During Superintendent Doug White’s presentation on focus areas for the current school year, concerns about the three towns’ insistence on a level-funded school budget as populations grow at both ORR schools dominated the conversation.
Members of the Joint School Committee on September 17 agreed more community outreach and better dissemination of information about the activities and successes at the schools were crucial to gaining support from elected officials and the townspeople, especially those who approve the budget at annual town meetings.
“Getting people participating and engaged in the budget-building processes,” said White, are crucial. “We need to get out there in the forefront and talk about what kinds of things our schools need.”
White said having talks with seniors at senior centers was one way the schools could reach out to community members, but other ways of engaging “stakeholders” in the budget process to garner support for a more robust budget were also necessary.
Mattapoisett School Committee Chairman James Higgins said budget cuts resulting in less teachers and larger classroom sizes are indicative that “…The system we have is broken.” Higgins urged White to lead the way in fixing this broken system.
“We’re being told by the town administrators that the money’s not there,” said Higgins. Higgins then suggested pursuing a Proposition 2½ override to raise taxes to expand the schools’ budgets.
“All of us … are extremely concerned with what’s happened with the budget at ORR,” said Higgins. “[We must] do everything that we can this year to continue to make changes…. We can’t keep going how we’re going, squeaking by.”
White cautioned the committee, saying a strong Prop 2½ campaign would be essential to gain support from voters who would be confronted with a Prop 2½ override question on the ballot.
“They need to understand what they’re checking ‘yes’ for,” said White. A good public relations campaign, as committee member Christine Marcolini described it, was how to get it done.
“We’re the School Committee,” said Higgins. “We’re in charge of the budgets. We have to find a way to do that.”
It isn’t just about the cuts, said Marion School Committee member Christine Winters. “You want someone to fight for something for a reason … so they’re voting for something…. Communication is critical … instead of saying, ‘If we don’t do this then the sky is going to fall.’”
Rochester School Committee member Tina Rood said that when it comes to agreeing on goals for the year, it is best to keep it “simple” and “strong.”
“I don’t want to get lost in a bunch of little things,” said Rood. “At the end of the day, it’s the budget and the process for which we can get more money from the three towns because we can’t keep doing business the same way. It’s not sustainable and it’s not possible.”
In other matters, White gave a presentation on a contemporary concept in learning that focuses on teacher and student “mindset,” featured in Carol Dweck’s book, which White said most administrators and many teachers have read.
The book talks about the difference between students with a “fixed mindset” versus a “growth mindset.” Students with fixed mindsets, White said, shut down when they encounter a challenge, while students with growth mindsets often find a challenge to be an opportunity to try harder with the “power of not yet” when it comes to learning new things.
White said there are certain ways teachers can foster growth mindsets in their students. For example, rather than putting a grade at the top of the paper, teachers could put more of an explanation of what is right and what can be improved upon.
The intention, said White, is that with certain efforts, “[Students] can then move forward and be productive in their own learning.”
The next meeting of the Joint School Committee is scheduled for October 15 at 6:30 pm in the media room at Old Rochester Regional Junior High School.
By Jean Perry
