CHICOPEE — During the School Committee meeting on June 26, the group met the incoming Chicopee Education Association president, as well as discussed a superintendent evaluation proposal for the previous school year.
CEA member and Physics Teacher Ben Eisen used the public comment portion of the meeting to introduce himself to the School Committee as he will be taking over as the president following the departure of Laura Demakis.
He said he wanted to use this time as a prelude to his presidency come July 1 and that he is a person who follows their convictions specially towards the two he spoke about.
The first one Eisen spoke about is that of practicality.
He said, “Often times when people are working together, they may not always agree on the same methods about how to achieve a goal but so long as they on what that goal is, in our case, a better public education for our students. It is something that I believe wholeheartedly that they can reach.”
The next point Eisen talked about was honestly and to acknowledge that sometimes things are broken and work together on a solution.
“Essential at Chicopee Public Schools, we do have some problems here yet still I work here, I live here. It is something where I see the good in our communities, in our education system. It is something that gives me hope that we could foster and build upon,” Eisen added.
Eisen said he hopes to fix problems during his presidency that are affecting Chicopee Public Schools.
He added, “Towards that end it is something where I hope with my presidency will be able to work towards making those changes there, that we’ll be able to surmount those issues and make our schools a place where educators want to teach, where our students want to learn. For a myriad of reasons, there are those that have some power to affect change do not always take that. It is something that I hope that’ll I’ll be able to help use push towards those ends.”
He concluded by saying that he looks forward to working together with the city and School Committee to help the district rise to where it wants to be by acknowledging problems and working through it.
Superintendent Marcus Ware then discussed a proposal for the superintendent evaluation for the 2023-24 school year.
Ware said the proposal was organized with the help of a subcommittee, which is part of the School Committee, to evaluate Ware.
How the superintendent evaluation usually runs is Ware would sit down or establish schools in conjunction with the School Committee and then vote on common goals to measure Ware on throughout the year.
Since Ware started July 1 of last year, the School Committee and him did not have an opportunity to do that so he had an alternate proposal.
“I’ve actually taken a snapshot of all the events this year that I like to lay out for you to show evidence as to the work I’ve been doing with my team with other individuals in the community,” Ware said.
Ware met with the Liz Lafond from the Massachusetts Association for School Committees to also help work on the evaluation process for the previous year.
Ware presented the School Committee with four different indicators to rank him on that fall under the superintendent evaluation based on the superintendent rubric from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The four domains in which a superintendent is evaluated is instructional leadership, management and operations, family and community engagement and professional culture.
Evidence Ware provided to the School Committee to showcase these areas of evaluation included quarterly meetings with principals, grant update sheets, budget meetings, the 2024-2025 budget book, community forum meetings sheet, town hall meetings with staff, classroom visits with students and committee communication updates via Facebook and website.
The next steps include the School Committee taking the provided information into consideration and then evaluating Ware in an open session on possibly July 10 or Aug. 14. The ratings would be collected and organized by the School Committee Chair and shared.
The School Committee will use to evidence to score each indicator as either unsatisfactory, needs improvement, proficient or exemplary.
Ware said going forward, he will still set his goals at the beginning of each school year that will eventually be voted on, so everyone is on the same page.
