Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the District Performance Policies topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
North Smithfield superintendent touts statewide gains, previews AI policy and codifies safety committees; committee adopts revised policies
Summary
Superintendent Saint James presented district strategic goals and said North Smithfield students ranked highly on statewide assessments. The superintendent previewed an AI policy and outlined state-mandated safety and threat-assessment committees. The school committee voted to adopt a set of revised policies and protocols on first/second reading.
Superintendent Saint James opened the district report at the Sept. 16 North Smithfield School Committee meeting with an overview of the district strategic plan and recent assessment results. He told the committee that for grades 3–8 the district “is ranked number 5 in the state” for English language arts and that mathematics achievement placed the district near the top of state rankings for both achievement and growth.
Saint James said the district’s work on curriculum, interventionists and multi‑tiered systems of support is producing measurable results and that the district will continue to update curricular materials and professional development. He also said district leaders have been piloting and preparing an AI policy for future discussion: “Next month, you may very well have an AI policy,” Saint James said.
On safety, Saint James presented three documents on first reading that align to new state requirements: a student safety and behavioral health committee policy, school safety and crisis response team guidance, and a threat-assessment team and oversight committee policy. He explained that many of the state-mandated groups overlap and that the district intends to consolidate membership and reporting to avoid duplicative meetings. He said an emergency-action document required by the state will be provided to committee members in advance but kept out of the public record for security reasons and that an executive session will permit committee review.
On the consent agenda and a package of revised policies and protocols, a motion to approve the consent agenda was made and seconded and the committee approved it. Later in the meeting, the committee moved to adopt the new and revised policies and protocols on a second reading; a motion to adopt passed by roll call.
Committee members asked for the safety-related emergency-action plans to be shared for executive-session review and for clearer written guidance on committee membership and reporting. Saint James said he will provide the revised policy documents and a schedule for any oversight committees and that the district will continue codifying existing practices.
The meeting adjourned after the committee adopted the revised policies.
