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.