Skip to main content

A New Year Ahead

 As we begin a new School Committee year, a friend sent me a poem published on "Very Kate," a blog subtitled: Relentless Practice in Local Government. 

"We long for a city where people go hard on the issues and not on people." 

The poem's first line: We long for civility...  

Screen shot of one section of the poem.

 And spot on for what I am thinking as our seven member board re-organizes our roles on the committee.  

What does Re-Organization mean? 

/Vote for the Chair, Vice-Chair and Clerk of the committee 

/Reassign roles on committees after the election

Tonight's agenda also includes a wholistic look at test scores, MCAS and Renaissance and SEL data that has been collected this year.  

Tomorrow night! 

Please join us for a listening session on the School Calendar! Presentation here

  Tuesday, April 5th 7-8:30 p.m.  Zoom Link here.  




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...

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 proces...

Community Forums Change

Date change ... Community Forum from tonight, Monday October 25th to next week, Monday, November 1st. (explained below.)  What is all the hub bub? Space needs at the High School Pre-school programs movement Future of Johnson Elementary Long term planning for Memorial Elementary renovations/rebuild If I haven't read anything or need information what should I read?    Taken From the Natick Engage email this week:   I (Dr. Nolin) advise reading the in depth report on  Facilities, Space and Capital Planning , or, if you have less time, this  Executive Summary . Discussions will occur on 10/18, 11/1, 11/15 at a minimum. ***** Quick links to items that you can find in the above documents:  Link to FACILITIES DEPARTMENT STEWARDSHIP REPORT  presented to School Committee on 10/18. Chart Overviewing the Findings/Analysis of the TA’s Advisory Committee (Spring 2021)   (of which I was a part this summer)  Town of Natick Space Report (2012...