October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: technical fix on bullying regulation

 that's here

changes (strikethrough)

passes

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: educator licensure

 presentation is here
update on the MTEL alternative pilot
plus a set of licensure proposals including a vote to consider extending the pilot

 the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (which they make CALDER, which isn't actually the acronym, people) panel: James Cowen, Dan Goldhaber, Roddy Theobald is here
Claire Abbott of DESE: in October 2020, Board voted for a three year pilot for alternatives to the MTEL
hope to establish more opportunities for educators to demonstrate necessary skills and so forth
written report in October of 2021, mostly on types of alternatives just then made available
today: most recent data coming out of the pilot
types of alternatives, who is accessing them, and preliminary rates

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: budget update

Bell: not a whole lot more to update the Board on at this time
Continue to work with administration putting together the maintenance budget (that's a level service budget)
baseline of spending
current administration will have that work together "and available for the next administration's transition efforts"
Yes, FY24 will be prepared by a NEW governor

pretty much have fully drawn ESSER I; working on ESSER II; hovering 19-20% on districts drawing on ESSER III funds
Hills: drawn v. allocated?
Bell: we've allocated basically 100% of ESSER III funds; all districts did that awhile ago
"When I say 'drawn,' I mean they have recorded expenditures at the municipal level which entitles them to draw their reimbursement from the state; it's a reimbursement based model."
19-20% for ESSER III; 56-58% for ESSER II; ESSER I is fully drawn 

Stewart: timeline on budget?
Mohammed: if there are comments or items you'd like to see highlighted after today, we'd be interested
budget committee will meet one more time before presenting at the November meeting
recognizing that a lot of our budget is earmarked already for particular purposes
Stewart: could Bell send a doc on where you are or where you need feedback, just so we know what we're talking about?
Bell: discussion with budget committee is consistent with goals discussion had with Commissioner
supporting students as they get back into school more often
once twist this year: flow through won't take place with current administration 
there will also be a different timeline "as the next Governor will have until early March to file his or her recommendations for the General Court"

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: goals of the Commissioner

 Riley: "while the Department historically has been one of compliance, enforcing mandates, both federal and state" has argued since his arrival "that we at DESE need to play a more supportive role with our districts"
think the goals reflect that thinking (presentation here)
also think the Department needs to decide "if we're going to continue to be a kind of counting and a mirror organization or are we willing to jump in and support our districts"
wait, how are those two different things?
Strongly recommending move towards support

four themes:

• Provide Supports to Accelerate Student Learning 
"this is shifting away somewhat from that compliance role"
early literacy, acceleration academies, deeper learning, early college, IEPs and English learners

• Build a Diverse and Culturally Responsive Workforce 
"research proven to be effective for children"

• Cultivate Safe and Healthy Learning Environments
mental health "students came back from the pandemic often disregulated, often with challenges"
that includes mental health, food, housing

• Align DESE Supports to a Shared Academic Vision of Deeper Learning
"a vision for where we're going with this Department"

Peyser: "this are ambitious goals, and these are the right ones"
balance essential "with areas of improvement"
would suggest--"I was going to say 'add,' but I don't want to add to an already long list"--is early college (which Riley just said under student learning) 
would add career pathways
strengthening career pathways
"think of that in point four of the first point"
"the 25 percent growth...ambitious...would include innovation pathways and the after dark vocational programs"
existing programs are already growing as well
h/t to Secretary Peyser for demonstrating up to the end here that the Baker administration has been only early college and very specific aspects of vocational
Riley: were talking about students in high school being disengaged prior to the pandemic
"this idea that students are ready to do more...resonates with me"
Peyser: early college, strengthening Department's capacity to manage it
"don't want to lose sight of something that's really something internal"

Stewart: visioning exercise
really looking forward to having them share their vision
strategic plan: data being collected educator preparation programs
look at everything being proposed here: has to be "sauce that pulls everything together...and that's family engagement"
just want to see more of that
Riley: going to be talking about that on Friday

Mohammed: curious: how will you know over the course of the year where you are?
What kind of targets do you have?
"is there some kind of dashboard" that provides where you are
Riley: most of these goals are measurable
we can find a way to distill those and capture those for this Board to understand

West: thoughtful document, appreciated foregrounding accelerated student learning
sometimes you have an overarching goal with others in service of it
didn't see included anything on the changes in the competency determination process
"hope that's on your radar screen as well"
Riley: can expect we will adhere to the regulations as we begin to roll this out
important to hear from districts themselves in how it is rolled out

Lombos: glad to see diverse and culturally responsive workforce
interested in how we get to tried and true data-proven ways for students of color to improve
culturally responsive and inclusive curriculum is another way
Riley: focus on data to serve all our students better; "see what is most impactful"
"prior to five years ago, we didn't understand that there was a relationship between teachers of color and student performance and we're probably the only state that's focusing on this right now"
that is entirely not true, but it is troubling that he would think that; does he pay so little attention to what other states are doing?
These are the "kinds of data nuggets that we're looking to recover"
Canavan: what are the levers we could pull or push to have the greatest results?
had seen data that was even more granular than (what was just presented)
wonder as we highly these bullet points "to really really push on absenteeism"
really effectively move the needle on
how is the state going to move the needle on that?
Riley: for the first time, many families have children who were chronically absent "through no fault of their own"
"this is something...we're going to keep pushing out to parents and out to the public"
"kids that for whatever reason were caught up in COVID protocols missed more days of school"
(some of them got caught in COVID? itself?)
Canavan: "I had a kid who missed ten days of schools, because at that time the protocol was staying home for ten days...you could get super unlucky and be exposed multiple times, but is the lack of luck...anecdotally there seems to have been a shift in attitudes about attendance...COVID itself has been a huge driver of absence, but COVID has also been a driver in people getting used to not being in school as much"

Hills: was struck by the comprehensive nature of the goals in the memo when I read it
liked the comprehensive nature of what you were trying to do
set some expectations as part of a final document for a year from now what this Board should expect to see
resource conversations with the Governor and the Legislature
"Set our expectations given what we're seeing"
Riley: state ed departments move at "a more ponderous pace"
saying we need to move "more urgently...also be able to pivot if need be"

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: MCAS and NAEP

 And the presentation is posted here

and if you're watching the video, this starts about 29 minutes in

Curtin: notes the public release of MCAS and accountability data last month, NAEP results released for the country

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting: opening comments

Agenda 
Video

Chair Craven is remote

Public comment: single one asking that Boston add more exam schools, and complaining about "unleveling high schools": "no one cares about advanced children in this state"
"This Board doesn't engage; this is about accountability"

Notes from the October 12 Finance and Operations meeting

 You can find the agenda here; you can find the video here. 

There are a few things here that are current topics of conversation, as well as some that I know we're going to be coming back to, so some notes to share:

Annual audit: When I was doing my review of the agenda ahead of this meeting, I said to a friend that the opening letter of an auditor's report is an excellent illustration of the "in this paper I will" piece of writing, though it's more "in this audit I won't"! We tend, I think, to think of the word 'audit' as meaning something very sweeping, but that isn't what this is. This is an audit that is done due to the amount of money we get from the federal government, and it very specifically tests compliance with internal controls and general acceptable accounting principles.
There were no findings for the Worcester Public Schools; that's a clean bill of health here.
Interesting point raised by Mr. Hunt: the federal COVID funding is something the federal government is, for the purpose of auditing, regarding as "high risk" meaning it needs to be looked at.

We did file a few items that either we've dealt with or we're managing in other ways: the FY22 grants; sustainable funding on technology (we have a report coming from Harvard on IT); and the two mile radius for transportation for secondary schools (the question of what we're doing with transportation is ongoing).

Provision of menstrual supplies: Dr. Deb McGovern, who heads our nursing department, will be speaking to this, but wasn't able to be with us. We did, though, take the item in order to address the related issue of bathroom access: our larger secondary schools regularly have bathrooms that are locked during the day, and are limited to a very small number of bathrooms. The explanation given has been that we lack provision for monitoring this. The request from the subcommittee is that the bathrooms get opened at the secondary schools; we're interested in supporting making that happen. 
This item will be back on the November agenda for further and more specific discussion.

On transportation: You can see the drivers being trained (hang on! They're coming!), and the turnover between buses that are rented into buses that are owned. 
Two things for those who use the app to know: first, if you're an Android user that had the app delete on a recent update, there is a workaround while Tyler Technology figures out how to get it back. Second, if you've had a bus that seems to have disappeared from the app, we had a discussion about the way that new buses (with geotags) are apparently being overruled by running with iPads (that also geolocate) that are supposed to forget that overnight but aren't. Tyler has never seen this before, and they're going to be coming in to work on it.  

Facilities quarterly update: As a side note, I really appreciate these in keeping an eye on not only the day-to-day things, but also the larger longer term projects! Check out the pictures here! 
This always opens custodial and maintenance, and this is another one where staffing continues to be an issue. This means that our custodial staff is beyond stretched as they work to cover the same number of schools (and a growing amount of square footage!) with a smaller number of people. We did have a bit of a discussion about this, as one of our strengths (this isn't just me saying this, though it's my opinion, too) is that our custodians work for the district directly, and they take a great deal of pride in "their" buildings. How we support that while also ensuring that the buildings get cleaned is an ongoing discussion. On a bit of a different note, maintenance is an evolving area, as what positions are best done by in house staff, and what specializations (think elevators, for example, but also some of the newer HVAC, possibly) are something that needs to be contracted out, even as we ensure that administration is supported in ensuring the work on the buildings gets done. We've asked, on that last, to add to this report the balance of what work is done in house versus what we're going out to contract.
Water filling stations are popular every time they come up; I shared the list of the SWIG grant (clever acronym, isn't it?) recipients earlier, which have to be done by the end of this year. Mr. Bedard noted in his report to us that using ESSER funding to add bottle filling stations elsewhere is the next step. These are not unrelated to the water testing, but in part a response to it. As with much else, there are supply chain issues here.
And speaking of ESSER and COVID: the schools are still running the equipment we have already had in buildings (both that which is internal to the HVAC systems, and the separate units that are plugged in elsewhere). There is upgrades of what we are able to do in the HVAC systems (can we upgrade filters? motors?); that scope of work has been put together and is in purchasing. There is also a round of final field work being done from Honeywell for further work; within a month or so, that work also should be out to bid. Note that this is scheduled to be funded by ESSER III funding, and we probably want to be part of the push for extensions from US DoE, only due to supply lines. 
Boilers, boilers, boilers...winter is coming, and we're going to need the heat, so note the updates on Belmont Street, Chandler Magnet, City View, Goddard, and Vernon Hill on boilers (Vernon Hill's is more complicated and taking longer). Note that not all of these were planned, and that means we're making compromises on our annual $4M capital budget. Life safety, fire alarms, heat...these are the things that are always going to go first. 

Mr Allen: "The bigger question is is $4M sufficient enough to maintain the age of our buildings and the number of buildings that we have."

Elm Park gym floor watchers, and Burncoat High bleacher watchers, please note the update there. Also, the WAMS new roof got its first dousing these past weeks, and what a difference a new roof makes!
On Burncoat High: Burncoat had its periodic reaccreditation review this past year, and the report (to no one's surprise) pointed out substantial physical plant issues. The review of what exactly needs to and can be done to the current building, the replacement/major renovation of which remains the first priority with the state of both the School Committee and the City Council, is currently being done and will be coming back to us. Note what Mr. Allen said: this is going to cost the city millions of dollars to keep the building open and functioning, and how this relates to the high school's reaccreditation is something of an open and evolving question.

First quarter budget report: We've gotten through the first quarter of the FY23 budget, so it is time to see where we are at and where it now looks like where we are going. First quarter is when we see the beginning of trends. 
It is important for us to remember that our district budget received $945,067 less in state funding than the budget the Worcester School Committee passed in June. Acting City Manager Batista has committed to recommending this be made up through free cash when that is certified (which should be next month); just remember that this has not yet happened!
The Misc Ed OM change you'll see here is due to a call by DESE on how the insurance of our new buses gets classified: we'd thought "transportation" which is a non net school spending expense, but DESE has said that no, insurance is a net school spending expense (do not ask me to explain this). That's thus a shuffle of expense rather than anything new. The rental of buses needed while the new buses have come is an additional transportation expense. 
Both in transportation and elsewhere (custodial for example) there's overtime expenses that are offsetting positions that are open.
Here and elsewhere, remember that the budget office ALWAYS plans for positions to be filled. Thus you'll see we've moved money (at the standing committee level; it isn't moved until the full committee votes the transfer this week); that's money that hasn't been spent UP TO NOW. The custodial and other positions are still open, still searching, still budgeted, and we hope to fill them.

There's two things in the budget that I want to note particularly:
On utilities, there's an illustration of EXACTLY why quarterly reports are important. The report "anticipates the increase of natural gas supply and delivery charges at approximately 20% of the FY23 budget amount." It hasn't cost us that YET, but given what is known, this is anticipated and we are planning for it. At an hour and eight minutes in , Budget Director Sara Consalvo talks through how it is that projection has been calculated. Note that she says that this is a conservative projection, and also, administration recommended that we already move money (which is unusual in the first quarter). 

Discussing administration, first note that added positions usually happens during budget; the current superintendent did not, however, create the current budget, so we are making additions instead during the year. That itself is thus a function of a new administration rather than anything else.

To a larger and more telling point, though, please note Mr. Allen's point just after the hour mark: we are now in our second year of funding of the Student Opportunity Act. Whatever the Commissioner's comments, the intent of the Student Opportunity Act was to respond to specific gaps that Worcester, alongside our Gateway peers, had demonstrated again and again and again that we had*. Now we need to ensure that we are actually filling those gaps with the funding.
That includes administration. I already noted earlier this month that we underspend compared to our peers and the state average. We also, though, underspend compared to the state's calculation, spending 75% of the foundation budget and that includes city charges, which total $6.3M for FY23. That exceeds the central administration line for WPS, budgeted at $4.8M for FY23. 

Really important note from Mr. Allen on other cost centers compared to foundation: Operations and Maintenance underbudgeted by $15M (58% of foundation); supplies underbudgeted by $7M (50% of foundation).

MORE ON THIS COMING FOR SECOND QUARTER!

Qustions? send them along! 

*I limited myself to three links. There could be dozens. Search 'foundation budget' in the search bar if you want posts going back for about as long as this blog has been up. This is core to why I've been doing any of this for as long as I've been doing any of this. 

Three quick notes on Tuesday's upcoming TLSS subcommittee meeting

Three quick notes on Tuesday's Worcester School Committee Standing Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports meeting which is at 5:30: 

• If you've wondered what is up with WPS and early college, there's a report on that! (I had personally wondered that, which is why it's in subcommittee!)
  
  
  
  
  
• You could probably write a whole thesis on what's going on with the opt-out on district sex ed list of schools; the demographics there are wild!
• If you've been concerned as to what's going on with literacy in the district, you may find the most recent update reassuring.

Supports coming for Worcester schools

 Let me start by saying that this is not even close to a complete post! I'm trying to pull together a few different strings of things here.

• You may have seen the reporting that the Worcester Public Schools are looking for outside counseling services at 15 schools. Clearly, someone is keeping an eye on the city's bid list, which is smart! Here's the one in question. This, of course, is part of the much larger work that's now going on in the district in both meeting and working to more comprehensively and sustainably meet student mental health needs; you might have read Dr. Marie Morse talking about that in Worcester Business Journal. There's going to be long-term planning rolling forward, too.
  Some of that also is in the reworking of administration positions we discussed at our last Worcester School Committee meeting. That link goes to the reworked org chart; in that, you'll see (towards the right) that the (new, to be filled) Positive Youth Development position is over both (current)  social-emotional learning and nursing under the (new, to be filled) Chief Academic Support Officer. 
  All of this is first of all acknowledging that this is work that the district needs to be doing. That itself is a refreshing change, as you might remember we spent all of last year having that reality denied by district leadership, even as students, staff, and parents noted the need. If we're going to do this right--and that's something that current leadership, thank goodness, is committed to--that means both that it isn't just internal work--thus the bid--but coordinating with outside work. It also means actually coordinating internal work, and that, frankly, just hasn't been happening. At some point I need to write a whole thing on why we need good administrators and how things fall apart without them...oh for world enough and time. 
  
  
• Also at our last meeting, we approved two position descriptions: one for a Dean of Students, one for School Culture and Climate Assistant. The School Committee, remember, approves new position descriptions; we only hire directly a handful of people. 
  These positions are a) pilots; b) not uncommon in other districts; c) school personnel (they're assigned to a school and in a school building). 
  As we moved to no longer have police in the secondary schools, one concern raised was "what are you going to do now that the police are out of the buildings?" The reflection was that, in some cases, the school resource officers might have had interactions with students during the school day that would now be removed, and that some of those interactions were contributing to a positive climate. I'm not going to argue about this here; I know what the data says overall about this, and also, Worcester's experience has varied on this widely. This is part of the response to that concern.
  The Dean position is an assistant principal level position. This also fills in a gap from my perspective that dates back to 2011: when we pushed teacher evaluation into something much more time-consuming, we took some of the time away from assistant principals, and I don't think that we did much to fill the spaces that left. Having a position that specifically is designated for student interaction at the school level is something I'm interested in seeing tried out. This pilot is at North High.
  The School Climate and Culture Assistants are staff that are in the hallways, in the lunchroom, around students; they're paraprofessional level positions. For the pilot, we're adding five of these: three at North, two at Sullivan Middle. Again, those are positions that are directly working with students.
  
  
• For those who have been ongoingly concerned about things like student discipline and restorative justice practices--you can't just drop those things in!--I also want to note how the Positive Youth Development position is described:The ideal candidate will demonstrate knowledge of • Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports • Trauma-Informed Practices • Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice • Educational Neuroscience
  The position quite specifically is focusing on this question, which also means it isn't simply being added as "a thing to do," but is specifically somebody's job. 

And since we've already voted the above, let me add this: the work that goes on in classrooms has always needed structural support to go well. The crush around schools right now makes that even more important. This is the kind of attention to that which allows teachers to actually connect with students and gives students the support and the environment to learn.
It's very much a work in progress, but it IS a work in progress, which itself is progress!

A few quick notes for Friday

 I'll still do a full rundown on Wednesday's Finance and Operations subcommittee meeting in its own post, but a few quick things to share:

I highly recommend anyone interested in school finance read Auditor Bump's report on unfunded mandates, released yesterday. As Commonwealth Magazine notes: 
The report looked at several major categories of state aid and identified $711.4 million in unfunded mandates related to school aid; $448.3 million related to school transportation; and $103.3 million in government aid, mainly related to the Community Preservation Act. 

I found this overall comparison useful:


The transportation piece is particularly interesting. In education, we're accustomed to hearing about regional transportation being not fully reimbursed. Less well known, and significantly less funded, as it is not funded at all, is municipal school transportation. 

Note this chart, which reviews, essentially, what the law says and then what is actually done.

There is lots more there, so give it a read.

If you've been covering the book ban fights across the country, note that this terrible trend has washed up in Massachusetts at Old Rochester Regional. From this piece, it seems the district is handling it well--policy matters! be sure yours is solid and then follow it!--and also that the community is prepared to defend their kids access to materials. Good.

A long piece to read this weekend if you haven't gotten to it is this one from NBC News on the actual impacts of mandatory reporting. 

Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes essays in The New Yorker and this week's piece is on what's been left out of the learning loss debate. A sample: 
The sudden onset of the pandemic has been the most catastrophic event in recent American history, making the expectation that there would not be something called “learning loss” bizarre. The idea that life would simply churn on in the same way it always has only underscores the extent to which there have been two distinct experiences of the pandemic. One for people who experienced the upheaval but were able to sequester themselves away from its harshest realities, buying groceries online, contemplating buying new houses that could better accommodate working from home, and finding new ways to weather the inconveniences of the isolation imposed by potential sickness. There was another gruesome reality, reaped by poor and working-class families in the surreal numbers of people who have died.
Give it a read. 
And while you're at it, you might read this Chalkbeat piece reviewing how such decisions were made.

More blogging to come this weekend! 

October at Worcester School Committee

 

A few quick updates from last night's Worcester School Committee meeting (agenda, video):

• Public comment included (as noted in the T&G) student comment on dress code, and a request from students that recycling and sustainability. Dress code, please note, is currently in Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports, and the petition on sustainability went to Finance and Operations. It's always outstanding to see students come talk to us about policy!
  
  
• The report of the superintendent was on the MCAS results and the state accountability system; note that this is report one of two. That starts about 11 minutes into the video. 
  
  
• We sent two batches of policy off to the Governance subcommittee; that includes (again as in the T&G article) the updates in our list of protected classes (and the supporting law citations), and some of our fiscal policies (which are largely citations and cross-references, though it also finally gets the section in K that talks about gifts right in that they have to be voted accepted by the School Committee).
  
  
• We authorized the administration to pursue a four year lease for 1100 laptops (this should get the rest of staff outfitted!).
  
  
• We authorized the administration to enter up to a five year lease to replace the original 13 school buses we have had under lease (predating the purchase of 165 with ESSER funding), as that lease ends in June. The plan is for these to be propane-powered buses, as we’ve discussed in F&O, as the district continues to work on greener solutions.  
  
  
• We authorized the superintendent to sign documents regarding grants,legal settlements, and contracts on behalf of the School Committee. This purview question I am highly attuned to, so I aprreciate the patience in my getting to a appropriate amended motion.
  
  
• We’re moving towards translated meetings! The report from administration which outlined costs and recommended we pilot translation in Spanish, was recommended to go to subcommittee for consideration. We instead voted to request administration immediately move forward with the pilot, and we’ll discuss the rest in subcommittee (operational and costs money = it went to F&O) in November. 
  
  
• I want to do a separate post on the org chart and the approved positions. We did approve the position descriptions put forward, however. 
  
  
• We requested a report on enrollment, and one on how security guards are assigned to schools. 

Updates in WPS administration

 Some of you may already have heard this, but I wanted to be sure the school announcements got out first.

As Mr. Allen joked at the opening of school, we have new math this year in the Worcester Public Schools: we're going to have four quadrant managers now. (We've had two; we've had three; it's been some time since they were actually managing a fourth of the district each.)

We already had: 

• Ellen Kelley, now managing the Doherty quadrant
• Tim Sippel, now managing the South quadrant

To that, Dr. Monárrez has now added:

• Kareem Tatum, previously Worcester East Middle principal, now managing the North quadrant 
• Will Foley, previously Burncoat High principal, now managing the Burncoat quadrant

That of course opens two principal seats, which are being filled on an acting basis this school year by Joseph Ewick at Burncoat and by Carenza Jackson at Worcester East Middle. The corresponding assistant principal positions then open will be filled on an acting basis by (respectively) Ryan Connor and Katie Starczewski. 
Beginning in January, the post of principal of each school will be posted, and full search, with involvement from the school community will then take place. 

Also, do note that this Thursday's agenda has some additional administrative positions up for School Committee approval, as Dr. Monárrez puts into place the structure she's looking for.

And lest anyone be under any illusions on where this puts us, this is my periodic reminder that we not only have one of the smallest amounts per pupil spending on district administration in the state among our peer districts:

...but that we are also spending under what the foundation budget calculates for it.