June Board of Education: opening comments

We are at the Rumney Marsh Academy in Revere today for the June Board of Ed; you can find the agenda here. The livestream is here.
Important note on location:

We are across the street from the home of Necco wafers.

Oddly packed house today? Posting as we go

public comment first

MassCreative speaking on behalf of arts for all: every child deserved to receive the benefits of a "quality sequential arts education"
countless hours of work in the frameworks
highlight continued work to do by connecting with other disciplines, specifically to STEM education
Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter:
Three school committee members here from the Pioneer Valley
Amherst: insufficient demand, draw on local districts, reason enough, but also school also does not enroll population of sending districts
unenrollment of high needs populations "continues to persist today"
gap in special education in particular is vast
"major and undeniable shortfalls"
school claims that underenrollment is meeting student needs
Northampton: you have the data
"why is this data important?"
charter schools for innovation; high need students most in need of innovation
Northampton serving all students; now the charter school wants to expand without continuing to innovate
disproportionate funding of charter schools
"I know that the Board does not have the power to change funding, but you are the guardians of public education"
"the reasons [to say no] are as salient as they have been"
Pelham chair: "it's the school's eighth request"
population trends in the Valley are showing overall decreases, likewise school enrollment
insufficient demand
"I am not overstating the matter to say that further diversion of resources would force us to close our doors"
"will help maintain the crucial balance"

"solid and seemingly impenetrable wall...that blocks so many of our kids"
DESE was recently directed to complete a gifted and talented report, due Sunday
students of color fall far behind their white peers by sixth grade and "their gap widens with each year of schooling"
"there is no downtime in the fight for civil rights"
took nearly ten years to get DESE to describe and quantify what those on the ground knew
students "have no achievement gap to start"

layoff at Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for children which concerns those treating children


comments from the Chair:
wlecomes new student member Matt Tibbits from Ludlow
thanks staff for move to Revere
encouraging teacher diversity: how best to highlight and compliment what he is doing; has asked Fernández to chair a subcommittee on that, with Doherty, Stewart, McKenna also serving
involved in data usage consortium; chairs of Early Ed, K-12, higher ed
what are the outcomes of a preschooler through grade 16?
has asked West to be part of coming up with a data roadmap
"have such a rich treasure trove of data at our fingertips"
think better outcomes and supports over time through that effort
has asked Hills to chair the budget committee due to his experience as Chair of the Newton School Committee
has been hearing how far we've come on special education to improve outcomes and improve parent experiences

Commissioner: love to come to Revere, because see quality teaching and learning going on
New receiver coming for the Dever School in Boston