School Year 2011-2012

The overall goal of the Belmont School Committee is to use its powers to ensure that the Belmont Public Schools achieve its mission:

With a commitment to teaching and learning, the Belmont Public Schools strive to nurture the intellectual, social, and personal development of each student and to create a dynamic community of lifelong learners who contribute to the common good and are of service to others.

Massachusetts law grants three specific powers to school committees: to appoint and remove the superintendent, to set school policies, and to review and approve budgets.

The School Committee will use these powers to ensure that policies and budgets align with the following three goals, and that the superintendent acts to achieve them:   

1. To prepare all students for college, career, and life-long learning through a balanced and healthy school experience, and through continuity of curriculum and compliance with Commonwealth and community standards, through support for educators to experiment and innovate, and clear articulation of our instructional models.
2. To support continuous improvement and overall programmatic and fiscal stability by engaging administrators, teachers, and other stakeholders in generally accepted practices of long-term strategic planning.
3. To ensure that students receive instruction from consistently highly qualified educators who pursue continuous improvement of their art by hiring well-prepared and diverse professionals, and sustaining continuous professional development by means of clear and coherent plans, and by implementing a successful educator evaluation system in line with new Commonwealth standards.

School Year 2010-2011

GOAL AREA 1:      Working with and evaluating  the Superintendent

• Keep current on the Superintendent’s performance evaluation schedule and continue to develop a format and tool that best facilitates a value-added process.

GOAL AREA 2:      Serving as advocates for all children, teachers, and their staff by adopting “kids first”
      goals, policies and budget

• Support and promote a successful Community Dialogue II for Belmont and the development and adoption of an 18-Month Improvement Strategy (May, 2011).
• Continue to evaluate and refine the School Committee’s organizational structure to improve efficiency of School Committee operations.
• Promote positive, timely and effective communication between the School Committee and all stakeholders of the Belmont Public Schools.

GOAL AREA 3:      Maintaining fiscal responsibility and fiscal autonomy, with the authority to appropriate
      local funds necessary to support the board-approved budget

• Continue to refine a budget development process that accurately reflects the needs of all Belmont students while demonstrating appropriate restraint and responsiveness to the current fiscal environment within the state and the community.
• Adopt a budget for FY ’12 that is responsive to both the needs of students and the  greater community to include closing the funding ‘gap’ between a student needs based budget and available revenues.

GOAL AREA 4:      Delegating to the Superintendent the day-to-day administration of the school district,
      including student discipline and all personnel matters

• Work to continue to appropriately adhere to the established role of the School Committee and to promote a clearer understanding in the community of the focus and responsibilities of:
  • The School Committee
  • The Superintendent of Schools
  • The BPS Leadership Council

GOAL AREA 5:      Evaluating the School committee’s own leadership, governance and teamwork

• Continue to work to build and maintain credibility with the greater community and town government to ensure that all stakeholders are confident that the business of the schools is being conducted effectively and efficiently.
• Conduct a self evaluation (with regular checks on progress), establish a protocol to govern School Committee conduct and conduct at School Committee meetings and incorporate into the periodic reviews of progress on 2010-2011 School Committee Goals.

 School Committee Goals 2008-2009

 School Committee Goals 2009-2010

School Committee Accomplishments

 Accomplishments 2006 - 2007

 Accomplishments 2007 - 2008