I am finally catching up on the January 2018 meeting of the School Committee, and I am on the second agenda item, which is the Superintendent’s goals for the 2017/2018 school year.

Watching Superintendent Harper and the committee members go back and forth about the proposed goals, I get the sense that they are struggling with how all the various pieces fit together. Some of that may be related to the fact that several new members have joined the School Committee and this is their first meeting. It may also have to do with me being new to this whole scene myself.

That said, I would like to see some sort of model for how the whole district operates and what its strategy is. From there, I would hope to be able to see how the Superintendent’s goals roll up into that model and from that be able to understand the prioritization of this goal over that goal and so forth.

The discussion of the Superintendent’s goals starts around the 1-hour mark in the meeting, with discussion and debate continuing for another 30 to 35 minutes.