Colchester, Connecticut

Priorities for Proposed Reductions (1)

Board of Education Special Meeting 4:00PM- MINUTES

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minutes FY 2019-20 BoardDocs (BOE meetings) 2020-05-14

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District Goals:
   1. We will raise academic growth expectations for all students.
   2. Students will develop innovative thinking and authentic problem-solving skills by
      engaging in rigorous tasks.
   3. Our instruction and curriculum facilitate integrated, real-world learning that maximizes
      individual potential of each student.
   4. We will increase our capacity to respond to student academic, emotional and social
      needs through partnerships with caregivers and the community.
   5. We align the budget with the district vision and the needs of our students.

Our Priorities:
      Strengthen
          ● Strengthening innovative programming and instruction for all students
             throughout the district to enact the district’s mission statement
          ● Continue to be the pride of the community by leading the region in outstanding
             and innovative instruction that engages students and the community as a whole
      Grow
          ● Establish and implement a long-range personnel plan
      Sustain
          ● Establish a facilities inventory to determine long-range budgeting for
             replacement.
          ● Establish and implement a long-range and sustainable school safety and security
             plan
          ● Continue to fund the long-range facilities plan to ensure our buildings are
             appropriately maintained
          ● Continue to fund the long-range and sustainable technology plan

Guiding Principles:
   ● All decisions will be made through a ​SYSTEMIC ​lens (What is the impact of each school
     or operations decision on the entire system?)
   ● The budget must provide ​EQUITABLE opportunities for the success of all of our
     students
   ● Our budget plan must be ​instructionally-focused​ and demonstrate the ​value added​ to
     the school system
   ● Our budget plan must provide our community with ​“something to fight
     for”​…educational programs/initiatives that the community feels it must support (i.e.
     We create innovative thinkers for a dynamic world)
   ● We must use the Budget Process to ​educate our new Board of Education about our
     programs and our needs.
   ● We will assess current resource allocations and ​reallocate resources ​whenever possible
     to fund our priorities.
   ● We will continue to ​seek alternate funding resources​ (grants, partnerships) to fund our
     priorities.
Overall Strategy​: School and district leaders will determine resource allocations in accordance
with the following principles:
   ● Health and safety needs must be addressed

   ● Mandated services and programs must be provided

   ● The goals of the Colchester Public School’s will drive decision making.

   ● School leaders will individually and collaboratively use the responses to the following
     guiding questions as the basis of their decisions:

For Educational Programs:
          1. Is the program/practice central and essential to our mission?
          2. Is the program/practice providing measurable result(s)?
          3. Is the program/practice supported by research/evidence?
          4. Is there a more cost-effective way to obtain similar or better results?
          5. Can we offer the service/program to other districts to generate revenue?
          6. Does the decision support equitable educational opportunities?

For Operations:
          1. Is the program/practice essential to the operation of our schools and district?
          2. Is the program/practice providing measurable results?
          3. Is there a more cost-effective way to obtain similar or better results?
          4. Can we offer the service/program to other districts to generate revenue?

      Considerations for programs/practices the district can no longer support financially:
          ● Does the decision result in other costs (retraining, management, etc.)?
          ● For those programs/practices we can no longer sustain, can other partners or
              entities support the program/practice?