Thursday, September 18, 2014

Opening of school report

Can be found here
My notes here are going to be light, as much of the info can be found in the report itself: posting as we go

As of right now, WPS enrollment is 25,397, which is 483 students up from last year
(That isn't our official enrollment, as we won't do that until October)

High school enrollment increase of 3.6% (overall)
Middle school enrollment increase of 0.7% (overall)
elementary is going in both directions: largest increases at Burncoat Prep, Vernon Hill, Chandler El, Rice Square, Chandler Magnet (and all are double digit percentages)
Largest percentage drop in elementary at Goddard, Clark St, Tatnuck Magnet, Wawecus, Columbus Park (none of which are a trend)

Classroom teacher to student ratio is 1: 22.2
adult to student ratio is 1: 20.9
(in both cases in elementary, and there is variation across classrooms)
302 of elementary classes have fewer than 23 students
208 of 23-26 students
59 classes of 27-30 students
2 classes of 30 or more and both are due to space
(and those numbers don't balance yet, as shifts are happening)
October 1 report will be sent to school committee

while there are positions eliminated, there were also new hires (due to retirements and resignations) 203 new hires
there also were 2641 payroll changes
WPS has 3840 employees, making us the city's third largest employer (after UMass Memorial and UMass Med) (and that doesn't include coaches or after school programs)

piloting the electronic report card in 8 schools
last year, evaluated the K-12 arts magnet program
rolling out literacy plan
Family and Community Academy happening
5 new courses happening this year
Diesel Automotive added at South High
PSAT test now available to all 10th and 11th grade
expansion of ABA service delivery to children with autism
district-wide mathmatics pilot is underway
professional development institute for grades 4,5,6 and 10 teachers this year
more work with K-3 and grade 9 (they had the institute last year)
Universal Design for Learning for all coaches and liaisons ('how do we think about instruction in a meaningful way')

Now serving 12,000 breakfasts served daily and 15,900 lunches
22 elementary breakfasts in the classroom (over 400 classrooms)
75% free and reduced lunch eligible students
14 schools added for the state fruit and vegetable grant
Over the summer, over 13,000 students were served over the summer; 50,000 meals over July & August. Another truck coming, so that will be even bigger next summer.

96 large school buses; 135 smaller buses
12,320 students transported each day
10,000 miles a day; 1,800,000 miles a year

last year we were awarded $38,6 million grants (70 grants of which 24 were competitive)
online requisitioning over vendor portals for school and office supplies

Several MSBA projects either completed or ongoing
boiler WILL BE IN for October 1 (hooray!)
window projects ongoing at Columbus Park, Worcester Arts Magnet, and Tatnuck Magnet; completed at Chandler Magnet
and go check out those nice new windows and doors at Chandler Mag!
and all the good stuff on this list here

7500 new computers and monitors out there (and we recycled over 70 tons of electronics as a result)
district internet speed has doubled (hooray!)
completed the transition to the web-based student information managment system

NO MCAS RESULTS YET: COMING TOMORROW!


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