The Reading School Committee (SC) is meeting on Thursday May 25, 2023. The meeting is being held at 7pm in BOSTON at METCO Headquarters at 11 Roxbury St, Boston, MA 02119. As of this writing, the meeting will NOT be being broadcast live by RCTV (this might change) and will not be accessible via zoom. RCTV is recording this meeting. The packet, including agenda, is posted below.
Main things to know for tonight’s meeting:
The agenda includes at least only one planned vote: the final vote on the 2023-2024 budget and capital plan. Information on that is at page 33 of the packet. The vote seems to be a formality, because the SC basically is approving what town meeting already appropriated at Spring 2023 town meeting.
A considerable part of the meeting relates to METCO agenda items, including comments from Milly Arbaje-Thomas, METCO President & CEO, a Reading METCO Update, and a Friends of Reading METCO Introduction. The packet does not include slides or other information relating to these agenda items. There is also a SEPAC introduction.
It appears that much of the remainder of the meeting is devoted to the Superintendent Evaluation process and timeline, which correlates to pages 35-58 of the packet. Pages 35-38 includes Chair Brandt’s memo on this topic, which lists the Superintendent’s goals as approved by the committee and other so-called “focus indicators” against which the SC will evaluate the Superintendent. These are the 4 major goals (listed in the chair’s memo) on which the SC is evaluating the Superintendent:
- Goal 1 (District Improvement Goal): District Strategic Plan: Design and publish multi-year district strategic plan by June 30, 2023
- Goal 2 (District Improvement Goal): Innovations: Prioritize, address, and/or create path forward to address structural and systematic issues/themes/dilemmas outlined in Superintendent’s Report of Entry Findings, including elementary half-days, secondary math pathways, school schedules, RMHS innovation pathways, middle school literacy curriculum, elementary musical programming, full-day Kindergarten, and community partnerships.
- Goal 3 (Student Learning Goal): Coaching, Developing, and Supporting Principals. Implement a district strategy for coaching, supporting, and developing principal talent
- Goal 4 (Professional Practice Goal): New Superintendent Induction Program. Develop skills in strategy development, data analysis, equity and instructional leadership by actively engaging in the second year of the New Superintendent Induction Program.
The community correspondence (shown at pages 60-62) of the packet may be of interest, especially to middle school parents, because it relates to one parent’s concern about the access to and content of, the middle school Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This parent expressed concerns that the survey was inappropriate for middle schoolers, especially sixth graders and also was concerned about the limited access that parents were being given to see the survey in advance, before deciding whether or not to opt out their child. As a result of this parent’s concerns (and apparently those raised by other parents), the middle school principals sent middle school parents an email indicating that the principals would “hold off “ administering the survey “until we have the chance to review all questions and feedback and make any appropriate adjustments .“ In addition, the correspondence indicates that RPS is “going to make a shift and share the survey electronically” (presumably with parents).
