The School Committee unanimously voted to adopt a draft of a five-year strategic plan facilitated by the district’s consulting group when the district began the process in November 2022.
Chaired by Assistant Superintendent George Ferro and District Equity and MTSS Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis, the strategic plan committee included administrators, teachers, students, parents and sub-groups within the school district.
The report distributed to School Committee members and reviewed on Wednesday, July 19, included a summary of how the plan was derived, evidence of accomplishments and action steps needed for coming years as well a s brochure that will be the public document on the website. With feedback from the School Committee, Ferro said action steps could be drafted for the coming year.
“Remember, a strategic plan is the umbrella under which all activities in the district take place,” Ferro said.
“From my experience, the words in this brochure isn’t the words of just us or the people who were in the meetings,” Student representative Makhi Depina, “It’s the words of the people under you – the teachers, the students – everybody.”
Including LGTBQ+ inclusion in the equity statement prevented it from being held over race, religion or any other interest group’s concern
“Everybody had some problem or situation,” he said. “We have to care, not just about the students’ diversity, but the teachers’ diversity, which was another big issue in this. … They’re all in this and they’re all given the same amount of attention and care.”
Referring to the lengthy discussion on the Pride flag and rainbow symbol, Depina said some inaccurate assumptions had been made about the intent of those symbols.
“The flag isn’t only just to help this group of people, but it’s to teach respect to the group so that everybody cares for it,” he said. Depina likened it to learning respect for the American flag through the daily pledge of allegiance. “At the point we’re at in high school, if you’re still causing disctimination, You were raised in the wrong way. You can change, but you already have your predisposed [opinions]. … You just want the kids to think.”
He said he approached the work with his 3-year-old little brother in mind.
“I want him to think of everybody as human,” he said. “That was my one goal with it.”
Committee member Fred Small commended Depina for bringing his perspective to the project and personally thanked him.
“I think it’s wonderful that a student would get involved,” Small said.
Following the sidewalk painting vote, [see related story] Small had made a motion that the panel “commit to refining our mission statement and, perhaps, making a proclamation that the LGBTQ community is welcome in our educational facilities and we are a welcoming school.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said that should be done later in the meeting during a scheduled agenda item on the district’s mission statement.
“We’re going to talk about that,” he said. “We’re going to talk about the whole strategic plan.”
“I would just like to ask that, before we take a motion to change something we actually have a discussion,” Ferro said. “The strategic plan, which we’re going to look at soon, was crafted with care and there were 20 people involved. We asked for former School Committee board if they chose to be involved, they chose not to be directly involved, so we gave you notes on it every meeting we had.”
Those meetings began in December.
Small urged that an action be taken to “speak strong” on the issue, perhaps meaning a proclamation of support for LGBTQ+ students.
“I wanted to support you on two and three,” Small could be heard saying to Whitman PRIDE Director and President Christopher DiOrio before the vote, indicating he supported the library partnership and scholarship portions of Whitman PRIDE’s proposal. “Please understand where my no comes from.”
Ferro said the equity section of the strategic plan contains language about gender expression and gender identity.
“It is written about the words that are used in what Massachusetts has given us as a protected state class,” he said.
Committee member Dawn Byers said she was not prepared to vote singularly on a mission statement.
“I prefer to vote on an entire strategic plan that incorporates the mission statement,” she said.
Small then withdrew the motion.
Ferro said the data gathered by the committee was talked about to decide on their objectives which would be their focus areas for which action steps would be developed – the aim is to have that completed by September at the latest.
“Things might change over the next five years, who knows,” Szymaniak said. “But this is a framework to give direction to our principals, then it trickles down to our teaching staff … it gives people a guideline for where we want to be as a district.”
Some of the results in the original survey were difficult to read, he admitted, but it was important to get that feedback as a starting point for conversations.
Member Dawn Byers questioned the terminology of the phrase “fiscally sustainable” in reference to the plan, and asked for the definition the town of Whitman and district are working under, as well as the continuing need for preschool facilities and communication about it.
Ferro said the consensus was “this is the W-H Regional School District plan,” he said. “Yes, there’s outreach to the towns, but when we talk about fiscally responsible, fiscally sustainable, that doesn’t mean the status quo.”
While they don’t want to be known as frivolous or extra, they want it known that when items that impact the budget in a growth aspect are discussed, the schools have to show they have done their homework and what they are doing is proper.
The plan would charge the School Committee with the decision on what is fiscally responsibility and sustainability.