hard deadlines

In a nearly 3-hour session tonight, the Portsmouth School Committee approved by a 4-3 vote a strategic plan for the district reflecting broad community input gathered and refined in a 10-month process. The final vote was a bipartisan 4-3, as Republican Mike Buddemeyer joined Democrats Dick Carpender, Sylvia Wedge, and Marge Levesque in supporting the plan. Democrats Angela Volpicelli and Marilyn King joined the unaffiliated (and Town-Council-appointed) Cynthia Perrotti in voting no.

There was almost an hour of debate, the majority of which was spent attempting to conflate the overall plan with one program — the social and emotional competence curriculum called Open Circle. There was very little substantive discussion of the overarching goals of the strategic plan, a fact pointed out by Future Search participant Maureen Kielbasa

"The strategic plan is what we're voting on tonight," said Kielbasa, noting that programs like Open Circle are "action plans" for implementing the strategic vision. As a Future Search participant, she said, "It's not within my realm to address these action plans — that should be up to teachers and administrators."

There was an album-length screed from PCC director Kathy Melvin about "slick education marketers" pushing "ineptly designed programs" "preparing students to become third-class citizens of the world." Offsetting this was a wealth of material culled from over 800 peer-reviewed journal articles cited by Future search participant Len Katzman which all showed not only efficacy in social learning, but also correlation with significant academic improvements. Elmhurst Principal Bob Ettinger and teacher Val Seveney offered first-hand testimony about impact in Portsmouth's classrooms, while noting that claims Open Circle would require extra personnel could not be based on the program already rolled out to dozens of teachers.

And eventually, the committee did get down to the vote. On the WHOLE strategic plan.

Perrotti said that while she "liked several parts" she wanted more "focus on outcomes" and was concerned about whether it "complied with the law." Volpicelli said, "Maybe what I should have done was abstain," adding that she felt that she "needed more time." King echoed this sentiment saying there was "more I need to research on."

FYI: The 36-page Strategic Plan was distributed to the School Committee in advance of the September 8 meeting.

-- no 30 --

Editorial note: There was a whole lot more of the talking. I'll try to juice it down tomorrow.

Resources:
Portsmouth School District Strategic Plan
Future Search report
Prior coverage of the Future Search (day 1, day 2, students, strategic plan draft)
Read more about Open Circle

Full Disclosure: I was a participant in the Future Search workshop, and I want to thank the more than 60 community members, parents, administration, teachers, elected officials, students, business leaders, and community organizations that participated in shaping this vision for the future of our schools. I deeply respect the time and thought you — we — all put into this, and I know that many others do as well. And if there are 3 people on the school committee who don't — well, that's what elections are for.