Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

...for their final meeting of the year and of the term.
The agenda is online here.
Interestingly, there are a boatload of minutes from executive sessions dating back to 2016 being released. Even more interestingly, the City Council is doing the same on minutes dating back as far as 2010! That doesn't seem random, and I wonder what it is that has happened that pushed this sudden influx of public information?
I am reviewing these quickly, but here's a section from the first executive session of January of 2016 which seems prescient:

The minutes are for the reviewing of proposals for the superintendent search; Jack Foley makes a recommendation which was a recommendation coming out of an executive session of Finance and Operations, that Hazard, Young, and Atea be hired. Instead, Dianna Biancheria makes a motion to cancel the national search, which is approved, 5-2, Foley and Mayor Petty voting in opposition. 

We should note here that the guidance from the Attorney General's office is clear that minutes are to give indication as to what the discussion was, not simply give a record of votes. These on the School Committee side do not do that.

I'm going to loop back around to the report of the superintendent which is the midcycle review in another post.

There is a meeting of Governance and Employee Issues on Tuesday (agenda here) which will be reporting out; the agenda appears to be policy amendments (they're updates from the state).

There are several midyear appointments and retirements.

There is a report coming back on after-school programs, as requested by Mr. Comparetto, though it does not include the attendance and results requested.
There is a list of responses to the question "what is your policy to ensure school safety during arrival and dismissal times?" (note these are procedures, not policies).
There is a response to Mr. Monfredo's ongoing questions around cursive.

There is a request for two prior year payments, neither with any backup:

• in the amount of $1,144.18 to a teacher.
• in the amount of $625.00 to MicroNet Associates, Inc.

Regarding fiscal year reporting, the annual memo from Associate Commissioner of District and School Finance says this:

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and I take the accountability requirements of the Education Reform Act seriously. Our ability to track progress toward reaching the goals of the Reform Act depends on accurate and timely data collection and reporting. We must be able to rely on the data that you report to administer Chapter 70 and other state and federal funding programs in a timely manner.

The previous fiscal year of course closed June 30.

The Committee is being asked to approve the following donations:

• $380.00 from Dogfather Vending, LLC to Worcester Technical High School
• $100.00 from donors to the George & Marie Maloney Scholarship Fund
• $100.00 from 495 Truck Center to City View School
• $27.00 from a donor to the Worcester Public Schools

Miss McCullough is proposing that the Baker/Polito public awareness campaign "RESPECTfully" be included in future sex ed curriculum.

And Miss Biancheria is proposing: 

Request that the Administration consider forming a Committee consisting of School Committee administrators, staff and a representative from the Mayor’s office to discuss plans to initiate a fitting tribute and dedication to Brian A. O’Connell, an outstanding former member of the School Committee who served from 1983 to 2019.

Perhaps I should note here that the naming of facilities remains a power of the School Committee.

The administration is also recommending the filing of six pages of items that are with administration, which are worth reviewing, as there is some interesting stuff here! To wit:

• the administration speaks of a "human rights" attorney in their response over using in-house verses exterior counsel. My understanding is the School Committee has a contracted special education attorney and one who specializes particularly in contracts; who is handling the human rights aspects?
• the administration is planning to hire a part-time PR person; they are currently interviewing candidates. One should note that this is a new position, which was not in the FY20 budget and for which the School Committee has neither seen nor reviewed a job description.
• the district has costed out renovating the modular classrooms. Are we at any point going to talk about the comprehensive facilities plan? Those were never intended to be a permanent solution!
• to an item regarding increasing recess in kindergarten, the administration responds that they are unable to due to state structured learning requirements. This is of course not the case; so long as the students have 900 hours in elementary instruction, other time can be used for recess. That may, however, require other considerations including lengthening the day. 
• There is active work going on around parking at the downtown administration building.
• Discussion of Doherty's vocational programs is being kicked down the road to the final plan for the building 

There is an executive session at 6 to discuss worker's comp cases for a bus driver and a facilities coordinator.