PANEL SESSION IV: 8:45-10:00am
• How to Blog/How to Tweet
• Managing the Opiate Crisis
• Best Practices/Cost-Savings
• DESE Website: Where to Find What you Need
• DECA:  Distributive Education and Marketing for Student Career Success
• Vocational Education: Best Practices
• Special Education: The Challenges of Turning 22
• School Finance: Legal Issues

MASC DIVISION 8 MEETING: 10:00-10:45am

GENERAL SESSION: 10:45-Noon
• Keynote Speaker: Douglas Stone
     Ã¢â‚¬Â¢  Professor, Harvard Law School
     Ã¢â‚¬Â¢  Author: Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback

NETWORKING LUNCH
Sponsored by McGraw-Hill Education

PANEL SESSION V: 2:30-3:45pm
• Labor Relations: Collaboration, Communication and Commitment
• New Regulations on Student Discipline
• Effective Use of Regional School District Budget Accounts
• School Law 101
• Educational Collaboratives: The Next Generation
• PARCC and Common Core: A Primer
• New Regulations on Student Discipline
• Innovation Schools
• Meeting the Needs of Learning-Disabled Students
• Interest-Based Bargaining and District Capacity Project
 

PANEL SESSION VI: 4:00-5:15pm
• Test Audits for Performance Improvement
• Vocational Schools: Navigating the Political Issues
• School Law: Review of Key Rulings and Cases
• Recovery High Schools
• PARCC v MCAS: Three Districts Report Out
• Strategic Use of Financial Data and Analysis
• Navigating the New MASC and NSBA Websites
• Moving Beyond the Bake Sale: Strategies for Effective Partnerships for Student Success
 

PRESIDENTS RECEPTION: 5:30pm
Sponsored by Carnegie Learning

THURSDAY NIGHT BANQUET: 6:30pm
• Featuring Comedian/Satirist Jimmy Tingle

MAURICE CUNNINGHAM
Wednesday Keynote Dinner
SPONSORED BY BRIGHTERGY

Maurice T. Cunningham is Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a co-founder and contributor to the blog MassPoliticsProfs which is featured at WGBHNews.org. He teaches courses in American government including Massachusetts Politics, The American Presidency, Catholics in Political Life, The Political Thought of Abraham Lincoln, American Political Thought, and Public Policy. His book, Maximization, Whatever the Cost: Race, Redistricting and the Department of Justice examines the role of the DOJ in requiring states to maximize minority voting districts in the nineties. He has published articles dealing with the role of the Catholic Church in MA politics and on party politics in the state. His research interests focus upon the changing political culture of Massachusetts. He is a former assistant district attorney and assistant attorney general in MA. Professor Cunningham comments on MA and national politics in the Boston Globe, WGBH, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Herald, and many other news outlets. Cunningham is a lifelong resident of MA. He earned his BA at the UMass Boston, his JD at New England School of Law, and Ph.D at Boston College. He currently lives in Cambridge, MA.

HERMAN BOONE
Friday General Session

In 1971, racial tensions ran high in Alexandria, Virginia, as three schools were integrated to form T.C. Williams High School. In a story captured by the monumentally popular Disney film “Remember the Titans,” Herman Boone (portrayed in the film by Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington) faced the challenge of a lifetime in uniting black and white players from previously rival schools in the newly created Titan football team. Tensions only escalated when Boone, who had been the assistant coach of the former T.C. Williams High School, was named head coach of the Titans, passing over Bill Yoast, the local favorite and successful head coach of the former (and white) Hammond High School. Yoast’s supporters were angered by Boone’s appointment, which was seen as a gesture of goodwill to the black community. Remarkably, the two coaches were able to put aside their prejudices and in doing so united their players to form a team whose common vision was to respect each other and win football games. At the same time, through the game of football, Boone and Yoast were able to help their small Virginia community put aside their intolerance and join together to support their children. The Titans became one of the best teams in Virginia, compiling a 13-0 record and going on to win the state championship.

Herman Boone is now retired but continues to motivate and inspire audiences with presentations on respect, teamwork, community involvement and the importance of character.

ANNE BYRNE
Friday General Session

Anne Byrne, a longtime member of the school board of Nanuet Union Free School District in New York, serves as the 2014-15 president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Byrne joined the NSBA Board of Directors as a Northeast region director in April 2006 filling a vacancy; and she was elected to a three-year term in 2007 and again in 2010. Starting in 2012, she was elected as NSBA’s Secretary-Treasurer. Byrne will serve a one-year term as NSBA’s President. In 2015, she will assume the position of immediate past president.

Byrne also served on the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) from 1997 to 2006, and served as NYSSBA president from 2004-2005. As Area 10 Director from 1997 to 2003, she represented school boards in Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties. Since 1981, Byrne has been a member of the Nanuet School Board, on which she has served as vice president and president. Byrne is an executive board member and a past president of the Mid-Hudson School Study Council. She is a founding member of the Hudson-Long Island Coalition for responsible state funding, a nine-county coalition, and served as its chair- woman. She also has served as vice president and president of the Rockland County School Boards Association. She is a Eucharistic minister and has been a parish council officer, and taught religion for 41 years. She is a lifetime member of the PTA and a member of the Orangetown Parks and Recreation Committee.

Byrne is a published author, having written a book about Rockland County during the Revolutionary War. Byrne received her R.N. from St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing and a bachelor’s degree from Pace University. She and her husband Patrick have raised three children who attended public schools.

THOMAS WEBER
Friday Leadership Lunch

Tom Weber was appointed Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care in September, 2013 after serving as Acting Commissioner of the department since March. Prior to his appointment, he served as Undersecretary at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education, where he oversaw budget and finance, legal, legislative affairs, information technology, policy, communications, and general administration in furtherance of Governor Patrick’s education agenda. Tom also served as the Secretary of Education’s principal advisor for early education and care as well as his designee to the Board of Early Education and Care. Additionally, Tom was responsible for formulating and implementing strategies leading to the Achievement Gap Law of 2010 and the community college reforms of 2012.

Previously, Tom worked as Legislative Director at Strategies for Children/The Early Education for All Campaign, Director of Community Partnerships at the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, Deputy Research Director at the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), Assistant Director of Government Affairs at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Senior Issues Manager at the Office of United State Senator John F. Kerry. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Suffolk University Law School. Tom is a native of Lynn, MA.

DOUGLAS STONE
Thursday General Session, 10:30am

Whether you are on the giving or the receiving end of a difficult conversation, be it in the workplace or other professional or personal relationships, Thursday General Session Speaker Douglas Stone will offer practical insights on how to turn evaluations, advice, criticisms, and coaching into productive listening and learning. Doug Stone is a lecturer at Harvard Law School and author of several award winning books, including Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even when it is off base, unfair, poorly delivered, and, frankly, you're not in the mood).

According to Stone and co-author Sheila Heen, who collaborated on the 2010 international bestseller Difficult Conversations, we swim in an ocean of feedback. Bosses, colleagues, customers, but also family, friends, and in-laws—they all have suggestions for our performance, parenting, or appearance. We know that feedback is essential for healthy relationships and professional development? but we dread it and often dismiss it. That?s because receiving feedback sits at the junction of two conflicting human desires. We do want to learn and grow. And we also want to be accepted just as we are right now.

Come learn what Stone and Heen can report from having spent the last ten years working with businesses, nonprofits, governments and families to determine what helps us learn and what gets in our way.

Copies of Thanks for the Feedback will be provided to all General Session attendees.