OBSERVER CORPS REPORT 2021
The Town of Falmouth has a School Committee comprising of nine volunteers, who must be voted on during the town election. Each committee member is voted on for a rotating 3-year commitment. The Committee chair and vice chair are newly elected every year by the committee members. This year Kelly Welch was chairperson.
The Falmouth School Committee strives to “Making decisions to fulfill the educational needs of children" is the primary responsibility with which the citizens entrust to the school committee. Under education reform, the school committee deliberates on a range of issues and concerns at a broad policy level, such as:
- System-wide goals
- Policy development
- Hiring and evaluating the Superintendent of Schools
- Community relations
- Budget review and approval
- Health and safety
- Curriculum approval
- Collective bargaining
We will work to improve our instruction, leadership, operations and finance so all students are engaged in their education in a way that develops their capacity to pursue their goals and fosters life-long learning.”
The School Committee’s goals for 2020-2021 were understandably focused on Covid-19, as well as the other challenges from the past 18 months.
The 2020-2021 goals are:
- Falmouth School Committee will support the superintendent in efforts to keep schools safe, open, and students engaged during in-person or remote learning, as appropriate. Falmouth School Committee will support the Falmouth Public Schools’ communication around COVID-19 with openness and transparency, including presentations and information sharing from community experts.
- Falmouth School Committee will build a foundation of knowledge and understanding around equity, access, inclusion, diversity, and systemic racism.
In observing the committee, it is obvious that the committee members take their roles seriously. They are engaged and enthused about the work they do. The members are respectful of each and the multiple people who they interact with during the course of their work.
Every meeting is structured the same, with time for open comments from the public, new business and updates from administration. They are scheduled every second and fourth Tuesday of the month; however, this may change depending on town meeting conflicts.
This past year the meetings kept mostly to the same format as previous years; a few minutes for open topics from the public, updates from the various department heads; School Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Director of Human Resources, Director of Student Services, etc, and updates from the various school principals. However, this year, every meeting also had an update from the Falmouth Health Agent as well as a local pediatrician. The Health Agent would provide the current new cases and testing numbers, and the pediatrician would advise pertinent Covid facts, specific to children and answer all of the committee’s questions.
The town website maintains the agendas and all notes from previous meetings.
In previous years, normal school activities would be discussed and approved by the committee; such as field trips, the science fair and student art presentations. However, most topics this year did center around the Covid-19 and how the schools were operating using the hybrid schedule.
The committee continues to cover school activities as the students went back full time after April vacation and move into a more normal, albeit adjusted, school year. The committee will continue to meet over the summer and presumably will prepare for the 2021-2022 school year.
Meghan Palanza, LWVF Observer, June 2021
