School Board Goals for 2010-2011
At this time of year, the School Board begins its discussion on a wide range of topics to be considered as School Board goals for the 2010-2011 year. These past few months of discussion have included a variety of topics and each year the board works towards determining those goals with the highest priority, a measurable outcome and have the support of a majority on the Board. This year several themes immediately percolated to the top and a board sub-committee was charged with articulating these goals for final board discussion. The sub-committee has also been drafting action items to be included under each topic. It is important to note that the list included below has not been formally adopted by the board at this point in time. The board anticipates finalizing board goals by the end of June.
1. Advance the District’s Mission Statement of “Working Together to Engage Every Learner”
2. Review and Adopt the Strategic Plan
3. Engender a Culture of Trust, Respect and Support
4. Streamline Board Operations
5. Maintain a Course of Fiscal Discipline
6. Enhance Communications
ORCSD Strategic Plan Update June 2010
The Strategic Oversight Planning Committee will be continuing its work throughout the summer and into the fall. Thanks to the work of many volunteers including staff representing each school and community members from all three towns, the committee has compiled an impressive amount of research regarding our district and educational trends.
The three working groups (including Operations, Student Achievement and Community) have completed their work and have presented their findings to the Oversight Committee. Three rounds of surveys have also been conducted including a staff survey, a student survey and most recently, a community survey. These findings will be used in the analysis phase of the strategic planning process this fall. The committee has decided to enlist the help of an experienced K-12 strategic planning facilitator in analyzing this data. The result of this analysis phase will be a list of potential strategic areas of focus.
Following the development of strategic areas of focus, the committee will hold a series of engagement evenings for staff, students and community this fall to review these findings and provide feedback. Based on this feedback, a final strategic plan will be developed and presented to the School Board for approval by January 2011. As always, if you are interested in providing feedback to the Oversight Committee, please contact us at stratplan@orcsd.org
Updates will be available on the Strategic Planning Website at: http://orcsdstrategicplan.wetpaint.com/
Thank you to all the volunteers who have generously contributed their time and energy to this exciting process.
Jocelyn O’Quinn, co-chair, Strategic Planning Oversight Committee Paula Roy, co-chair, Strategic Planning Oversight Committee
Respectfully Submitted: The Oyster River Cooperative School Board
School Board Newsletter Link:
Love the "Culture of Trust, Respect and Support"! Thank you for all of your hard work.
ReplyDeleteJocelyn O'Quinn did a great job speaking at the Town Council last night!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else notice the front page of Foster's today?:
Kyle Stucker wrote: "SOMERSWORTH — City councilors unanimously passed the fiscal year 2011 budget Monday after agreeing upon several significant reductions, the largest being a $675,000 cut out of the $24.1 million proposed school budget."
In this economy, all schools are struggling and having to make reductions. It is not easy but it is a necessary must.
Our school district needs to prioritize instruction and examine all areas of curriculum in order to determine which cuts will have the least impact to students. We can begin by cutting administrators from Central Office, the administrative budget, and institute a pay freezes. Our administrators are all overpaid anyways! I’m sure most community members would support eliminating an administrator position before they would begin to talk about eliminating a teacher position.
ReplyDeleteIt is time for our school to begin to gather input from all stakeholders; request feedback on budget cuts and host a school finance forum. We need to collect input on budget priorities from the community. It is grossly neglectful that our school district does not already have a formulated budget committee. We have a rich pool of highly qualified members within our community that would be able to offer ideas to save money, jobs and programs. The district should be soliciting advice to improve the way we do business efficiently. They also need to invite outside voices to the forum and begin to trust that collaboration and problem solving are the only way taxpayers are going to continue to support the process and the only way our school district will grow and thrive.
The first cut should be Superintendent Colter.
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs to pitch in to get us through the recession. Wage freezes, charging fees for sports and other extracurricular activities and outsourcing cafeteria, janitorial and transportation services are things the district should strongly consider. As a last resort we should lay off teachers. I think Howard Colter would win some public approval if he declined his pay wage increase as well. Why should he be strutting around town with his big raise while all our other heads of departments have had their wages frozen. People in our community will not forget this! Thanks to Joanne P. we are stuck with him, but, in the interim, more community members need to step forward and voice the need for our community to start 'watch dogging' Howard's allowance money. Perhaps a forensic audit would reveal something more criminal and we can get him out sooner.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Howard is a criminal, he is just not the visionary we need for our schools. His refusal to engage the community, and to assume that anyone who questions is trouble, is simply not acceptable. Our teachers, our kids, and our community deserve better.
ReplyDeleteI am also concerned about misuse of funds? A forensic audit would give the taxpayers more insight into what is ACTUALLY going on! The results from the recent audit warrant further investigation.
ReplyDeleteI agree that our town should move forward with a forensic audit. The Durham Town Council should step in and recommend that the Oyster River School District undergo a forensic audit. An auditor would be able to investigate fraudulent activity, identify anomalies and inconsistencies, possible collusion between staff members, misappropriation of funds, and any misuse of assets and financial loss. They could also make recommendation for internal controls to prevent re-occurrences. The district's current internal control plan may satisfy the NH Department of Education however; they are not the ones that ultimately should approve the plan. Doesn't the town have any say in this? The Department of Education operate under an assumption, “if they say they are going to do it then that is good enough for us.” The internal control proposed by the district is to have an educational administrator, without any business training, provide an additional signature of invoices. The plan is laughable!
ReplyDeleteSince our school district is struggling with paying for a new high school and a decreasing enrollment, why aren't we out there trying to improve the economics of our town? Did anyone see Seacoast online today? I think we should strike a deal with Newmarket and have their high school students bussed in." It is a natural merger. Please read the following article in today's Seacoast on-line.
ReplyDelete"Newmarket school officials reach out to Portsmouth on possible merger
Bob Lister: It's just an inquiry
By Charles McMahon
cmcmahon@seacoastonline.com
June 25, 2010 2:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — City school officials agreed to meet with representatives of School Administrative Unit 31 in Newmarket in the near future to discuss the possibility of merging the two districts.
The Portsmouth School Board on Tuesday night agreed to consider the merger after receiving a letter from SAU 31 interim Superintendent Bob Lister, who is former superintendent of Portsmouth schools and a city councilor.
Lister told the Exeter News-Letter Wednesday the letter sent to Portsmouth school officials was merely an inquiry for discussion purposes only. He said the inquiry was based on a warrant article passed last year that required Newmarket to look into consolidating with other school districts.
The letter sent to Portsmouth was identical to one sent to other districts, such as Exeter, Raymond, Epping and Nottingham, Lister said."
If there are less students then less classes are needed. Therefore, less staff is needed at all levels. Jennifer and Kim looked at admin numbers a couple of years ago. There are general standards for this and OR must be looking at this. This is not just about the economy. This is common sense. If you want to maintain the number of staff you need to bring in more students. If the number of students continues to decline then the number of staff declines. This is a no brainer.
ReplyDeleteI just watched the last school board meeting the other day. How is it that year after year we have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS LEFT OVER (last year was, I believe over $500,000 left over) and yet the roof is leaking and students are forced to go to other rooms or beware of puddles on the floor? What is wrong with this administration? How can we be spending $40M and we do not maintain our buildings? I am so disgusted! Are they out to lunch? If so, be careful you don't slip in the puddle in the lunchroom!
ReplyDeleteThink there's any connection with teh sudden departure of the Business Administrator?
ReplyDeleteI'm just sayin'....
Let's be fair. Part of the excess in budgeting is because schools and towns have to budget for things like health insurance, transportation, fuel oil, etc. 18 months in advance. They have no idea when they are planning budgets in September and October what the cost of those things is going to be over a year later. If they guess low, it is a disaster. If they guess high and the board won't vote to use the excess for fixing problems that have arisen, the problems don't get fixed. That has been one of the things the members have voted against- using funds that are left over for projects that weren't on the original ballot.
ReplyDeleteFair is fine, but let's also be accurate: last year the Superintendent took it upon himself to spend on the order of $70K on TIP items that voters did not approve at the polls the previous March, and he did so WITHOUT SEEKING THE APPROVAL OF THE BOARD.
ReplyDeleteDon't push all the problems the District has on the Board, there is plenty of blame to go around.
There's also plenty of money to go around; it is being mis-spent by an administration that desperately wishes to avoid meaningful oversight.
We need a budget oversight committee, and an audit committee!
Regarding less students - we live in the community - pay outrageous taxes - and we are pulling our children out of the school to go to a different school - why? because of the huge drug problems that the admin. is ignoring in the HS - because of the bullying that the admin. is ignoring - it's ridiculous and I'm tired of fighting to have something done about it - we would leave the town but unfortunately because of the high taxes (which more than 70% goes to the schools) - no one is looking to buy in this community no matter how cheap the house is. mmm.... maybe we should all go for abatements pending the outcome of the possible new audit!!?? It's all connected - people are leaving our communities or not moving into because of the huge taxes (because of the schools) which means less students - OR people (like ourselves) are choosing other schools or home schooling because of issues being ignored just because the admin. wants to maintain a "holier than thou" attitude - we have real issues in our schools- just talk to your kids and their friends as I have - they'll tell you and I bet if given the choice - they would choose to go elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteJenna Roberts has done some great investigative work as have the members of our community that participated in the 2008 citizens audit committee. I hope everyone has read the letters submitted alongside this blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat job!!!
The problem here is the superintendent. He is just riding his (plum) contract out before he retires. It is time to replace him.
ReplyDelete