9-Town News Article - September 2006
The Interim Planning effort to chart a new, more financially sustainable, course for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, is in full swing. I believe that we learned many valuable lessons last year, which should be very helpful in the challenging year unfolding. In particular, we are putting great effort into a comprehensive communications plan, which we believe will ultimately result in a positive course of action for the district. The more informed you are, the better for our students.
The Interim Planning Committee is charged with delivering a recommended interim plan to the Superintendent on November 1, 2006. The Interim Planning Committee is comprised of a steering committee and three representatives from each Subcommittee.
The Interim Planning Steering Committee is charged with managing the overall process and assisting the sub-committees as needed; this committee is comprised of the Superintendent and two community members.
The Interim Planning Subcommittees are charged with evaluating selected models and delivering their findings to the Interim Planning Committee on October 15, 2006; these committees are comprised of representatives from the school committee, local educators, and the community.
The options being evaluated by the Subcommittees were derived from brainstorming sessions held in July that involved school committee members, educators, town leaders, parents, and area residents.
The subcommittees have been meeting regularly since August 15, evaluating each option from the particular perspective of each subcommittee (Education; Transportation; Budget; or Building Use).
The options being evaluated fall into three general categories: strengthening the local schools; regionalization; and consolidation. Within these general categories are various models; most, but not all, would require a change to the regional agreement to implement.
The subcommittee evaluations are for the purpose of providing a way to focus on the impact- the benefits and the consequences of each option. The results of the subcommittee evaluations will be compiled in October and a recommendation made by the full Interim Planning Committee to the Superintendent for presentation to the full MTRSD School Committee in November.
At the mid-term progress meeting on Sept. 14, it was learned that the subcommittees are making excellent progress:
Education and Building Use subcommittees are using SWOT analysis to evaluate the models; SWOT examines the “strengths-weaknesses-opportunities and threats”’ Budget subcommittee is evaluating the models by projecting costs over 3-5 years. Transportation subcommittee is evaluating the models by determining the impact to cost, time on bus and conveniences to parents.
The subcommittees are including feedback from teachers, custodians and principals either through questionnaires or by inviting guests to speak at one of their meetings.
The subcommittees have identified several areas where their work dovetails with another subcommittee, for example, it is important for the budget and building use subcommittees to obtain feedback from the education subcommittee regarding class size recommendations.
There was interest in including vocational-technical programming at the high school that warrants further exploration to determine how to include this in the models under exploration.
As a result of the work accomplished to date, the Interim Planning Committee was able to place two models toward the bottom of the list of options: Regional Middle School located separate from the High School and the K-12 model, which was seen as potentially a long-term solution but not effective in the short-term.
Work remaining to be accomplished includes continuation of the work, with additional feedback from other subcommittees and the central office as needed. Additionally, the subcommittees plan to get together soon to determine and agree upon the various assumptions inherent in the models being explored. For example there was general consensus that even though Mohawk is a K-12 district, that there are numerous reasons why it is beneficial and cost-effective to maintain preschools located with the elementary students. Clarifying assumptions such as this is necessary to moving forward in the planning.
The superintendent indicated that the district business office and budget subcommittee are preparing budgets for the various options, in order to present this information to the towns when it becomes necessary for area residents to vote on this issue. The preparations being undertaken are thorough and inclusive of many opinions and concerns for the education of all our children.
In conjunction with the subcommittee meetings, the superintendent and business manager are meeting with the Selectboards and Finance Committees of each town to discuss the school budget process.
