A Shared To-Do List for Our Schools

by Clare Bertrand, Andy Churchill, Baer Tierkel
April 23, 2010

As parents of school-age kids, we know all about to-do lists. There always seems to be plenty to do and not enough time. So we make our lists of most-important items and try our best to make headway on them.

Our kids have their lists of chores, too, but staying on task can be a challenge: “I know I said I’d clean my room, but I thought instead I should organize my Legos.” Nice idea, but meanwhile that room isn’t cleaning itself …

Which brings us to the Amherst School Committee. With two new members and three others who aren’t shrinking violets, there are lots of ideas flying around. “Let’s add elementary Spanish.” “Let’s get a new lawyer.”

“Let’s have a communication subcommittee.” “Let’s separate from Pelham.”

Some of these sound like good ideas, others less so, but who knows? The bigger question is, how do these fit in with the existing to-do list? Since there will always be more ideas than time/energy/money to implement them, how do we as a community set our priorities for the schools?

What goes at the top of the to-do list, and what goes lower, perhaps to wait for another day?

To its credit, the School Committee (which included one of the authors of this column) and the previous superintendent worked collaboratively at the beginning of this year to create a to-do list, a plan, for the district.

It’s a good list of priority goals for the schools — but it’s also a long list, with 18 goals altogether.

Implementing this goals list is a huge amount of work that includes: ensuring a smooth closure of Mark’s Meadow school; redistricting all 1,321 elementary students and the staff that serve them; aligning curriculum across grades and classes; evaluating the math curriculum, the middle school, and the special education program; hiring new principals in Pelham and the middle school; working on budget transparency with a citizen’s advisory committee; and much more (for the full list, go to http://www.arps.org/node/1082). Some of this has been accomplished, but there’s still lots still to do.

The schools are working on these tasks while having to make do with lower staffing levels than previously.

The success of the override only meant that things aren’t as bad as they would otherwise have been — we will now “only” cut $2.5 million out of current staffing levels town-wide, instead of $4.2 million.

With so much work to do and ever-tightening budgets, each new idea — each addition to the to-do list — means something else may not get done. Music, art and physical ed have been cut in our elementary schools in previous years — do we add Spanish, or do we restore some of those cuts? Or should we do something else? There are trade offs in each decision, and they need to be considered comprehensively.

We believe School Committee members should build on their previous good work that resulted in this year’s plan. In the short term, they should use that list of district goals as it was intended, to frame the committee’s agenda for the rest of the year. They worked with the superintendent to create this to-do list; now they should allow staff to do the work and schedule regular updates to discuss how it’s going.

Looking forward, the School Committee and school administrators need to come together to develop a shared vision of what the community wants from its schools. Our schools need a sustainable process of continuous improvement that builds on existing strengths and incorporates new ideas in a systematic way. The School Committee’s role is to represent community interests and keep a steady hand on the tiller. Changing course every month only wastes our precious resources.

There is so much to do already, including the hiring of a much-needed curriculum director and a permanent superintendent. Simply making piecemeal additions to an already extensive to-do list without an overall strategy is a recipe for frustration. We urge the School Committee to work collaboratively with the administration to set a vision, then a strategy, and then to allow the schools to execute that plan over the year. Then adjust course the next year.

That kind of leadership will not only enable us to get closer to our destination, but will also give everyone on board a more satisfying voyage.

Amherst Center is written for the Amherst Bulletin by school parents and Town Meeting members Clare Bertrand, Andy Churchill and Baer Tierkel.