Monday, March 31, 2014

A few WPS items on tomorrow night's Council agenda

Tomorrow night's Worcester City Council agenda has a few WPS related items:

  • The repairs to Worcester East Middle School via Mass School Building Authority are on the agenda to be approved by Council prior to submission to the state. You might remember that, when we applied for a boiler, windows, and a roof, the state came back and said, "we could do that, but you actually need more than that." This application covers that (essentially a full systems upgrade).
  • Stephen Quist (that'd be Q) is asking for "an update on the previously voted request for an operational audit of the Worcester School Department." This came out of last year's budget back-and-forth; eventually, the Council decided that all they wanted was a transportation audit, which I believe is currently underway. 
  • Councilor Economou is looking for a committee from the business community to look at city and schools for duplication of services. If you're a Council watcher, you've seen this before. Possibly a good time for reminder that the Worcester Public Schools are the third largest employer in the city of Worcester, after UMass-Memorial hospitals and medical school. We employ close to four times as many people as the city; nearly all of them have various types of certifications and trainings that must be constantly tracked and updated. 

No comments: