2010 School Committee retreat: Michael Gilbert, MASC

I was grabbed after Thursday's meeting and asked, "Where are the notes? I've been waiting!" Here you are!

The first part of the morning was a presentation by Michael Gilbert from the Mass Association of School Committees on administration and school committee roles and responsiblilities (you might remember that this was a request at the Superintendent's annual review in June).


Michael Gilbert, field director for the Mass Association of School Committees
reminders about open meeting law and rules on executive session
Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Pat Lencioni
"what are those areas that you really need to build on to become an effective and cohesive team"
pyramid: base, absence of trust
creating trust requires "multiple instances of follow-through and credibility"
2nd level of pyramid, fear of conflict
"debating the issues, not the personalities"
3rd level of pyramid, lack of commitment
4th level of pyramid, avoidance of accountability
point, inattention to results
"prioritize results of team over individual needs"

Roles and responsibilities of School Committees
1. establishing mission and district goals
2. budget
3. collective bargaining
4. policy

"establish and peridocially review education goals and policties for the schools in the district, consistent with the requrements of law"
superintendent presents policy options, and informs SC of what implemenation of policy would entail
policy: "what needs to happen"
brief, broad
School Committee owns the "what"; Superintendent owns the "how"

Budget: review and approve a budget for education; oversee expenditures
"work to ensure that necessary funds are appropriated"

Hiring and fire: superintendent and district legal counsel
on rec'd of superintendent: ass't superintendent, special ed director, business director, nurses & doctors, supervisors of attendence
(there's some conversation here around whether, and how, the Worcester School Committee hires the nurses, or approves the hiring of the nurses, and what has happened in the past)
also, the School Committee owns job descriptions: the School Committee may rewrite the job description, however
also, "you as an individual have no authority" (to the School Committee)

"essentially set compensation for everyone in the district...how you do that may vary"

collective bargaining: School Committee is employer of record for collective bargain
"my advice is never have your superintendent as your lead negotiator"
the superintendent and the union president need to day-to-day manage the contract

"establish, upon the recommendation fo the superintendent, the perfomance standards of teachers and other employees of the school district"
"principles of effective teachers" (and "effective leadership") from the DESE
(Gilbert suspects that this will be coming back due to RTTT)
evaluation of superintendent (due to the Whalen case) has changed: individual School Committee members make notes, discussion based on the notes from members, minutes of that meeting "should sufficice" as a public record
members need to be blunt, Gilbert also recommends individual school committee members meet with Superintendent afterward for anything else that needs to be said
"self-evaluation of the committee's effectiveness"
MASC working with DESE to develop an evaluation for underperforming districts (also already have one, requested by members here, now)

superintendent ensures that staff is evaluated and develops evaluation instruments

SC adopts a professional development plan; "generally done by budget process"
superintendent implements the prof development plan, makes PD avaliable
(there's some conversation here around whether, and how, this is happening in Worcester...do we get a plan, what is a "plan," and how is it provided. Note also that now grants come through will be spelled out specifically to School Committee in terms of how it will be spent)

SC reviews an annual school improvement plan for each school in the district
"provide and encourage resources for school council professional development programs that will enable council members to have the knowledge and skills required to effective educational leadership"

advocacy on behalf of students and their schools and promote the benefits of a public school system to the community
"advocate not only on behalf of the parents who vote for you, but their kids, who can't"

curriculum: SC approve major adoption or revision of curriculum and textbooks upon recommendation of the superintendent
adoption of new programs, major changes, or any changes that involve policy changes
Boone: "programs often get substituted for curriculum...we know that 85% of Common Core is in the MA Frameworks" (something which is disputed, incidentally)...working on curriculum fit

we want to be heliocopter School Committee members (not an airplane, and not on the ground)