School Committee

To see a letter from the ACLU click HERE

To see the 2024 School Committee Regular Meeting Schedule click HERE

To view a statement from the school committee click HERE.

The Northampton School Committee is the governing body of the Northampton Public Schools.

To send an email to the entire School Committee:  northampton-school-committee@northampton-k12.us

Send email directly by clicking here

*To send an email to any Committee member, copy and paste the email address into your email message program, i.e., GMAIL, YAHOO, etc.

Meetings

The Northampton School Committee meets at 6:45 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month in the Mark E. Warner Community Room at JFK Middle School, 100 Bridge Road, Florence, or via Zoom. Subcommittees meet at other times as needed. The full meeting schedule, along with agendas and approved minutes can be found under the School Committee Calendar section of this website.

During the budget season (February & March), there are typically two meetings per month (second and fourth Thursdays). Agendas are prepared by the Superintendent, Chair, and Vice Chair and published 48 hours in advance on the City of Northampton Public Meeting Calendar, as well as on the District website under School Committee Agendas. On occasion, the Committee may call a special meeting to conduct business which cannot be delayed until the next meeting. It is the intent of the Committee to complete all business by 11:00 p.m.

Executive Session

The Committee may go into executive session (closed doors) upon a majority vote of the members present for consideration of certain matters specified by the Open Meeting Law (such as personnel issues, negotiations for contract and collective bargaining, legal advice, litigation, etc.).

Public Participation

The public is welcome to attend all meetings, and are welcome to speak in the Public Session of the full Committee meetings. There is no public comment during subcommittee meetings. Discussion by the public is limited to three (3) minutes per person/per issue at the discretion of the Chair. Citizens will be asked to write and state their name and address for the record. The Chair will use this information to determine whether to set a general time limit on the public portion of the meeting and grant each person who wishes to comment an equal share of the time; or offer the persons present an opportunity to choose a spokesperson for their cause – this procedure will normally apply when many people are present for the same purpose; or schedule a special public hearing for a later date when all citizens will be invited to express their opinions. Additional information can be found in our policies section.

Order of Business

The typical order of business is as follows:  Roll Call, Public Session, Announcements, Recommended Actions including approval of minutes, Reports and Recommendations, including reports from the subcommittees, new business, adjourn.

MASC Code of Ethics

The acceptance of a code of ethics implies the understanding of the basic organization of school committees under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As an elected public official, a school committee member is expected to adhere to those state laws that apply to school committees since school committees are agencies of the state.

This code of ethics outlines three areas of a school committee’s member’s responsibility: (1) community responsibility; (2) responsibility to school administration; (3) relationship to fellow committee members.

1. A school committee member in his/her relations with the community should:

• Realize that his/her primary responsibility is to the children.
• Recognize that his/her basic function is policy-making and not administrative.
• Remember that he/she is one of a team and must abide by, and carry out, all committee decisions once they are made.
• Be well informed concerning the duties of a committee member on both a local and state level.
• Remember that he/she represents the entire community at all times.
• Accept the office of committee members as a means of unselfish service with no intent to “play politics” in any sense of the word, or to benefit personally from committee activities.

2.  A school committee member in his/her relations with the school administration should:

• Endeavor to establish sound, clearly-defined policies with which to direct and support administration.
• Recognize and support the administrative chain of command and refuse to act on complaints as an individual outside the administration.
• Act only on the recommendations of the chief administrator in all matters of employment or dismissal of school personnel.
• Give the chief administrator full responsibility for discharging his/her professional duties and hold him/her responsible for acceptable results.
• Refer all complaints to the administrative staff for solution and only discuss them at committee meetings if such solutions fail.

3.  A school committee member in his/her relations with fellow committee members should:

• Recognize that action at official meetings is binding and that he/she alone cannot bind the committee outside such meetings.
• Realize that statements or promises should not be made regarding how he/she will vote on matters that will come before the committee.
• Uphold the intent of executive sessions and respect the privileged communication that exists in executive sessions.
• Not withhold pertinent information on school matters or personnel problems, either from members of his/her own committee or from members of other committees who may be seeking help and information on school problems.
• Make decisions only after all facts on a question have been presented and discussed.

First View Budget click HERE