 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
August 17, 2010The second meeting of the Ayer-Shirley Regional School Committee was held on August 17th, here are the highlights from the meeting. We received an update on the middle school merger from Interim Superintendent Mary Beth Hamel and the school is ready for the new year. There have been 3 Professional Development days for staff held over the course of the summer and under the leadership of Superintendent Hamel, Principal Brian Haas and Vice Principal Rich McGrath the teams have melded together beautifully. We have spent over $30,000 on new text books in the middle school to support the enhanced curriculum offerings that will be provided this year in the merged school. The teaching staff has worked hard as individuals and department teams to coordinate the program schedule and the program of study to provide the best educational opportunities possible for middle school students. Superintendent Hamel remarked that she is very impressed with the work accomplished and the positive attitude brought to the merger by all involved. She reported that the team is ready and excited about the upcoming school year. The new bus routes for children in Ayer have been posted on the Regional Website and the Ayer District website and the new bus routes for Shirley students will be posted by Friday, August 27th. The bus routes will also be posted in the local newspapers. Superintendent Hamel also reviewed the plans for the opening day of the school year on August 30th. The first part of the day will bring all staff from both Ayer and Shirley together for opening remarks and introduction of new team members. Then the staff will separate into teaching groups by school for additional meetings and then spend the afternoon completing the set up of their classrooms. We heard from Superintendent Hamel about the progress on the health insurance plans for the employees of the district. The Teacher’s Union and the administration have jointly hired a health care consultant to work collaboratively to find the best plan options for the district. With regard to the transition funds, we have submitted a grant to GIS so that the funds can be released to the district. The funds have been classified as a grant and so appropriation required this additional step. We are very close to receiving the first installment and will be able to disburse funds in the near term. Superintendent Hamel has begun the search for a consultant to work with us on the Strategic plan for the district. The Committee supported Superintendent Hamel’s recommendation that we create a 1-3 year strategic plan for the regional district to help us identify priorities and guided the management of the district. The goal will be to work on the plan over the next several months so that the plan is completed prior to the 7/1/11 opening of the regional school district. As a follow up to our last discussion on acquiring a Technology Consultant to work with the IT directors in Ayer and Shirley to make sure that we properly set up the infrastructure necessary for a technology enabled district, we have acquired the services of a consultant who will be working with us on this assessment. The IT team and the consultant will assess the technology needs and present a project plan and costs to the Committee. We received an update on progress with the MSBA from Superintendent Frost. The first project that the regional district is pursuing is the middle-high school project for the building in Ayer. Ayer and Shirley have submitted all preliminary paperwork to MSBA so they can complete their enrollment study and move us into the feasibility phase. The goal continues to be to come to Fall Town Meeting with the objective of obtaining funds for the feasibility study. We do not yet know what the cost of the study will be, however we do know that the cost of the study will be reimbursed at the same rate as the entire project. Currently this is projected to be 67%. Superintendent Hamel proposed the creation of the role of webmaster for the Regional Website and proposed the creation of a sub-committee to work on the design of the new regional website. The Committee supported this concept in full and supports a strong web presence for the new district. Committee members Dan Gleason and Pat Kelly volunteered to participate on this sub-committee. One of the major tasks of the Committee in the next 10 months will be to adopt the policies of the new regional school district. Superintendent Hamel proposed a process where the administration will use a process to combine the existing policies of the individual districts and propose the merged or updated policies into a format that can be reviewed and then approved by the Committee. This process was approved and will give the Committee the ability to review policies one section at a time and then approve all the policies prior to day one of the regional district. The Committee discussed the schedule of upcoming meetings and approved a schedule through the end of 2010. The Committee will meet on the first Tuesday of the month in Ayer (Professional Development Room at Page Hilltop) and then the third Wednesday of the month in Shirley (Middle School Library). This new schedule will start in September. Thanks for reading. Pat Kelly
|
What's New?ASRSD School Choice Form (PDF) ASRSD Internal School Choice Form (PDF) Ayer NCLB Report Card (PDF) |
Last Updated on 14 August 2011 |