Sharing some mid-December updates from Dr. Monárrez

 Drawn from the weekly School Committee update as well as Thursday's School Committee meeting:

First, as you may have seen on Twitter:

The Worcester Public Schools have been awarded the Meritorious Budget award for the TENTH consecutive year for the district's FY23 budget document. The national award recognizes excellence in budget presentation. 
I could go on at length about how incredibly valuable this is to me as a member of the Worcester School Committee, and maybe at some point I will, but for now, let me put this way: I had my budget book open again this morning, six months after we passed the budget. It's a reference I use all the time, and it makes me better at my job. I'm grateful that this continues to be the standard Worcester strives for.

Second, as was discussed at Thursday's meeting, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Worcester Public Schools and the Worcester Police Department is now signed; you can find it in the backup to the agenda here. Though it is in effect immediately, Dr. Monárrez noted at the meeting that part of what will be happening now is putting together protocols for implementation with district staff.
As it was a year ago yesterday that the school safety task force report was taken up by the Worcester School Committee, I am glad to have this done. I know that it was a great deal of difficult work.

On Thursday's meeting, Dr. Monárrez reported out on the information she's gathered at this point on her listening and learning sessions (that link is to my Dropbox with a color edition of the report). Note that what we're doing at this point is gathering information for her goals as superintendent, on which the School Committee will evaluate her as required by the state, and also the beginnings of the new strategic plan. You can watch that part of the meeting starting here.

I also do want to note that there are a host of things of interest to students and families--dress code, provision of menstrual supplies, transportation, and more--that are work in subcommittees, which get reported out at our meetings. Those reports started Thursday about an hour and twenty minutes in. 

as always, more as I have it!