March Board of Ed: midyear report from State Student Advisory Council

 This is from Isabella Chamberlain, Hudson High School, who is the SSAC chair
focusing this year on student wellness, especially emotional wellbeing; bullying and harassment; and nutrition and school nutritional environment

using state data in working through this

Chamberlain: there is a concern that recommendations are made to the Board and nothing is really done with that
midyear is so that it is while there is work being done on it
hope is that this allows a feedback loop on their work
Fisher: more than half of Black or Asian students being treated badly, you're not going to be engaged
Department's push for culturally sustaining curriculum, make sure we actually live that mission
Rocha: how can we engage just beyond the presentation
Fisher suggests members going to regional meetings
Chamberlain: want to ensure students are creating the focus
give the students the data and say the focus area has to come from that; up to them to do it
connection between Board and students but keep freedom there

March Board of Ed: virtual schools

 Memo is here. This is the certificates being up for renewal

Greater Commonwealth materials here

TECCA here 

There is a preference (in response to question from Hills) for students who are medically compromised in admissions

passes

March Board of Ed: teacher licensure and preparation

 Hills: "a really good Board conversation broke out" when it was proposed 
anyone having an issues, we should postpone the vote until April
"and no, individually answering questions is not the same as the Board discussion"
yeah, there is an uncomfortable amount of offline discussion...

Martinez: good intentions within the law
part of a larger initiative
"this by itself will not solve it all"
make sure we're doing research on it, monitoring it

memo is here; summary of public comment is here 

March Board of Ed: school counselor of the year

 Henry Wan, School Counselor of the Year, from Harrington Elementary in Lexington

Wan: incredible honor to be before this Board
would like to include a song
He sings part of "Man in the Mirror"

so students can take charge of their realities

"as an Asian man in the field...that largely does not look like me"
"even I as a son of immigrants have something to contribute"
"every single child has the potential to contribute meaningfully and powerfully to this world"

March Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: opening comments

 The Board of Ed meets today at nine. Their agenda is here; the livestream is here. 

I'm joining this one remotely, as I spent yesterday at the Fordham Education Law Symposium, which was great, and maybe I will write about that here at some point. 

going in the mail: letter to ASBO on AI

 I sent the following handwritten letter to the ASBO International Executive Director today.

March 22, 2026

Dear Mr. Rowan,

I had every intention of responding to your invitation to “join the AI user community” via email, but I have hope that my taking the time and care to write by hand may make you take notice. I realize there is a certain irony to that hope, given the topic.

As an ASBO member who is not a school business official, who works with school boards on school finance issues here in Massachusetts, I have found these past years of increasing hype on AI use in school finance not only deeply distressing, but entirely contrary to the values the profession of school business officials are defined by.

In both my ten years on my local school board and the now eleven years I have served in my current role, it is the unimpeachable integrity of the school business official on which our school board members depend to make their decisions on school finances. I note “integrity” is even the first principle to which the ASBO Board holds itself, a principle which speaks of the “ethical responsibility” with which they “uphold trust.”

How then is it that ASBO has and continues to advocate for members to use a system founded in intellectual property theft? One cannot use generative AI systems without using the uncited works of millions, work they did not assent to the use of.

Where is the integrity in using work that is inaccurate? Every week brings another several stories of generative AI results being no better than guessing (in fact, we might guess better). This has in some cases deadly results. While we can hope this is not the case in school finance, results that are incorrect can, as we both know, be catastrophic.

Notably for school finance, it was recently brought to my attention that Microsoft itself recommends against using its Copilot function in Excel for any task “with legal, regulatory, or compliance implications.” (You can find that on the Copilot support page.) I think you and I would agree that this is everything within a school business office.

I do not know how school boards can trust what they are given by their school finance officers given such warnings within the very systems on which they operate, unless the board members know they are not being used.

I could go on at length about the the many other ways this push violates the core principles of school finance (that vast waste of resources; the horrific impacts on our students, particularly those most vulnerable; its use to kill schoolgirls in Iran; and the list goes on), but the loss of integrity in school finance, the undermining of the trust that is core to the function of the school business official, is the item to which I most wish to draw your attention.

Please end this undermining of this crucial trust.

Thank you for your attention,

Tracy A. Novick

Two from other states that may sound familiar

1.  Alaska: 
   

   My personal experience with the education system has been challenging. When I was attending Tok school, it was blatantly apparent that I would not gain the level of education I wanted. There were constant funding issues, inconsistent hiring of teachers and lowered expectations based on the background of students. This forced me to choose between the best of two bad options,” she said.
   ...
   
   “When the BSA stays frozen while the cost keeps rising, it feels like my generation is being asked to carry the burden. It feels like our future is being cut at the knees before we even had the chance to stand. Mt. Edgecumbe is my home away from home, and my last option for a fruitful education,” she said. “Please consider this when you make the decision whether or not to fund Alaskan futures.”

   
   

2. Wisconsin:  
   

   possibly we wouldn’t even have to go to referendum if they had kept up even with half the amount of inflation,” Donich said. “We wouldn’t be in this situation at all.”