Yesterday, Wednesday, December 1st
Nomination papers became available for town-wide elected positions for the 2022 election at the Town Clerks office in Town Hall. Signatures from people who will support you are due, January 11th.
(Town Meeting Members *voted on by residents in their precinct* have until 2/1 if returning member and 2/8 if seeking new election. Clerk notes that the precincts have changed due to the census and new maps will be forthcoming.)
Today, Thursday December 2nd,
Policy Sub Committee meets. The agenda is here.
Today and next week we have guest speakers coming to consult with us on the Religious Holiday Homework Calendar proposal - a recommendation from the Superintendent to ensure that our homework expectations (and test dates) consider important holidays for the religions of our Natick students and staff.
We will also continue to work on an Anti Hate and Bias Policy. "Working on" this right now means hearing from the Superintendent about the need that she sees in the district, working on a strategy to research policies that exist in other districts, getting feedback from our community about draft policies for Natick and eventually bringing a recommendation for the full committee to consider. As you can see, this will *and has* taken months. We are making progress though and appreciate you being involved!
What's a Sub Committee and why do you have so many meetings?
As a reminder, subcommittees are tool that School Committees all across the country use to divide the work of the committee. They enable a small number of members to meet, often more regularly to do a deep dive into one area of the committee's purview.
Natick has 2 subcommittee's that meet in open session: the Policy Review committee and Kennedy Building Committee. Members of those committees are:
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Why are you meeting on a Thursday during the day?
A few people have asked me this - typically the Business meetings of the school committee are held in the evenings and they are recorded to ensure maximum ability for access to these meetings. Sub Committee meetings are honestly, more relaxed, more conversational and less procedural. (It's why we can get the work done within them that we do!) They are always open to the public and our minutes are available for review. We've been meeting on Thursdays this year because we are meeting almost every week and it was the only standing time that all of the members of the committee could be there at this frequency. It's trade off - I understand - because we are meeting when many of you are at work and cannot attend. Please always feel free to reach out if you have input or questions about our work!
Have a great Thursday!