The Springfield Public Schools Legislative and Contract Subcommittee on Oct. 29 agreed to base its superintendent summative evaluation on the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) end-of-cycle form and set a timeline for implementation.

At the meeting, members and counsel reviewed the DESE form and a historical, locally adapted version. "This is the DESE end of cycle summative evaluation report," attorney Melissa Murray said while showing the DESE form and noting the tool assesses progress toward goals, performance on standards and provides space for an overall rating and comments. Murray and attorney Ian Keith also showed a previously used local form that inserts locally negotiated goals into the DESE framework.

The subcommittee asked Superintendent Dr. Donnell to present goals to the full school committee and agreed on a provisional schedule so members can complete and return summative evaluations in time for a public discussion in December. "So the 20 fourth, the presentation on the goals, the turning in the summative evaluations on the December 8, and then on the fifteenth, we will be meeting to evaluate the superintendent," the chair stated during the calendar discussion. Members acknowledged travel around Thanksgiving could reduce available review time and agreed the district would circulate the goals and instructions as soon as they were available.

Committee members emphasized clarity and supporting evidence. Questions centered on which form to use, whether the district should add local goal language to the DESE form, and how ratings and comments would be collected. Murray said ratings of "exemplary," "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" require written comments, while other ratings encourage but do not require narrative justification.

The subcommittee asked staff to provide members options for completing the evaluation electronically or by paper, circulate the superintendents goals in advance, and confirm logistics for compiling member ratings. Attorney Murray and the superintendent agreed to share the historical artifacts and the DESE form with members in advance so the public meeting on goals will be informative.

The subcommittee did not approve final evaluation outcomes at the meeting; it set a schedule and a process it will recommend to the full school committee. The district will provide the final forms, timelines and instructions to committee members and the public ahead of the scheduled presentation and follow-up evaluation meeting.

Ending: The committee directed staff to distribute the superintendents goals and the evaluation materials and to publish the agreed timeline to members so the review can proceed in November and December as discussed.