A survey regarding specific student skills is now located on the home page of the Gateway website (www.grsd.org). Gathering input from students, parents, staff and community members is an important part of the ongoing process of setting district goals and priorities. This survey is open to all and should not take too long to complete. You do not have to provide any personally identifiable information and the survey does not collect email addresses, so your responses are anonymous. Only a summary of the responses will be shared with the school committee and public as we fine-tune the direction the district will take over the next few years.
I also want to share that the newly reformed Gateway Towns Advisory Committee (or GTAC) is also part of developing the overall direction of the district, especially related to financial matters. Ms. Fisk and I met with members of GTAC this month to review historical budgets and estimates of the school budget over the next few years. I believe the meeting covered a wide range of budgetary and other issues and, while several questions and concerns were addressed, there were many items that were just briefly touched on. In order to assist this group in sharing information with town officials and citizens, Ms. Fisk and I offered to meet with the group on an ongoing basis. I believe Gateway’s budget process is open and transparent and imagine that taking part in GTAC can only help more people understand the issues the district faces, while also learning more about the ability of the towns to meet school assessments, given the financial and other problems unique to each town. As long time community members, both Ms. Fisk and I are concerned not only with meeting student needs, but of ensuring that the communities continue to function effectively and that they remain great places to live, including balancing taxes and services with the needs of all town citizens.
One of the issues raised was that of documenting and sharing the success of Gateway in preparing students for further education and careers. While everyone seemed pleased with Gateway’s success, there appeared to be some angst over the fact that we didn’t market our successes to the general public. In many ways I’d have to agree and I stated that Gateway is better known for its successes (and is often asked to provide assistance to other districts) outside of our seven towns. I’ll try to share, both in this medium, and through other ways, our students’ successes as well as district successes. For now, let me just note that in terms of student and district safety, our staff have provided workshops to state associations, have acted as consultants to other local districts, and Gateway was recognized as a model for other districts by the Massachusetts State Police in their January Newsletter. While we are pleased to be a model, we also recognize that we can’t rest on our laurels and consistently strive to improve our policies, protocols, and physical security to increase our chances of keeping our students and staff operating in a safe and positive school climate.
