Massachusetts School Committees and Superintendents Joint Meeting

Submitted by Sue Sheffler

Arlington Schools are being admirably represented this week at the joint
state-wide meeting of school committees and superintendents.

- 6 School Committee members (Goodman, LaMachia, Owayda, Schlictman,
Sheffler, Theilman) attended the meeting, in part to work with our
colleagues around the state to advocate for public schools at the state
level . For example, we resolved to push for Metco funding to be on a
par with funding for other "school choice" programs.

- Karen Tassone, our very able school committee administrative
assistant, served on a panel on parliamentary procedure (vital to
meeting ethical and legal requirements of Scl Com work).

- Kay Donovan and Suzanne Owayda were asked by Executive Director Glenn
Koocher to serve on the panel "Teamwork among Leaders- building
effective relationships". Because we happen to enjoy an unusually
effective partnership in Arlington between Scl Com and administration,
we attracted the attention of more candidates for the superintendent's
position.

- Joani LaMachia, 6 year veteran of our School Committee, received a
lifetime service award for her contributions as an ELL teacher,
volunteer, and her outstanding work as the driver of many school
committee initiatives; Budget Subcommittee formation, Goals process,
alignment of Goals and budget, and more.

-Paul Schlictman, President of the state Scl Com Association, presented
awards to winners of national Vocational Technical competitions,
including the Minuteman student from Arlington, Kerry Meister , who is
the best baker in the nation.

- An exhibitor at our recent Arlington High School "College Fair" made
it a point to congratulate us on the high attendance and quality there.
Guidance Director Elinor Farinato has clearly beefed up Arlington's
relationships with a wide variety of colleges, and garnered much support
from parents.

Meanwhile, I attended workshops and learned the following.

Collective bargaining- according to the current head of the Mass.
Teachers Federation, contract negotiations "should never go longer than
3 months/7 sessions". We will be working hard here in Arlington to
make our next contract negotiation a less disruptive, more productive
endeavor. As Ed Doherty said in this session, " We must value our time
and resources and use them to turn back the forces in this country that
have put public eduction under attack, not use them to bargain
indefinitely".

School Building Fund- the state has decided to fix the long, drawn-out
system of reimbursing towns for school projects. This means Arlington
will finally receive reimbursement for Peirce School, and that
reimbursement for the upcoming projects will be much more timely. It is
still not clear what the timetable could be for Stratton School,
although that may be much more defined after the new year.