Schools

School Strategic Plan, Action Plans Receive Final Approval

Committee expresses urgency to make progress.

The Melrose School Committee is moving on the district's five-year strategic plan.

Two weeks after casting a critical eye on the administrative team's action plans — the specific details of how the district will achieve the strategic plan's benchmarks and meet its goals — the committee voted 6-1 to accept a revised set of action plans at its meeting on Tuesday night.

That vote also gave final approval to the strategic plan itself. In June, the committee preliminarily approved the strategic plan, but withheld final approval pending its review and approval of the action plans.

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At its last meeting on July 27, committee members raised several concerns about the lack of specificity within the initial draft of the action plans, namely the descriptions of the actions themselves and the deadlines listed for some of the actions.

On Tuesday night this week, committee member Kristin Thorp, policy and planning subcommittee chairwoman, said that the committee gave Superintendent Joe Casey "substantial feedback" on the action plans and asked him to return to the administrative team with that feedback.

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"He has brought forward a substantially different version," Thorp said.

During the public comment section at the beginning of the meeting, Ted Kenney criticized the committee for tabling all the strategic plan items before the committee.

"Make some progress — it's like you're in quicksand," Kenney said. "Where are we going? You're going nowhere right now, as far as I'm concerned. School starts in a couple of weeks."

Committee member Christine Casatelli said that "we're paralyzing ourselves in pursuit of perfection" and mentioned Kenney imploring the committee to act.

"This is a living document," she said. "We have to take the first step to approve the action plans and get going."

Chairwoman Margaret Driscoll said that the revised actions plans "substanitally" includes the committee's feedback, particularly the additional details and clarification of the deadlines.

Committee member J.D. LaRock also commented on the "substantial improvement" of the action plan, but reiterating his belief that it would make more sense to have individual school-by-school action plans. Casey has previously said that the annual school improvement plans developed by each school site council would address how each school, with its own challenges, would follow through on the actions plans and strategic plan.

"This is a vote more on the strategic plan than the action plans," LaRock said. "I am struggling with the idea of approving the two together. While I feel this definitely makes the whole package better, I'm still concerned about overall deficiencies in the initial (strategic) plan. My hope was that the priorities (bridge) document would help me satisfy my own concerns."

Casey responded that even though the committee could approve the strategic plan and actions plans, district administrators and the committee would continue to jointly bring those plans to fruition and revise if necessary.

"When we report back to the committee, you can hear what's been done at different schools and different levels," he said. "The operative word is 'move.' Move with us and help be part of that discussion and how we make the positive change we need to make."

LaRock said he appreciated Casey's willingness to continue to work with the committee further and not consider a 'yes' vote on the action plans the end of any tweaking or revisions.

"I want to acknowledge Mr. Kenney's comments — some four hours ago — not to get stuck in a rut," he said. "That's important. It's important for the perception of this committee. It's a very helpful statement to know that we have your (Casey's) personal commitment."

Committee member Don Constantine compared the action plans to the budget, which the committee establishes, but then reviews and approves a monthly budget report. Adding that "there's nothing that says we can't make adjustments to this," he used an ice hockey analogy to express the urgency of the committee taking action.

"If we have a power play and all we're doing is passing the puck ...  if we don't ever shoot, we're never going to score a goal," Constantine said.


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