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| View of the room at 6; a few more people came in |
Jennifer Davis Carey "important document...important that we think about what's in it"
former strategic plan produced prior to 1993
employed Rennie Center
"working closely with the Worcester Public Schools staff, who have lent their time"
community groups, focus groups, "people have
"still comment until the 18th of May"
then will go to the School Committee
"it's a strategic plan, not an implementation plan, and we'll have to think about that"
Superintendent Binienda "I worked in partnership with WEC" and WRRB
"with very many advisory groups and community forums"
"the way that it is set-up is very easy to read...the pictures and the photos that we put in here, remind us that this is what we want in the Worcester Public Schools"
"like that there are benchmarks set"
"information comparing us to the best urban as well as the state in many areas"
was involved in the last strategic plan
"it came from the school system and asked for support"
"this is much stronger...here we have the community saying 'here's what we want'"
"I just think the strength of this is the community is totally involved in it"
hope School Committee will adopt it
Tim McGourthy, Research Bureau
"challenges we saw back in 2016...sought to turn that look into action"
don't pretend it's novel
"takes best practices...outlines challenges, outlines opportunities, and works towards them"
will give 50,000 foot level
"it is a working document; this is our draft...this is our perspective, our community-informed perspective"
overview
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| The Vision and the Theory of Change |
"recognize that some of this is aspirational"
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| These are the five areas |
Davis Carey"incubation hub...bring assets to bear...several of the things the community has been supportive of is our magnet schools and our community schools...we've also been in conversations with Springfield...now the Empowerment zone is very very different from anything we'd like to see in Worcester...sharing of resources...more autonomy...bringing back...Promise Neighborhood approach"
McGourthy: digital competency at every level
cultivating student interest...engaged hands on learning
expanding elective
"building community into this educational system is critical"
enrichment academy
Davis Carey "building on what we've seen in other states, the Governor's Academies...a public school, private partnership"
after school during the year, residental in summer
envision as something in grades 7 through 12...additional opportunity..."getting some sort of certificate of participation"
McGourthy: welcoming schools
"keep families at the table with real involvement in policy making and discussions"
Davis Carey: differences in race and ethnicity
"support that the parents feel they are getting from the schools and the support that the schools feel they are getting from the parents"
"we need to go beyond just inviting parents in for an information dump but allow the parents to be involved in a more meaningful way in the life of the school"
irony. dead.
would like to incorporate Jack Schneider's work on evaluation
early warning system so that if a student in struggling "we can get services and support to that student as soon as possible"
McGourthy: invest in education in the classroom
"populations are changing, conditions are changing...how do they work in a changing environment"
Davis Carey: expanding recruitment to colleges and universities with significant populations of students of color enrolled
"address the recruitment needs and some of the diversity needs in our community"
McGourthy: "you've heard it in every focus area, but it deserves to be said...the importance of technology...using technology to have a true system of schools"
"we've all heard the issues of Chapter 70...finding ways to not only close that gap but to look at the needs of an urban school system"
"recognize that this isn't easy to do...we tried to be realistic but aggressive...not simply leave the burden to the schools to advocate at the state level"
Davis Carey: "the issue of funding haunted every discussion that we had...the ghost in the room at every conversation"
"as Brian Allen has noted, we are tens of millions of dollars behind where we should be on funding"
"this is a question of pay me now or pay me later...we are compromising the quality of our common life now and into the future"
challenges to the community, to various areas of the community
McGourthy: some are aspirational, some are probable
"tried to bring in best practices that we've seen and focus" on some of the critical conversations locally
cost indicator and effort indicator for each one
"we can't add nothing to the schools and expect change to happen"
commend superintendent "open to the conversation, open to the discussion...ultimately it has to be achievable"
or we will be back here five years "with the same plan" asking for support
email address to submit comments
then to superintendent to the school committee "for a broader debate"
Q: children with special needs
Binienda: really written for all children
Q: privatization is "kinda scary to parents of special needs"
Davis Carey: "there is no hidden agenda about charter schools in this...it was never discussed...when we talk about private institutions, we are talking about adding on top of" resources
Q: with the changes in
Binienda: shared with us the new accountability measures
"what we've laid out here would help us with those measures"
enrolled and passing grades 11 and 12
how many are at the lowest 25%...and how you moved them
state provided the list of the lowest 25% of students
"are going to absolutely help us meet those accountability factors"
Q: social emotional focus
looked at all grade levels
Q: what are the plans to sync with city's strategic planning?
"it is coordinated process...the city is looking to begin a master plan...what the schools need will be filled in to the land use considerations"
Several supportive comments on support for teachers in the classroom
request that not just demographic differences be called out in discipline but across the areas
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