NAMS School Council – What is it? What does it do?

The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, “MERA”, mandates that every public school must establish a school council by Mid-October. These councils are representative, school building-based committees, co-chaired by the school’s Principal, and include at least one community member and equal numbers of parents and teachers’ union representatives. NAMS School Council members for the 2009-2010 school year include teacher representatives Barry Connell, Charina Lynn, and Barbara Sparks; community member Anne Ericson; and parent representatives Lisa Staff, Janet Swiggert and Sandy Gleed.
The purpose of the School Council is to give parents, along with teachers, principals and community partners, an equal voice and meaningful role in shaping school policies and programs.
The law established four major areas of responsibility for School Councils. School Councils are to assist principals in:

• Adopting educational goals that are consistent with local educational policies and statewide student performance standards
• Identifying the educational needs of students attending the school
• Reviewing the annual school building budget
• Formulating a school improvement plan which must correspond to the district improvement plan

All School Council meetings are open to the school community and operate under the open meeting law guidelines. Look for scheduled meeting dates to appear soon on the NAMS school calendar.