Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Board of Ed: update on the House budget

 budget director Julia Jou: there is a memo ('though it is pre-amendments)
$104 minimum per pupil increase (Governor had $30 per pupil)
notes 

60% of ESSER III has been claimed by school districts
Hills asks (maybe) how much is encumbered
Jou: all grants are encumbered; DESE's are mostly encumbered
May be seeking late approval for DESE projects

Jou stresses that outstanding question of what the Senate will do in their budget in May

Board of Ed in April: update on educational vision

 Johnston: educational vision and how it relates to early college and literacy launch

Board of Ed: Safe Schools for LGBTQ

Johnston starts by remembering former Associate Commissioner John Bynoe whom he credits with some of this

what I assume was on a prior Wellesley school building

Backup on this is here

Presenting: Associate Commissioner of Student and Family Support Rachelle Engler Bennett,
Associate Commissioner of the Center for Instructional Support Erin Hashimoto-Martell,
Commission Executive Director Shaplaie Brooks
Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students Director, Jason Wheeler
Plus the superintendent of the Randolph Public Schools and a Boston Public Schools student

during 2021-22 year, 83.1% of LGBTQ+ students faced harassment or assault
Four strategies we know to be successful:

  • supportive educators
  • LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum
  • inclusive and supportive policies
  • Supportive clubs
support through professional development and training
on-demand technical assistance: "are much more complicated" than they were several years ago
student leadership initiatives

schools are facing significant challenges

Hashitmoto-Martell: fostering a cultural of respect in schools
citation of examples across standards in guiding principles
reviewing materials for inclusions of those with diverse identities, backgrounds, and perspectives

Thea R Stovell, superintendent of the Randolph Public Schools
student who came out as trans recently for whom school was the only safe place
Was working with school committee to create a gender identify policy (nooo...this doesn't need a policy; gender identity is included in antidiscrimination policy, and Committees deliberating a procedure around who someone is is yikes)
Committee was concerned about notification of parents
PD on "Queer in the classroom"
finding in our schools not seeing hostility; vitriol is coming from the community
people offended about curriculum, gender neutral bathrooms
some teachers are nervous about it
request more specific guidelines from DESE around gender identity and process
A lot of searching for content: not just LGBTQ, BIPOC as well
"anything that this Board can do to push policy that makes it clearer" on process would be appreciated

Rowyn: sit here before you as a Black and queer student
"I am Black and I am gay"
Know that I cannot come out to some family members
GSA won't entirely understand your experience as Black and queer; Black Student Union won't fully appreciate your experience as being Black and queer
didn't see anyone who looked like them at GSA
"in spaces meant to be inclusive, people shouldn't have to bring a chair to a table that should already have a space for me"

Wheeler: growing limitations on resources, both LGTBQ as well as race

Stewart asks how they go to schools: Wheeler says they are invited into schools
districts leaders, teachers go to principals or superintendents; families may reach out 

Moriarty: scope and reach of training
Wheeler: preassessment sent to schools ahead of training
Moriarty: seems like demand has exploded
"as a result of the disruption in schooling" (WHAT?) and student disregulation
Wheeler: schools are doing "incredible work"
heightened level of community concern being brought forward that I don't know that our schools are always ready to respond
could use greater capacity: train trainers

The Board of Ed April meeting: opening comments

Seal of Wellesley Public Schools as a mosaic on the floor of the high school

 

Monday, April 29, 2024

Two on Worcester Public Schools budget (this one on FY25)

At Thursday's Worcester School Committee meeting, we'll get our first high-level glimpse of the administration's recommended FY25 budget. That link is to the agenda; the backup for the report of the superintendent is not yet posted. 
Note of course that this means the budget is on the agenda, so if you have something to say on the budget, it could be a good time to do so. There also will be a (mandated) budget hearing before the Committee deliberates; as the preliminary budget calendar has the projected date for that conflicting with a graduation, I'd imagine it will be rescheduled?

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Two on Worcester Public Schools budget (this one on FY24)

It's been a bit since I've written anything on Worcester's budget at all, let alone this current year, and there are a few things worth understanding. 

Let's first note that the Finance, Operations, and Governance subcommittee meets on Monday at 4:45 PM. The agenda for that is here, and it does include proposed policies on cell phones and earbuds, on service animals in schools, and on emotional support dogs, as well as the current student handbook ahead of its annual changes. I'm not going to post on that here, but if any of that is of interest, go take a look.

The subcommittee also has the FY24 third quarter report, though, running through March 31.

Board of Ed meets Tuesday

It's at Wellesley High School this month, as that's the school of Ela Gardiner, who is the student member. 

And look at that: the agenda actually has topics the Secretary and Acting Commissioner are expected to address during the meeting! That's best practice...if only they could get the chair to do that, too...

Also on the agenda: the Commissioner's search; an update on safe schools for LGBTQ students; an update on the Department's vision; and a budget update.
No links as yet to backups

Liveblog will be coming your way.

Thursday, April 25, 2024

about this budget year for Massachusetts schools...

 It is lousy! 

"This is a really lousy year," said Tracy O’Connell Novick describing what Massachusetts public school districts are going through right now as they plan next year’s budget.

Novick is a specialist on finance and state education funding at the Massachusetts School Committee Association (MASCA).

“Right now, my job is abut 60% standing in front of groups saying, ‘your budget is terrible. The state budget is terrible. Here's why it's terrible,’” Novick said.

(60% is probably too high...it just feels that way!) 

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

There is a Worcester School Committee meeting on Thursday

 Note that there is a Worcester School Committee meeting on Thursday:

https://worcesterschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20240419.pdf

Note that there does not appear to be an executive session, so expect it to start at 5:30

The report of the Superintendent is on climate and culture:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mpW68Tt7_vb9_6_s-5NI2Ftr4ERLijq8/view?usp=sharing

As per usual, no further comments...

Sunday, April 21, 2024

On city finances and planning

 At the April 9 meeting of the City Council: 

While it appears to be deleted, Councilor Toomey later clarified on Twitter that she was speaking of amending the city's five point financial plan. 

Recommended reading

My week went a bit sideways at the end here, so I haven't gotten around to a few things I'd intended to write on. In the meantime, here is some of what I have been reading:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

on educators responding to protests

 It is days like today that I recall then Acting Commissioner Jeff Wulfson's words in 2018, speaking of the protests that followed the Parkland shootings: 

 We talk a lot here at this board about the importance of teaching students about civic engagement and how democracy works. This is it. This is as real as it gets. If this is not what we call a teachable moment, I don't know what is, and I hope our educators take advantage of this opportunity to help model and teach their students about how we bring about change peacefully in a democracy.

Remarkably, DESE sent it out as part of the Commissioner's update that week 

Friday, April 12, 2024

House Ways and Means budget: this time with more

I am doing one of my periodic comfort re-reads of Terry Pratchett;
this is a good summary of the House budget. Alas, no answers here.


Wednesday's post was a quick one. Here's some more information and some thinking on the House Ways and Means budget on K-12 education; as always, this is me, out here having an opinion in my entirely unofficial capacity. 

The budget is here, though really that's where you download PDFs. Wouldn't it be amazing if instead there were updates to the posting of the Governor's budget, with nice little clickable links, and the ability to see at a glance what changes were being proposed over time?

If you'd like at least the change being proposed, I have now started a spreadsheet of the K-12 education accounts, which is here. (I did not start that with the Governor's budget this year, and, yikes, lesson learned!).

Also, the cherry sheets--municipal; regional--are now updated and seem to be up for good now (they went up and back down yesterday).

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

House Ways and Means FY25 budget

 I have barely cracked this open, but it's online here. No cherry sheet update as yet.

A few brief things I already know (as always on here, this is my personal perspective):

  • Disappointingly, this keeps the same inflation rate as the Governor's budget. 

  • Also disappointingly, this digs us further into a hole for the districts making their way out of hold harmless by making the minimum per pupil increase $104. This costs $37M, and it's coming out of the Fair Share surtax, which, as this is an allocation of funds that has nothing to do with student, district, or community need, is really disappointing.
    This is a genuinely terrible idea, and it's actively working against the reform passed unanimously in both chambers that is the Student Opportunity Act. 

  • 'Though I have not yet found this written down anywhere, I have been told that this has an increase in the low income pupil count for some districts, which has resulted in some districts moving (back?) up a low income group. There certainly is a difference in the state aid for some districts that isn't coming from the per pupil increase noted above. 
That's what I have so far...I do plan to pull together a "tracking the budget" spreadsheet this spring (I haven't yet!), and I'll run through accounts later this week. 

Monday, April 8, 2024

April 4 meeting of the Worcester School Committee

Please enjoy these daffodils from my walk from work in Boston.

While school in Worcester was cancelled, the meeting was not; my meeting was, so I got to this one in person to find that the balcony now has some who are interested in good governance of the district attending in person to keep an eye on things. Excellent. Let me know if you're coming; I'm bringing snacks. 

The agenda is here. The video of the meeting is here

Friday, April 5, 2024

Okay, Worcester, here's something else you can do!

On Tuesday's Worcester City Council agenda

That the City Council of the City of Worcester does hereby support the Worcester Public Schools’ advocacy for a higher inflation rate in the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) foundation budget. 

Thank you, Councilor Haxhiaj!  



The Worcester Public Schools, in their FY25 budget memo to the state delegation, said the following: 

Fixing the Inflation Calculation: The inflation rate for the FY24 Chapter 70 inflation adjustment was 8.01% and for FY23 it was 7.08%. But the law caps the annual inflation adjustment of the foundation budget at 4.5%. As a result, districts did not receive funds to cover a significant portion of inflation that they had to pay for in expenses.
The way the Chapter 70 formula originally worked, that would not be a long-term problem because the lost inflation would automatically be added back to the foundation budget in the following year. But a technical change made almost a decade after the law was passed inadvertently changed that. Now when the cap reduces aid below the level needed to keep pace with inflation, that reduction is locked in forever and reduces future aid. A simple fix that maintains the 4.5% cap but makes sure that the formula makes up for lost inflation would solve the problem. That would increase Chapter 70 aid by $217 million, with additional under- inflation “catch-ups” in future years. It is important to make a permanent change in the law so that all of the aid lost is eventually made up. That is necessary to allow the Commonwealth to meet the real-dollar targets in the Student Opportunity Act.
 
Action: Support the proposed language to correct a flaw in the calculation of the inflation adjustments in Chapter 70 by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the American Federation of Teachers of Massachusetts.

Please be sure the Worcester City Council hears from you, either this weekend, or via public comment Tuesday, to support this advocacy.

A few things that may be worth mentioning in your communication:

  • The inflation rate in the foundation budget is 1.35%. There is no aspect of any budget that is increasing by only 1.35%. That will guarantee cuts.
  • The inflation rate used to account (as noted above) for years in which there was an overage by carrying it over into future years. That is no longer the case.
  • The Student Opportunity Act, as marvelous as it has been, is NOT for cost increases from one year to the next. It very specifically is to address historic undercalculation of categories within the foundation budget. SOA in no way removes the responsibility we have as a state to ensure that the "fair and adequate minimum" keeps up with what is needed to educate our children.
  • The city's local contribution will not increase as a result of an inflation increase.
You can find the Council's contacts here. Council meets at 6:30 on Tuesday.

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Some suggested reading

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

quick note that the Worcester School Committee meets tomorrow

 The agenda is here. The report of the superintendent is on special education. 

There are ten reasons only for executive session. 

March 21 Worcester School Committee meeting

 It's budget season, which means I am all over the state, so I'll do catch up on these as I can; I wasn't at this one and I can't make the next two, either, so they'll be coming later. Do note that the Committee meets this Thursday; the report of the Superintendent is on special education. 

The March 21 agenda is here; the video of the meeting is here. The report of the superintendent on future ready pathways is here.

Note that prior to the public session, there was an executive session on two worker compensation issues and negotiations with the Mass Nurses Association.

The consent agenda was passed. 

The Burncoat High School spirit team was recognized.

Monday, April 1, 2024

What you can do on the Worcester Public Schools budget

By now, if you are the family of a Worcester Public Schools student or a staff member, you will have read the letter sent from Dr. Monárrez earlier this week regarding the FY25 budget and had a bit of a chance for it to sink in. If you haven't read it, I include the letter in full below at the end. 

You may also well have seen headlines from all over the state about school budgets facing real hardships this year.

Let's first note that it is not new information that the Worcester Public Schools are facing a budget gap. As noted in the links in the superintendent's letter (blogged about here), the district has noted the $22M budget gap since the release of the Governor's budget. We knew of the issue with the inflation budget as far back as the fall

There is a danger we run into this time of year, of the relative scope of the budget and budget issues being difficult to grasp. This isn't true exclusively of Worcester, but it is as true of Worcester as elsewhere. While, as noted, the gap is 4.4% of the WPS operating budget, that is a significant amount of money. 

This raises two related issues:

oh, if only they were fooling

 On this, the holiday that I loathe most, it is appropriate, I suppose, that the education reform opiners at Reason have their opinion piece, a piece of poorly informed illogic entitled "Public schools wasted COVID funds, Biden’s education budget tacitly admits" in The Hill.

None of that is true or follows, to be clear. 

The argument, lest you go melting your brain looking for it, is that, since the President's proposed budget has "$8 billion grant program to further support public schools’ COVID-19 recovery efforts," the three rounds of ESSER funding didn't work!

But nearly three years after Biden signed ARP, students still aren’t caught up, despite the federal windfall.

Well, golly, people, what have we been doing out here? 
I cannot roll my eyes any harder at this.

That part is quite stunning all on its own, but we can add to that the evidence of "waste" that they cite:

Researchers at Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab estimate that 20 percent of ARP K-12 dollars have gone to facilities — HVAC upgrades and building repairs

Now, WHY, during a pandemic in which the contagion is transmitted via air, would schools want to do HVAC upgrades?

I have heard milder versions of this a number of places: how could schools--fill in the blank--add staff, pay staff more, add services when they knew this was short term funding?

This continues to lose sight of what the funding was for: it was to help schools deal with the pandemic. At the beginning--remember the spring and summer of 2020?--this included questions of if we would have state and local funding for schools at all, and if that would mean we'd need to lay staff off. As time went along, it became clear that students needed (among much else) mental health supports, which means either staffing or outside services (or both). They needed supplemental learning supports, which means either additional pay for the staff schools have currently, or additional staff, or both.
One time funding is enormously appropriate for facilities repair--a massively underfunded issue with American schools--and whether it is directly cleaning up the air or making it a bit more likely that schools won't crumble into pieces. 

I am not going to defend every last dollar spent in ESSER. I can't. I'm not all of those places. But this nonsensical and ongoing scolding, which somehow mysteriously never appears municipal side is exhausting. 

I have long since come to the conclusion that some people just don't like public entitites, even ones who are more accountable to and closer to their constituents than any other branch of government, to have money to spend on behalf of those under their care. 

Gosh, I'm tired of it.

If you'd like a look at what we know of what hasn't yet gone out to districts yet (remember: there's a delay on reporting!), K-12 Dive today looks at the 6 months left report.

a few facts on MSBA and Burncoat Middle

I'll save how angry and concerned I am that the Worcester City Council last week put a hold their vote on Burncoat Middle's Statement of Interest for a second week running, and keep this to some statements of fact:

  • Communities are allowed to submit a single core project (for a major renovation or rebuild) as their priority project to the Massachusetts School Building Authority each year. They may not "send in them all and have MSBA pick" (that's a paraphrase, to be clear).

  • The MSBA has a very strong tradition of allowing districts only a SINGLE core project at a time. For a very long time, and in most communities still, if a district is still in the process of building a new building, they will not move a district forward with another core project.

  • Worcester is an exception to the above statement, because we have a history of moving our core building projects forward in a systematic way, and the administration has a history of completing and paying for projects as needed. Once a new building has been close to completion, the MSBA has forwarded a second project. This is how we started South when Nelson Place was still going up and Doherty when South was still going up; it is how Burncoat High was admitted to the pipeline though Doherty is not yet done.

  • They will not admit a third when we are any further along than that.

  • The city doesn't have the capacity to fund two new buildings at the same time in that fashion, in any case.

  • When the state organization that will be picking up more than half of the cost of a multimillion dollar project does the organizational equivalent of nudging a community in the ribs and tell the community to send in the school that is contiguous to and shares systems with a building that they have already admitted to the pipeline, they are telling you something important.

  • MSBA is always watching communities with projects to see if they are committed to the projects and acting in ways that ensure that they will be completed.


If you are concerned about this, please share that with the Worcester City Council.