Saugus School Committee looks to neighbor for improvement

SAUGUS – Dorothy Presser of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees hosted a workshop on operating protocols for the School Committee Wednesday.School Committee vice chair Jeannie Meredith said the committee decided to ask Presser to speak after listening to her at the annual MASC conference in Hyannis earlier this month, and hearing testimonials from outside school officials.”She had ironed out a lot of issues with other school committees,” said Meredith.Presser, a 17-year member of the Lynnfield School Committee, said that operating protocols are the foundation of the larger District Governance Program, which she helped develop three years ago.The other components of the program include having effective meetings, establishing over-reaching goals such as a district improvement plan, and monitoring and sustaining progress.Presser said that knowing how the role of the superintendent differs from that of the committee is key in determining “who gets to play in what sandbox.”In one exercise during Wednesday’s workshop, Presser played a short video that depicted how a school board meeting would function without operating protocols. “There was no order to that meeting,” said Chairman Wendy Reed.Meredith questioned whether the people in the video were school officials or theatrical performers.”Was this a real meeting, it wasn’t staged?” she asked.Presser assured her that it was, in fact, an actual meeting.In another exercise, Presser asked everyone to describe what a new resident would think in terms of how their meetings are run. She also asked them to think of obstacles that may exist and agreements that can be reached moving forward.”It’s not a way to control information,” Presser said of the protocols. “They’re established by you.”Following the workshop, Meredith said the committee had the idea of having non-televised open meetings to discuss the internal workings of the board as opposed to school issues.”Once a month, we’ll have a working meeting,” she said. “That to me is the biggest piece.”Meredith said that they also discussed “tweaking the agenda to make it more descriptive.” That way, members will have more information available prior to voting.She said that increased communications within the committee was another topic raised.”It would help us work better together as a team,” said Meredith.