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School committee adopts restraint and bullying policies, reviews competency determination and moves to executive session
Summary
At its Dec. 4 meeting the committee unanimously approved updates to the JKAA restraint policy and the biannual bullying response plan, accepted routine consent items including a foreign-language grant and a PFA donation, received a first reading of the district competency-determination proposal required after Question 2, and voted to enter executive session for contract negotiations.
The Winchester School Committee used its Dec. 4 meeting to approve several policy and consent items and to take a first look at a new competency determination for graduation requirements.
Consent and policies: The committee approved the consent agenda, which included a grant of 10,871 from the Italian Ministry of Affairs and International Cooperation for the high school Italian program, an out-of-state trip for the Latin quiz-bowl team to Princeton, N.J., a PFA donation of $4,890, and minutes from Aug. 21, 2025. The committee then completed a second reading and unanimously approved the updated bullying response and intervention plan (biannual review required by statute) and adopted revisions to policy JKAA (restraint policy) after the state requested more specific language.
Competency determination first reading: Doctor Ellenema presented a first reading of the district's competency determination (policy IKFE) required while the state finalizes its implementation after Question 2. The district proposes supplementing local graduation requirements with course-completion criteria and performance-based assessments (PBAs) in high-school English and math and a specified set of science courses; the district noted a waiver process to address transfer students or multilingual learners. Staff said the state is continuing to refine its approach and may announce preliminary end-of-course testing expectations in June 2026.
Next steps and executive session: Committee members will revisit the competency determination at the next meeting (Dec. 18). The committee then voted to enter executive session to conduct strategy sessions related to contract negotiations with administrative personnel and adjourn directly from executive session.
