Report of the Superintendent

You can find the backup here. Posting as we go
Boone: third largest district in Massachusetts, takes a lot to get ready for back to school
new district leadership in HR, Supplemental academic services, career and technical ed, counseling/psych/community outreach, child study, coach in curriculum
new principals at Jacob Hiatt, Worcester Tech, Grafton Street, Goddard,
new assistant principals at Canterbury, Rice Sq, Vernon Hill, Burncoat Middle, Lincoln Street, Claremont, Chandler El, Sullivan, May Street, Quinsig, Union Hill, North, Grafton St (some acting)
if they're acting, it's because we didn't have time to go through the full process to fill the position permananently
Enrollment: while October 1 is the official enrollment date, as of Sept 15 we are at

24,655

Allen: essentially level enrolled from last year, up about 71 students from last year, still working numbers of students who have moved within or outside the district

"a snapshot as of Sept 15"

does not include Head Start

about a 1% at both high and middle schools level

by elementary schools: total looks to be fairly flat

five highest percentage increases and five highest percentage decreases

overall classroom teacher to student ratio of 1 to 21.8, "slightly below the foundation budget ratio"

student to adult ratio is 1 to 20.1 when including tutors

"as of right now, no classrooms over 30 students"

still 58 total K-6 over 27, however, mostly due to space constraints

Boone: "we do a fair amount of HR and payroll processing"

Brophy: processed 139 new hires: that's 75 teachers, 10 long term subs, 1 principal, 2 instructional support, 40 IAs, 6 non-instructional support, 2 school nurses, 3 school clerks

also processed 2,764 payroll changes (some of which are changes in status, with accompanying status)
"give credit to the people who do the work in payroll"
"we may be an adminstrator...but without the work of the people behind us, we can't do the work"
3rd largest employer in the city (with 3,902 employees, of actual head count, but not including after school)
Boone: summer is our busy time for professional learning
Rodrigues: Worcester East Middle renewed for another three years, Claremont Academy new innovation status, 16 elementary piloting the electronic report card, instructional leaders at WSU, youth mobile crisis intervention, expanding ESL instruction, AVID school wide at Burncoat and Sullivan
23 AP courses
full time behavioral health clinic supports
continuing SEI courses for teachers of ELL students
restructured child study for full time assignment in most schools (with psychologist or adjustment counselor)
WorcesterHEARS grant planning and working to extend
applying for ch 74 for diesel at South; will be applying childhood study at South
"pathways outside of Worcester Tech"
DDM planning and development: "a huge body of work so we will be in compliance"
guidance counselors focused on Mass Model Curriculum
graduation improvement teams
work continues on middle-high school transition teams
fundation to 3 more elementary schools
SAT for all students in grade 11 at South
added 2 SAIL classrooms at Norrback and 1 autism/lifeskills classroom at Sullivan
district to now provide all ABA services IN DISTRICT: includes 12 BCBAs coordinating school-based services and 2 Behavioral Intervention specialists
early childhood grant for postive behavioral supports in three model classrooms in collaboration with Worcester Family Partnership
PD institute for grades 4 through 8
additional PD in Go Math (new instructional material in elementary)
89 teachers had PD at Eagle Hill
157 new WPS teachers had orientation
para-professionals having PD
day-long model of Universal Design training: in 24 model classrooms in 12 schools in partnership with DESE
multi-tiered system of supports: attendance, social-emotional, and academic
training for ESL teachers at Worcester State in ESL and sheltered content instruction
160 teachers trained in 25 schools on Fundations
Perda: preliminary MCAS data
public data is NOT yet available
PARCC results won't be available for some time yet
expect final MCAS results released next week
preliminary data used to schedule student supports and services, reflect on instructional practice, set school accountability plans
PARCC schools: "the best we have for that is late fall"
;"one of the conundrums we have this year is making sense of MCAS data for this year"
differences between the two groups (of who took what)
can look at student growth: district wide, overall, saw median student growth percentiles increased in grades 4,5 and 10 in ELA and in grades 4,5,6 and 10
science and tech: increase in students proficient or above
when PARCC is released, we'll also get accountability levels, out Progress and Performance Index data, school commendations
Allen: operations
Community Eligilbility program: "off to a pretty good start"
participation is up about 9% at lunch, about 1500 lunches more a day
largest increases at secondary level
"pleased with the growth so far"
"haven't done marketing so far...see a push that we can work on increasing participation from there"
22 elementary schools participating with breakfast in the classroom; having discussions with 11 remaining
EOS grants available for expansion, looking at those
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable grant awarded to 14 elementary schools
Farm to School preference to local farms in purchasing locally sourced meals
school chef position increase this year: improve menu options for our students
drive to increase participation: drive students to want to participate based on our meals
2nd mobile food truck: more than doubled meals served
from 13,000 meals to over 32,000 meals served
within WPS itself, additional 5000 meals served (up to 55,000 meals)
96 large buses
135 special ed buses
12,320 students daily: 10,000 miles a day, 1.8 million miles a year
80 grants awarded totaling $36,7 million ("larger than many school district budgets")
processed 1500 purchase orders: payments in excess of $2.37 million
new science lab at UPCS: should be fully operational at in next few months
new windows that went in at Union Hill, Goddard (still closing), West Tatnuck, Clark Street
other projects: Worcester Tech roof top compressors
boilers replaced at the Taylor Building, Flagg, Foley, Belmont, City View
Jacob Hiatt rooftop unit out to bid
solar panel installation: Sullivan, Norrback, Burncoat High, Forest Grove: in parking lots at Sullivan and Burncoat High; rooftops for others
3rd floor classroom next to Worcester East Middle
Elm Park: perimeter fencing, gate; new perimeter lighting, new handrails, carpeting in library
Technology: all staff migrated to Microsoft Office 365
allows us to reduce the number of servers ; more of a paperless
on Monday going full-scale live to all secondary students : all will have WPS emails and all have access to Office 365
"going from 4000 accounts to 16,000 accounts"
all of our E-rate applications were approved!
connection spead increased 2 1/2 times; began installation of fiber network
Boone: most appreciative of all the support we've received from all community groups and businesses