Our Oct. 9^th study session on the District’s Goals for 2007-08 was televised, so I urge everyone, if you have cable, to call LMC-TV & request a replay of our meeting on channel 75. While I will do a brief description here, I cannot possibly cover everything said at this important meeting.  

    Board of Education President Amy Levere opened the meeting by noting that this is the first year that each building and Central Staff was asked to submit goals to the BOE before the Board set its goals.  There will also be a report back to the BOE in the spring.

     This year the BOE has three broad goals, with specific objectives within each, focusing overall on educating our students.  They are:  

·        Student Learning, specifically addressing the areas of curriculum, instruction, assessment & professional development

·        Community Involvement, including collaboration, school culture & effective communication, &

·        Fiscal Responsibility, which includes budget development & developing a 5 year capital plan and plan for athletic fields  

Dr. Fried noted that these goals will drive the work of the district this year, and was pleased that the goals of the Professional Development Plan (or "PDP") Committee – which is a committee of teachers, administrators and community members – also speak to the Board’s goals. He has been working closely with the PDP committee and the Teacher’s Institute staff, which provides for professional development throughout the district.  Dr. Fried and the Board also thanked the entire staff for their hard work in this critically important endeavor.   

Each of the Central Staff and building administrators discussed the goals they developed and how they hoped to achieve them.  

Annie Ward, Asst Supt for Curriculum, spoke about some of the initiatives she hopes to pursue this year toward student learning, including:

·        Nonfiction writing as the focus of the literacy design team & preparing for the new TERC math program at the elementary level, and

·        Establishing a review cycle & curriculum development (with a specific set of objectives for each dept) at the secondary level, and also

·        Implementing research-based instructional practice, with a visit to each school each month that will have a specific focus such as, in October, assessment.  

Asst Supt for Student Support Services Anthony Minotti talked about his “new” dept., combining special education, guidance, school psychologists, social workers & nurses under one umbrella.  He hopes to do a study of special ed. services in the district this year, to help maximize services while containing costs.  He also plans to look at inclusion practices K-12, & bring more people around the table to look to align the educational, social & emotional needs of our students.  

Pete Scordo, Asst Supt for Personnel, spoke of his goals for professional development & to collaborate with teachers & administrators to redesign an "APPR" – or annual professional performance review plan – to evaluate and support teachers and train administrators, in line with state standards.  

Asst Supt of Operations Meryl Rubenstein was pleased to see fiscal responsibility as one of our major goals, & she plans to focus on community involvement in the budget process & on making that process as transparent & responsible as possible  -- looking at different ways to get the job done in the least costly manner.

 Our building administrators also spoke about some of their goals for the year, along with our Assistant Principals and teachers from the various buildings.  These goals which were reached collaboratively after much faculty discussion, included:  

·        Changing school culture, supporting at-risk students & curriculum development at the secondary schools

·        Murray Ave. spoke of inclusion & professional development

·        Central about deepening the foundations for differentiated learning

·        Chatsworth about community and character development, &

·        MAS about assessment, particularly as to 2d language learners & the new SIS

·        Many also spoke of teamwork, collaboration & the new TERC revised math program

I just can’t do justice to it all in this one short summary!  

   Many of the participants in the goals presentation & board members were impressed at the level of thoughtfulness that went into developing these goals & how well the Board, PDP, Central Staff & Building goals came together.  And we all are looking forward to significant progress toward these goals in our district this year.

Robin Nichinsky