Skip to main content

Welcome Back

With the start of the school year comes a re-starting of the School Committee as well. This year I will continue to detail the public process in which you have elected the 7 members of our committee to serve. 

Subscribe to my blog here.

What’s next in Natick for the School Committee? 

The Natick School Committee will meet on Wednesday evening, 8/31 at 6:30 p.m. to tie up some of the business from the 2021-2022 school year. 


Our first official business meeting for the 2022-2023 school year is Monday, September 12th. We will meet again for a business meeting on Monday, September 19th. (Typically our business meetings are the first and third Mondays of the month.)


*Our agendas and links to the materials are posted at least 48 hours before the meeting on the Town Website.  

*To subscribe to notifications about our public meet calendar, and any others in Natick, click on this link to enter your email and choose the meetings you would like to be alerted about.  


Back to Basics…. What is a School Committee?  

“The school committee establishes educational goals and policies for the schools in the district, consistent with the requirements of law and the statewide goals and standards established by the Board of Education. (G.L. c. 71,[section] 37) The school committee's status as the "employer" for collective bargaining purposes remains unaltered by Education Reform. (G.L. c. 150E, [section] 1)”


Chapter 71, Section 37 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the School Committee

"shall have the power to select and to terminate the superintendent, shall review and approve budgets for public education in the district and shall establish educational goals and policies for the schools in the district consistent with the requirements of law and statewide goals and standards established by the Massachusetts Board of Education."

It also conducts collective bargaining with all employee organizations.

Interested in reading about Schools, Governance and education? 

 Here are two other blogs/newsletters that I subscribe to: 

Who's Who of Worcester -   by Tracy Novick, Veteran School Committee member - she covers everything related to her committee in Worcester and many things from the State level.

The Boston Schools Fund - a newsletter with thought provoking information and the use of data to improve schools in Boston.

Useable Knowledge - by the Graduate school of Education at Harvard

Education Next - Podcast - and for when I can’t read but have time to listen… opinion and research put out by the Kennedy School at Harvard


Have other resources you’d like to share? Email me at catherinebrunell@gmail.com

Click here to share feedback or become a guest blogger!

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

FY22 Natick Public Schools Appropriation $75, 063, 994

Approved 4/15/2021 by Town Meeting  -  126 - 1 - 1   Want to know what Town Meeting is and why it matter's to the budgets?  Check out this video. Quick Overview of the current budget process...    School Administration presents a budget to the School Committee at a series of  meetings School Committee considers the budget, ask questions and then votes on the budget  Town Administrator (hired position) also creates a budget for all of the departments in the town, including the schools. All of the budgets go through the Finance Committee - (15 person appointed board) - to be vetted and then voted on in sub committees and the full committee.  Finance Committee Website  - Great resource if you'd like to see all of the budgets.  School Committee and TA can make adjustments throughout the spring based on conversations at the Finance Committee. This year for example, the School Committee voted on the budget 3 separate times to land o...
Read more

Questions that I am asking or have received...

Serving in this role, I hold a seat that gives me the ability to ask my questions and yours to our administration with the hope that the questions reinforce our strategic goals. I've long relied on the value that, "two heads are better than one."  So here are some of the questions that the School Committee has been asked this week by parents and constituents: Cameron Middle School in Framingham 1) Will outdoor structures be used in the fall to allow for outdoor mask breaks when the weather is poor or lunch in a safer setting?   While this falls into an operational issue at the school and is not typically in the purview of the School Committee, because of COVID we have an  interim COVID policy  (page 120) where it is stated that the school committee establishes an emergency, interim policy to promote public safety and safety of students and faculty.   Perhaps one example of the use of the application of this policy could be seen in the March 15th School...
Read more