By Melissa Fales
Ware River News Reporter
Winslow asks about district-wide disaster planning
In light of the devastation that happened recently when a tornado touched down in Oklahoma, Ware School Committee member Brian Winslow brought up the topic of disaster planning at the May 22 School Committee meeting. Winslow asked Beach whether the district had any plans in place as to what to do in the event of a tornado touching down near the Ware Public Schools campus.
Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Beach, Superintendent, said that the district does have a number of emergency procedures in place and that it follows emergency preparedness directions from the town. However, she agreed with Winslow and said she thought it was a good idea for the district to consider specifically what to do in the case of a tornado. “We may want to put it on the roster as a conversation,” said Beach. “We’ll ratchet it up.”
SMK carpet replacement job sent out to bid again
School Committee Chairman Christopher Desjardins said that the job of removing the carpet in the classrooms and hallways of one grade-level of Stanley M. Koziol Elementary School and replacing it with tile has been sent out to bid again. He explained that the initial bid of $20,000 was not at prevailing wage, which is required. Desjardins said Andrew Paquette of the The Management Solution is anticipating that the prevailing wage bids will come in near the upper $20,000s.
Bullying complaint form, anti-bullying policy in the works
Policy Subcommittee member Danielle Souza said that the Ware Junior Senior High School administration has provided valuable input on developing a new anti-bullying procedure for the school.
Souza said the subcommittee is working to create an initial complaint form that will capture all of the data needed to identify bullying behavior and begin the investigation process.
Policy Subcommittee member Aaron Sawabi said the idea is to make the form a valuable tool that will help fully document any incidents.
Sawabi said the subcommittee is also working on an anti-bullying policy. “We’re making good progress,” he said. “We want to strengthen the form we use and the process we use.” He added that another component of the policy involves developing effective lines of communication for those students and parents who are involved. “We want to make sure all parties are kept in the loop as we address those issues,” he said.
School Committee to discuss goals for 2013-2014
Desjardins asked each School Committee member to bring ideas to the next meeting to help develop the list of School Committee goals for the 2013-2014 school year. He noted that one goal for the committee will be to update the policy handbook, a process that is already underway.
School Committee meetings set for June
The School Committee has set future meeting dates of June 5 and June 19. Both meetings will be at 6:30 p.m. in the WJSHS library.
Last day of school will be June 24
Beach reminded families that the last day of school will be Monday, June 24. It will be a half-day, with no lunch served.
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