Dear Amesbury Families,
I hope that you are all doing well on the coldest day of the year! As I write this newsletter each month, I find myself being amazed that another month has passed. My grandmother always told me that the older you are, the quicker time goes. She was absolutely correct about that statement. January was a very busy month in all buildings. Students and staff definitely returned from break more rested and ready to do some learning! It has been enjoyable walking through schools and classrooms seeing the learning take place.
At our School Committee meeting this week, I shared the District Strategy with the School Committee. The District Strategy is a document that will drive our budgeting, professional development, and what we prioritize in our district. This document was built using the findings that I gathered last year through my conversations with individuals, groups, staff, parents, and community members as well as from an analysis of data. From there, four overarching themes emerged. Beginning this summer and continuing this fall, my Leadership Team and I worked to create this plan for the next 3.5 years. The beauty of a District Strategy is that it is a living document and can be modified, tweaked, and adjusted throughout the life of the document to better meet the needs and challenges of the district. At Monday's School Committee meeting, they will vote on the District Strategy.
I have taken this information and arranged it in three different documents, all with a different purpose: the Community Document, the District Strategy Overview, and the Complete District Strategy. Please take a look at each of them in the sections below. I have also included a link to the presentation slide deck for those who are interested.
On Tuesday night, the School Committee, Director of Finance and Operations, Joan Liporto and I engaged in our first budget workshop. During this time we shared the known increases for several of our fixed cost items including but not limited to transportation, health insurance, private special education tuitions, and anticipated utility costs. My Central Office team has met with all cost center managers to solicit the anticipated needs for FY24/School Year 23-24. We will have more budget workshops in the next few weeks. See below for the budget timeline.
I hope that you all have a great weekend and that you stay safe and warm!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth McAndrews
Superintendent
District Strategy Community Document
This document is designed to make our priorities easily visible and accessible to anyone who reads it. It clearly demonstrates what we stand for (Core Values) and what our Vision and Mission are. This serves as a short term, quick view document.
District Strategy Overview
This document is designed to provide a fairly detailed, 30,000 foot view of our objectives and initiatives. It provides a "big picture" view of where we will be "going" as a district in the next 3.5 years. It does not provide the action steps for each initiative.
Complete District Strategy
This document is designed for anyone who is TYPE A and wants to know the who, what, when, where and how. It is incredibly detailed and includes the objectives, initiatives, who is responsible for contributing to the work, the timeline and the specific action steps needed to accomplish each individual initiative. This is the document that will be used by our staff - from Central Office to each individual staff member.
