Friday September 21, 2012

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee has unanimously approved a long range plan focused on strengthening educational opportunities for students and faculty over the next two years.

Rose Ellis, superintendent of Williamstown and Lanes borough Public Schools, said at the School Committee meeting Tuesday night that the school district is striving for excellence on all levels, and the 2012-14 long range plan reflects that, as well as the school's two-year improvement plan.

"It's ambitious, but at the same time we want to identify issues that were concerns last year," she said.

School Committee member David Langston, of Williams town, said that while he supported the plan, he would like to see more involvement from constituencies with interests in Mount Greylock.

"The fact the plan was developed with the International Center for Leadership in Education [ICLE] and in-house collaboration is a good first step," he said. "At some point, we need some sort of planning process in which people can participate."

Rose said while more participation will be considered going forward, input from forums held for parents as part of the ICLE needs assessment did contribute to the plan.

The long range plan contains four goals, with each goal having one to three objectives. The first goal focuses on analyzing data and developing instructional interventions to make sure all students achieve their academic

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potential. The second goal seeks to align curriculum in all disciplines with the Common Core State Standards, while the third goal is about supporting professional growth for the school's administration and faculty. The fourth goal strives to expand the ongoing involvement of students and staff in school life, relationship building and the learning process.

School Committee member Chris Dodig, of Lanesborough, questioned the intent of the first goal, as it originally sought to analyze data specifically from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System to ensure students meet proficiency.

"I would like us not to define student achievement by the MCAS. I wonder with student achievement if we could define it more broadly, and under the broader goal put MCAS, " he said.

The School Committee amended the goal to reflect Dodig's suggestion.

In other business, the School Committee unanimously decided to change its regular meeting time from 6:30 p.m. back to 7 p.m. It also agreed that it would make the change with the intent of ending the open session of the meetings by 9 p.m.

To reach Meghan Foley, email mfoley@thetranscript.com.