The first meeting of the ad-hoc committee organized by Mayor Petty was tonight at City Hall.
After welcome and introductions of the committee so far (we are expecting a few additional members), we received the mayoral charge to the committee, which reads as follows:
The committee will study and report to the School Committee the feasibility of establishing an exam school for high achieving students in grades 9 to 12 which would develop and promote academic excellence relevant to success in the 21st century.
The report will include:
- an analysis of potential risks and benefits of such a school
- a recommendation for a school focus
- a recommendation regarding the International Baccalaureate program
- recommended criteria useful for identifying students for admission
- recommended enrollment
- projected costs
Committee members received a backup giving a basic idea of what the International Baccalaureate program is, and we ran through some other useful terms.
For the summer, the committee has divided into two subcommittees for a basic round of pro/con work on each of our two charges. Brian O'Connell and I are serving on the committee focusing on the exam school; Donna Colorio and Jack Foley will serve on the committee focusing on International Baccalaureate. From now until August, those groups will investigate why we should move forward with each option, and what drawbacks, legal issues, and challenges might be.
We will not, I should note, be yet looking at curriculum, admissions requirements, cost, location, or any other detailed work.
We will next meet as a full committee at the end of August to report those back out and move forward. That will again be a public meeting and will be posted as such.
In addition to my ongoing encouragement to get in touch with the School Committee on your thoughts on this, we will be having at least one (I'd like to have at least two) public hearings on this idea for the fall. Watch for them!
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