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Date: 5/18/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During the Northampton School Committee’s May 13 meeting, the committee spent much of the meeting discussing the Northampton Public School District’s new District Improvement Plan (DIP).
To start the presentation, Superintendent of Schools John Provost said the goal of the new DIP is to tackle systemic inequalities and the public school system.
“Emerging in a time of heightened awareness about systemic inequalities in many institutions including our public schools, this plan brings a clear intention and a strong focus on adjusting our system to create more equitable outcomes for all of our students,” he said.
In order to work on improving equity in the district, Andrew Samuelson, the district’s English language arts coach and coordinator, said the team devised four levers of change.
“Through a process of collaborative conferencing, the team discovered that if we truly are going to commit ourselves to fostering equity and removing barriers, then this plan must reach across the multiple domains of our district. The team synthesized these domains into four different levers of change. They are caregiver-student engagement, curriculum and instruction, policies, and practices,” he said.
While he worked on the DIP committee, committee member Roni Gold said he wanted to postpone the vote.
“We need to ensure that our goals are measurable and that we have a rubric of sorts that can assess the DIP’s progress. This comes from my experience as a public school teacher where we annually set goals that align to the seven components of the SMARTIE goals. Additional time by postponing will allow us to add measurable indicators,” he said.
Provost said that he was against postponing the vote on the plan for a future date.
“I think you have heard from a lot of people tonight that support this DIP, I really worry about what message a postponement would send to them. I personally would feel very disappointed and crestfallen because this is the plan the group wanted and I have to represent it,” he said.
Committee member Lonnie Kaufman said he was in favor of adding a way to measure progress.
“I think if there was more of a next step to talk about how we are going to do this work and how we are going to make a difference by providing some metrics I think that would be great. I think what we have is some general, but lofty and worthwhile goals to shoot for. Some goals are so vague and ambiguous we cannot really do them,” he said.
Gold also said that he was in favor of the proposed goals but just wanted a little more time to make sure they can be measured.
“The four goals are spectacular, I love them, I think it is a testament to the great work of the team, but I think a little bit more time would be beneficial if we add what I mentioned,” he said.
Rather than postponing the vote, Provost suggested approving the plan and then allowing him to come back later with more information.
“I wonder if it would be possible for the School Committee to improve the plan and then ask for more detail on the implementation plan and further metrics,” he said.
Ultimately, the committee agreed to approve the plan, contingent on Provost bringing the implementation plan and metrics for the plan.
The School Committee next meets on May 27.