"there's always room for improvement"

Chairman Jeffrey Roy said board members' e-mail addresses are listed online, and people with complaints should take the time to find them to send a message.

"Today, with e-mail, people get (angry), send an e-mail and regret it 15 minutes later," he said. "I like the idea of making people work a little bit so they have to formulate their thoughts."

Though there's always room for improvement, Roy said the committee provides the community with an abundance of information. He cited the School Committee's Web site, blog and the superintendent's site.

"I've got to say the level of involvement and effort in education materials is incredible ... we've made this stuff available to the community," he said. "There's a certain level of accountability for the public to take some steps" to get the information.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

in the News - Bellingham sting

Almost half of Bellingham's liquor stores fail sting

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Melanie Graham/Daily News staff

Live reporting - School Committee Meeting (part 2)

meeting resume

Recap of prior discussions:
read mission statement at each meeting
leave cell phones in purse or pocket, off
work on website
review strategic plan a couple of times
work collaboratively with other boards
look to self publishing


1 - discussion on use of email
Ed to check with T Raposa on school email addresses, could be a third email address for some members
would provide archiving and retention for official business

pro - if discovery were required, one the system would handle the archiving email, two the email would be separate from personal email
con - would add an additional email for some members, need to explore the client option

2 - new member questions
none

3 - budget subcommittee
discussion on level service vs. level funding
schedule a specific meeting for discussion on the budget to review ways to bridge the gap

will start general discussions on the budget at Jan 12th

Committee to provide some input to the Administration on what the Committee would like to see

the meeting on January 26th would be the Administration presentation on the first pass of the budget

Sue looking for suggestions on the budget subcommittee

meeting adjourns

Live reporting - School Committee Meeting

Attending: Mullen, Roy, Rohrbach, Cafasso, Trahan, Glynn, Douglas
Missing: none

Also present: Ashley Studley, Maureen Sabolinksi, Miriam Goodman, Sally Winslow

Topic 1 - Budget
suggestion to read one of the Strategic Objectives at the beginning of each meeting
suggestion to help the community follow the numbers discussion with a single document referenced at each meeting so we can all stay "on the same page"

Topic 2 - Develop Policy
need one location for policies
Maureen to check on this with T Raposa on a solution
The MASC requires the naming scheme

Topic 3 - Evaluation Process of Superintendent
discussion on strategic plan and timing of updates considering the District and individual School Improvement Plans

(note this is covering the evaluation process itself, the specific evaluation is done separately)

Topic 4 - Modeling Behavior
Do well most of the time but laptops can be a distraction
some laptop usability insights should be provided to help project a professional and consistent appearance
maintain eye contact during presentations
speak into the microphones so your valid comments can be heard properly

Topic 5 - Working with other Boards
varied responses on this one
there was a problem over the consolidation of facilities but things have improved considerably since then
the two approaches to solving the problem that were very different but both had the same cost savings benefits in mind
the relationship with the new Council has gotten off to a good start

Topic 6 - Ambassadors to the Public
School Committee blog getting good traffic, Ed's email listing has grown
Could do more in the way of other forums, hold a public forum to communicate more directly twice a year
level of involvement in the committee has been good, there is a level of accountability for the community

Website issue causing some problems since the upgrade for the Town and the split from the service
move towards self publishing to help address this

members of the community do have the opportunity to participate
there is a difference between the citizens comment and agenda items

issues will attract attendance, raising fees, cutting buses, music, sports, will generate attendance but we don't want to create a crisis for each meeting

if someone has something to say, they can sit down and write a letter, or work a little bit to formulate their thoughts to send an email

break

School Committee - no agenda

There is a School Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening December 15th.

No agenda has been posted for this meeting.

Town Council and School Committee Attendance

I have added and will be updating a spreadsheet to keep track of the attendance records for the Town Council and School Committee as these two groups go forward. Keeping track of the sheet as each meeting occurs will be easier than trying to do a year or more at a time.

The spreadsheet can be found here and in the Important Links section in the middle column. You should be able to view the spreadsheet but not be able to update it (assuming the permissions work out properly).

The spreadsheet has two tabs: one for each group. The tabs are found on the bottom of the spreadsheet.

The coding for attendance will be as follows:

P - Present
A - Absent
L - Late (arriving)
E - Early (to leave)

Yes, an easy mnemonic to see if someone's attendance will pale in comparison to another's. Pun fully intended as the mnemonic.

In the News - Dean College

Dean College in Franklin will receive $125,000 for its embedded study model project, which aims to include academic support methods in the classroom.

"This is what students need to learn in tandem with the techniques they need," said Pat Samson, the school's communications director. "It embeds academic support techniques into the curriculum, making them available for all students. It's what we call the Dean method."

Principally a two-year school, Dean differs from community colleges in that it goes further to ensure students have the tools they need to learn in a college atmosphere, said Samson, adding that the school's retention and graduation rates are above average.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here