Issues

Vision Statement

My vision for the Sharon Public Schools is a school district committed to the following principles:

• Encourage input and participation in School Committee process by community members and school staff.

• Strengthen and deepen School Councils, and communications between Councils and the School Committee, so parent and teacher voices at the building level are included in district wide decision making.

• Substantive discussions should occur in the public eye, at the regularly scheduled and televised School Committee meetings.

• Materials being discussed should be publicly available before School Committee meetings.

• Limit subcommittee work to carrying out tasks first discussed and decided at full School Committee meetings.

• All decisions need to be guided by a better understanding of School Committee’s authority and role under Massachusetts law.

• Our performance as a district may be measured by whether all children reach a certain metric of achievement on the MCAS, but we should judge our success as a district by whether we are giving each child the opportunity to reach his or her own potential.

• School Committee does not have the authority to dictate educational practices, but can encourage a vision and culture that supports a more inclusive view of success in the district, and that places the federal and state metrics in the appropriate perspective.

• Review of Kindergarten and bus fees to make sure they are reflective of actual costs and consistent with legal requirements; implement sliding scale fee structure.
  

• Review availability and extent of financial assistance for all fee-based activities.

• Earlier public discussion of key budget issues to include all interested community members.

• Ongoing public discussion of budget priorities and how they relate to District goals and priorities.

Links to State Resources

Links to Local Resources

Articles and Letters