At its opening public meeting of the 2023-24 academic year, the Old Rochester Regional Joint School Committee/Superintendent’s Union #55 heard from Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner, whom Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson suggested the district employ as a facilitator for Vision 2028, ORR’s strategic plan for the next five years.
“Finally, we’re here,” said Nelson, addressing the committees on September 28. He alluded to the many hours of work put into the model last year, including strategic initiatives and the beginning of action planning.
Gilbert-Whitner, a former superintendent in the Whitman-Hanson regional district, coached Nelson in 2020 through the new superintendent’s induction program. Now she has worked with ORR and appeared on September 28 to review the process.
As prescribed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), a process was developed beginning in March 2023 with a focus on the planning and alignment of many programs over three steps: 1. Create the plan; 2. Align the plan; 3. Implement the plan.
Gilbert-Whitner used a PowerPoint presentation to summarize the steps that have brought the district to its current position. She said the efforts to analyze district performance, educator evaluation, community feedback for trends and patterns, then work backward to design an improvement strategy, “we’re pretty much done doing that.”
The next two phases will include connecting the school plan to the ORR District plan. “A big part of this is community engagement … and the most important part of all and what you’re going to be moving to today is implementing the plan,” said Gilbert-Whitner.
The third part will establish progress and use impact-related benchmarks, monitor and publicly report progress, and if necessary, redesign the District Plan.
“And as you will see, the plan in and of itself is just a few pages. But the most important part of that plan are the annual action plans,” said Gilbert-Whitner. “This is what your leadership team and the planning committee are working on now, developing annual action plans that are really the driver … if the plan needs to be redesigned, it’s part of a flexible, living model so that can be done as well.”
The accessibility to the plan to everyday life at school is where Gilbert-Whitner indicated that planning has come a long way.
“The best part of planning for success is you don’t have a … large binder that often sat on the shelf and collected dust. Planning for success will not do that. It will be present every single day in the lives of your youngest student to your oldest student and really working to improve teaching and learning for all of them,” she said.
In comparing the state’s model to ORR’s, Gilbert-Whitner alluded to ORR’s work on literacy and how a strategic plan connects that effort to the larger vision.
“Most importantly – and we worked hard on this – what are the outcomes? If we meet our objectives, we implement our initiatives, what at the end of this plan in 2028 will we be able to say we’ve achieved? How do they impact the instructional core, and how do they make a difference for students? And these are measurable objectives,” Gilbert-Whitner stated.
From March 13 to the dog days of the summer, Gilbert-Whitner worked with ORR’s Planning and Administrative Leadership teams over the course of six team retreats followed by action-planning sessions in June and August. The Planning Team was comprised of a variety of stakeholders, including teachers and community representatives.
Gilbert-Whitner recommended that ORR’s planning for success and implementation of the district plan, including putting the monitoring plan in place so that it impacts the community as well as the administration and school.
“Everyone should be aware that this is our plan, that we’re paying very close attention to it, and when things don’t go as we wish that they would, we’re flexible, we’re able to modify, and we get back and we report out on that. Monitoring the plan is incredibly important to achieving your outcomes that you’ve designed,” said Gilbert-Whitner, who stressed the importance of aligning the monitoring plan with actions plans. “Action plans need to be monitored throughout the school year.”
She added that despite her career as a superintendent, this was something she needed to learn. As a result, monitoring of action plans was put on school-committee meeting agendas and taken into account during budgeting season.
At the conclusion of Gilbert-Whitner’s introduction, ORR Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Shari Fedorowicz dug deeper into Core Values “Think, Learn, Care,” and ORRHS Principal Mike Devoll discussed the “portrait of an ORR graduate” within the district’s five objectives that include curriculum, leadership to implement that curriculum, establish assessment practices and management.
Devoll said ORR will carry the curriculum through the next five years and said it will be a community effort. He talked about grade-level graduates, specific ways those students would be prepared to advance and what that looks like. He said there would be shared leadership and outlined a series of outcomes planned for June 30, 2024.
Sippican Elementary School Principal Marla Brown then outlined the implementation process, especially as supported by professional development and resources that align with the portrait of a graduate.
New Interim Director of Student Services Kristine Lincoln talked about support throughout the ORR District for the academic, behavioral and social components of the program. Other aspects include the climate and culture necessary to achieve the objectives of the program.
Nelson emphasized the teamwork involved in creating and planning Vision 2028 and promised updates to the community.
With that, both sides of the JSC voted unanimously to approve the plan as presented.
Nelson provided the JSC a progress report on his Mid-Cycle Review, based on two-year superintendent’s goals that were presented to the committee a year ago.
Thanking the Superintendent’s Goals 2022-24 Subcommittee of Nichole Daniel, Anne Fernandes, Sharon Hartley, Carly Lavin, Matthew Monteiro and Michelle Smith for their work assisting in goal development, Nelson said the bulk of the subcommittee’s work lies ahead in terms of feedback.
He discussed how his personal goals align with Vision 2023 (and 2028) and School Improvement plans in the district.
The four goals are: supporting teaching, learning and sense of belonging; developing the new five-year strategic plan (Vision 2028); completion of the state’s New Superintendent Induction program; and a communication enhancement strategy. For each goal, Nelson outlined key actions, benchmarks to measure progress, and the resources that would be used.
The JSC heard from Fedorowicz on the Professional Developmental Plan for the 2023-24 school year and voted to approve. Fedorowicz highlighted the 2022-23 plan, noting that over 200 educators responded to a survey conducted for feedback purposes to inform the new plan.
The committees reviewed a presentation of the current Curriculum Review Cycle. Fedorowicz described an in-depth document reviewing math, science and world languages as well as the literacy program that has been the district focus. A council will work with the document at the beginning and end of the school year, assess needs and resources and alignment with state mandates. “It’s great ideas, but we have to fund them,” said Nelson, who encouraged committee members to watch a video on the subject.
The committees voted to approve the changes to Substitute Daily Rates for the 2023-24 school year. One of those changes will pay long-time but recently retired full-time teachers at the same wage should they take on a substitute teacher’s role in retirement.
The JSC reviewed and approved many alterations to policies, most notably allowing 30 rather than 15 minutes of Public Comment at School Committee Meetings (plus other changes to address those speaking without permission of the chair), as was reviewed and recommended by the JSC, recommended in turn by the Policy Subcommittee and reviewed by legal counsel.
Nearing the end of a long list of policies, Nelson noted a hold requested by member Margaret McSweeny related to a fundraising policy. McSweeny said her point was not to flag a particular, ongoing fundraiser but solely to bring to the attention of the committee a conflict between the activity and the language of the policy as proposed.
At the enthusiastic motion of committee member Jim Muse, acknowledging Lincoln for all her years of “fantastic service to our school district,” the JSC voted to appoint Lincoln to interim director of Student Services.
The JSC approved the following meeting dates for 2024: January 18, March 28 and June 20.
During committee reorganization, Sharon Hartley accepted a nomination for her to continue as chairperson of the Superintendent Union #55 side of the Joint School Committee. Opening remarks by Hartley and respective ORR Chairperson Michelle Smith reflected on the need for unity.
The JSC entered executive session to discuss collective-bargaining strategy and to comply with the laws and federal grant-in-aid requirements and only returned to adjourn.
The next meeting of the ORR Joint School Committee/Superintendent’s Union #55 is scheduled for Thursday, January 18, 2024, at 6:30 pm in the ORR Junior High media room.
ORR Joint School Committee/Superintendent’s Union #55
By Mick Colageo