I attended last night's School Committee meeting and it is clear that South Kingstown parents like the new Dual Language Instruction. If ever there was a program to rally around for next year's elections then it is this one. In contrast, all the 1:1 technology stuff is meh.
Three times during the DLI discussion SC members implied that the Town Council that would ultimately decided on DLI's expansion into all the elementary schools. One member even said "they are your elected officials." Wait! That's wrong. The SC are our elected officials to make decisions about educational goals, policies and the budgeting to make them happen.
Now, I don't actually believe the SC members were trying to distance themselves from this responsibility at all. The SC unanimously supported DLI. What I am sure they were trying to say was that they will make it happen, but with new programs its is very helpful to have community support at the joint TC & SC budget meetings. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that most people don't understand that the TC has NO role in making education decisions. Their only legal role is to transfer tax money to the SC. The SC needs to continually clear up this misunderstanding. Perhaps they need a big sign behind them that says
Educationally, the buck stops here
