Update on Level 5 Schools (Board of Ed)

five schools statewide: UP Academy Holland & the Dever, in Boston; Morgan in Holyoke; John Avery Parker in New Bedford

Commissioner has scheduled visits to each of the five
quarterly monitoring process
process of securing an outside partner
meetings with parents is part of each visit of the Commissioner
parents concerned about sending their children to a Level 5 school
heard "compelling testimony from a parent about how much their child didn't like going to school last year and does this year"
(anyone know which parents are coming?)
working with Boston since August (on Dearborn); timeline concerns expressed by parents
Chernow: interesting to see how few teachers remained: why?
DESE admin: all teachers could apply, perhaps not in line with "journey school was on"
"matter of fit with a school undergoing a fresh start"
Chernow pushes that many teachers may have applied but were not hired
administrators did not think teachers were aligned with philosophy?
DESE: receivers have autonomy and authority to hire who they like
McKenna: perhaps how many applied and how many were offered jobs would be a more accurate set of numbers to have
Noyce thinks they might be getting into micromanagement
have seen a difference between schools that have kept 6% of their staff and 30% of their staff, assume we will see it
"we are not their school board, we have oversight, we have to resist some of the temptation that comes to school boards"
note that their school boards have no power over the Level 5 schools
McKenna; saying "you are a failing school, that's very personal"
Language matters; make sure that our language and our attitude don't get in the way of doing what needs to happen
DESE: "we're not finding fault, we're not blaming parents, we're not blaming teachers"
McKenna: "that's great, and I hear you say it, but that's not what's heard"