Worcester School Committee meets tonight

With apologies for the last posting on this; busy week!

The Worcester School Committee meets tonight at 7. You can find the agenda here.

Out of order, a few things of public interest (and possible public comment):

• we are holding our annual (state-required) school choice hearing and vote. Note that this is school choice INTO the district; school choice OUT of the district, we are state-mandated to allow. This is a hearing, so the public is welcomed to address this issue.
• we are also holding a hearing on the Worcester Police Department's grant application for the Mutalink communication system. Please note that this is NOT a hearing on cameras; while cameras may be involved such a system, the entire camera issue still awaits a legal opinion. Again, this is a public hearing at which people are welcome to testify. 
• we also are scheduled to vote tonight on the proposed Advanced Academy; the item's phrasing is "To vote for a planning year for a “Pilot Innovation Academy,” according to the approved timeframe."
• tonight the report of the superintendent is the implimentation of the student discipline policy. You may remember that this was revised last year in line with the changes of Chapter 222 of Mass General Law. This is very timely, as the Joint Committee on Education takes up the proposed revisions next Wednesday. 

Additionally: 

• Our Boston Globe Scholastic Art & Writing award winners are coming in!
• Clark Street would like to name their library after Eileen Barbieri.
• Governance is reporting out from their Tuesday meeting.
• We have a response back on how the positions added at North High were funded.
• We are being asked to approve a prior year payment due to a non-working gas meter (caught by the Budget office).
• We have a number of recognitions to set dates for. 
• We're going to have to raise lunch prices again (that's going to F&O).
• Miss Biancheria wants to have a safety summit.
• She's also interested in the allocation of funding for channel 11.
• And I'm asking that we support the bill proposed by Rep. Fernandes that would set up a state emergency account for ELL students who enroll midyear. 

We have two items in executive session: a worker's comp case and collective bargain strategy (health insurance).