Board of Ed meets Tuesday

Apologies for the late posting on this...we're back to the normal place and time: Tuesday at 8:30 am in Malden. The agenda is here. It will be livestreamed here.

After the usual round of comments from the Chair, the Commissioner, and the Secretary, then the public, the first item on the agenda is an update on the transition to appointed Commissioner Jeff Riley. Specifically, the Board is being asked to vote on his contract terms, though the contract itself is not appended. He is to start July 1, unless his term with Lawrence ends earlier (as that position just was posted last week, that seems unlikely). His salary is to be $241,000 per year, with a travel reimbursement. The only details on pension, vacation, health insurance and such is he is eligible for "standard benefits available to state employees, including four weeks (20 days) of paid vacation leave accrued on an annual basis." That salary is more than most, but not all, superintendents of districts in Massachusetts.

The update on Level 5 schools and districts has updates on the Dever School and UP Academy Holland in Boston, Morgan School in Holyoke, and Parker School in New Bedford. Each is reporting on successes and challenges. Additionally, the new receiver in Southbridge Jeffrey Villar will be at the meeting.

It is charter school consideration month, and several of the pieces have already made news. The only new charter being recommended is Phoenix Academy in Lawrence, which did not face marked local opposition. The Equity Lab application in Lynn did not receive a recommendation largely due to changes within the district:

DOE predicts Lynn Public Schools will no longer be in the bottom 10 percent this spring, further limiting the number of charter school seats. “We recently found out MCAS test scores are up, which is a good thing that Lynn Public School are no longer in the bottom 10 percent,” said Joel Abramson, a KIPP board member. 

There is an additional memo to the Board on this farther down the agenda.
That is not the only reason Equity is being denied:

in his memo to the board, Wulfson said another factor that contributed to denying KIPP’s request for more seats was the increased rates of student discipline at its Lynn and Boston schools, and the fact that the school has yet to complete the expansion approved in 2015.

Veritas Academy in Springfield is requesting an amendment to their charter to add 108 seats, which would bring it to its maximum enrollment of 432 seats.
Davis Leadership Academy in Boston is being recommended for renewal on probation (for some reason, that's a Word doc):

My recommendation to place the school on probation with conditions is based on my concerns about recurring poor governance practices and new evidence revealing a lack of financial oversight and mismanagement of the charter school by the board of trustees. Additionally, throughout the charter term, DLA’s academic performance has declined.

The Board is being asked to formally adopt the change in regulations that will set an interim graduation standard for MCAS for the classes of 2021 and 2022; they've already assented to this in concept.

State graduation and dropout results for 2016-17 are on the agenda, but there is, as yet, no backup. UPDATE: It was so they could do a Monday release of the eleventh consecutive year of improvement of graduation rate.

There's a report on the Governor's FY19 budget recommendations; note that there is a spreadsheet available to download. 

Not for formal discussion, but made available, is a report on rural schools.
There's also a renewal of charters for Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School, Baystate Academy Charter Public School, Boston Day and Evening Academy Charter School, Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, Sturgis Charter Public School, and UP Academy Charter School of Dorchester; a removal of conditions from Pioneer Valley Charter and Barnstable Horace Mann; and a renewal of loans outside the terms of the charters for Argosy Collegiate Charter School, Atlantis Charter School, Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School, Boston Collegiate Charter School, Boston Preparatory Charter School, Boston Renaissance Charter Public School, Brooke Charter School, Community Charter School of Cambridge, Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School, Foxborough Regional Charter School, Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School Pioneer Charter School of Science, Veritas Preparatory Charter School.
Can we talk about the Board delegating its renewal authority to the Commissioner on this stuff, please?