We have a budget!

The House scheduled a full formal for tomorrow at 1 p.m. Dem caucus at 12:30. Looks like we may have a budget.

— Mike Deehan (@deehan) July 7, 2015

Or so it appears!

Posting from the PARCC/MCAS forum

Posting today from the final PARCC/MCAS forum in Springfield. From the cards up front, it looks as though Secretary Peyser, Commissioner Chester, Chair Sagan, and Board members Mary Ann Stewart, James Morton, and Ed Doherty will be hearing testimony today. I've put my name in to offer testimony, and I'll post it once I've done so. Open question of course is if we're going to do another hour or more of the called experts all being pro-PARCC.
As always, no promises on names and such, but I'll get what I can. Updating as we go once we start!

Introduction by Chair Sagan, as they're all here now.
"have invited expert testimony the beginning section...have tried to group that on specfic themes if you could...after that, public testimony"
"restrict topic of Board hearings"
will begin with testimony from invited guests, speak up to five minutes
public must keep comments to three minutes
will call two to three speakers at a time

Another round in the PARCC/Chester battle

As we head into the final PARCC hearing (starts at 4 at Springfield Technical College, Building 2, 7th floor), we've got another round in ongoing back-and-forth over Commissioner Chester's position as head of the PARCC Board. The Pioneer Institute--which you'll remember is about as big a cheerleader as the MCAS has--has issued a call for him to recuse himself from the decision over which test will be used. In response, this tweet just came out from DESE:

Background for today's #PARCC forum: Commissioner Chester is not paid by PARCC, & he does not have a vote on whether Mass adopts it. #maedu

— Massachusetts K-12 (@MASchoolsK12) July 7, 2015

From a purely practical point of view, I don't know how you'd do this: assumedly, DESE will make a recommendation to the Board (or the Board will seek one). If it doesn't come from Chester, it will come from someone who works for him, so...

ALL HANDS ON DECK (with shovels and rakes!)

I'm THRILLED to say that we've hammered down the Joint Use Agreement between the City of Worcester and the Worcester Public Schools on playgrounds! This means that our playgrounds will be OFFICIALLY open to kids during non-school daylight hours!

BUT, before the big announcement splash, we have some work to do: as part of the agreement, the city is paying for NEW MULCH for our playgrounds! This will roll out over the next several weeks. To make this manageable, we'll have WPS oversight, but we need some volunteer labor to get the mulch spread.

We’re looking for volunteers who could serve at one of the 5 playground sites below on Wednesday July 8, 9am-1pm. You don’t have to come for the whole time, but we’re asking that the community pitch in to this important effort by spreading the mulch with us that day. So grab a rake or a shovel and come down to a playground to help support play in Worcester’s neighborhoods!

 

Wednesday, July 8^th, 9am-1pm:

 

Flagg St Elementary School, 115 Flagg St

May St Elementary School, 265 May St

Lincoln St Elementary School, 549 Lincoln St

Norrback Elementary School, 44 Malden St

Roosevelt Elementary School, 1006 Grafton St

 

We will have opportunities at other schools on the following two Wednesdays. Please be on the look out for more information on those.

Holiday reading on low income switch

But it's short!
MassBudget has a nice summary of the DESE switch on low income designation, with some suggestions on how it could be improved.

Two playgrounds closed due to window replacement

Just a quick note that the playgrounds at Union Hill and West Tatnuck are closed due window replacement work.

"Their close proximity to construction trailers, boom lifts, and increased truck traffic throughout the parking lots have made it necessary to take this measure.  The contractor will be installing temporary signage stating the playground is closed due to construction activity and will install temporary fencing around the playground entrances."
That last bit from Facilities...

The preliminary Foundation Budget Review Commission report is out!

You can find it here! (That's my dropbox; I'm assuming it's somewhere on the state website, too) Remember, this ONLY includes recommendations on health insurance and special ed, with a list of topics still to be discussed. So long as the conference committee grants them the extension, the final report will come out in November.
Next meeting is probably July 29th.