Board Chair to Step Down, Botelle Seeks to Set New Goals

By Avice Meehan

Board of Education Chair Virginia Coleman-Prisco announced that she would step down from that role once the board identifies a successor. Coleman-Prisco shared the news at a busy meeting of the BoE on Oct. 14 that saw the board receive a report on student assessment results and a plan for engaging the Norfolk community in developing a new mission statement for Botelle Elementary School.
Coleman-Prisco assumed the role more than a year ago and helped lead the search for Kevin Case, the new school superintendent. She plans to remain on the board but said a promotion to a new role at Mercy University would make it difficult for her to serve as chair. Coleman-Prisco was recently named chair of the Humanities Department where she is an assistant professor and the general education assessment coordinator.

Also at the October meeting, Case outlined a plan for revising the core values and mission statement for Botelle Elementary School as part of a process that would also establish strategic goals for the next three to five years. He proposed using an outside facilitator and involving a wide array of constituencies. In addition to three BoE members, participants would include himself, Principal Lauren Valentino, Botelle staff, parents, a member of the Board of Finance, the first selectman and five at-large community members, preferably individuals without a direct connection to the school.

The board discussed the timing at length and concluded it would be best to start early in the new year. In a subsequent conversation, Case said he hoped to schedule a two-hour meeting in January and two similar meetings in February so that the board would have a complete readout by April. The proposed facilitator, Deene Morris of Inspire Leadership LLC, has worked with both Case and Valentino before and is familiar with Botelle. Morris provided an outline for each of the three meetings, which would include large- and small-group discussions.

“The goals will be the roadmap of what we want to accomplish over the next several years,” said Case, who noted that he has already started the process for looking at enrollment projections for the coming decade. At the urging of board member Walter Godlewski, Case said he would also engage parents who decided to educate their children at private schools in the area.

See the related story about student test results.

In other matters, the BoE received an inspection report from the fire marshal, as well as an emergency planning update from Richard Byrne. Deputy Fire Marshal John DeShazo, who is also the BoE’s vice chair, said the primary concern from the inspection involves lithium ion batteries and the potential fire risk they pose. That topic was highlighted for students on the annual fire prevention day, held Oct. 7.