September 27 School Committee Meeting

by Erica Plunkett 9/30/12

Special Edition Did You Know? (courtesy of the HHS website)... that Holliston High School students performed very well on MCAS last year? Students reached record levels of success in some categories. And they scored best in the state in English compared with other high schools.

 The District had some amazing scores when compared against other districts! Click here http://www.boston.com/news/special/education/mcas/scores12/10th_top_districts.htm  for more information about state MCAS results (details to come at the next two School Committee meetings). 

The first presentation of the evening was an overview of the upcoming Professional Day on Friday, Oct. 5.  As Dr. Ahern stated, “new regulations require the Holliston Public School to develop and implement a new system of educator evaluation beginning in September 2013. A Teacher-Administrator Committee has been studying the new DESE system and has developed a plan to pilot aspects of it during this academic year.  The Professional Day next week will be focused on understanding and practicing self-evaluation and setting SMART-er goals across the District.  In the afternoon, faculty will congregate by school to learn how goal setting integrates with school improvement goals.” There will be much more information shared about this new system over the coming months, so stay tuned.

Next, School Committee discussion focused on the FY13 Budget and capital needs.  This list was recommended by the Budget Sub Committee and is a further prioritization of Dr. Jackson’s list presented at the last meeting.  It will be shared with the Finance Committee on October 9th.  Historically, the Finance Committee allocates $350K for capital requests town-wide.  The School Committee recognizes and is grateful for the early spring allocation of funds to replace the gym floor at the Adams school.  The Sub Committee’s recommendations, therefore, stay within the remaining $245K in Chapter 70 funds not yet allocated and are restricted to those items most critical. They are as follows:
 

The last item of the evening was the required Declaration of Surplus Equipment. Mr. Buday recommended adding two items to the Annual Town Auction (as part of the October Town Meeting). These items are: old cheerleading mats (replaced this summer for safety purposes); and, an old gas golf cart (the athletic department is using the electric one from the Police Department and has no use for a second).

The next School Committee meeting is Thursday, October 18th.  Central to the agenda will be: a draft of the FY14 Budget Development Calendar; a draft of the School Year 2013-2014 calendar; the October 1 enrollment/class size report; an MCAS overview report; and, an Overnight Field Trip Request (for Nature’s Classroom). School Committee Office Hours will be Thursday, October 25th, 8-9 am at Coffee Haven (Office Hours through December are available on the District website). As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Central Office or any member of the School Committee. 

Kindest regards,

Erica Plunkett

Chair, Holliston School Committee

DID YOU KNOW?... that according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, Massachusetts ranked 25th in taxes in FY2010?  “The amount of state and local taxes paid in Massachusetts as a share of total personal income was 10.2% in FY2010.” (http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=tax_rank_2010.html&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tax_rank)

Posted in Schools.

Comment on this article | E-mail this article