News

03/20/2012

School Board adopts set of 'ambitious' goals for 2012

The School Board already has a jump on many of the goals they have set for themselves for 2012.

At their meeting March 13, 2012, board members approved a set of seven goals established at the group's daylong retreat held in February.

Some of them are procedural, such as adopting a 2013 school budget and negotiating contracts with four employee bargaining units. But others, such as endorsing an updated vision/mission statement, make it an exciting time to be on the School Board, members said.

"It will be an important year for setting the path for coming years," said board Chair Mary Townsend.

Earlier in the evening, Superintendent Meredith Nadeau announced that a working group of teachers, administrators, community members and members of the board were very close to presenting a draft update to the existing vision and mission statements. Once the statements are adopted, the board will use them to begin on an updated strategic plan for the school system.

Work on updating the schools policy manual is also a goal for 2012 that is underway. "That work has begun this week," Townsend said.

Board member David Hillman called the goals "ambitious", especially in light of a lower level of funding from the state and federal government. But even those that don't require funding, such as measuring school performance, are equally important and "tough" topics to tackle in one year, he said. "We're willing to do it and we will achieve it, but this is an ambitious - but I think ultimately extremely beneficial - set of goals," Hillman said.

Two ongoing objectives - improved student literacy, and staff development in "professional learning communities" - are not stated in the document but remain long-term goals, said board member Michael Moore. "These are goals for the School Board, as opposed to goals for the school district," added Hillman. "I think that is an important distinction to make."

Here are the adopted School Board goals for 2012: [download goals]

1. Review and sponsor a school budget that maintains vital programs and services within the district.
2. Successfully negotiate four separate contracts (administrators, ed techs II/III, ed tech I and administrative support, and maintenance/bus drivers/food service/ custodians).
3. Support and endorse an updated and revitalized district Mission/Vision Statement that reflects the values and expectations of the Cape Elizabeth community.
4. Utilize the updated Mission and Vision work to begin the process of creating a Strategic Plan for the district to be used to guide the direction of the schools for the upcoming years.
5. Explore district topics during workshops and business meetings, including:
   1. school­to-school transitions
   2. teacher/administrator evaluations
   3. curriculum alignment school-to-school
6. Create an online district report card or annual report that includes agreed‐upon benchmarks to measure the district’s performance.
7. Initiate an audit of the Cape Elizabeth School Policy Manual.