At the January 7 meeting, the School Committee received and discussed the following presentations:

The Committee discussed and approved the Unit D JLMC agreement with the WEA that includes salary tables and RIF language. The Committee previously discussed this at the Committee’s 12/10/24 executive session.

The Committee heard an update to the FY’26 Budget Discussion given by Dr. David Lussier, WPS Superintendent, and Cynthia Mahr, WPS Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations. This update follows the presentation of the recommended budget by the Administration on December 10th and then two full days of Committee Budget working meetings on December 18th and 19th. As a reminder, the full (searchable) budget is posted on the WPS website along with the December 10th slide deck. Discussion on the budget will continue during upcoming School Committee meetings on January 21 and January 28. The Public Hearing on the budget is scheduled for the January 21 meeting.

The Committee discussed Academic Calendar Related Considerations to follow up on the academic calendar model decision that was made at the 12/10/24 school committee meeting. Discussion included the rotation of holidays in future years, next steps for the Policy Subcommittee regarding IC/ICA and IMDA calendar-related policies, and operationalizing the policy considerations. The Policy Subcommittee will meet and draft proposed edits to bring back to the full School Committee, which will review and vote on the updated policies. The Committee voted to dissolve the Academic Calendar Task Force.

The Committee discussed a New Job Description for Assistant Superintendent of Student Services and approved the reclassification of the Director of Student Services position to an Assistant Superintendent of Student Services.

The Committee heard a small update to the elementary student handbook related to the language on tardiness. Based on feedback from the elementary principals, the policy was updated to say that elementary students will be marked tardy if they are not in the school by 8:30am. It previously said they would be marked tardy if they were not in the classroom by 8:30am. SC approved this change.

Coming up…..

1/23 SC Community Conversation with METCO Parent Council 7pm (Zoom)

School Committee Meetings:

1/21 School Committee Meeting and Public Hearing on FY26 Budget 6:30pm (Zoom)

1/28 School Committee Meeting 6:30pm (Zoom)

School Committee Office Hours:

1/15 School Committee Office Hours 10:00am (Zoom) Sign up here (link)

Click to access documents from the January 7, 2025 meeting.

Click to watch the meeting on Wellesley Media.

Click to sign up for upcoming School Committee Office Hours.