Dedham School Committee Begins Monthy Community Office Hours

DEDHAM, MA - The Dedham School Committee announced today that it will host monthly community office hours beginning on Oct. 13 to help provide Dedham school families and community members with a new, less formal way to engage with the committee outside of regularly scheduled public meetings.

Each month, two members of the committee will set aside time to meet with anyone in the community who would like to join, offering an opportunity to ask questions, raise concerns or chat about topics of interest.

“One of our priorities as a school committee is working together to ensure that our school families, and the Dedham community at large, feel that their voices are heard and represented by the committee,” said Dedham School Committee Chair Tracey White. “Our formal meetings are limited by agendas and open meeting processes, which can sometimes make it difficult for families to be able to ask the questions they may have or discuss something important to them when it comes to our schools. We wanted to find new ways of creating more transparency and access to our committee.”

Acknowledging that family schedules vary, the monthly school committee community office hours will vary each month between weeknight and weekend times. They will also alternate between in-person and online formats, hoping that families who may not be able to make it to a meeting location are also provided the opportunity to connect. The introduction of this open, informal office hour times, is one of several ways the school committee has been working to expand communications within the community this year, including a new quarterly newsletter and plans for an updated webpage.

“This is a new effort for us, so we wanted to be sure that we are trying several different ways in the hopes that we are being as accommodating as possible to as many families as we can,” noted Josh Donati, chair of the communications sub-committee. “We hope that people will take advantage of these times to stop by or log-in, even for just a few minutes, ask questions and let us know what’s on their minds when it comes to our schools.”

The first community office hours session will be held next week, on Wednesday, October 13th, from 6 - 7 p.m., in-person at Dedham Town Hall in Room 305. Dedham school families and community members interested in participating are encouraged to stop by during this time to meet with two of the School Committee members. Anyone planning to attend is kindly reminded that masks are required for all visitors to Dedham Town Hall.

Future office hours will be held on Saturday, November 6th at 10:30 a.m. via Zoom, and on Wednesday, December 8th at Town Hall from 6-7 p.m. An ongoing schedule for future community office hours and any updates will be posted online at www.dedham.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee.