A few notes from CPPAC

The citywide parent group met last night (by coincidence, at Chandler Magnet). Most of the meeting was taken up with discussion of the WPS FY16 budget, as Mr. Allen was there for his annual presentation. A few notes from the meeting:

• The Parent Expo will be held at WPI this year on May 2. This is a great place to get information about different WPS programs and other programs in the community. Please plan to come! 
• A reminder that you can still send in comments to the Foundation Budget Review Commission! 
• Regarding the budget: you can see the PowerPoint above, or look at my notes from the School Committee presentation or my summary. A few things that were new to me as of last night:  because state Chapter 70 aid is going up by $104M, and Worcester's Chapter 70 aid going up by $10M, we're getting 10% of the increase (Yes, that's obvious math, but I hadn't done it.) Key point: THE AID GOES UP BECAUSE THE NEED DOES. 
• Also, because the city's contribution usually goes up by between $3M and $4M, this year's increase of $1.66M is smaller than projected; thus this is an opportunity not to be missed for the city to make up ground on their underfunding education. 
• Finally, the parents had a good discussion on their priorities which included class size, secondary electives, technology and IT support staff, instructional materials, facilities materials and spending, science labs...they'll be sending it out to School Committee and I'll share once I have it. Related reminder: the School Committee sets FY16 priorities TONIGHT. Get in touch!