Sunday, April 30, 2023

On the strategic plan process

I had said I'd ensure there was some information here on the strategic plan...first, an image that you can grab if that is useful to you!


We as a Committee--and goals like the strategic plan are under our purview--are following our usual process for effective work and running this through a subcommittee, in this case Governance. The work that a to-be-appointed public task force will do will run through Governance to the full Committee, in terms of lines of reporting.

The Task Force, once it is appointed, with be tasked with taking the themes of the previous strategic plan and the outcomes of Dr. Monárrez's Listening and Learning work, and synthesizing them. Their job will be deciding what we may need to keep from the prior plan, what we don't, and how that aligns with the goals that were expressed through the more recent work. 

As  reminder, the previous strategic plan's themes were:
  • Culture of innovation
  • Academic excellence
  • Welcoming schools
  • Investing in educators
  •  Technology and operations

And the recent themes are:
  • Acquiring and retain talent
  • Modernized and safe facilities
  • Student behavior and safety
  • Communication and ongoing engagement
  • Wellness and mental health
  • Equitable resources and educational programs

Saturday, April 29, 2023

On the new ELA elementary curriculum

 Among the big things that happened at Thursday’s meeting of the Worcester School Committee was the adoption of a new ELA curriculum for elementary school, as discussed at Monday's subcommittee meeting. As I have noted here before, the curriculum that our prior administration was absolutely stuck on was just what research, data, and the ongoing news of the “reading wars” was noting we should NOT be doing. 

We heard from many teachers, coaches, parents and others on this one (and for years, let me stress). 

I never taught elementary school, but as someone whose roots will always go back to my English classroom, this has been one that has struck me to my core. I thus wrote up specifically what I was going to say ahead of time. This is what I said:

As we will note later this evening, our role in curriculum approval is very high level. Broadly speaking, it is up to the Committee to determine if curricula supports our district goals and aligns with state standards.
Speaking as a former teacher, I know that teachers pour their hearts into the classroom. There are few things more disheartening than to be directed to do something that you know is actively harmful or simply not helpful to your students. I know that, having been there.
That is the position which we have placed our elementary teachers in these past years regarding ELA. Despite repeated attempts by several members of this Committee to set it straight, the previous administration was absolutely committed to a curriculum that we knew and was ongoingly reported to be, not what was needed in the classroom. 
To the teachers, principals, coaches and so forth who have fought for years for us to do better, I want to thank you for your faithfulness, and if you quietly closed the door and ensured your students had what was actually needed, good for you. 
This Committee has a responsibility to depend on the professionals who work in curriculum and work with students to give us the feedback when we make these decisions. And we owe them professional respect in doing so, and some of that has been lacking in the public process. We need to be better to our staff--our employees--than that. 

I also want to note: we are required to set aside 20% of our ESSER III spending—about $18M—for what the federal government refers to as learning loss. The funding for this curriculum not only falls into this category for reporting purposes; it also repairs what we know has been a cause of less learning for our students. This is not only an allowed, it is a strongly supported use of federal spending  

We thus will be repairing two issues from prior leadership, while giving our students and our teachers a curriculum about which we know them to be enthusiastic, which not only meets state standards but is green rated, and which will actually support students learning to read.
I support moving forward with the administration’s recommendation immediately.
I was also glad to make the motion for reconsideration that evening, allowing administration to move forward immediately with the purchase of CKLA.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

A few quick notes from yesterday's F&O meeting

This will officially be reported out at next week's (May 4) meeting, but a few quick notes as there are some good things that we worked on! The agenda is here. The video is not yet up on the district YouTube channel, but you can find it on the district Facebook page

We moved three items--day by day sub rate for retired educators; athletic trainers; and middle school sports--from F&O to considering with the FY24 budget. This basically is noting that we're two weeks out on the proposed budget for next year, that these proposals all are money proposals, and that we want to talk about them with the full committee when we deliberate the budget. In each case, the administration will report back on them at our second budget deliberation (June 15), along with any questions that arise during deliberation on June 1. 

Important thing to remember on the WPS budget: while we will deliberate and pass it cost center by cost center, it isn't done until we officially pass the bottom line!

We took up a petition from Forest Grove 8th grade civics students on health vending machines. Due both to the non-compete language and the district's universal free breakfast and lunch, as you can see in the backup, this isn't something we can do.

Bob Walton, who is in charge of IT, led the look at streaming athletics. Due to the need to integrate with our calendar and the wish to include playoff games, we're essentially limited to a sole source which is NFHS Network. Many districts that use this pass the cost along to families. The administration recommendation for Worcester instead is that the district pay for the facility by facility costs ($4000 per site), allowing the streaming of Worcester-hosted high school games to be streamed for free (by anyone). You can see the considerations involved in the backup, but I'd note that this is in keeping with the Worcester schools ongoingly being dedicated to having an actual free public education.

Our monthly transportation update included not only the usual reports on drivers and on buses, but also a discussion of the athletic use of buses (we have 7 ready to go at 2:30 each day), free busing for field trips (377 and counting), a longer discussion of the coming application for electric school buses and the equipment to support those, and a brief look at possible late buses for high schools at some point in the future.
And also a reminder: we took over transportation, more than any other reason, to be able to dependably get students back and forth to school. 

Finally, our budget update, in which we moved a million and a half dollars, continues to show position gaps, with the good news that hiring is ongoing (when the budget manager says that, it means we're paying new people). We touched a bit on paying for the new ELA curriculum (ESSER III 20% set aside), and spoke about timelines for more reporting. We also requested a report for the May 22 meeting on where the district is on foundation budget categories, so we can use that information to inform our FY24 budget deliberation, though as Mr. Allen noted: it also starts the information gathering for the next Foundation Budget Review Commission, which SOA said would happen every 5 years...so 2024?

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Live from the Board of Ed: budget update

 Bill Bell to close things out 

Bell: House Ways and Means Committee came out with their version of the budget
builds on many of themes in Governor's budget
House is in full session debating now
14% of state budget is education
"no question the Commonwealth values investment in public education"
similar to Governor: Ch. 70 third year of SOA
$60 minimum per pupil
circuit breaker with two slight earmark changes
HW&M increased transportation reimbursements for regional and homeless students by a few million in each: designed at 100%
continued to support universal free school meal
think it's somewhat underfunded, but will have a better idea once FY23 closes
House appropriation of $166M might be a little bit light
"matter of what the right budget number needs to be"
continued investments in career and technical education arena
adult education programming
asking Department to oversee $100M green school infrastructure grant program
"it's not our wheelhouse to oversee" infrastructure" but the House seems to want us to oversee"
House chose not to fund some things; we'll see the Senate maybe making some different choices
House will complete work this week
expect Senate in about two weeks; second Wed in May
would expect conference committee then 

not much new on ESSER:
ESSER I is completed
70% complete on ESSER II; about $200M left to claim through March
27% claim of ESSER III as of March

no questions

Board moves into executive session:

END PUBLIC SESSION 

Live from the Board of Ed: Lawrence

 the backup is here though there should be a presentation, too

Presenting: Deputy Commissioner Russell Johnston; DESE Strategic Transformation Director Lauren Woo; Interim Superintendent/Receiver Juan Rodriguez; Patricia Mariano, Interim Chair of the Lawrence Alliance for Education

Rodriguez is talking about photos that are on the screen...
science of reading modules for PreK-2 educators through HILL for Literacy; will expand next year through grade 5
"Lawrence Leadership Consultancy Cohorts": 26 schools with instructional vision statements, targeted instructional priorities
increased co-teaching classrooms in special ed and multilingual
monthly learning walks; PD

Promoting paraprofessionals with BAs into teaching through emergency licensure
partnerships with post-secondary institutions: Regis, Merrimack, UMass Lowell
(That's diversifying the workforce)




family engagement specialists at all schools

SOA: 





Mariano: thanks lots of people, talks about early college and such

Craven: "this receivership was basically a function of the town wanting to work with the state"
that's...one spin
"and we know that a lot of the lessons learned can apply to other districts in the state"

Hills: how you see the governance model helping you or not in what you want to achieve?
what you expect to see over the next few years?

Rodriguez: have been in the district since 2005
Currently don't see anything inhibiting us from anything we want to do
continue to meet with elected School Committee
Met with City Council on school safety
"as far as the governance structure, to me it's working well right now. I don't see it inhibiting anything we want to do right now."
Mariano (chair): "I believe our structure is working very very well"
think that moving forward "we'll be ready to take the district back"
Rodriguez: strategic literacy plan to increase reading at every level 
"takes me back to a lot of things we were doing 30 years ago"
increase students in after dark programs
two people in his house: one at UMass Lowell, one an electrician
both "doing great"
doing more things for more students 
"amplify programs that are working well for our students right now"

Lombos: appreciate hearing an update
great to see how you're taking advantage of the SOA "which we all fought so hard for"
(the Board largely did not)
Lombos: Who decides when a district exits receivership?
Riley: decision is up to the Commissioner of education
Lombos: so, you
Riley: yes
Lombos: what do you need? What is the criteria?
Riley: stepping down over time
"hope that this will be the final step down...obviously will have to see how this works out"
updates part of that
"think we're in the next phase of that...yes, that's where we're at"

Moriarty: you're very new, inherited strategic plan for literacy
heartened with background in literacy

Rodriguez: attendance liaisons increased last year (in response to Q from Moriarty)

Canavan: do you set goals annually? "we hope that our Dibels scores will be X?"
Rodriguez: done by schools during budget process
setting goals in growth
SEL goals: out of school suspensions, mediation, training in restorative practices
Mariano: schools have evolved to a point, where initially they weren't looking at the data, but now more focus on the data and what the tests are telling them
"planning action steps to meet the needs of the kids"
"think the whole focus of the district has changed in the past four or five years"
(uh...so Riley didn't do that? Interesting timeframe there)

Craven: know that you were on School Committee under the old model
"things you want to keep about the receivership model"
"what are those things you'd say we need to keep as part of the learnings of receivership"
Mariano: I hope that the district just continues to move forward with the successes
Craven: I'm actually looking for these specific things that you could not do under an elected school committee, but CAN do now
Mariano: would like to keep the budget process running the same way
curriculum focused on data when planning for instruction
just want to see the successes continue

Q on DESE's involvement
Johnston: so pleased about the changes that have been mutually agreed upon 
support in mayor's office

Live from the April Board of Ed

 vote to solicit public comment on proposed amendments to educator licensure regulations

Rouhanifard: discussion across the country on teacher shortages, only had real data more recently from a few states; do we have any data on actual shortages?
Riley: special ed, ESL, not just education: nursing
"Be a little more flexible than we have been in the past, with the understanding that at some point we'll probably tighten back up"
Moriarty: 150 hour internship? model?

  • initial or professional license holder can obtain a provisional license in special ed or ESL
  • create a new preK-2 license for moderate and severe disabilities
  • permit "demonstrate of knowledge" as a way to prepare and maintain students with disabilities for general classrooms
  • create a new professional license for school nurse
Hills: always leave this conversations asking what's the trade off here?
any reason you want to state, things we want to be concerned about
"don't consider these life-altering massive changes to our education system...what am I missing?"
A: that's why we have this public comment

Canavan: question about the labor shortage
wonder about nurses having to pass the communications MTEL
Seems an unnecessary barrier, given what is happening in the nursing field
"not within regulation" but is written into the law

Moriarty: I advocate for every adult in the building having strength in communication and literacy
adults should regard it as a "development milestone" of third grade reading
(there is literally not basis in psychological development to support this)
does MTEL evaluate that "that's a stretch"
we talk about trauma: what about trauma of not being able to perform at grade level
(what the heck?)

Lombos: not necessarily a labor shortage, but workers not being paid what they are worth, when they are using their feet to leave their professions (to a smattering of applause, which is not a thing that happens often)

Live from the April Board of Ed: Mass Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative

 backup is here though there also is a Powerpoint which is on the stage but tiny

Mass Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative--MAICEI ("macy")--state funded program and the funding offers inclusive college options for students id'ed as having an intellectual disability, autism, or developmental disability

alternative non-matriculated pathway: person centered pathway, individual support plan, focus on employment goals
have coaches, internships
have access to courses that don't require a prerequisite
two of the campuses have a resident life component as well: Salem State and Bridgewater State (which also was the first campus to have this)

student at Mass Bay Community College in the MAICEI program now speaking about the classes he took, the use of public transit, involvement in the extracurricular programs, starting a glee club(!), getting involved in politics
"has prepared me for my career...for the last nine years I have worked at the State House"

Testimony about the long-term post 18 or so options for students 
hope that the Board can support districts 
"the MAICEI answer to what does life look like? Anything you want it to"

Additional testimony from another student

I want to know where the funding for this is? Higher ed line?

Moriarty wants to know about space in the program
has been interest: only one had a waiting list, but all students got in
will see more and more as start to present to more and more families who are no longer in school districts
"we've had families relocate...from all over the country just for their son or daughter to participate"

Mohamed asks about interaction with IEP and planning
guidance coming out from DESE on that
also with early college: has been discussed as part of early college discussions

Canavan asks at what age students are eligible: 18 plus

Live from the April Board of Ed: Opening comments

 Agenda is here

Yes, Westford Academy is the public high school in Westford. Massachusetts had a whole section of history when we had private academies, which in some cases then were take over by the towns as the local high school. I am assuming that's the history here, though I haven't looked.
UPDATED TO ADD: I was right, and I am going to give you a separate post on that!
The meeting is here because student rep Eric Plankey is a student at Westford Academy and tradition is the Board has a spring meeting at the student rep's home school. 
Yes, I have ventured here in person because sometimes the livestream isn't as dependable when the Board ventures out.

Updating as we go 

Public comment: 
Sen. John Cronin speaking on vo-tech admissions
regs allowed schools to continue to use ranked admission
"local control as a license to discriminate with impunity"
admissions "have moved in the wrong direction in every measurably category"
"at the same time Assabet Tech implemented a lottery, and Worcester Tech a limited lottery"
(we didn't?)
"admission at those schools are fair, they're common sense, they reflect our values, and they need to be adopted at every vocational school in the state"
"This Board has the power to intervene to stop that, and I ask that it does"

Superintendent at TECCA
noting he and others spoke last month requesting remote MCAS for their school
asks that this be put on their May meeting agenda

Craven lists subcommittees aloud and then asks Moriarty to talk about his literacy subcommittee

Tutwiler notes that Westford Academy is also his former home, earlier in his career
"necessary shift we believe should happen at the high school level"
new innovation pathways; early college meetings

Riley: thanks Westford for hosting
"Eric has done a tremendous job"
and he is listing a lot of places he visited
Boston: support and technical assistance
"a coordinated plan moving forward...more details to come on that"
DESE: working on "educational vision"
identified key objectives and initiatives
excited to formalize over next month, will present later in the spring
DESE will be moving 75 Pleasant Street in Malden at the end of the calendar year to 135 Santilli highway in Everett
plan to bring forward more information on technology including AI

we're now on to the Westford welcome, which I am not going to try to reproduce here

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Updates from the Worcester Public Schools

 compiled in part, though not entirely, from the weekly updates, Dr. Monárrez sends the Committee

First up, ones that I've been worrying over: starting May 1

  • Richard Ikonen will be serving as Director of Facilities. He's coming from Minuteman Regional, where he was Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Facilities.

  • Ryan Hacker will be serving as Assistant Director of Facilities, focusing (I think I have this right) on capital projects. Ryan comes from UMass Med, BUT he last appeared here for his testimony during the hearing on the WCACS, as he's president of ArtsWorcester, AND he's a Burncoat High grad (yup, Burncoat!). 
I haven't met Rich as yet; I know Ryan. I'm looking forward to this.

The Auditor's office did meet with the WPS administration before vacation. That, plus our full delegation backing our call for investigations, is heartening that our concerns over OSV's management of the charter schools are being taken seriously. 

There's an executive session of the full Committee tomorrow (Monday) on negotiations with units A&B (and as it's negotiations, that's all I can say).

As I mentioned in my last post, the administration is recommending--much to the relief of many!--a new ELA curriculum for elementary students. This is of course in response to the many, many concerns from all kinds of places over the Fountas and Pinnell curriculum that the previous administration was very committed to. Major curricular changes need to go through the School Committee, so the recommendation is going to TLSS for a (virtual only) meeting tomorrow at 4:30 before coming to the full committee Thursday. This timeline has been an attempt to balance as much time for a pilot as possible, while still giving time to order materials and get them and PD to teachers before school is out.
Wit & Wisdom and Core Knowledge Language Arts are what was piloted in 21 or 22 classrooms each; page 13 of the presentation gives where. The rest of the presentation is based on feedback from the teachers and others involved in implementation. 
I won't say more on this here, as this is subject to deliberation and vote, but we'd of course welcome feedback (beyond "good bye F&P," which we've heard loud and clear!).

Finance and Operates meets this week on Wednesday at 5:30 ; you'll see that agenda tomorrow, but it will include the third quarter budget report, as well as the monthly transportation report. Also, for those who have been interested in the district streaming sports events, we'll be taking up that item as well. 

And speaking of budget: 

The budget's coming! The FY24 budget will be released on Friday, May 12 (start clicking refresh about 4, though sometimes it arrives earlier!).
There will be the statutorily required budget hearing on Wednesday, May 24 at 6; this is all of the Committee, gathered for no reason other than to hear from members of the public on the proposed budget. 
The School Committee deliberates and passes the budget, cost center by cost center, on Thursday, June 1 and Thursday, June 15. We start at 4 pm.
The one thing this doesn't include--because I don't know it yet--is the date on which the Worcester City Council hears the WPS budget. As a reminder, the Council approves only the bottom line of the Worcester Public Schools; they have no authority over cost centers. The Council also, under Plan E, cannot move funds or add funds to the budget; they can only cut. As the schools are generally funded at their statutory required level plus transportation and no more, one might argue that they cannot do that, either. 

That's what I have at this point. As always, if you have questions, send them along.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

What happened at the first April Worcester School Committee meeting?

 with apologies for this taking until now; I got to enjoy a really lovely weekend in Chicago, and am playing catch-up. As always, this is from me as a member of the Committee. 

The agenda is here; the video of the meeting can be viewed here.

I should note that the meeting started with two hours of executive session, including deliberations on the contracts with our bus drivers, our paraprofessionals, and units A & B, which are teachers and assistant principals. It's against the ground rules agreed to by both the EAW and the Worcester School Committee at the beginning of negotiations for me to say any more than that.

The Grafton Street chorus not only sang the National Anthem, but "This Land is Your Land."

Note that among the items on the consent agenda were several relating to recent athletic successes, and some generosity that has gotten the Burncoat High orchestra to Washington, D.C. this week.
(The consent agenda puts a group of items of which approve is reasonably expected, and has us take them with a single vote. Any member can pull an item off the consent agenda for separate approval with a 2/3rd approval.)

I was swamped enough that I didn't get a chance to put up a blog post to explain reconsideration, but if you search the blog, you can find earlier explanations. Both Laura Clancey and I filed for reconsideration on the Governance report, she to send the dress code back to standing committee for further discussion, me to take up the process of the strategic plan now with the report from Hanover Research (contracted to support the work) in hand. 
Reconsideration cannot be deliberated, but the member filing is required to file an explanation as to why with the request for reconsideration. In this case, both reconsiderations passed unanimously, so the dress code is not yet amended  (this is why nothing is done until it passes full committee!) and goes back to standing committee, and the process described by Dr. Monárrez for the strategic plan (let me give you a separate post on that) goes forward. 

We had also held two items (which also get to go first): the Human Resources position description, which, with a few additional edits, we approved; and Sue Mailman withdrew the bill she'd requested endorsement of on vocational school buildings.

The report of the superintendent was on social emotional learning and student mental health supports. Let me note here that we on the Committee have received emails from a number of staff members about planned reorganization of the social emotional learning department; we did hear a bit about that on Thursday in response to questions, and I am confident that we'll hear more.

The report came about 20 minutes into the meeting (if you'd like to review on the video), and included a substantial number of statistics, some of our students specifically, some national, regarding their mental health and resiliency. 


The presentation was about twenty minutes, and it was followed by at least that of questions, so I'd say there's a significant amount of Committee attention to what is being done here and what is still to come.

We approved one prior year payment and three grants, including one for a new meat slicer at Claremont Academy; one for summer work with English learners; and one to fund work with refugee families from Brazil, Central America, and Haiti (the area from which we get the largest number of people currently) in ensuring they are well connected to the school district.


We sent items on the use of AirPods to administration; on vaping detectors to F&O; on signs for North High basketball to the City Council; on suspension of the voluntary uniform policy until there's a way out to Governance; on moving dance teams under athletics to administration.

Administration will be bringing forward a recommendation for a new reading curriculum to Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports subcommittee this coming week after a pilot this year. They've been collating the feedback that they have received from staff; that will go through subcommittee to the full committee. You can find what we know so far here.

We passed a description for the Physical Security Systems Technician (this was in the FY23 budget; it had just never been brought forward); this is the person who runs the "stuff" (like cameras) of our security systems. 

We did some updating on policies, something which you'll see in a number of upcoming meetings; I had noticed a few worrying things in our policies, so over February break, I did a full review of our current WPS policies compared to the state model policies. I'll be putting them on the agenda in batches. The first batch we updated ensured that we are following federal and civil rights legislation in our list of protected classes. This is a substantial list, and it also includes the note on the Crown Act, passed last year. 
We also updated the policy on school calendar (which I thought was a little bit funny); in spring of 2020, the Commissioner dropped 10 school days for the calendar for professional development (due to the pandemic). Worcester changed our policy...and never changed it back. It still said we were going 170 school days. We cannot, of course--our policy doesn't change state regulation!--so we changed it back to 180 days.

Dr. Monárrez will bring back the descriptions of the Director of Nursing and the Director of Climate and Culture positions with the budget, so we can see how they fit. 

We sent a proposed revised Wellness Policy to Governance for consideration.

We sent a proposed Unifed PE to TLSS for consideration.

A proposal from Jermoh Kamara that we endorse S.340/H.583 “An Act enabling all students to thrive: protecting a high quality, diverse educator workforce” which would remove seniority as considered in layoffs, was withdrawn.

A proposal that we endorse H.1367 "An Act to facilitate additional financial student assistance," which would require students to complete the FAFSA in order to graduate (unless they had a signed waiver), was voted down, as was the item accompanying it, to request financial assistance for implementation. 


And that was the meeting! Note that our next regular meeting is Thursday, April 27. 

on the OSV boycott

 

Since last Thursday's vote of the Worcester School Committee to no longer send our students on field trips to Old Sturbridge has caught some attention, I thought it might be wise to refocus our attention on why this was both proposed and passed. 

I've set the below video to my comments--for the item was mine--last week:


The Worcester School Committee has very carefully laid our our concerns with the relationship between Old Sturbridge Village, Inc, and its charter schools in this letter dated March 10 to the State Auditor, the Attorney General, the Office of the Inspector General, and the Ethics Commission. If this is of interest, I recommend reading the letter itself, but in sum: 

  • OSV Executive Director Jim Donahue has, both in public letters to membership and in employee meetings at the Village, made it clear that the schools are a source of revenue for the Village. As we have cited several times, in the FY22 Annual Report of the Village, Donahue wrote: 

    The Academies will provide reliable, contractual revenue to the museum, safeguarding us against fluctuations in uncontrollable factors that impact admission revenue such as weather and public health.
     

    Providing reliable revenue to a private organization is not the purpose of public education funds. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue clearly states: 

    Public funds cannot be used for private purposes.  

    If there is both a private and a public purpose, the private purpose cannot be the primary one; that would invalidate the spending. Donahue's own words would appear to indicate that this is intended as a revenue stream primarily. 


  • The Department very carefully guides charter school boards in their selection of a management organization, should they choose to have one. They are directed to follow the same public bid process they would for any major purpose. They also are directed not to have overlap between the charter board and the management organization, as that would clearly constitute a conflict of interest. 
    Of the 17 founding members of the new Worcester charter school, 11 have ties to OSV itself or the OSV charter school, and one more to the company that will provide the charter school's curriculum.
    The Board is not independent, and the ethical conflict is clear.
    Since the letter, the Board has had its first meeting, and it did not spend any time deliberating, let alone follow the public bid process, before appointing OSV as the management organization.


  •  OSV currently holds a lease with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester for the former St. Joseph's School on Hamilton Street. The lease has the following clause: 

    Neither Lessee nor any of its employees, servants, agents or invitees shall make any use of the [building] which would be inconsistent with the doctrines or teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as determined by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester in his ecclesiastical capacity of Ordinary of the Diocese of Worcester in his sole discretion

    There are of course significant conflicts, not only in what may or should taught in the building with what the Bishop of Worcester may feel appropriate, but even the basic civil rights protections a public entity like a public charter school must hold for staff and students are brought into question with such an agreement. As noted in the letter, this is not simply about Catholic teaching, but the particular bishop, who has a history locally regarding his perspective on these issues. 
    As yet, we have no evidence any successor lease has been negotiated. 


As of us who direct money, whether publicly or privately, must do so according to our best judgment. Massachusetts elected officials also much follow the state public finance laws and guidance; the state ethics laws; and both state and federal civil rights laws. If, in our estimation, those are not being followed by an organization to which we would direct funds, we are, as Mayor Petty notes above, being consistent to discontinue such spending. 

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Boycott

It felt as if the website editors were having some fun this morning...

On tomorrow night's Worcester School Committee agenda, I have placed the following item: 

To request that the Administration arrange for an alternative LEAP trip in lieu of the current trip to Old Sturbridge Village; further, request that the Administration ensures that no Worcester Public Schools funds voluntarily are allocated to Old Sturbridge Village, Inc. or its affiliates.

I am not going to say too much about this here now, lest I predeliberate ahead of the meeting, but I'll note news here, here ('though that is a little confusing), and here.  

And if you haven't reviewed the request for an investigation filed by the Worcester School Committee, you can find that here. 

Monday, April 10, 2023

Liberty of the truth

Statue of Mary Barrett Dyer by Sylvia Shaw Judson
in front of the Massachusetts State House. The quote on the base reads, 
 “My life not availeth me in comparison to the liberty of the truth.”
Dyer was hanged in 1660 on Boston Common not far from where her statue sits today.

In the midst of the flurry of news surrounding the Diocese of Worcester ending the Worcester Public Schools' lease of the former St. Stephen's Elementary, where La Familia currently is, a reporter asked me if I thought it was due to the district's continuing to teach comprehensive health education in the building, something we know the diocese did not wish to have happen ('though it was not, of course, actually barred by the terms of the lease). 

One can't say, of course, what internal calculations the Chancery made before exercising the clause in the lease that allows them to end it early. I do want to note, again, though, that it raises a very grave question regarding the lease the now-approved Worcester Cultural Academy Charter School has with the diocese.
That lease--currently a lease between Old Sturbridge Village itself and the Diocese--we're told contains the following clause:

Neither Lessee nor any of its employees, servants, agents or invitees shall make any use of the [building] which would be inconsistent with the doctrines or teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as determined by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester in his ecclesiastical capacity of Ordinary of the Diocese of Worcester in his sole discretion.

It's worth noting how very particular this language is: it does not put what happens in that building under Roman Catholic canon law, or under Roman Catholic teaching as overseen by the Vatican. This is particular to the Bishop as ordinary of the Worcester diocese. 

OSV (and dual charter school) Executive Director Jim Donahue at the time this was made public said:

Once the school is approved, we will review the terms with the Diocese once more to ensure they are acceptable to them and to us.
I would say it is now fair to speculate as to what would be "acceptable" to the Diocese, given their decision of last week.

That this wasn't of graver concern to the Department in their approval process (despite it being brought to their attention) displays a disturbing lack of understanding of the current context of the separation of church and state when it comes to public schools.

Last year's Carson v. Maine Supreme Court decision, rested on the question of the use of vouchers--which are public education dollars--going to religious schools. Maine had barred that; SCOTUS found that this was discrimination. But as many (including me) noted at the time, this opened the question of religious charter schools. In fact, that is where the Oklahoma Attorney General went

While Article 103 of the Massachusetts State Constitution bars state funding:

for the purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any infirmary, hospital, institution, primary or secondary school, or charitable or religious undertaking which is not publicly owned and under the exclusive control, order and supervision of public officers or public agents authorized by the Commonwealth or federal authority or both

which makes us a non-voucher state, the state allowing a charter to operate only "under the doctrines and teachings of the Roman Catholic church" as determined by the local bishop would certainly seem to open a door some are eager to, even as it is barred by the state constitution.

The Pilot piece quoted above was quick to tag the Massachusetts provision as part of the Know Nothing efforts of the Blaine amendment era, but also notes that the separation of church and state goes back farther than that in Massachusetts. And it should, with good reason. 

The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution is often said to stem from a reaction to the legacy of religious wars in Europe. But here in Massachusetts, we have a legacy much closer to us on the dangers of state making provision for religion. 

I opened this post with a photo of the statue of Mary Dyer that sits next to the public entrance of the Massachusetts State House. Dyer was hanged by the Massachusetts Bay Colony on Boston Common in 1660 due to her preaching, after continually being warned not to, the Quaker faith. 
She did not adhere to the state faith. And she was killed by the state for it.
By our state, Massachusetts. 

Testimony on the MSBA before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means

 Offered today at the State House


My name is Tracy O’Connell Novick, and I am here in my capacity as a member of the Worcester School Committee, where I serve as the chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Operations. I’m also the mother of two Worcester Public Schools graduates and one current high school junior.

We are profoundly grateful in Worcester, that after over a decade of advocacy, Governor Healey’s budget will fund the third year of implementation of the Student Opportunity Act. The ability of districts like mine to properly staff our schools—short, by the state’s own measures, by literally hundreds of teachers—has begun to ease. We have begun to take stock of the funding for instructional supplies and technology, and the impacts of decades of underfunding of facility maintenance.

It is about this last that I am here today, however. 

Worcester has had a strong partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Schools across our city have benefited from the Accelerated Repair program, with the life of our buildings extended by new roofs, new windows and doors, and new boilers. 

No such work will take place this year, however, as there is no Accelerated Repair program. Due to the rightful recognition of the rising costs of construction, the MSBA lacks the funding for the Accelerated Repair program this year; there is as yet no plan for it to return. 

Thus, Union Hill School and Wawecus Road School will not have new roofs this coming year, as we were unable to submit them. Within just my own district, this will create a ripple effect of boiler and roof projects that will not move forward, something my and other districts will have to scramble to patch with our limited local funding. 

Worcester likewise has benefited from the Core Program, with a new Doherty Memorial High School rising on Highland Street even as I speak. But Worcester has 24,000 students; the new buildings, even after Doherty’s opening, will house only a fifth of our students. Of Worcester’s over 11,000 elementary students, less than 600 attend school in a building built since the turn of the millennium. Worcester once again did not have a new Burncoat High School accepted into the Core program this past year, and so we are currently planning to spend millions of dollars to shore up the building to meet its reaccreditation requirements. 

The city’s funding for all of this is limited, of course, for precisely the reasons that make the district so heavily dependent on state aid to run its schools. It is, however, further hampered by the inflationary increase in the cost of the new Doherty project. The city has been hit with $21 million dollars in increases due not to changes in the building, but to pandemic influences on the economy. This is money the city cannot spare. 

Please note that everything I have outlined for you impacts other districts across the state: my peers throughout the Commonwealth likewise have buildings that will not have accelerated repairs this year, have not been accepted into the core building program, are facing inflationary increases in new buildings. 

In every case, the Massachusetts School Building Authority simply does not have the funding to cover this.

As such, we would ask the following:

  1. Uncap the MSBA. The MSBA currently is capped at $800 million. While that is an increase due to the Student Opportunity Act, it is inadequate for the needs of the state.
  2. Once you have done that, bring back the Accelerated Repair program. Not every school building needs replacement or a full renovation, but many projects are too big for a district to tackle alone.
  3. Consider a middle option between Accelerated Repair and the Core program. Some buildings have good bones, but need full electrical work or other major projects.
  4. Finally, dedicate state ARPA funding to cover the cost of inflation. The federal government foresaw that there would be rising costs as part of the pandemic. While it absolutely should not be left to local municipalities to cover these inflationary jumps, nor should it come out of the inadequate coffers of the MSBA. 

Saturday, April 8, 2023

A early April reading round-up

please enjoy this Boston daffodil

Despite the ongoing temper tantrums of a particular billionaire, I do continue to share things I think worth reading over on my Twitter feed (which is also on the bottom left if you read this on a full screen), but here's a bit of a recent round-up of things I found worth reading:

“And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.”

This week, I met a student named Max.

This student, as he proudly told me, was named after the character in "THIS book," and from his desk he pulled out: 


Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. 
"Oh," I said, "are you Max?"*
"Yes!" he said.
And I said, "at the end of that book, when he comes home, his supper..."
And we said it together, "IS STILL HOT."**

Why do I tell you this?
Because books matter for many reasons, but one of them is that they connect people. To Max, I was a random grown-up in his classroom, but the minute I recited the last line of the book he's been connected to since birth, I was possibly okay to him. I didn't know Max, but I knew Max's book. And that mattered.

...I'm sure I'm missing some. And that is just this week.

What does this have to do with books? 
Because books are one way--not the only way, but one way--that we can experience the life of someone else. 
Maybe you yourself, or even no one you know (you think) has been at a school with a shooting, or has been pregnant as a minor when it wasn't safe to tell your parents, or has needed gender affirming care, or been trans and wanted to play a sport, or any of the hundreds of other experiences we see state legislatures (in particular) outlawing.
But maybe you can read a book that can put you in the position of someone who does.
Books, then, are dangerous. Because books can make you see someone else's perspective. 
And thus books must be removed, as well.

It thus is crucial that we see this book bans for what they are: they are a way of pushing back on the lived human experiences of those within them. We have to fight the bans, just as we fight the laws. In both cases, we have to work, and protest, and create and defend public policies, that protect the people. 

________________________________________________
*my compliments to Max's family, by the way. I adore that a family looked at a tiny person and thought of Max and the Wild Things. Max also took very great pride in his connection to his book, so well done, Max's grown ups! 

**Max then took me on the tour of the books of his classroom, including the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey, of which he was currently reading the first, but, he was delighted to tell me, his teacher had the newest one (which I see just came out at the end of March, so well done, Max's teacher!).