Not-so-liveblog of the Worcester School Committee retreat: evaluating the superintendent

Question on contractually, goal-setting by mid to late fall: evaluate in spring
Quinn says that he sees a “bucket” of student achievement, whether they are ELL, extended learning, or at underperforming schools. Another one he sees is communication, transparency, and budget. “Third big chunk” has to do with defining success. Community partnerships is another.
Superintendent’s evaluation
O’Connell reviews how the School Committee evaluates the superintendent
Quinn gives a rundown of other systems of evaluation; says it should be a process not an event. Quarterly retreats, part of which should be related to performance. Self-performance should be part of performance evaluation, as how a supervisor relates to how those being supervised perform (?), he’s concerned about executive session and evaluating the superintendent (they can’t go into executive session for that). He recommends Charlotte-Mecklenberg as a success in evaluation (news to those of us who know anything about the Charlotte district). He doesn’t think that individual evaluations should be collected and put together for the final evaluation (and put out to the press and public). He wants a strategic plan in place so that she can be evaluated by that in her second year. (He calls this a hybrid of a “global and data” assessment.)
Brode offers a “senior advisor” for all superintendents they have. They also offer to “facilitate the evaluation” in year one for their graduates. They do it over two days: meet each School Committee member individually; three or more mentions of anything end up in the final report. They send that to her, she goes over/adds her own stuff, it goes back to the committee, and they check it over for the final report. The Mayor calls for discussion now; largely the committee feels they ought to do it themselves, the Mayor speaks of “being willing to experiment”…she’s like to have the experience. Speaks of having at least one, maybe more, new member on the Committee…”I don’t feel threatened at all by the Executive approach” It’s only free the first year...some back and forth over maybe meeting with a person, but not for evaluation. Lukes points out that colleges and universities have to be more involved; Boone says she is having good conversations with them; Lukes suggests coordinating w/ City Manager on that. Some talk about Pittsburgh having a community grant program for kids who graduate with a certain GPA.