Meetings coming up this week

Coming up this week:

• The Standing Committee on Accountability and Student Achievement is meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 on the fourth floor of DAB. You can find the agenda here...oops, link's not working. We're talking about Perkins funding, getting an update on the PARCC assessment, discussing the Goddard Scholars program, and getting a report on student transfers. If you have an interest on any of these issues, I'd urge you to come.
• The City Council meets on Tuesday at 7 pm at City Hall, and our facilities projects are on their agenda (Wait. Except they're not?) for approval to go to MSBA, as they are due on April 10. So, let's get back to you on that?
• The Massachusetts School Building Authority board is considering voting Nelson Place into the feasibility stage of rehab/rebuild on Wednesday morning. I'll be there and blogging it!
• The Worcester School Committee meets on Thursday at 7 pm at City Hall to consider budget priorities. The agenda is here, and as you can see, that is the entire agenda. The backup is the budget presentation we had at the joint F&O/Education meeting at Nelson Place. Please do be in touch with us with your thoughts on FY14!
• Next Saturday, CPPAC is holding their annual Parent/Guardian Expo at Holy Cross in the Hogan Center from 9-1. There will be informational tables on school and community programs, seminars, raffles, and entertainment provided by Worcester Public Schools students. It's free, and you can bring your kids! 

That got their attention!

The growing controversy over inBloom's sharing of private student information with vendors, whiile putting it in the cloud where it is vulnerable to hacking has gotten enough attention where the attorney for the company felt it necessary to submit a column to Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post. Not only that: clearly the company sent around one of those "Hey, go say nice things!" emails, as several board members (former federal Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings among them) turned up to post cheering comments.
...none of which deals with the major substance of the concerns, as ably demonstrated by Leonie Haimson. 

inBloom coming on the April 25 agenda

Because next week we're doing budget prioritizing, I've put the inBloom and student privacy items on the Worcester School Committee agenda for April 25, 'though I'm sharing my notes and the DESE presentation with my colleagues this week.
If this is of any concern to you, I'd urge you to contact us.

Looking for a summer job or internship?

The Regional Environmental Council's YouthGROW corps is looking for members!

If you are or know a low income young person between the age of 14 and 16 in need of a summer job, please pass along the application for the YouthGROW program. All youth who apply are guaranteed an interview and candidates who are hired will have the opportunity to work on one of our two urban farms in Bell Hill and Main South!
But maybe you've graduated high school? We want your applications as well! We have a budget for a couple of paid positions but are especially looking for students interested in volunteering as interns (hopefully for credit.) Our youth hiring committee is planning to interview candidates in late April and the position would entail around 5-7 hours of planning time with the youth during May and June and then participating in our summer program during 6 weeks in July and August for around 25 hours a week. Interns will have the opportunity to co-lead a project with a Youth Leader like planning an awesome neighborhood block party, visit farms across New England like Nuestros Raices and Seeds of Solidarity through our field trips, and get to work with some of the coolest young people in Worcester. We will also feed you during our summer program! Email me your application by April 10th if you are interested.

I've shared the application here. For more information, contact Grace at Youthgrow@recworcester.org .

What happened at the REST of the meeting on inBloom and student privacy

Thanks to Josh Grolin at the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood, I've got more on how the rest of yesterday's Massachusetts Board of Education meeting regarding inBloom. I'm quoting here from his summary, and the parenthetical italics are mine:

Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson, Sharon Wright, the Executive Office's chief information officer, and Rob Curtin, manager of education data services presented on "Using Student Data to Improve Instruction"

 

First of all, this presentation was one of several in which education officials enthused about the transformational powers of data.  In fact, on a number of occasions, officials talked about how excited they were that they would soon be able to track kids from preschool to medical school if they were in the Mass system that whole time.

 (Tracy here: yes, see my notes from yesterday. They sounded this drum constantly. You'd think that all is on the verge of collapse because we're not letthing them share everything)

Amazingly, they started their presentation by showing this inBloom promotional video: http://vimeo.com/60661666 (At some point, I'll do a dissection of this, but for now, suffice to say: this looks a lot like remote control children.)

The crux of their defense of inBloom is this:  Data sharing is already "ubiquitous." School districts are already sharing this data with companies like Dibels, Gallileo, and Read 180.  Everett schools, for instance, shares its data with 14 different companies.  Each agreement costs the school $ and it's inefficient because the data is transmitted separately from each school to each company.  (This is not true; I'm going to ask for a list from Worcester, but the sharing we do is not expensive (certainly) and not at all "ubiquitous.") With inBloom, data would go from school system to state data system to inBloom and then be transmitted to the private companies at the discretion of the school district, saving data integration costs.  inBloom would also spur innovation because it would be easier for makers of educational apps to connect with school districts.

 (That last read as "vendors will know just what to sell you!") 

Sharon Wright emphasized that no commitment had been made to using inBloom but that they were exploring it. (So, we need to ask: how do we say no?)

 

Commissioner Chester said was not dismissive of data security issues, but that they couldn't "bury their heads in the sand" and ignore technological innovation. (This is the classic 'pat you on the head, "Oh, you ignorant little person"'argument. In this case, again, the Commissioner has bad information about technological security and he [and others] aren't being thoughtful in their use of technology. One need not ignore technology, just use it wisely.)

 

This brought a strong rebuke from board member Harneen Chernow who said there was a middle-ground between burying one's head in the sand and transmitting 400 pieces of student data to private companies.  She said she has been hearing a lot from concerned parents on this and there needed to be a public forum to discuss this.  She said the ed department was not providing clear answers and she had a lot of questions, among them why was disciplinary action included as the data that could be transmitted.  She also expressed her dismay that inBloom  ‘cannot guarantee the security of the information stored in inBloom or that the information will not be intercepted when it is being transmitted’ to third party vendors." (CHEERS for Ms. Chernow, and let's keep those comments from parents coming to the Board of Ed! )

 

Jeff Wulfson emphasized that the list of data fields were all possible data fields and that not all of that data would be necessarily collected by each district.  He said his department was responsible for drawing up the list of data fields.  That brought a lot of head shaking from the board. (I would say that Deputy Commissioner Wulfson leaves us the possiblity at a district level of not collecting particular information, or of not submitting it. I'm also not at all sure why the state would be empowered to decide which data fields would be used.)

 

Sharon Wright said that in any final agreement between inBloom and the state that inBloom would, in fact, be held responsible for data leakages, regardless of any language on inBloom's website. (This is tackling the wrong side of the question: this shouldn't be about whose fault a failure will be; it needs to be about who's responsible for the data. That's the districts and the state. Also, Ms. Wright, by my reading of 201 CMR 17.00, it certainly appears that the state, as the sharing agency, remains responsible for any breach of the security of the data.)

Unfortunately, it was the end of a very long meeting and no further board questions were allowed.

Let's keep this on their agenda!
More to come!

Let's check those allocation powers again

From today's T&G article on the UMass donation:

The programs (Worcester Public Library and biotech and bioscience programs at Worcester Technical High School) selected by the city manager to receive that money are things that are consistent with the medical school's mission, Dr. Collins said

...which is great, except it's actually North that's the Med school pipeline.

Plus, the City Manager doesn't actually get to allocate funds within the Worcester Public Schools.

(And, no, this wasn't cleared with anyone, elected or appointed, in WPS.)

Protest in Chicago today

There is a protest planned for Daley Plaza in Chicago this afternoon at 4 pm CDT. The city has erected barricades at the Board of Ed.
For the best information, follow #CPSClosings on Twitter.

what happened on data?

Short version: not much.
While I didn't get to stay for the whole thing, the bit I was there for (and the update I got afterward) is some more defense from the Commissioner, which built on top of the steady drumbeat throughout the meeting of "We MUST have ways to share data!" There were a number of unanswered questions from earlier testimony (which those who raised them will be raising again).
I took the whole packet of information that was handed out at the meeting on this issue, which I'll be sharing with the School Committee. At the least, you'll be seeing it on our agenda!

Update from the Board of Ed on PARCC

Chester: state board of ed under MGL 69 sets standards for academic performance and school and district performance
and he runs here through NAEP and MCAS scores
Chester is quite excited that he has moving slides here that have lines that go up...
Graduation rates up, groups with largest gaps making largest gains
"many of our graduates, most of whom do well on the MCAS, end up being placed in non-credit bearing courses"

Letter to City Council regarding parking at the Worcester Public Library

Thanks to my colleague Brian O'Connell for writing this excellent letter to the City Council regarding parking at the library:

Last Thursday, the Worcester School Committee voted (item gb #3-98)“to ask that the City Council, in addressing the Downtown Master Plan, preserve the current parking lot behind the Worcester Public Library, for the benefit and well-being of the citizens – and especially of the children of Worcester – who depend on the library.” This resolution passed by majority vote; a second motion, to ask that the plan assure "appropriate" parking to meet the needs of the library, passed unanimously.

As a school system, we work to develop, and to enhance, the literacy skills of our students. Parallel to this, we try to develop in our students a life-long enjoyment of reading, and of learning. The Worcester Public Library is essential to both, especially for our students who have limited financial resources, and language skills. The library, in turn, must be readily accessible to them, and to all citizens who call upon its resources, its technology, and its meeting facilities to make Worcestera community and center of lifelong learning.

The McGrath parking lot is vital to this ready access. As demand for downtown parking increases, this lot becomes progressively more essential in providing our students, and their parents, a safe, convenient, ready, secure and comfortable means of visiting the library, especially during evenings. More distant and/or limited parking – together with construction of a facility which will aggravate demand for parking in the library area – represents a significant detriment to library use, especially by the young people and their families who, because of limited resources, depend upon it most.

The lot is, at present, the “highest and best use” of its land – a community investment in learning, and a statement of the value Worcesteraccords to education and to knowledge. I urge you to leave the parking lot – and the ready access to our library which it provides – undisturbed as you deliberate the future of our theatre district, and or our downtown.

Thank you for your consideration.

Brian O’Connell

Vice Chair

Worcester School Committee

Board of Ed on "Career Development Spectrum"

backup is here
11th and 12th grade is about "career immersion activities"
career development activities (lower high school and middle school)
career awareness activities (elementary)

Wow. So we're apparently completely ignoring that most adults now change careers multiple times over the course of their life now, and having sixteen year olds decide what they want to do for their lives?

Testimony before the Board of Ed on student privacy

I submitted the following in writing, as their time for public testimony was full.

Mr. Secretary, Commissioner Chester,  Madam Chair, members of the board:

My name is Tracy O’Connell Novick and I live in Worcester, where I serve on the Worcester School Committee. I am here today to urge you to direct the Commissioner and the Department to end their agreement with inBloom and to establish and maintain policies that keep student information beyond the access of private vendors.

It is only because I follow national education news that I was aware of this agreement at all. It is remarkable the extent to which an agreement which puts all of our student information statewide in a single database--something which previously has been specifically banned by DESE policy--posts it in the cloud, vulnerable to hackers, and makes that information about our children available to those looking to make a buck off our students has utterly failed to make the news.

Here's a good briefing on the inBloom student privacy issue

GoLocal Worcester has an article up today which gives a good overview.

Notes from the Board of Ed: RTTT Early Childhood Ed

While I'm here for the inBloom MOU, I thought I'd share some notes on what else is happening here: 
You can find a bit here on the update the Board is getting this morning on the Race to the Top Early Childhood Ed grant.

At the Board of Ed

I'll put up some noted on the various presentations and discussions today while I'm here (if I can get the wifi working!). The agenda is up here.

Separation of powers?

We appear to be having a civics education failure at the State House in New Jersey (and it isn't the kids at fault!):

Civics 101 tells us that the executive branch of federal or state government doesn’t write the laws. Rather, it upholds them and its executive departments in some cases may be charged with implementing the laws, including adoption of implementing regulations – that is, adding the missing precision needed to actually implement the law. Of course, regulations on how a law is to be implemented can’t actually change the law itself.Now, in some states like New Jersey, the Governor’s office has significant budgetary authority, including a line item veto option. Of course, that doesn’t however mean that the Governor’s office has the authority to actually rewrite the equations for school funding that were adopted by the legislature. 

...except that's just what Governor Christie's office is doing. Lots of good stuff here for the finance wonks among you!

Happy Anniversary!

On this date in 1845, the Massachusetts legislature guaranteed the right for schoolchildren to have access to a public school.
Note that this also desegregated the Nantucket school system.

Side note: Worcester had desegregated its school system the year before, in 1844.

And in case you missed it

Yes, 60% of the successful, well-educated adults who took the Rhode Island graduation exam didn't pass it.

Secretary Matt Malone is taking questions

Massachusetts Secretary of Education Matt Malone is taking questions on Twitter today. Just use the hashtag "#MassEd" to mark them; you can follow that hashtag here.

And if you're not on Twitter and have a question for him, let me know!

They said to follow the directions

And in this week of standardized testing, I leave you with this, courtesy of 22 Words (who got it from Reddit).

CORI checks for volunteers

At the last meeting in February, I asked for more information on what convictions we bar people from volunteering in the Worcester Public Schools and for how many years.
Today, as part of the superintendent's letter, we got 101 CMR 15, which deals with CORI in the context of the Department of Health and Human Service. So far as I know, however, we aren't an agency of the DOHHS, so I'm not at all sure why we're getting that. And there's no explanation.

I'll be asking for more, but a number of you had asked me about CORIs, and I wanted you to know what we had so far.

Chicago closes 54 schools

...thus beating out Philadelphia who as of last week was holding the "most school closed in a single year" label.
Over the course of yesterday, principals were informed in Chicago that their schools would be closing at the end of this year. Only at the end of the day was there a central announcement that it is 54 schools, with another 11 slated for shared space. (Twitter became the best source of information, as people tried to work out which schools were slated for closure.) It's expected to affect 30,000 kids.
The New York Times notes that, while finances are what are cited as the reason for the closures, it won't necessarily help:

Some studies have shown that savings are often less than anticipated.“Our research found that school districts tended to save under $1 million per school” closed, said Emily Dowall, a senior associate at the Pew Charitable Trusts who has studied school closings. “So in some ways that’s not a game changing amount.”

Note also that it is disproportionately poor and minority-majority schools that are affected:

Critics say that even more significant than cost, school closings tend to affect the poor and minorities disproportionately. In the 100 schools that have closed in Chicago since 2001, 88 percent of the students affected were black. Over all, black students make up 42 percent of the city schools enrollment.

There is also enormous concern for student safety, as Chicago students will have to go farther to get to school through what their families fear are unsafe streets.
There is lots of commentary out there; I would point you to Kenzo Shibata and  Xian Barrett to start.

Budget priority setting session

The first meeting in April will be a budget priority setting!

As always, if you have an opinion, please let me know!

what about WPS-All?

This one's a bit of inside baseball: the schools have a distribution list called "WPS-All" which goes to all employees and administrators and to many past employees.
It does not got to everyone who has an "@worc.k12.ma.us" email address. Specifically, it excludes the Worcester School Committee.
We've got a debate going back and forth here: admin wants to create an "events" list, whereas several school committee members just want us added to the list (as we could use the HR and such when people call us to express concern).
We're getting an event list and we're getting a legal opinion on being added to "WPS-All" from the City Solicitor.
I should also note here what Brian O'Connell pointed out in his comments on this: that these are public documents.

Wait, what was that?

We had two outstanding items that were to go to F&O for our last meeting but didn't make it:

gb #3-87 -  Mr. Foley/Mr. O’Connell/Mr. Monfredo                  (February 28, 2013) Request that the City Auditor provide a report to the Joint Meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance and Operations and the City Council's Subcommittee on Education that describes by function and level of funding the actual level of service provided by city administrative departments (Auditing, Purchasing, Information Technology, City Manager/Budget Office, City Treasurer) to the Worcester Public Schools and compare to the methodology used to charge these services towards net school spending purposes.  Further, provide the analysis for the level of city administrative service in connection with grants management; and further, request that the City Auditor provide a report that details the level of services provided by the Worcester Public Schools that qualify for federal Medicaid reimbursement.  These reports should also identify how each of these fees compare to other gateway cities.

gb #3-88 -  Mr. Foley/Mr. O’Connell/Mr. Monfredo                  (February 28, 2013) Request that the City Auditor work with School Department officials to review school administrative costs as reported to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and provide a report on how these fees compare on a percentage of budget basis with other gateway cities.

The first item asks the City Auditor, Mr. DelSignore, to look at the city's financial arrangements and report out to our joint committee on that. And that's fine. 
The second item, however, is asking the City Auditor to look at our fiscal management. I have no qualms about having anyone look at our fiscal management--we vote the major contracts, we vote the budget, the fiscal management is one of our major functions, and I feel confident about what we've done--but I do think that asking the auditor to look at our fiscal functions makes it appear we're not sure about the job we are doing. Thus the request for a roll call on gb #3-88, which went 5-2, Colorio and Novick against.

Statements of Interest going to Mass School Building Authority

Major repair or renovation:

1. South High Community School
2. Burncoat High School
3. Doherty Memorial High School

Accelerated Repair:

• Columbus Park School: windows and boiler
• Tatnuck Magnet School: windows
• Worcester East Middle School: roof, windows, and boiler
• Worcester Arts Magnet School: windows

PASSES UNANIMOUSLY with reconsideration unanimously voted down
These now go to the City Council for their next meeting on April 2. Note that it must be voted (and reconsidered that night) in order to meet the state deadline of April 10. 

Reporting out on Finance and Operations

Foley jokes that he's cut the slides down to sixty-five to make it a little bit shorter...

Worcester Educational Development Foundation presentation

WEDF Board members are here for a presentation on their work supporting the schools, specifically on their strategic plan.
Boone: "Their role is not to supplant what the city ought to be providing" but support and supplement what the schools do
Their mission says that they exist "for the sole purpose of supporting the Worcester Public Schools and identifying resources to meet the needs of the district."

Worcester School Committee meets at 7

You can find the agenda here.
We'll be starting with the report from the Worcester Educational Development Foundation.

All right, that's it!

I've had one too many horror story on MCAS today, so in defense of my own sanity, I am posting here  in full this week's "Test and "Reform" Resistance in the News," courtesy of FairTest:

60% of Adults Who Took RI Grad Test Failed
http://www.ripr.org/post/most-adults-fail-mock-necap-test
Honor Roll Student Criticizes State Graduation Test
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/honor-roll-student-criticizes-testing-policy-after-failing-necaps/

Seattle Teacher Challenges Michelle Rhee
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/15

Denver Students Walk-Out on Standardized Tests; Rally at State Capitol
http://www.examiner.com/article/students-walk-out-on-standarized-testing
Colorado Testing Madness Pushes Students Out of Public Schools
http://www.ednewscolorado.org/voices/voices-tcap-madness

Portland, Oregon Students Walkout to Protest Standardized Exams
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/03/grant_high_students_protest_st.html

Anti-Testing Protests Pressure Texas Legislature
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/State-s-lawmakers-are-tested-by-issue-of-testing-4360723.php

Public Forums on Testing Put NY State Ed. Commissioner on the Spot
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/03/16/news/doc5143d58b54fbf486078496.txt
School Board Blasts Testing Overkill
http://m.registerstar.com/mobile/the_daily_mail/news/article_fb80b506-8b99-11e2-8e0d-0019bb2963f4.html
Why (and How) Parents Should Refuse to Have Their Children Take 
Standardized Tests
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013130319007&gcheck=1

Florida Bill Requiring School Districts to Publish Testing Schedules 
Moves Forward
http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2013/03/14/bill-requiring-school-districts-to-post-testing-schedule-moves-forward/

Minnesota Legislature Considers Bill Eliminating Graduation Test Requirement
http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_22784557/minnesota-legislature-considers-replacing-graduation-tests

Overhaul NCLB Now !
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/education/288145-overhaul-no-child-left-behind-now

Pearson Rakes in the Profits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/pearson-education-profits_b_2902642.html

Common Core Tests Called Excessive
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130316_19_A1_Oklaho507655
Common Core Testing Requires Computers Schools Cannot Afford
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130318/NEWS/303180181/EXCLUSIVE-Testing-requires-computers-schools-can-t-afford

Where Are Progressives in the Fight to Save Public Schools
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/where-are-progressives-in-the-fight-to-save-public-schools/

Teacher Evaluation Funding Follies
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bloomfield/teacher-evaluation-fundin_b_2853471.html

Framing a New Narrative About Education
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/15/a-new-education-story/

U.S. Style School "Reform" Exported to Mexico
http://www.thenation.com/article/173308/us-style-school-reform-goes-south

What's Still Missing in U.S. Education and How to Really Out-Educate 
China (satire warning!)
http://zhaolearning.com/2012/05/10/what%E2%80%99s-still-missing-in-american-education-and-how-to-out-educate-china/

So let's talk student privacy

I've been putting off posting a full rundown on this inBloom thing as there's so much to say, though I've posted about it here and here. At the state Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, however, they'll be taking the topic up, so it's time to be sure we're all clear.

inBloom is the "using data to improve instruction" bit on Tuesday's agenda, and you can see that the Commissioner largely is dismissing concerns raised by the state PTA, ACLU, Citizens for Public Schools, and the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood regarding how the information will be used, how it will be secured, and the amount of information given to parents regarding what is being done with information having to do with their children.
inBloom is a private entity which has signed an agreement with eight states to gather and hold data on the students in their states; it will be held "in the cloud" meaning (as most of us think about it) "on the internet." Note that these systems are notoriously vulnerable to security breaches; inBloom itself states "it “cannot guarantee the security of the information stored in inBloom or that the information will not be intercepted when it is being transmitted” to third party vendors."

Think for a moment about what information a school district has on its students: certainly, names, birthdates, addresses, family information, and grades. Test scores are in there. Legal guardianship information.
Discipline records.

Both the Commissioner and inBloom are careful to cite FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, as something with which they will have to comply. As has been discussed elsewhere, however, FERPA has been substantially weakened under this administration:

...will make it increasingly easier for administrators to put the students privacy rights secondary to the commercial interests of businesses and other third parties including foundations.

..which is why inBloom exists, of course: to work with corporations who then will attempt to sell districts stuff based on our students' information.

We don't send our kids to school to be data points for vendors.This isn't why the school system exists.

The state doesn't have my permission to use my children to create or market products.
Nor does the district or the state have my permission to put my children's information up online where it is very vulnerable to being hacked.

I'm still pulling together something for an agenda on this (I'm looking, for example, at this bill which has been filed in New York state, which would put definite restrictions on data sharing), but, in the meantime, I plan to go to the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday and testify against this contract.

And if you have concerns, I would send an email to Deputy Commissioner Wulfson, and I would cc both the School Committee and your legislative delegation.

Southwick on Worcester Classical and English High School

...when Worcester took the revolutionary step of making high school co-ed:

The Latin Grammar School, where John Adams once taught, had always been exclusively for boys. Worcester girls who aspired to higher education were given special classes in the Centre District School near Lincoln Square, and that school has sometimes been noted as the first public high school for girls in Massachusetts. There were also a number of private female seminaries available in the area, such as the well-known Mulberry Grove Boarding School in Leicester, run by sisters Eliza and Sarah Earle. Eli Thayer’s Oread Institute for female higher education opened later on Castle Street. But coeducation at the high school level was a novel idea in 1844, and the debate apparently became animated at times. 

Mr. Southwick goes on to cite the influence of Dr. Woodward, who more or less settled the issue by letting it be known he was in favor. Before he did, however, one of the "town fathers" (in a story I found in the Worcester Historical Museum files; not, alas, online!) said that he doubted the gentling influence of girls on the boys: when he had last passed the girls' school, he had been pelted by students with snowballs!
The second building for Worcester High School, built, as Mr. Southwick relates, on Walnut Street after the old building was outgrown, was a Victorian masterpiece. Designed by H.H. Richardson, and built by the Norcross Brothers, it had a central clock tower and was a city landmark until, after years of poor funding for maintenance, it was knocked down in 1966 for the building of then Paul Revere Insurance Company's new building. Of it, the New England Home Journal of 1883 said:

It stands as the stimulus of many hundreds of our youth in all the lower schools...

That's Worcester Classical and English High School (eventually Commerce) on the left and English High School (eventually Classical; now the Durkin Administration Building) on the right.

Northampton students walk out of class to protest possible arts cuts

Northampton High students walked out of class today to protest possible arts cuts:

The School Committee is facing a possible $1.2 million gap and is looking at potentially cutting nearly two dozen positions throughout the system including an art teacher at the high school as well as cutting back on the hours of some positions.Ana Baustin, a senior and one of the organizers, said,“Arts have had such an impact” in her life and she wanted to ensure they continue for others after she graduates. They started organizing the rally Friday and scheduled it during the school day because “we wanted everyone to come.” Demonstrating their support for the programs “is just as important as school.”

 Budgets matter.

Castles and Dragons family day at the Worcester Art Museum

This Sunday is "Castles and Dragons" day at the Worcester Art Museum, a day geared specifically for families with children. The full schedule--along with a flyer you can print out for an adult to get in free--is up here. Kids under 18 always get into the museum for free.

Congratulations, Ms. Ryan and Mr. Chviruk!

I'm really excited to be going this afternoon to the annual Thomas S. Green Public Service Awards, where two Worcester Public School employees will be honored for their "outstanding public service:"

• Patty Ryan is an English teacher at Sullivan Middle School in the Goddard Scholars program (in fact, she headed the group that wrote their innovation plan!).
• Kevin Chviruk is the custodian at West Tatnuck Elementary School (and I will vouch that not only is the place spotless; he is always right there when you need him, usually two steps ahead of you!)

I'm so glad to see front-line people, people directly working with our kids, being honored today. Good stuff!

The ceremony, sponsored by the Research Bureau, starts at five at La Maison Francaise at Assumption College. 

Not sure I'll get a post in from the ceremony, but expect some tweeting. 

Webinar on the SOS March next Wednesday

The second annual Save Our School March will be taking place on April 4-7 in Washington, D.C.They will be occupying the DoE again, and there's a great schedule of events.
As a lead-up and fundraiser for that, there will be a webinar next Wednesday, March 27 at 9 pm Eastern.

Please Join Us as We Occupy the Department of Education for a Second Time!!

Drs. Morna McDermott, Shaun Johnson, Veteran Educator Ceresta Smith and Student Voice Stephanie Rivera will share the details during this Save Our Schools hosted Webinar.

This time for sure: Worcester School Committee meets tomorrow!

The Worcester School Committee has a meeting tomorrow night. You can find the agenda here.
Due to the cancelled meeting on March 7, the entirety of that agenda has been carried forward to this week. We now add to that:

• reporting out on the Finance and Operations meeting AND the joint meeting, both held on Monday.
• a couple of additional items filed by members. Mr. Foley's items requesting that the city auditor look at transportation and administrative fees mirrors Councilor O'Brien's of Monday night, which already went off to the auditor. Mr. Monfredo is calling our attention to "Poem in Your Pocket" day on April 11 & 12. We're sending around several congratulations (Go, Cougars!). And Ms. Colorio is requesting that the School Committee be included in "WPS: All" emails, because, oddly enough, we aren't.

7 pm Thursday night at City Hall! 

No City Council tonight

Mayor Petty has just announced that tonight's City Council meeting is cancelled.

Note that this will mean two weeks off, as they are not meeting next week in deference to Passover. 

And speaking of facilities...

In light of last night's facilities report, it's interesting to read this report about the disrepair faced by school buildings nationwide:

The Center for Green Schools' researchers reviewed spending and estimates schools spent $211 billion on upkeep between 1995 and 2008. During that same time, schools should have spent some $482 billion, the group calculated based on a formula included in the most recent GAO study.That left a $271 billion gap between what should have been spent on upkeep and what was, the group reported. Each student's share? Some $5,450.To update and modernize the buildings, the figure doubles, to $542 billion over the next decade.

And also, I'm so glad I'm not the only one to feel this way:

"Most of the buildings in this country are over 50 years old and they were not built to last." 

Yup. Give me one build in 1910 and we'll put a new roof and windows in it.

Not spending enough time on science

...or enough training on math, are among the conclusions of this survey of elementary school teachers.
The bit that jumped out at me:

Another issue the report identifies was how little time science gets in the early grades. Averaged across a week, it amounts to 19 minutes a day in grades K-3, compared with about 90 minutes for reading/language arts and 54 for math.

Right, because (as I heard recently) "we'll get back to science and social studies after MCAS."

No school Tuesday, March 19

School has been cancelled for tomorrow.
The Durkin Administration Building will be open.

The final day of school is now Tuesday, June 25.

MSBA Statements of Interest

You can find the snazzy report here.
Three high schools for replacement or major renovation
"I just want to be candid...MSBA requires that we identify a priority project, and the administration identifies South High...however, this is being presented as a package" of the three high schools
Used MSBA's numbers for priorities
Can only identify one project as priority: impact on educational environment
...all three schools are on warning status

And accelerated repair

• Worcester East Middle: Windows, Boiler, & Roof note here that WEMS is down to one boiler; if (and when) it fails, they're down to one boiler
• Columbus Park School: Windows & Boiler
• Tatnuck Magnet School: Windows
• Worcester Arts Magnet: Windows

Unanimously approved, so on to the full committee on Thursday with a quick turnaround to Council

Not recommending early retirement

Allen: "We pay in the long term for those retirements...long term impact negative"
Admin does not support early retirement at this time.
salary differential (between those leaving and those coming in) is smaller than it has been in the past and is completely negated by health insurance

Second Quarter report

report here
Vacancies and attrition in IAs and Instructional support
overtime on bus monitors
custodians...contractual manpower overtime wipes out custodian vacancies
health insurance: senior rates lower than anticipated
workers comp: deficit of half a million "We underfund that consistently every year."
personal services: two new languages for translation and additional needs for specialized med services
"we'll be doing a third quarter report pretty soon"
projecting an $85,000 deficit at this time which Allen calls "manageable...no additional action needed at this time"

Finance and Operations...a few items

Clothing bins either have been removed or are being removed.
Gates Lane parking...additional money from city included $14,000 parking across the street, which the city negotiated on our behalf.
Windows...Allen: not the window replacement, just normal operation of windows
$400,000 to replace needed windows
Colorio: a great start...what is the percentage of windows that don't work...should that be prioritized?
Allen: not in category order, just the number of windows not working...may in some cases make sense to replace windows entirely
asks for a more detailed reporting on why we're doing things in what order
Allen: entirely driven by environmental issues...all the schools are all buildings during PCB's likely to be used in building materials
Novick: How are we plugging our non-school buildings into priorities? Don't qualify for MSBA.
Look for security, safety issues. What about ESCo? Could look at that
Unemployment compensation looks just like what we already saw...

Transportation

...which is here. And posting as we go...

Transporting nearly 11,000 students daily
Covering approximately 10,000 miles per day
1.8 million miles per school year

WPS School Committee Policy:
“Free transportation is granted to pupils in grades kindergarten through 12 who
reside two (2) miles or more from the school which they are entitled to attend. The
legal obligation of the School Committee in this respect is limited to provision for
transportation for elementary school children and the School Committee does have
the right, if necessary, to charge for transportation or not provide transportation at
the secondary level regardless of where the student may live.”

I'm not going to copy down all of the numbers here of buses or of how much we're spending on them...go check it out!


If we can use the midday service, it's cheaper for it to be done in house (not true of wheelchair service, which is contracted out); if there is not midday service to be used, it's cheaper for it to be contracted out.

We will need another large bus (WEMS adding 6th grade)
and adding 6 special ed buses

Economou asks why we are busing non-public ed students; Allen: various regs requiring us to do that
"The only way to get some transportation savings is to reduce transportation."
"...the only way to get transportation savings is to make very bad decisions"
Economou wants to know how to make those changes; Allen, would need to change the state law to provide those services.
O'Brien: motion to get legal clarification on what our obligations are, and is there any flexibility there?
...if we bus secondary, we have to bus all secondary (private and parochial students, as well as public students)
Rivera: "they don't conribute to the cost at all for transportation?"
Allen: and transportation doesn't count towards net school spending...could reduce transportation costs by $750,000 if we could cut those buses
Rivera comments that she's floored by this
Fuel costs? About $50,000 for price of fuel

O'Brien asks how much is fuel costs and how much is special ed increases?
Rivera asks why it goes up over the course of the year? Sometimes it's students being processed through a team through the year, but sometimes we're getting new students. Boone adds that the special ed process is a 12 month process; part of that is determining whether that requires transportation (as part of an IEP)...looked at like speech therapy, occupational therapy...

Colorio: who do parents call if they have an issue?
Hennessey: three numbers, depending on the type of transportation
508-757-1463 is Durham's dispatch for the big buses
508-755-3495 is Durham dispatch for special ed
508-799-3242 (or 3241) for special ed run by WPS 
Buses can be called directly from dispatch; Durham buses have a GPS system to determine if the bus had been where and when.

Hennessey notes that there is some leeway given to drivers as to if they can safely negotiate particular streets on slippery days.

Colorio asks if parents could pay to get on buses that are within the two miles (ugh)
Allen: fees are approved by School Committee; cautions that it's a very difficult conversation to have as well (due to free and reduced lunch-eligible students)
Boone: 73% students eligible for free and reduced lunch; we have not added fees, "create a system of the haves and the have-nots"
Colorio: there are other private schools that don't "take advantage of transportation"..why do some take advantage and some do not?

O'Brien here is referring this report to City Auditor DelSignore for review (and possible outside review); Novick says she will vote against, if it is a joint referral. Consultation with the clerk says that this is a Education subcommittee referral, so the F&O committee is not voting on this. Referral to Auditor by City Council.

Here's the next MSBA list:

...which we're getting tonight (and then full Committee, and then Council):

For major renovation and rehab:

• South High
• Burncoat High
• Doherty High

For accelerated repair:

• Worcester East Middle: Windows, Boiler, & Roof note here that WEMS is down to one boiler; if (and when) it fails, they're down to one boiler
• Columbus Park School: Windows & Boiler
• Tatnuck Magnet School: Windows
• Worcester Arts Magnet: Windows

Other things that need to be fixed (but aren't going to MSBA because they don't rise to the ):

•School Safety Equipment
• Heard Street Roof
• Vernon Hill Masonry
• Jacob Hiatt Masonry
• WEMS Boiler Room Repairs*
• Roosevelt School Walk-in Cooler Repairs
• Parent Information Center Boiler
• Underground Storage Tank Removal
• Playgrounds Maintenance & Repair
• Replace All Modular Units
• Univent Repair
• Facilities Equipment for Buildings

"I pretty much guarantee that tomorrow's snowstorm is going to kill our remaining snowplow equipment..." which is on a fifteen year replacement cycle.

Joint Committee on Education/ Finance and operations

We're starting with budget this evening.
And posting as we go...
O'Brien mentions that we're meeting at Nelson Place due to it making it on the MSBA list
Note that Paul Moosey from DPW announced that Nelson Place will be on the MSBA board agenda for April 3's agenda.
Allen comments that the slides are lengthy but he'll go through them quickly, mostly slides that were presented in January.
Chapter 70 is up; we don't yet what's going on with kindergarten grant yet; circuit breaker is going down; charter/choice funding is going down; local contribution is going up; federal grants are going down.
(mostly going to add notes on things we haven't see before)
Governor's budget going up $2.7 billion: fully funded the foundation budget, lifting the cap on the number of preschoolers that count towards the foundation budget, extended day for high-need middle schools, increases in out-of-district sped placements, plus $25/pupil minimum aid and fully funding minimum aid (NOTE: last two do not apply to Worcester)
Local contribution TARGET is calculated based on 50% property value and 50% local income wealth redone in 2007; this is the aggregate wealth model
FY14 goal calculated from equalized valuation for (taxable) property and the total income (for the entire state); percentage based to make them 50/50
income wealth of Worcester is greater than property value: target share for Worcester is 30.27% (with the state then picking up 69.73% remaining) but that's the target
charter reimbursement not fully funded (again)
McKinney-Vento transportation funded at 50%

federal funds: starting a million in deficit (as we're largely spending the grants on positions) plus sequestration cutting $1.6 million from our grants

and you've been through how the foundation budget is calculated before...

Changes in enrollment is creating the Chapter 70 increases
And Allen notes that the changes in enrollment is also a change in the students served (409 student net increase, but an increase of 970 ELL students and 663 low income students).

And again, we now have more students today then we did when we had eight more schools.

Here's the student population projections from MSBA and from NESDEC:

And here they are broken down by grade level:

Calculation of local contribution from last year plus the municipal revenue growth factor (4.22%).
THEN the state looks at what the city's target is; the city is only below by 1.02% (you must be 2.5% or above for the state to intervene). So local contribution is $92,324,512 for FY14.

The foundation budget has been growing only from enrollment and from inflation; the city's contribution has been growing only due to municipal revenue growth factor:

General fund budget is estimated to be $301,602,219 for FY14; and again, note that this includes the Governor's recommended additional $3.5 million ($1 million for preschool; $2.5 million for out-of-district special ed)...and message to School Committee here to thus be cautious with this number. Personally betting that the FY14 WPS budget doesn't include it.

$10 M in inflationary changes before we do anything else. 

plus additional needs totaling $14.2 million ranging from additional special education transportation to nurses to elementary class size additional teachers to our technology to textbooks

"Somewhere between an $8 and $10 million budget gap for next year that we need to resolve"

Plus, this doesn't include school safety, playground equipment, rental of space, an exam school/IB program planning year, or PCB next step

At No Change in Elementary Staff (579)

Projected Class Sizes:

Less than 23: 334 (57%)

23-26: 208 (36%)

27-30: 31 (6%)

Greater than 30: 6 (1%)*

District Averag;e Class Size: 22.1

*all six at Chandler Elementary due to lack of space

Add 21 Elementary Staff (600), 

Projected Class Sizes:

Less than 23: 384 (64%)

23-26; 216 (36%)

27-30: 0

Greater than 30: 0

District Average Class Size: 21.4 

'though this does not include the need for additional space

What do our neighbors spend on education?

And where do people choose to send their children?

Where does the money WPS spends go?

How much do communities spend on administration? And how much do the schools spend on administration and how much does the City charge the schools on administration?

Comparing us to other Gateway cities: "In no other case is the city charging more in overhead charges than the school is actually spending"

And we're going into Facilities now...