New math curriculum, technology use guidelines, enrollment update, and more
At long last - the June 10th School Committee meeting! It was a long one and took a little longer than usual to get uploaded to YouTube, so apologies for the delay.
Retirements
The meeting started with recognition of the five staff members who are retiring. It struck me as I was listening just how long these staff have worked at Norfolk Public Schools - and they are not the only ones. It speaks a lot to our district and to the staff that we are so fortunate to retain our staff at such high rates.
Contract Negotiation Committees
An important part of that retention is that we can continue to offer competitive contracts to our teachers and paraprofessionals (while also balancing out the financial constraints of the town). The teachers have formally requested negotiations for their contract, with negotiation beginning in early 2026. This year, for the first time, the paraprofessional staff is negotiating a contract with the school committee as well. That process is going to start in the fall. The school committee discussed who would serve on these committees. Lauren Vives and Peter Svalbe volunteered for the paraprofessional negotiating committee and Lisa Sheldon volunteered for the teacher negotiating committee. Both Grace Lochhead and Medora Champagne declined, stating they would not have the capacity to commit to the required extra meetings. Medora observed that the chair of the school committee, as the primary representative, has always served on the committees and suggested it would be good for Lisa to serve on both. Lisa said she had no problem doing that and agreed to serve on each committee. They postponed the final decision on the makeup of the committees, but Peter and Lauren will each serve on one and Lisa will be on both. It is so important that we all appreciate that our school committee members are all volunteers with jobs and lives of their own and the commitment to serve extends to more than just a meeting or two a month. The hours quickly add up!
Budget Update
The school committee heard updates to the budget. We are in the red as the end of the year approaches, however, funds from the state to reimburse transportation for students experiencing homelessness (reimbursed at 100%) and the extra $104/day for each student from the shelter that attended our school will make up for the budgetary shortfalls. Some of that money has already been received, and we expect the rest to hit our accounts in August.
SEPAC Fundraiser
The school committee voted unanimously to approve the SEPAC’s annual “Trunk or Treat” Fundraiser.
Technology Guidelines
The technology steering team (made up of teachers, parents, other staff and administrators) presented on their work on creating technology use guidelines. During the presentation, the Technology Director for the schools noted that there are only two staff members that are responsible for all technology at the school - that includes phones, computers, networks, printers, security cameras and lock systems, smart boards, communication platforms, and software subscriptions (including curriculum supplements, newsletter platforms, teacher resources, report card software, food services software, and much more). On top of this, they led a steering committee to come up with technology use guidelines to ensure that both in the classroom and in homework assignments, technology is used intentionally and in a way that enhances students’ education. The result is wonderfully thoughtful and well balanced. You can read the guidelines here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EdMuGOTdXn8usvgr38hyzBWvjtCgvV0M.
Math Curriculum
Most of the remainder of the meeting was devoted to a presentation about the math curriculum that the school is proposing for adoption next year (already approved in the budget). Only one curriculum was presented to the school committee - however, the reason was that the curriculum they would like to adopt was so impressive and stood head and shoulders above the rest, that the math curriculum review team unanimously decided it would not be a good use of time to look at the others in depth. To be clear - they looked at several programs which they compared to the rubric they created to ensure that the new curriculum would address the issues that the school had with the old curriculum. Only two programs really passed and one encompassed all of the features of the other and added even more. The committee heard from math specialists, teachers from a large spectrum of grades, special education teachers and the curriculum coordinator (and a few quotes from students themselves). The support for the new math curriculum was overwhelming. Teachers who piloted the program actually opted to keep using it through the end of the school year because they loved it so much. Students loved it - even students who had not enjoyed math earlier in the year described it as “fun”. The school committee unanimously voted to approve the curriculum and voted unanimously to also participate the 6th grade class in the curriculum’s beta testing of evaluating tools for the older grades. With math scores down across the district, it will be very exciting to see how effective the new curriculum will be to start closing the gap from where our students were before COVID.
Enrollment Update
As outlined in my previous post, the school administration is planning to consolidate kindergarten classes due to less enrollment than expected. They will use the extra teacher to add another second grade classroom and use the funds saved from needing one fewer paraprofessionals to increase the technology support for the school with an additional .5 position. They would like to use anticipated increase in Chapter 70 funding to add another 3rd grade teacher. The school committee voted to approve this plan unanimously.
Food Services and SACC Pay Rate Increases
The school committee also unanimously voted to increase the rate for food services and for a SACC wage increases. The PTO was also approved unanimously as a school partner.
Links and Upcoming Posts
You can watch the full meeting here: June 10 School Committee Meeting Video
The supporting materials and presentations are all saved to the school committee google drive here: June 10 School Committee Meeting Exhibits
Mark your calendars - the next meeting is scheduled for August 19th at 7pm!
I am aiming to do one more post this summer around Chapter 70 funding - the funding that we receive from the state which was redistributed a few years ago through a new formula that favors schools in communities with fewer resources. Mostly because I want to understand it better, but also because it is an important funding source for us and there is a current effort to restore some of that back to small towns like ours. So stay tuned and enjoy your summer!