My Position: Institutionalizing a culture of Community Engagement in the Schools

Summary paragraph: In which Menin considers the important cultural changes that have occurred since he joined the School Committee, and lays out a path for continued change that engages the community.

If you think the School Committee deserves a failing grade when it comes to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the community these days, you should have been around six years ago. Then again, maybe you were; if so, skip over the next few paragraphs and rejoin me when the text is bolded.

When the School Committee wanted something, like a new High School or a new Elementary School, there was no group better in the city than they were at hammering home the point. As one of my opponents says, "there was a newsletter out every two weeks from the School Committee!" Fair enough.

But when the community wanted something, like answers, or information; they became quahogs. Tight as could be. You want in on hiring a Superintendent? We'll arrange a dialogue where she'll answer pre-arranged questions, and then you get to write down questions, give them to us, and we'll decide which ones to ask. You want to know what kind of a package was given to the departing former Assistant Superintendent? You think you're entitled to it? You think it's a public document?

It was; some of us pleaded in Executive Session that it be publicly released. Eventually, it was, although it took someone filing a Freedom of Information Complaint against the Schools. I learned a new colloquialism this morning; you can smell what I'm cooking. It was like being in an old Laurel and Hardy movie, where they are in bed and one of them has somehow managed to get his hat on his foot, which keeps "peeking" at them. You just know that at some point, one of them is going to whack it with a hammer, or shoot it with one of those magic guns where nobody ever seems to bleed.

Things change and evolve. Early on, 6 years ago, Dick Sullivan and I pushed for transparency of process and records. Slowly, much to everybody's surprise we discovered a lot of ways to engage the community. Longer, more frequent, more free-wheeling budget hearings. Making budget documents available before those sessions. Making a lot of documents available before School Committee meetings to SC members- no joke, if I had five bucks for every document that was handed to us at the beginning of a School Committee meeting that we were asked to vote on that meeting, I could cut the deficit in half.

Perhaps the pendulum has swung a little farther the other way. Now that we are getting requested information in a timely fashion, and the information is as complete as possible, the SC has finally become a deliberative body. We deliberate. We run as many scenarios as it takes to get it right. We've been willing to interrupt our own deliberations to get feedback from the floor. I'm sure that the Robert who penned Robert's Rules of Order has cast a pox on us. We can probably tighten things up, and still promote a culture of community engagement.

But I have always promoted an idea that is only now coming into vogue. I have been a strong believer in the creation of ad hoc Task Forces, or Advisory Councils, to meet, discuss, research and recommend potential solutions to issues and opportunities in our path. These groups could report out or originate from our Sub-committee structure, or report directly to the full SC and the community when their task has been completed.

The Task Force on School Revenue is a perfect example of this in action. Two School Committee members, a City Councilor and a former City Councilor, and a number of people from the community with an interest in the subject.

In crisis, there is opportunity. The idea of a member of the SC, collaborating with people in the community who have a particular interest works on many levels. First, it allows the School Committee to literally explore many more ideas than it possibly could working as a Committee of the Whole, or even as a Sub-committee. It also helps support the administrative staff- I suspect that there are many ideas that they, faculty, even School Councils and PTO's would like to look at, but no-one has time for researching them.

The second compelling reason is that there is an astonishing pool of talent available to us in the community- money people, artists, teachers, seniors, managers, parents. The pool is out there. By engaging them in these short-term projects that could result in long-term constructive value for education, we are extending ownership of the schools back out into the community.

We don't lack for topics. Can we find more time on learning? Is there a value to extending the school day? The year? Can we create relationships with colleges that can be beneficial academically before students graduate? Can we run summer school classes that are not remedially focused- for example, can we beef up biology by running an oceanography course, or a marshland study project in conjunction with Parker River or Audubon during the summer?

Are there genuine partnerships with the arts community that can benefit our kids?

There is no limit here.

And the final advantage is that people in the community will have an opportunity to work within the schools, the confines of the roles of the School Committee, and better understand the limits and the possibilities along our path to excellent education. That can't help but make them better advocates, voters, and better City Council and School Committee candidates.