respo

On Monday June 14th, the Natick School Committee may vote on how to allocate an unprecedented amount of funding - $2.1 million plus another $400,000-   to support COVID recovery.  I am using the word unprecedented literally : nationally schools have never received this amount of money from the federal government and, from what I can tell, our School Committee has not voted on an amount of new funds this large after the passage of our district's budget. To date, the School Committee’s engagement with this topic has been: -         Responding to a presentation on these funds, around 5 minutes in length, linked here . See minutes 1:37-1:43. -         Reviewing a list  of positions/expenditures that would be funded. -         Reading a draft of the Superintendent’s slide deck for Monday, June 14th – linked here (version as of 11 pm on Sunday night). Our engagement with this topic – before our vote on Monday on $2.5mm - has been lacking. Therefore, I will be coming to the