Hello everyone!
First we want to say THANK YOU to everyone who could make it to the meeting at Federal Street on the 17th! We hope it was interesting and fun for you and we hope you’ll return on April 17th (and bring a friend!). We have so much great information from that meeting and are still sorting through it to compile a list of issues to help define our working groups. In the meantime we wanted to keep in touch and let you know that the momentum is building, more people are signing up to help and we are more confident than ever that the community IS going to make the difference in our schools (and CHANGEGREENFIELD).
Our hope is to make this a weekly email update.
Some groups and efforts have already been defined.
- Incorporating a Foundation for the Greenfield Public Schools. Meeting to be announced soon. A few experienced citizens have expressed interest in Foundation Board positions and we are reaching out to others. This is an idea with a lot of potential. If you are interested in this topic please read about it here: http://www.schoolfoundations.org/
- Group forming to work on marketing the Greenfield Schools in the region and to our community. Our first meeting is at Bart’s this Monday March 24th at 6:15. Please come if this interests you.
- Group will be forming to work on developing a 5 year Strategic Plan for the Greenfield School District. Meeting to be announced soon. Good general information and a restructuring guide is available here: http://www.changegreenfield.com/Parentpower.html
- A group is interested in participating in discussions / processes around the Superintendent position. Meeting to be announced soon.
- The Bumper Sticker “Choose Greenfield” (The town, the schools, the whole package). Going to print soon. We’ll need your help getting these out.
- Child Care for parent during public meetings. The hope is that more people would be able to participate in the school and town processes. This would be a selling point for living in Greenfield. What other town has a community willing to support this? Several people expressed interest in coordinating this. If anyone is interested in coordinating this effort as soon as the next School Committee meeting please contact Pam at pam@changegreenfield.com
Some good things are already happening.
- The Recorder has agreed to print a half page ad once a month featuring some of the positive things happening in the schools. We will need people to take pictures, gather information about programs, awards, write articles, inspirational stories, student profiles, etc.. It would be nice if a group were able to organize this effort… basically a monthly communication of good news in our schools.
- We’ve connected with the Head of the Greenfield High school alumni association and will be looking into how best to work with them moving forward.
- We have begun a process to set up a foundation for the Greenfield Public Schools. If you are interested in this topic please read about it here: http://www.schoolfoundations.org/ Nearly $200 has been pledged in seed money for this effort (incorporating, etc).
- We are close to securing a significant donation of computers from an anonymous local source. We’ll work with the technology team at the schools to be sure these machines meet the needs of the students and requirements for the district infrastructure.
Action Needed !
- School Committee member Hassan Elzeneiny made a motion at this weeks school committee meeting to have the Superintendent create a survey for parents and students who are choicing out. The motion was not seconded, so it failed. Unless the School Committee instructs the Superintendent to create and administer the survey, there is no way to identify the individuals who are leaving Greenfield Schools in May; further, the public is not allowed to approach those individuals. If you support this idea, we need your help to convince other committee members to support this effort: Please call or send an email the School Committee members listed below asking them to reconsider the policy of instituting an exit interview for people who are choicing out. And if you can, ask your friends to do the same…
Gregory S. Aubin, Chair (413) 824-6221 greaub1@gpsk12.org
Christine Forgey, (mayor) (413) 772-6990 chrfor1@gpsk12.org
Hassan I. Elzeneiny (413) 475-3386 haselz1@gpsk12.org
David Westbrook, (413) 773-8528 davwes1@gpsk12.org
Jennifer Mahar, (413) 772-2631 jenmah1@gpsk12.org
Doris Doyle, (413) 774-3627 dordoy1@gpsk12.org
Dalton Athey 413-834-2114(Cell) dalath1@gpsk12.org
- This spring, Beacon Hill lawmakers face decisions that affect every child in Massachusetts. Schools remain inadequately funded, and with dropout rates approaching 50% for some communities, it’s high time the public and lawmakers tackled the changes we need. On April 15, lawmakers need to hear that you care about improving our schools. Please join citizens from over 50 communities us as they converge on the State House and call for relief, reform and innovation in public education.
Sign up here: http://www.stand.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=783&srcid=263
- School Committee Vacancies: The School Committee will be replacing the two current vacancies with two three month appointments. With the budget and a new superintendent hire in the works – important issues will be decided. If you are interested in being considered for one of these spots please send a letter of interest to the address below with a resume to the central offices. Who knows, you might like it and decide to run for a permanent seat.
Greenfield School Committee Chair
Greenfield Public Schools
141 Davis Street
Greenfield, MA 01301
Thank you all again for being the big solution in Greenfield !
Remember – APRIL 17th is the next meeting at the Federal Street School … And smaller working group meetings will be announced in weekly emails and on the Greenfield Optimist web site: http://www.greenfieldoptimist.com
This effort is not a flash in the pan that will give in to business as usual. Because of you this is the beginning of a long standing community engagement with the organizations and processes responsible for stabilizing and empowering Greenfield Public Schools to be nothing short of the best we can imagine. We will promote our schools and our town and we WILL correct the perception of Greenfield in the region.
Have a great Holiday ! We’ll see you soon. Thanks again for your efforts.
- The ChangeGreenfield Crew
I hope you join the School Committee at the Town Meeting on April 24, at 7:00 PM.
Like you, Committee Members are volunteers working for the betterment of Greenfield.
Here is a column I wrote in The Recorder to recruit volunteers to the School System. I hope it informs and inspires you to join the effort. Its title is “The Trendy Side of Parenting” Get a laugh!
The Trendy side of proactive parenting
Last year I adopted Greenfield for my hometown, and this year Greenfield adopted me by electing me to her School Committee. Unsuccessfully, I had tried to become a school volunteer in 2006. I wanted to lend-a-hand to the school system and to see for myself the vision, ingenuity, and hard work of teachers and school leaders who were implementing a strategy to get our schools off the state’s “Watch List.”
As a generous and committed resident of Greenfield, you undoubtedly receive many appeals for assistance and support. Few institutions I can think of are more important to the future of our community than our public schools, and, their reputation for producing superior, employable graduates. To get a first hand account of the work being done for the students come into the school of your choice and sign-up as a volunteer.
Volunteering to help kids is fun, but, I’ve come to realize, will not make you cool in the eyes of your neighbors. I am going thru the same transition, I suspect, that many parents go thru when their kids become teenagers.
Over the weekend, and against his father’s wishes, my friends’ 16-year old dyed his hair blue. This fashion statement goes beyond the question of personal identity and is more linked to a parent’s choice on how to raise a son and what communication skills s/he wants the child to master.
Should I be encouraging parents to dye their hair instead of recruiting them to volunteer in the schools? If I dye my own hair, how will my message of deepening the connection between schools and community resonate with the people who elected me?
Parents today are too busy to follow the latest trend in child rearing, or, to ignore their children. More are taking a proactive stance. They choose to make time in their day to enter the school system by coaching soccer or Little League, joining the Parent Teacher Organizations, or, volunteering inside the class room. Others befriend the school system by devoting their time to maintaining the proud history and traditions of Loyalty, Honor and Scholarship thru the Greenfield High School Alumni Association. Unquestionably the funding cuts have created a range of volunteer opportunities that is broader than ever. The choices of volunteer opportunities extend to playground design, plumbing and computer repair.
As a Greenfield School Committee member looking for ways to increase programs in 2007-2008, a year of “level funding”, I know that school volunteers are more needed than ever. Looking into the future, I predict, more volunteers will be helping the professionals inside the classroom.
In the meantime, I am considering body piercing to further my goal of being trendy. I went to a piercing shop where a girl in a kiosk was giving away earrings with each piercing, and a variety of nose rings. She had bright blue hair and spoke with a thick lisp, which is probably caused by the tongue stud.
At her suggestion I considered a nose ring. However being married, a nose ring would be redundant. So, I’m going to take more time to consider my options.
Hassan Elzeneiny
Greenfield School Committee, Secretary
Haselz1@gpsk12.org
128 Elm Street
Greenfield, MA 01301
413.475.3386
Comment by Hassan Elzeneiny — April 12, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
Hi Laura
Sorry – I just saw your note in this blog. If you are signed up at changegreenfield.com you will be reciveing updates and information about an expanded effort to organize parents throughout Franklin County.
Thanks
- Mike
Comment by wackalectic — January 6, 2009 @ 8:08 am