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Schools

Dover-Sheborn Regional School Committee Discusses District Goals

The committee is looking to have a better educated public at budget season.

During Tuesday’s Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee meeting committee members discussed their goals for the new school year.

As part of their goal to aid in the diversity of the district, Claire Toohey attended the meeting to discuss the district’s participation in the (METCO) Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity program.  The program takes students from urban areas and brings them into Dover-Sherborn schools as full-time students.

She said this past summer more students participated in the tutoring program than in previous years.  Toohey wrote grants to have Dover-Sherborn teachers travel into the city and meet with the students, who during the academic year travel to Dover-Sherborn.

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“It was my hope and dream to have our teachers,” meet with them because they know the kids, she said. This year about 13 students met three or four times a week. “We hope to have more next year as we get the word out,” she said.

Toohey said that this year the METCO program was level funded by the district and is hoping for the same next, but realizes that may not be the case. 

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School Committee Chair Clare Graham said as the year begins they should identify what significant issues may arise during budget season.  “We need a shopping list of what those things are,” she said. 

As part of their goal to achieve academic excellence, Committee member Richard Robinson brought up the idea that if a student takes part in an abundance of athletic extracurricular activities they could waiver some physical education credits. 

Committee member Robyn Hunter said they need to define class size as part of their academic excellence goal, “what they’re looking at,” and, “How do they calculate it?” She also believes they should use the info and compare it to other schools.  Graham agreed and said they should look at other forms of comparative data with other schools. 

Hunter also said she believes the region should look into funding teacher’s retirement benefits and having a mechanism put in place as the towns of Dover and Sherborn have. 

She also suggested finding a way to explain the impact of the region’s special education expenses during the budget season.  Hunter explained that even though she has participated in several finance committees she still confused over what the differences are between towns’ and region’s financial obligations are toward the program.  

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