Notes from the June remote meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Agenda is here; livestream account here

Craven would like to continue the Zoom capacity as people are able to testify
We also appear to have a new labor representative, though the agenda isn't updated to reflect that

Darlene Lombos, it appears 
Also bidding goodbye to Matt Tibbitts of Ludlow, the student rep

Public comment
Ruby Reyes, Boston Education Justice Alliance
for BPS, added stress for MOU with state
little knowledge of process
"vague experimental networks"
DESE does not have a good record of supporting underserved students
timing and lack of information is outrageous
SOA has been undercut in Baker's budget
"no realistic way that BPS can improve outcomes" after three months of closure
needs resources, not greater instability

Laura Trendel (SP?) of Northborough
"just right challenge"
assessment with low floor and high ceiling
online system that can accurate assess
more equitable system across districts; "should not be left to our hundreds of districts individually"

Amanda LaFleur of Walpole
full year since gifted report published
heartbroken at lack of resources for kids
"gifted does not mean good at everything"
require opportunity and challenge

Monica Linden, Franklin
little guidance on student learning; "main function of educational system"
not the time to rest on prior success

Andre Green, Somerville School Committee

full comments here

father of rising first grader

"nothing would make me happier" than to get her back to school

department guidance guarantees that any reopening makes it harder to do and will only further inequities

not answering best needs of students, but how to get them back in schools

"perhaps never before have the words 'when feasible' been asked to do so much"

"Districts with money, space, and populations with resources and without special needs will be able to do more."

"...urban, low-income and high need districts will be faced with a cruel inequitable choice"

plans compromise health of students or further damage education of students

DESE seems to treat reopening than an after thought

"figure something out, oh, and pay for it yourself"

despite putting all their eggs in the reopening basket, the state isn't funding it

districts that can will patch together something that works

"and then there are poorest districts...districts that don't have the money to do level services"

"let’s all be honest today about how this plays out in our deeply segregated Commonwealth unless the state changes its goals and its funding. Districts with high incomes and low need students will patch together something that works. Other districts will manage to cobble together something that looks like it works, but that sacrifices equity and disservices its most vulnerable students."

"districts that your guidance sets up to fail" on both health and education

Eric Schildge teaches in Newburyport

"a lot of questions" and concerns

had assumed regular testing of faculty and staff would feature

guidance has teachers coming into far more contact of students

returning without regular testing really worries me

"As we all know, the pandemic has had a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color in our state and across the country."

after a mention in the opening letter, "The plan doesn’t seem to address these inequities."

districts left to purchase on own; drive prices up

" the plan calls for schools to use overflow space to shift students into small group cohorts. This will likely stress our well-resourced district. It will likely be impossible in districts that are already stretching for space and resources."

"The plan devotes the vast majority of space to the option to reopen schools completely, when it seems likely that a second wave of infections is going to require us to curtail in person teaching again in the fall."

is there guidance? Is there sufficient resources to support this

"Put simply, this plan seems to have been reversed engineered from our shared goal to get all students back in school as soon as possible."

"I hope the Dept of Education’s guidance can help the public manage their expectations about what school, and our lives more broadly, will look like in the fall."

think creatively to shift to small group learning of those most in need of it, but the "plan would have to look differently"

Charles Haines (sp?) on early literacy

comment following comments from last year

systematic barriers that are constantly held back by them

other testimony wrapped in false cloak

disingenuous to state that such assessment compensates for inequities built in

student can't find people who are like her at her new school

assure gifted Black and Latinx students that they are not alone

falling into schools' standards, however low they might be

"gifted students are not the only ones who should be pushed to succeed"

Craven: what's the most impactful way we can operate, really, in our limited time on the Board

suggest a DE&I training for Board

want to talk a little about educational equity and funding

"I do want to have the conversation" since 1993 has tried to reflect funding for districts that don't have wealth

love districts that come before and talk about how they've used funding to fill achievement gaps

it seems she doesn't get it...

Over time, Massachusetts went from progressive to relatively flat (1.0=Flat). Our model corrects for more factors than the Urban analysis. pic.twitter.com/4BvAq9VXRP

— Bruce D. Baker (@SchlFinance101) May 14, 2020

and I missed some comments by Board members on moving beyond equity into more

Riley: father believed deeply in a meritocracy but that only works if if kids start in the same place

 "so much more work to be done" in becoming an anti-racist agency

"a concerted effort for the next decade or more"

Dr. Zrike leaving Holyoke to go to Salem

and I may have missed more things there because the livestream is getting skippy

came back in time to hear Secretary Peyser reading a passage from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"