There is a lot of interest in the School Committee (SC) during this election cycle as there are currently 6 candidates running for 3 School Committee seats. But what does the School Committee actually do? CNS sat down with School Committee Chair Liz Lee and Vice Chair Mike O’Brien to learn more about the roles and responsibilities of a School Committee member.
According to the Needham School Committee website:
Needham is required to have a School Committee by MA State Law Chapter 71. According to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees’ (MASC) Handbook :
“While the responsibility for the operation of the public schools has always been a formidable one, the challenge has become increasingly complex. School committees must meet the requirements of the state Constitution, the laws enacted by the legislature and the regulations of the Department of Education. In addition, committees must be responsive to the needs of students and staff, and reflect the attitudes of the community–all within the fiscal constraints of inflation, collective bargaining, taxpayer pressure for budgetary restraint, and legislated limitation on tax levies.“
Roles & Responsibilities
School Committee members are required to participate in MASC training courses to ensure they understand their duties and responsibilities. These include:
- Policy
- The primary role of the School Committee is to establish and review the district’s educational goals and policies. This role is one of oversight and establishing the “big picture” vision for the district’s goals.
- The School Committee monitors outcomes and progress towards goals, while the Superintendent is responsible for the methods to achieve these goals.
- The Superintendent of Schools and administrative team are responsible for the development and refinement of curriculum choices.
- In their advisory role, the School Committee receives regular updates about all aspects of the student experience (curriculum, school improvement plans, nutrition, transportation, athletics, etc)
- The SC Policy Subcommittee is responsible for creating, updating and rescinding district policies
- Budget
- The School Committee will review the annual school budget requests and approve the final budget recommendation from the Superintendent prior to submission to Town Meeting
- School Committee members liaise with the town’s Finance Committee and Permanent Public Building Committee (PPBC) to advocate for necessary funding to meet the needs of students and schools
- School Committee members are also part of the negotiation teams for Teacher/Staff Contracts and vote to approve finalized contracts
- Staffing
- Regular Evaluation of the Superintendent (each May)
- Hiring/Firing of the Superintendent and approval of some upper level administrative staffing recommendations from the Superintendent
- The Superintendent is responsible for leading and working directly with the public school staff
Code of Ethics
School Committee members are held to a standard of ethics regarding their relationships to the Community, School Administration, and other Committee Members. School Committee ethical standards can be found in the MASC Handbook. Some highlights include:
- The primary responsibility of the School Committee is to the children.
- SC members represent the entire community at all times, and must have no intent to “play politics” or benefit personally from SC decisions
- SC members are part of a team and must abide by and carry out all group decisions
- SC members should make decisions only after all the facts of a question have been reviewed and discussed
- SC decisions are binding and SC members cannot make statements or promises to the public as an individual outside of the meeting
- SC members recognize the school administrative chain of command and do not act on complaints as an individual outside the administration
School Committee Meetings
School Committee meetings are governed by Open Meeting Law which has specific regulations for how meetings must be conducted.
- School Committee meetings are meetings that are held in public, but they are not public meetings (i.e., the committee is having a meeting that the public may observe, but there is no opportunity for back and forth discussion).
- Public comments are allowed at the beginning of each meeting, but the SC can only listen to the comments. They cannot respond due to the open meeting law restrictions.
- Public comment, therefore, is NOT the best forum for in-depth conversation or collaboration.
- Full Agenda items must be posted online 48 hours before each meeting for public notice of the discussion topics. Agenda items and detailed packets of information that will be discussed can be found on the School Committee website
- SC Subcommittees have no more than 3 SC members on them as 4 members is a quorum that would be subject to all the rules and regulations of an open meeting.
- Sometimes the School Committee will meet in an executive session that is not open to the public when dealing with privileged matters that should not be discussed in public.
Want to learn more?
The public is welcome to observe any School Committee meeting either in person at Broadmeadow Elementary School or via the Needham Channel TV or livestream feeds. A complete list of meeting dates can be found here. The School Committee can be reached by email at schoolcommittee@needham.k12.ma.us. Typically, any response to an e-mail will be sent by the SC Chair on behalf of the whole committee.