WILMINGTON, MA — Below are five MORE things that happened at last week’s Wilmington School Committee Meeting:
#1) NEW TECHNOLOGY PLAN NEEDED: Director of Technology & Digital Learning Ken Lord spoke to the School Committee about the need to update the district’s current technology plan.
“We will need to renew our Technology Plan as part of the Strategic Plan,” said Lord. “Our current plan has expired. It covered 2013-2018 and can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y2yqs92y.”
Lord is looking to establish a committee to meet monthly through the spring in order to present the School Committee with a new 5-year Technology Plan before summer.
Lord would like to see a broad-based committee representing many stakeholders. A suggested makeup of the committee includes building principals/assistant principals; central office leadership team; community members; faculty representing the different grade levels; high school students; OIT staff and himself; parents representing different grade levels; special education faculty; united arts faculty; and a school committee member.
#2) WHAT HAPPENED AT LAST WEEK’S CIT DAY? Assistant Superintendent Brian Reagan outlined what occurred at last week’s Curriculum Improvement Day on September 25, 2019:
- K-5 Classroom Teachers — training on new science program (Elevate) with Pearson
- 6-8 Core Content Teachers — exploring protocols for reviewing student work
- 9-12 Core Content Teachers — exploring protocols for reviewing student work
- K-5 SPED Teachers — training on new science program (Elevate) with Pearson
- 6-8 SPED Teachers — exploring protocols for reviewing student work
- 9-12 SPED Teachers — exploring protocols for reviewing student work
- K-12 Clinical Staff — SEL curriculum work, Riverside Community Care Wrap-Around Services presentation
- K-12 Visual Arts Staff — unpacking the new arts curriculum frameworks
- K-12 Performing Arts Staff — introducing a new remote peer observation system through Google Classrooms
#3) SUPERINTENDENT CONTRACT & COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS TO BE POSTED: The School Committee formally approved a new policy that will require collective bargaining agreements and the superintendent’s contract to be posted on the district’s website.
The policy reads:
“Subject to the ratification of collective bargaining agreements by the School Committee and the various bargaining units, the Wilmington Public Schools will post on its District website all collectively bargained contract agreements.
Subject to the signed contract agreement between the School and the Superintendent of Schools, the Wilmington Public Schools will post on its District website the Superintendent of Schools employment contract which will be redacted for personal information as appropriate.”
This measure will “make the district’s most important educational contracts more easily accessible to the public,” School Committee member David Ragsdale said during a previous conversation.
Dr. Brand hopes to have the current agreements and Superintendent contract posted to the district’s website on or around October 1, 2019.
#4) SCHOOL COMMITTEE UPDATING POLICY MANUAL: The School Committee’s Policy Subcommittee (Chair Jennifer Bryson and David Ragsdale) met with district leadership on August 28, 2019 and September 11, 2019 to begin reviewing the School Committee’s Policy Manual.
The Subcommittee then brought forward proposed changes to 17 policies in the manual’s first two sections. Many of the changes appear relatively minor, with the intention to bring the district’s policies in line with new recommendations from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
The Committee conducted a first reading of these revised policies at the September 25, 2019 meeting and will formally vote on them at a future meeting.
#5) MASC DELEGATE SELECTED: The School Committee unanimously appointed MJ Byrnes to serve as its delegate to the Massachusetts Association of School Committee’s upcoming Annual Conference. Byrnes has represented the Committee at 7 of the past 8 conferences. School Committee members David Ragsdale and Jennifer Bryson will also be in attendance.
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