After last Thursday’s School Committee meeting, most of the focus was on the resolution against antisemitic curriculum materials which passed, but this was a meeting jam-packed with various conversation topics.
Interim Superintendent John Robidoux shared that he is very excited about the data collected regarding the recent Advanced Placement (AP) exams the Marblehead high schoolers just completed. He said 378 students took a total of 933 AP exams, adding that this is 153 more exams than last year and that, since 2014, there’s been an increase of 451 exams.
The School Committee reviewed the superintendent’s mid-cycle evaluation results, which all showed progress toward his goals. Robidoux said, “I thank the Committee for the time and effort that you put into taking my goals and giving me critical feedback. I’ve talked about this for years, that it’s really important to me as a superintendent to give me meaningful, pertinent and critical feedback for me to be able to grow as a leader, so I wholeheartedly appreciate the ratings.”
Vice Chair Alison Taylor wanted to make sure Robidoux knew that the School Committee acknowledges he has only been in this role for 10 months and that he has made steady, impactful progress on his goals. She told Robidoux, “For 10 months… you’ve done a tremendous amount of work.”
“I walked into Marblehead with having a lot of challenges going on, but I’ve been able to meet the challenges because of our team – Julia (Ferreira) and LisaMarie (Ippolito) and Mike (Pfifferling) – especially in their departments, have really helped me to be able to kind of move the needle the way we’re hoping to,” Robidoux said. “I say it often that I can’t do the work I do without them and without the administrative teams, without staff and obviously community involvement… and the last piece of that is really the support of the Committee.”
The Committee then made a motion to enter into negotiations to transition Robidoux from his current interim position to a permanent superintendent position.
The Recess Policy was once again discussed and read at this meeting, but after a 15 minute discussion, the recommendation was to bring the policy back to the policy subcommittee to continue with revisions. The Committee also discussed the operating protocols for about 10 minutes. There were a handful of phrasing and language changes requested, so this policy will also be updated and re-reviewed at a later date.
The School Committee last Thursday night approved the high school’s trip for world language students to travel to Spain and Morocco next February, and it accepted the donation of $200 worth of gift cards from Tomo’s Tackle to be utilized by students for the upcoming Bournedale trip later in the evening.
