June 2026 Board of Ed: opening comments

 As I noted earlier this week, this agenda has the end-of-year group of reports today: one on civics, because 250th anniversary of the Declaration; the end of year Student Advisory Report; probably some talk about the statewide graduation report, which had its own meeting last night; the Mitchell Chester award; plus they have regulations to update.

There's a pre-meeting rally happening in the courtyard outside about immigration, 'though there has not been a lot directed to the Board on that (and the Governor issued guidance on this topic last month)

The livestreaming video is here.

from my walk to the meeting

Public comment

On translation and interpretation 

Charlie Gallo from Lynn Public Schools: 57.03 on machine translation "potentially catastrophic"
every single document must first be human reviewed, significant slowdown of translation and increased costs ($4M)
asks that it be struck, or guidance "from time to time" be the language provision
good heavens, if districts are that dependent already, what on earth are we sending out to families? That's very troubling.
"have tried different computer translation system"
"not many with those quality products" (in which case, what are we talking about here?)
Mass Advocates for Children
regulations "have been thoroughly improved"
devastating impact of language access barriers seen every year
propose amendment for districts that request a waiver: need to describe how they will follow in the future
grandfathering of those serving
how employees are evaluated

Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School parent: 
strong support of new condition be imposed 
asked that the expansion not be considered; longstanding issues
"voted 6-4 to expand, kicking the can down the road"
believe it can go further
"has run very much like a family-owned business of three people"
"we believe the triumvirate has managed DESE like" MIT has managed blackjack
13 findings of non-compliance as well as multiple OML violation
director suggested that it was common
Parents afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation
urge you to take findings seriously, urge you to consider revoking the charter
Board chair of PVCICS: ask the remove conditions in place
"despite our timely and good faith efforts, these conditions remain in shape today"
may keep them from getting money to expand
"it is difficult to understand when the school is free of conditions" and move forward with growth and financing
stem from concerns regarding governance
"believe the conditions are vague" (friend, you literally have OML violations)

Civic engagement: Kariss McLaughlin
concerned about recommendations for graduations
DESE runs about five different systems; none of the systems are equal
"parents of color never asked to have their kids travel all over this state"

Holocaust Museum in Boston (which is being built)

Max Page: last meeting as president of the MTA
train our students for work for career for civic life for being good neighbors
part of graduation report we support
obviously we fundamentally disagree with new tests
"will continue this battle right to the end"

MBAE Ed Lambert: details to be worked out but support graduation report
career and academic plan
"work-based learning"
see MassCore "with auditing to ensure content delivery"
grading can vary across districts and classrooms
end of course exams "that would count meaningfully towards graduation"
"impervious to grade inflation"



Chair Craven: last meeting of Rhoda Schneider, legal counsel of the Department
worked on chapter 766 of the acts of 1972
Mary Ann Stewart, updating on the educator diversity subcommittee
heard from stakeholder groups at one meeting

Secretary Zrike: gratitute to educators as we close out the school year
see recommendations in action
"a lot of great work happening across our schools that we want to elevate"
thanks support of Legislature

Commissioner Martinez: thank all those out in the year
"some of our schools are still finishing out this year"
very difficult budget year
thank Board "I'm still learning...Board has been nothing but supportive"
continue to go out and visit the field
"love getting a feeling of those communities...all those communities have stories"
he's listing schools he's visited
see best practices to spread across the state
they're showing an interactive map, but all I can find is a Word doc?

UP Academy Holland exiting receivership; have agreed to exit assurances

Dever School is closing at the end of this week for end of year and forever, as part of school consolidation
two final schools in state receivership; there will thus be no schools in chronically underperformance when we start next year

graduation: balancing of urgency and a comprehensive set of recommendations

Annual Mitchell Chester award to Rhoda Schneider
has served as general counsel for over 48 years
has worked for DESE for over 50 years
Commissioner speaks of her sense of calm
"gift for distilling difficult language"