A few notes on the superintendent's midcycle review

In response to a question from Ms. McCullough, the superintendent said that they are still working on hiring a new principal for Chandler Magnet--the person to whom they have offered the job is from Costa Rica and has not as yet accepted it--and they will not have that in place until June. Ms. Perez is, as described, going to be doing some of the after school duties of the Chief Diversity Officer position in addition to her principal duties.

Foley notes the disconnect between the upheaval earlier this year and the self-evaluation of the superintendent, in particularly noting:

• the bidding process for transportation being ethically questionable, at best, while the superintendent gave herself an "exemplary" score in following laws, ethics, procedures
• the breakdown that sent students and others repeatedly to the School Committee not being heard, while the superintendent gave herself an "exemplary" on two-way culturally proficient communication
• the ongoing lack of data use and sharing while the data item likewise received a high score

The Mayor said that he'd like to see the School Committee gather in the new year for a several hours retreat to review and set goals and align (he didn't use that word) new funding with the goals.

The Superintendent reported at last week's urban superintendents' meeting the Commissioner told them that he will expect that the report on spending due to him on April 1 must first be passed by the school committee.

Due to timing, Foley said that would then mean it would need to be approved by the Committee at the end of March, so the Finance and Operations subcommittee will hold hearings over the course of February, mentioning WEC and the Research Bureau in particular as partners.