Tuesday night’s School
Committee meeting began with Melrose Chief Information Officer Jorge Pazos
commenting on “Technology Guidelines for Internet Safety.” He spoke to what the schools are doing to
keep students safe online. We then discussed a recommendation around Gifted and
Talented testing submitted by Supt. Taymore, and approved eliminating testing
at the elementary level to focus more efforts at the middle school level. (The
elementaries will continue to improve the practice of differentiating instruction
based on students’ knowledge and progress.) The featured speaker at the meeting
was Asst. Supt. of Teaching and Learning Margaret Adams, who presented on
“Aligning Standards, Assessments, and Instruction.” (Find the video at the
bottom of the page here: http://melroseschools.com/families/curriculum-and-instruction/.)
The Committee began
discussion around the school calendar for 2015-2016, and the Supt. provided a
memo explaining her recommendations. If approved at the 12/9 meeting, the
school year would begin for students on September 1st and end on
June 16th with no snow days, and June 23rd with five snow
days.
The Committee conducted
its annual self-evaluation from which we may amend/adopt goals for the coming
year. A summary report will be presented on 12/9 for consideration. We reviewed
recommended policy changes on the instruction of students, and all policy
updates were approved with a second vote planned for 12/9.
Chairman Thorp presented
recommendations for artifacts to be used when evaluating Supt. Taymore next
year and those were approved. Ms. Thorp
also presented the results of the school finance survey (along with all
comments – names redacted of course). The survey will be referenced as we begin
to think about the budget for next year. The draft rolling agenda for next
year’s meetings was presented so the community can see some thoughts on plans
for next year.
We briefly discussed the
MASC conference, and it was announced that Ms. Thorp was honored at a closing
banquet with an All-State School Committee award which is “…intended to honor school committee members who, during the previous year
have made a significant contribution to their community or their school
committee either through specific action or as an inspiration and role model
for their peers and constituents.” Congratulations!
As always, the full agenda
and related packet documents can be found on melroseschools.com under “School Committee” under “IQM2.”
Wishing you all the
happiest of Thanksgivings – our schools are incredibly thankful to have you as
parents, partners, and volunteers!
