Learning outside of the classroom...

Summary paragraph: In which Menin shares some knowledge gained in two close encounters of the out of classroom kind.

Sometimes, when I tell people that I'm the only candidate to run for re-election in ten years, they look at me like I am really stupid, or a glutton for punishment. I don't think I'm either.

I spent a great deal of time talking with two people over the past two days who have no intention of voting for me; and probably will cast no ballots in the School Committee race at all this year. Both are parents who have children in the schools; both recognize that the cuts of the last 6 years have had a drastic impact on the quality of education and additional services their children receive.

Both questioned the reconfiguration; one from the creating another layer of bureaucracy perspective, the other questioned the wisdom of the groupings of children and the long bus rides.

There are no easy answers to these questions; nothing glib, or fatuous. The truth is, as the Superintendent and the School Committee enter into a budget cycle focused on student achievement, and insist on a greater degree of scrutiny and accountability, we will eventually be in a position to know. Certainly, the trends will become clear by the end of this year; and they will be scrutinized by the Administration, the SC and the community.

The heartache of the chaos of the last few years has compounded the level of mistrust built up by previous administrations and SC's both have a basis in reality. There were previous Committees and administrations who did not practice transparency. As one of a few voices demanding it, and challenging the status quo, I believe the combination of this crisis, and the arrival of a thoughtful, focused set of administrators things, in this crisis, have changed the whole deal.

The other candidates running for School Committee have raised a number of points that deserve clear and direct response; probably from me, as the only incumbent and the only one seeking re-election.

Have we been the most effective communicators of the change and new level of accountability that we hold ourselves to?

• No. We need a far more strategic and multi-pronged approach to communicating with the community, and a sharply tailored message so they can get the sense that business as usual went out the window two years ago. We also need to have a strategic approach to bringing various community members who don't currently identify themselves as "stakeholders" into the schools, and creating value for them. This is a fair criticism.
  

How will we hold ourselves accountable for improved student achievement?

• By setting goals for the SC and the Superintendent that are public, specific and measurable. By assessing progress on these goals in a timely (quarterly, bi-annually, etc.) fashion, in public session, with public input.
  

Is it possible to make constructive changes in the schools that will impact on student achievement in positive way, even in the midst of a budget crisis?

• Yes, but it will be impossible to take the schools to the next level without an influx of cash. This is a time of crisis, and a time of opportunity-- we have the responsibility to reconsider every aspect of how we educate our children, and think about that in new, dramatic ways. It is almost exactly as Dickens said, "These were the best of times, and the worst of times." These are the times we live in, and we are challenged to do better than we have.

Is the idea of reconfiguration on the table?

• Speaking only for myself, we need to look at every program from the point of view of how it promotes and sustains student achievement, and have a clear, understood and communicated framework for determining whether or not we are accomplishing what we set out to do. I know the School Committee and the Administration will analyze every scrap of data available to help us understand what is working, and develop strategies to change what isn't. From this point forward, no idea should be dismissed out of hand without considering it from this perspective.

Are meetings conducted efficiently, and with focus?

• To be fair, have to say that when I started, SC meetings were conducted efficiently, had focus, and lacked transparency and any genuine mechanism for encouraging community involvement. I can remember many meetings when there were more people on the payroll of the schools than citizens sitting in the room. With greater transparency, there has been a very interesting transition occurring- we no longer have to scratch for facts, information is available that allow us to actually accomplish due diligence around an issue. Where in my previous experience, to put it diplomatically, the information available to the Committee never made it all the way around the table, and what was made available always seemed to limit our options, that is not the case any more. We get what we need, and because of that, spend much more time than before in deliberation. We also, especially in the last 12 months, with the budget crisis and the reconfiguration, made a commitment to hear every single opinion of every single person with an opinion before deciding. We did. We may very well be one of the few elected bodies that uses the option of suspending our rules to take public comment or engage in a public conversation before a vote.

Can the meetings be more tightly run? Yes. More efficiently? Probably. More democratic, more accessible to the public- I don't think so. The School Committee will likely adopt some goals that will outline another important mechanism for utilizing the talent and the input of the community to help us make informed decisions.

It won't be easy. The most difficult part, I think, won't be setting attainable student achievement goals, and reaching them. It will be communicating clearly to the community two important things: this isn't the School Committee and administration of four years ago, and that's a blessing; and that what we have here is a truly municipal problem, that can only be solved by the City changing how business is done. There is so much more sunlight at the Administration Central Office than there ever was. At City Hall, the nooks and crannies of the public process, particularly around creating non-school budgets, live in the shadows. Until that changes, we'll keep trying to treat only the symptoms, the schools; and ignore the real problem-- that we are a municipality operationally stuck in the 1950's. In many ways, I think the Schools, which still have a long way to go, have set a good standard over the past two years for an open and transparent budget process.