Saturday, May 11, 2013

Health insurance rates

A word to clarify the recent email from the district about health insurance rates. The second column (100%) is the cost to the town of each plan, the third column (30%), is the total that all Wareham employees will pay for that year. The further columns divide that amount by differing numbers of paychecks. Those WEA members receiving a paycheck every other week, which is nearly all, would pay anywhere from $88.48 up per paycheck, depending on the plan. The full text of the signed agreement will be on the website by 5/13/13.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Deadline delay

Colleagues, You may have noticed a slight change in the WEA calendar. That is because of the revent weekend outage in TeachPoint. To ensure that summative reports for those on one-year plans reach the required standard of accuracy, rigor, and reliability, the deadline has been pushed from May 15 to May 20. This was upon a vote by the WEA Board of Directors.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Our next superintendent

In all likelihood, I met Wareham's next superintendent today. However, I also met four others who want that job and won't be offered the post. The afternoon was a valuable one, and a reminder of the range of people working for the best for Wareham's schools in the community. While the parents, business and non-profit leaders, staff, administration and town government officials don't all agree on how to get to success, or what "success" even looks like, it needs to be remembered that we're all on the same side. It is also a good opportunity to remember that there are so many routes -- and the different choices before the school committee are as much among different ways to envision and judge success as among different candidates for the post. The process of selecting a superintendent has changed even since it began earlier this year. The candidate slate wasn't too predictable, but neither are Wareham's challenges. It's not easy to pick the right person for the moment and the future. It's not easy to separate the right answers in an interview from the right person for a post. Here's hoping the school committee makes the right choice to find the best fit for the schools of Wareham, and everyone who is working for their success.