Delivering on the Mission
February 12, 2010
Dear Parents, Staff and Community Members:
It’s hard to
believe that it is the middle of February and that school vacation week
is upon us. We all hope you enjoy the winter weather and this break
from the school routine. It will be March and spring before we know it!
Transportation Analysis
A
public workshop was held on Wednesday at this week’s Board meeting to
discuss options regarding student transportation in the upcoming years
– including the possibility of outsourcing business completely. The
finance committee presented 3 options for the board and the community
to consider – more about those scenarios can be found here:
http://rsu5.org/transportationanalysis.
Community turnout was
strong and many spoke in support of the current system including the
high quality of our bus drivers and of the risk that contracting these
services might present. It is critical to have clear direction on this
issue as we head into the budget. We anticipate a Board vote on this
item on Wednesday, February 24th. If you have any further feedback on
the topic, please feel free to contact me at welshs@rsu5.org
Strategic Plan Update
Work
on the Strategic Plan is entering into its most important phase. On
Wednesday, February 24th the Board will consider adoption of the
remaining sections (2 & 3) of the strategic plan (here:
http://rsu5.org/sites/default/files/RSU5StratPlan,V4.512010.pdf). Our
work will then focus on district level academic and financial
performance indicators:
• A task force is being created to
evaluate and expand on the approved academic indicators to ensure we
have a comprehensive list to measure all facets of student growth, not
merely their performance on tests. Please contact me at
welshs@rsu5.org to share your thoughts on this work.
• The
Finance Committee will work with community representatives to consider
additional indicator(s) that link financial investment and expenditure
to student performance. If you are interested in participating in this
work, please contact welshs@rsu5.org by February 23rd.
The
indicator work in both of these areas will be completed and considered
by the Board for final approval in April 2010. Adoption of these
indicators will complete this important 7 month process of charting a
course for our future.
Budget FY11
A series of
budget meetings at our schools have been held to present information
about the anticipated reduction in state subsidy for next school year.
The two remaining meetings will be held on Monday, February 22nd at
Freeport High School and Tuesday, February 23rd at Mast Landing
School. The meetings have been a rich source of community input for me
and the Board as we head into this challenging budget year. We
appreciate hearing your thoughts and ideas and encourage anyone from
the three towns to come to the remaining two meetings to provide us
with your thoughts on RSU5’s priorities as we create the new budget.
Upcoming Meetings
Monday, February 22nd – Budget Meeting at Freeport High School Cafeteria 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 23rd – Budget Meeting at Mast Landing School Cafeteria 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 24th – Finance Sub-Committee Meeting at Central Office 3:45 p.m.
Wednesday, February 24th – Board of Directors Meeting Freeport High School 6:30 p.m.
Your involvement and support is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Shannon L. Welsh
Superintendent of Schools
To access previous editions of "Delivering on the Mission" click here
January 29, 2010
Dear Parents, Staff and Community Members:
The
second half of the school year began this week and things are heating
up! Monday, February 1st is a district-wide professional development
day. Teachers will work as teams in Professional Learning Communities
(PLC) to analyze student work, curriculum documents, or assessment
data. It is so important for our staff to have this time to develop
common expectations around student performance and consider ways to
continue to increase the effectiveness of our work with students.
These days help connect our educators and make them feel like part of
an RSU No. 5 team. The rich exchange of ideas and experiences during
these days is so important in helping us to meet our goals around
educational excellence.
Strategic Framework
RSU No.
5’s Strategic Framework continues to be revised as we head toward final
adoption on April 28th. The mission and vision have been approved and
we are now focused on completing the draft Framework. The Board met on
Wednesday, January 27th to consider the revisions on this section and
is providing one more opportunity for public review and feedback on
this area prior to adoption at the Board meeting on February 24th.
Also
in February- April work will commence on refining and adopting both
Financial and Academic indicators. Stay tuned for more information
about how you can participate in this part of the process.
If
you have any suggestions or comments, please submit them to
welshs@rsu5.org by February 8th. The most updated draft is available here for your review. Thank you in advance for your participation in this process.
Note: If you are interested in being a member of the financial indicators task force, please contact Shannon Welsh at weshs@rsu5.org by Feb. 22nd.
Budget FY11
As
you have likely seen in the papers, RSU No. 5 is facing nearly a $2
million reduction in funding from the State of Maine. To insure that
we make the right decisions about how to move our education system
forward in a way that is right for our three towns we are holding an
important series of budget meetings at our schools in February.
During
these meetings we will give parents, staff, and community members more
information about the possible effects of this financial impact and
hear your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. Your input will be
critical as we prepare and present a budget for the next school year.
The schedule for these meetings which begin at 6:30 p.m. is as follows:
• Tuesday, February 2nd at Pownal Elementary School
• Monday, February 8th at Freeport Middle School
• Thursday, February 11th at Durham Elementary School
• Monday, February 22nd at Freeport High School, and
• Tuesday, February 23rd at Mast Landing School
All members of the public are encouraged to attend any and all of the informational sessions.
Transportation Analysis
The
Board’s Finance Committee and administration have spent the last few
months gathering and analyzing data regarding student transportation.
The goal is to provide a quality system at the most cost effective
method possible. Several options were considered including owning our
own buses and employing drivers; contracting services for drivers and
buses; leasing buses while employing drivers; and options that combined
these in different ways.
The Board heard a presentation of
this analysis at their meeting on Wednesday, January 27th. The
analysis is available on our website (rsu5.org). The video clip of the
presentation explaining the analysis will be posted over the weekend.
The Board will host a public workshop on this information at their next
meeting on February 10th. Board consideration of action is anticipated
at the February 24th meeting. The goal is to ensure adequate time for
public input and deliberation before any decision is made on our
method(s) of student transportation.
Upcoming Meetings – January 29th – February 11th
• February 2nd – Budget meeting at Pownal Elementary School 6:30 p.m.
• February 4th – Communications 7:30 a.m. at Central Office (RSU5.org homepage redesign and Logo)
• February 8th – Budget meeting at Freeport Middle School 6:30 p.m.
•
February 9th – Strategic Planning at Central Office (Consideration of
public input on framework to be forwarded for final vote on February
10th)
• February 10th – Finance 3:45 p.m. at Central Office
• February 10th – Board Meeting 6:30 p.m. at Freeport High School
• February 11th – Budget meeting at Durham Elementary School 6:30 p.m.
Your involvement and support is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Shannon L. Welsh
Superintendent of Schools
January 15, 2010
Dear Parents, Staff, and Community Members,
Over
the past year RSU No. 5 has made some positive steps toward realizing
the goals of consolidation. However, it has recently come to my
attention that we could do better about communicating information at
the district level.
To that end, I have committed this bi-weekly update – which we are calling “Delivering on the Mission” which I hope will keep you more up to date and encourage your participation in making our great schools even better. I welcome your feedback on how to make this update more useful to you.
Delivering on the Mission
RSU No. 5 Strategic Plan
On
Wednesday evening, after 4 months of development and deliberation, the
RSU No. 5 Board of Directors adopted a district Vision Statement and
Mission Statement to articulate the direction and values of our
organization. We are proud to share these with you:
Our Mission:
To provide our students with a world-class education that will
challenge minds, engage creativity, develop self-discipline, and
advance inherent strengths.
Our Vision:
• Our schools provide a safe, engaging environment that fosters a passion for life-long learning.
•
Our educators are mentors dedicated to providing our students with the
knowledge and skills that will help them adapt to our changing world.
•
Our community supports the concept that each individual – be they
student, educator, parent, or community member – bears responsibility
to the success of our mission.
• All stakeholders understand that
financial responsibility is a facet of each decision that is made and
tirelessly seek the resources to support our mission and vision.
The
development of our vision and mission is the first component of work on
a larger strategic framework for the RSU. The full document has been
revised based on survey feedback and a series of meetings. We invite
you to review this framework
– and share your thoughts with us about this work. Please e-mail your
feedback to me at welshs@rsu5.org. Our strategic planning committee
meets at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19th for next steps and the
public is welcome. Please e-mail Ginny McManus at mcmanusg@rsu5.org if
you plan to attend.
Budget FY11
The 2010-2011
school budget process is right around the corner. The troubling
economy is affecting us all personally and at the state level. The
news from Augusta is full of budget cuts and we expect the Department
of Education will communicate a significant reduction in state subsidy
to RSU No. 5 by the end of the month. The Board of Directors will be
updated on Augusta’s plans and our targeted reduction in subsidies at
their meeting scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th at 6:30 p.m. in the
high school library and we encourage you all to attend.
We will
schedule meetings at each school in February and March to get parents,
staff, and community members more involved in this year’s budget
formation.
The budget process will formally begin on Tuesday,
March 9th and Wednesday, March 10th and ends in late May/early June
with the Annual Budget Meeting and Referendum vote. We encourage you
to be part of this important work. Click here for the full budget schedule.
Use of Time
The
Board had created a committee to make recommendations regarding the
district’s calendar for professional development time for the next
school year. As part of their work, the Use of Time Advisory Committee
is soliciting staff, family, and community member feedback about the
use of early release days, late arrival days, and full day
configurations of professional development time. An electronic survey
has been created for collecting feedback and can be found on the
homepage of rsu5.org. We encourage you to share your thoughts with the
committee regarding the use of time.
Upcoming Meetings
- Finance Committee – January 19th 4:30 p.m. @ Central Office
- Strategic Plan Committee – January 19th 5:30 p.m. @ Central Office
- Board of Directors Meeting – January 27th 6:30 p.m. @ Freeport High School Library
I
hope you find this information helpful. The intention is to begin
development of a district level newsletter to distribute electronically
to keep people better informed about our work. If you have any
suggestions, questions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact
me at welshs@rsu5.org.
Thank you for your participation and support of our educational programs.
Sincerely,
Shannon
Shannon L. Welsh, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
