It did not take much convincing on September 12 for the Mattapoisett School Committee to acquiesce to the school administration’s proposal to consolidate meetings and switch to an every-six-weeks meeting schedule instead of meeting once a month.
With very little discussion and relatively few questions, the school committee members unanimously agreed that the proposal was, in general, a good idea.
Facing 44 school committee meetings throughout the school year, Superintendent Doug White stated that eliminating just two meetings from the annual schedule would have a tremendous impact on the school administration, which must attend the monthly meetings of four school committees, plus a joint school committee meeting every other month.
“We’ve always talked about potentially addressing or combining meetings,” said White. “What we have here is a proposal that would take away two meetings for the year…” He later added, “So it’s two less nights out for the central administration … and less taxing on the administrative team for nights out.”
An added benefit would be that, should the school committee cancel a meeting due to winter weather or a light agenda, the committee would meet within six weeks instead of eight, White said.
The concept of possibly ‘piggybacking’ meetings the same day as other sub-committee meetings, such as the Policy Sub-Committee, was deliberated, yet several committee members voiced concern over their inability to attend earlier meetings, so for now the committee will meet every six weeks.
“I think this is a great idea,” said School Committee Chairman James Higgins.
The committee also decided to switch its regular meeting time from 7:00 to 6:30 pm.
Also during the meeting, School Business Administrator Patrick Spencer announced that the school district finished off fiscal year 2016 with a monetary surplus of $157,000. Spencer said the funds would likely be turned over to an account to fund future unexpected special education costs.
White also told the committee that a new online system adopted to assist the school district in filling substitute teacher and paraprofessional positions is a success so far.
With AESOP, potential substitute teachers and paraprofessionals can more easily access jobs as they are posted in real time and pick and choose the ones that fit into their specifications.
“We haven’t had a substitute [position] that hasn’t been filled as of yet [this school year],” said White. “It’s working pretty good so far.”
In other matters, contracts for new security entrance vestibules for the two schools have gone out to bid, and construction will likely take place over the winter break or February break, White told the committee.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett School Committee is scheduled for October 24 at 6:30 pm at the Center School cafeteria.
By Jean Perry