Instrument lessons

...are available for free during the school day at all Worcester elementary schools except:

• Chandler Elementary
• Flagg Street
• Gates Lane
• Quinsigamond
• Union Hill
• Woodland* 
• West Tatnuck

*Woodland is working with Neighborhood Strings to get their students lessons

Request for how much it would cost to expand to the remaining seven schools.

Worcester School Committee meets on Thursday

The Worcester School Committee will have its second February meeting on Thursday at 7 pm at City Hall. You can find the agenda here. 
(And it's a lengthy one; that's what happens when there's an extra week in between meetings!)
Governance and Employee Issues is reporting out from their meeting on Valentine's Day.
Administration is reporting back on:

• additional training for IA's (this is the backup, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me; asking)
• snacks for athletes: USDA After School Snack program is being implemented
• CORI's in other languages (in English, Spanish, Porteguese, Vietnamese, Albanian and downloadable in Arabic)
• principals hired over the past three years
• a change in an account name (to "Supplemental Programs Salaries")
• scheduled student (nursing) screenings
• a Constitution Day report
• evening meeting locations 
• notifying teachers of the state ethics commission finding on class gifts
• distribution of donated instruments
• music lessons citywide (there are more than I'd thought!)
• changes in the school nutrition regs (not a new change; just discussing a previous one)
• the articulation agreements
• Friday is READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY, which means there's a decent chance you'll see a Cat in the Hat hat at the meeting.

In other news: we still have $45,000 to allocate from the $500,000 the City Council sent to WPS.

The cross-country course at Newton Hill needs preservation, as the Fire Alarm Building changes hands.

There's a request for a waiver for the 180 day requirement.

Congratulations going to kids who received awards on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and on Valentine's Day. 

A request is coming in that we look at the summer learning collaborative.

There's a suggestion that we celebrate September 2 as "World War II Commemoration Day."

A request that we look at establishing mock trial and debate teams at the secondary level, as well as after school activities at the middle schools.

Mayor Petty is suggesting that we name the gym at Columbus Park School after Sergeant William Benjamin Soutra, Jr.

We need to look at the findings of the Civil Rights Secretary on sports participation and the Title IX finding, also on sports.

We're congratulating on Thomas Greene Award winners!

Mr. O'Connell has filed items regarding both changes to IDEA (on parental consent) and proposed Local Educational Agency Governance, Flexibility, and Efficiency Act.

We're congratulating South High's bowling team.

There's a request coming in for projected changes in principals for next year.

And we're asking how that increased supply budget was spent.

7 pm, City Hall!

Yes, we really are getting a piano from Barry Manilow

And furthermore, Mr. Manilow would love for you, too, to donate instruments to the Worcester Public Schools. Should you donate a new or gently used instrument between now and September 14, you'll be given two free tickets to his concert that night at the DCU Center.
He came and he gave without taking...