On the potential federal government shutdown (again)

 ...which even EdWeek is saying "(again)" about. 

There is no good news here, so please enjoy this chicken.

First, a lot of what I wrote in 2013 is still the case, as two things still hold true:

1. Most funding for K-12 education does not come from the federal government, anyway.
2. The way most of that funding comes to schools is done in a way that doesn't get hit short term.

As District Administration notes in their coverage of this, the first things schools are likely to see is the community hit:

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—also known as food stamps—would only be guaranteed through October and federal funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) would run out a few days into a shutdown, CNN reports. Food banks, Meals on Wheels and housing assistance programs would also be disrupted, causing continued uncertainty for families.

There are, of course, exceptions, most notably federal impact aid and Head Start:

The biggest impact could be that, the longer a government shutdown lasts, school staff will likely have to contend with growing needs in surrounding communities. Some 10,000 children would immediately lose access to Head Start because grants would not be awarded during a shutdown. And, The White House warns, the impacts on the pre-K program would worsen over time.

 If we go longer, then we reasonably can worry about things like federal lunch reimbursement. 

What I have yet to see is anyone talking about the flow of ESSER funding to schools; if you see anything on that one, let me know.

UPDATE: The Department of Education today has released this letter, outlining its plans if the shutdown happens. See the chart below for a summary.

ESSER is the balance of a multi-year appropriation, which is listed as exempt in the first paragraph of the letter. 

September Board of Ed: amendment on student discipline regulations

 no questions on this which passes

September Board of Ed: FY24 update

 Bell on the FY24 budget

third year of Student Opportunity Act implementation
weighted to districts with greater need
increase in minimum aid to $60 per students; costs about $16M to the Commonwealth
"basically halfway through the investment called for in the Student Opportunity Act"
commitment to support districts with extraordinary special education costs (circuit breaker): to about $500M
impacts of increased tuition rates through special education private schools
$5M to $20M for assistance for the current year (as circuit breaker is a reimbursement), plus $75M sent by Governor to Legislature in supplemental
increase in almost $10M in rural aid
transportation reimbursement accounts funded at highest levels:
regional and non-resident students funded at high levels
homeless transportation significant strains as it relates to families needing services; working with administration to identify what those additional costs will be
remains to be seen what those homeless transportation costs will be
universal free school meals started last year through supplemental budget; effectively state's wraparound payment (additional to USDA) "we think that's a good thing"
a lot of new things happening in the budget, too
continued investment in other programs, mostly through grantmaking
assist schools with green schools; "not an activity we're familiar with"
digging in in consultation with the MSBA; new initiative we'll be working on

ESSER: closing in at end of spending authorization for ESSER II
85% of funds claimed (about $115M not claimed) in ESSER II; "certainly doesn't mean it won't be claimed"
"late liquidation" process on a project basis; obligation has to occur, but 18 month reconciliation side
ESSER III (good through end of next September): 55% claim rate (roughly $1.1B still available)
actively engaged with school districts that still mathematically still have a lot of funding unclaimed on the spreadsheets
roughly $1B is out to be claimed

September Board of Ed: MCAS results

Riley: achievement slide caused by the pandemic appears to be over
"either maintained or increased number of students meeting or exceeding"
"need to continue on the momentum"
accountability : "today's data will not include any exiting or entering underperforming status": coming in the coming weeks
66 schools of schools of recognition

Curtin: "the embargo on the results is lifted"
"achievement slide since 2019 has halted and recovery is fully underway"
Science remain relatively unchanged
"positive momentum" towards recovery
one caution is grade 3 "has not increased"; results are flat
they were in preK or K during height of pandemic

statewide results can mask school and district results
all grades in ELA either held or gained ground over last year
compared to 2019, still have ground to make up; on average 10% points off 2019
grade 10 flat from last year
by race and ethnicity relatively unchanged with overall results; Black students 1% off of 2022, 4% compared to 2019; Hispanic students just about back to 2019 level
"math represents a similar but better story"
really large increases of +3 (grade 4) +5 (grade 5); flat results in grade 10
by race and ethnicity; "more in the two range across the board" increases across the board
compared to 2019, distance to be made up
in math in grade 10, greater than in ELA
science, relatively stable, slight decreases "caused by rounding"
cannot compare grade 10 to 2019 as implemented new science test in 2022
5% increase in grade 10 Asian students compared to 2022

accountability system running in full for first time since 2019
all schools receiving overall accountability classification, plus student group percentiles
criterion referenced percentage towards targets
no designations on underperforming or chronically underperforming exit/entrance today

of 1832 schools, 226 receiving "insufficient data"
remaining 1607: 1331 "not requiring assistance or intervention"  83%
275 "requiring assistance or intervention" 17%
also normative indicators 1-99 within grade groupings
points assigned on progress towards each accountability indicators
over 60% of 50 or higher making either substantial progress towards targets or meeting or exceeding targets

September Board of Ed: historical overview of MCAS

 Craven: asked for overview prior to release of scores, will have Hills

Curtin: "nothing I say today should be construed as myself or the Department as taking any position on any proposed ballot question"
McDuffy v. Secretary

September Board of Ed: health and physical education framework

 Riley: current dates back to 1999
"document has benefited further from public comment"
up to individual school districts to determine implementation
parents continue to have right to opt children out of sexual education "which is a very small portion" of these frameworks
they didn't put names on the slides so I have no idea who is talking; it's DESE staff

Kristen McKinnon, Assistant Director for DESE’s Office of Student and Family Support:
grateful work of many (some of whom are named, but I am not catching these names)
now going over process...which I am not going to type up, because you have been here for much of it
public comment made "more accessible and ready for our educators and students to access"
reviewed and analyzed the nearly 5400 pieces of public comment

(and this is someone else)
will then launch implementation support sessions and resources; PD, online connections to other frameworks; and update crosswalks to national standards

Stewart: was pleased to see the language was broadened to include social media
Hills: add appreciation; work started pre-pandemic
Gardiner: adds appreciation for (her fellow) students for their advocacy
Moriarty: glad to see that it's responsive to public comment; glad to see implementation; completing the set
have now worked through all the curriculum frameworks
"Don't stop...excellent opportunity to take a fresh look" at all the frameworks
West: question: received correspondence from people in Newton (notes "strong Newton contingent on Board")
Safe Routes to Schools task force comments received but weren't in what was received
answer: it was an oversight; updated on website

Vote: PASSES UNANIMOUSLY!

five minute break!

September Board of Ed: comments from Secretary, Commissioner, Chair, election of vice chair

 ..and housekeeping...

agenda is still here

Tutwiler: lift up beginning of new school year
"seems to be incredible optimism"
excited 'because we believe what the budget will do for public schools"
full funding of phase of SOA, free school meals, early college
budget "that acknowledges that every child deserves an education, yes, but...deserves an education for a future that they so choose"

Riley: echo strong opening
echo free school meals for all
"great step...so they can thrive"
Worcester Cultural Academy: approx. 135 students
"fully met its opening requirements"
health and safety in buildings
WPS "working together on transportation students"
"encouraged by collaborative relationship" with the Worcester Public Schools (!)
BPS: recognize AC
will update on bathrooms and transportation at next meeting
migrant families: team at DESE for support
districts have an off-hour contact for troubleshooting
currently supporting 58 districts in total
will talk about funding at next meeting; there has been funding and more coming out
Craven: what specific can state do?
Riley: technical support, webinar, rolling out training
myriad of things doing, and will be bringing out more

Moriarty motions for Hills for vice chair, second by West
vote is unanimous

September Board of Ed: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream will be here. 

updating as we go

opening introductions
Will be moving into public comment first

Let's talk about the September Board of Ed meeting

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education resumes monthly meetings tomorrow. You can find the agenda here. 

It's the train in to Malden for me tomorrow.

The big news of tomorrow will be statewide--and thus district and school--MCAS scores, which will be released at the meeting ('though I'm certain that there is embargoed information around which will go to print and post tomorrow). The memo from the Commissioner notes: 

The 2023 district and school accountability results represent a full return to DESE’s accountability reporting practices for the first time since 2019. The U.S. Department of Education provided flexibility to the states from 2020–2022 due to the pandemic.

 I would bet you a hamburger that this means that we'll hear both the term "learning loss" and the Commissioner patting himself on the back regarding "sending students back into the classroom," despite there still not being evidence that this had much to do with where kids are now. 

And about facilities?

 Note this from CBS News:

A CBS News analysis of federal data found school districts with more Black students were able to invest far less money in buildings than majority-White districts — and often-unequal funding practices by state governments can make the problem worse.  

While Massachusetts isn't mentioned in the piece, note that the way the state has structured funding for school buildings through the MSBA--one or two projects at a time--combined with Massachusetts children of color being concentrated in the double handful of cities we have, means that schools attended by majority children of color are much less likely to see major renovation and repair. There's just more schools in the cities.

to read on homework

 Anne Thériault takes up homework in The Walrus:

 He cried as he struggled to finish the homework. I cried as I emailed his teacher to tell her he hadn’t been able to finish it. We both felt like we’d failed.

We were told that the work wasn’t mandatory, but that put me in a difficult position. I felt like, as a parent, I should be supporting what his teachers wanted from him, not acting against it. Besides, I believed that homework was necessary to set my son up for success. But it turns out that homework might not be as useful as we think.

on hot weather, New England, air conditioning, climate change, and, of course, schools

 Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
Avril Lavigne

If you were in or around schools last week, there's a very good chance that you had one, if not repeated, conversations about the heat. 

and there's more from Brockton

 ...where the assistant financial officer has now claimed whistleblower protection:

...attorney Timothy Burke has said he plans to file a whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Brockton and its school committee on [assistant financial officer Christopher] Correia’s behalf, claiming Correia sounded alarms about the district’s overspending for months.

No appeasement

 I'm pleased that Harpers has published Maggie Tokuda-Hall's account of Scholastic attempting to bowdlerize her book Love in the Library:

There is no appeasing this vocal minority, nor should there be an attempt to do so. This is an existential threat to all of literature, one the publishing industry should be combating, not cowering before. If we cannot depend on the publishers of these stories to defend the truth, if they cave to the political pressure manufactured by the few to the detriment of all, then we are truly lost.

 Not only true of book publishing. 

What happened at the first Worcester School Committee meeting of the 2023-24 school year?

On Thursday the 7th, we had our first meeting of the school year. You can find the agenda here; the video is posted over here.

Headlining the night (I'd say) was the Superintendent's opening of school report. While the slides start on page 55 of the agenda, as above, I recommend watching that section if it is of interest; it starts about an hour and 7 minutes into the meeting. Note that the statistics there on staff hiring are related to the introduction of new assistant principals and others that happened earlier in the meeting.

Because I know we've already had our first run-in with exposure this school year in my family, so I assume we're not alone, here's the current COVID protocols: 

Note we also gave our consent to the recommended hiring of Dr. Tammy Murray to the position of Director of Special Education; she was interviewed in public session during the meeting (it starts about 44 minutes in). Please note the way that I have phrased the above: the special education director is not selected by the School Committee in a Massachusetts district; we have advise and consent. We can say no, if warranted, but we are presented with the superintendent's choice (or choices, as has happened in the past) to which we agree or not. Dr. Murray has extensive experience both in and out of the district, comes highly recommended, and I'm really pleased she's agreed to take this position. 

Member Clancey gave a report from the Governance committee, which included an update on the strategic planning process; note that we also approved the updated list of who is on the ad hoc committee for that later in the same meeting. The group met for the first time on Thursday to be oriented, a process that was videoed and will be shared publicly. They'll meet again on the 26 and 27 to do the work on pulling together the strands of what we're moving forward with; that work will report out to Governance on October 3, who will report out to the full committee on October 5.
The work of putting that into outcomes will be done in late October, which will be reported out to Governance on November 28, which will report out to the full committee, alongside a report from administration on the strategic plan, on December 7. It will be presented for our vote at our final meeting of the year (and term) on December 21. 
I'll put that in some easier to follow form!

We did send a number of items to standing committee or administration: vision of a learning, a request to update the cell phone policy, the walk zone, the proposed parent app, and training of wraparound coordinators. 

We also had an interesting discussion of a $300K grant we voted acceptance on for a college program that involves our graduates re-enrolling as WPS students (and thus getting counted in our enrollment). 

We did get an initial list--to which we made some changes which I'll share in another post--of superintendent reports for the year, which is great! 

We also had a chance to honor Ivonne Perez, for her 19 years of work in the district; Belmont Street School for their Safe Routes to School work; and yes, district operated transportation for their state award:

Transportation Department Recognized for Successful Move to In-House Operations

The Worcester School Committee recognized the Transportation Dept. for receiving a state award at Thursday's meeting; WPS is receiving a national award this fall.

Read more: https://t.co/RGoKoLMIhx pic.twitter.com/qXnodB6qpS

— Worcester Schools (@worcesterpublic) September 8, 2023

There'll be another one of these, this time national, in November!  

bits more from Brockton today

 ...as they had a school committee meeting last night, which had an active public comment section period, and someone noted that maybe the meeting last week wasn't as public as necessary. The district communications person has said that overspending was in transportation, special education, and payroll. 
The district--I guess the school committee?--has also placed the top two financial people on administrative leave as of Friday. The mayor said this: 

As the mayor and as a parent of children in city schools, Sullivan said he was shocked to learn about the FY2023 school deficit. He said he was notified of the shortfall on Aug. 8 by Petronio and Correia. The next day, Sullivan said he met with the both Petronio and Correia, the city’s chief financial officer, and the schools superintendent, Mike Thomas, who confirmed the deficit.

What I haven't yet seen is any reporting on how the deficit was possible, as the schools operate as a city department, with all spending going through the city treasurer, and departments can't overspend what they have had allocated to them (a bottom line in the city budget). 
Hoping someone gets to that part soon. 

Yep, it's a September heat wave

 and as a result, this is now rolling out through our communication channels:

Dear Worcester Public Schools Community,

In an effort to keep our children and staff safe, due to the extended forecast of hot temperatures, all Worcester Public Schools will dismiss students three (3) hours early on Thursday, September 7, and Friday, September 8. Breakfast and lunch will be served. There will be no half-day preschool on Thursday or Friday.

Additionally, Worcester Public Schools has made the following adjustments to the high school athletic schedules:

-All games will be canceled for today, Wednesday, September 6, and tomorrow, Thursday, September 7. We are monitoring the conditions before making a decision about Friday, September 8. 

-We are allowing two options for indoor and outdoor practices for today and tomorrow. Teams may practice after 6 PM or at 6 AM if the temperature is in adherence with MIAA heat guidelines. We are monitoring the conditions before making a decision about Friday. Please confirm with your child’s coach what time practice will take place.

-Please know that no athlete will be penalized for not participating in a practice this evening or tomorrow morning.

Please check the district website, worcesterschools.org, or call your child’s school for the exact release time for your child/ren’s school. Again, all schools will dismiss three (3) hours earlier than their normal dismissal time on Thursday, September 7 and Friday, September 8.

Sincerely,

Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D.

Superintendent

Worcester Public Schools

A few notes from me: Yes, buses will run: in the morning as usual, in the afternoon, three hours earlier. My Stop DOES work for these early dismissals! 
Please be sure your athletes are clear: there are NO PENALTIES for missing practice today or tomorrow! I'm not seeing teams make that clear. 

On Labor Day

 ...this is your annual reminder that the work of Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee is held by the Library of Congress, who have made it available online. 

It is searchable by things like location; here are the results for Massachusetts. 

Girl running home before school
Worcester, MA 
Photo from 1912

Not that long ago, and not far away at all. 

Make no mistake: among the work of labor unions was limiting child labor, which is part of what made universal schooling possible. 

To read this weekend

 From the "I know not everyone is on Twitter" files:

• Know who is satisfied with K-12 education? Parents. (again)

Of Brockton and $14M

 Let me open by noting that I know only what I have read in the press, and I wouldn't post beyond that.

The news broke yesterday that the Brockton Public Schools is faced with a $14M deficit for the FY23 fiscal year--that is, the year that ended June 30. Public school districts in Massachusetts are required to balance their books, and that fiscal year has ended. You can read Boston Globe coverage here and WBUR's here, The Brockton School Committee was in executive session for four hours yesterday for executive session reasons 1 and 2: 

Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 30A, §§ 21 (1) – To discuss the reputation, character, physical condition or mental health, rather than professional competence, of an individual, or to discuss the discipline or dismissal of, or complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual.

Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 30A, s. 21(a)(2) – To conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion personnel.

It appears that they did not specify who in either case; note that the person spoken of in the first has the right to attend the meeting.  

The same time that news broke about the deficit also came the news that their superintendent Mike Thomas is going on a medical leave, though WHDH interviewed him today, it appears. Among other things, he said: 

“I’m the leader of the school district so, obviously, you can’t overspend the budget,” Superintendent Mike Thomas told 7NEWS. “But I can tell you that every dime went toward supporting kids.”

“I’m guilty of keeping too many staff members, doing what I thought was right to help kids recover from COVID and provide them the support that they needed and support our staff,” Thomas said. 

This afternoon, the Brockton School Committee met in public session long enough to vote in their deputy superintendent of operations James Cobb as acting superintendent and for an independent investigation before going back into executive session. 

I'm sure we're going to see lots of numbers swirling around: note that districts report their actual spending to the state in required End of Year reports that are usually due in October. Those include both district and municipal spending on behalf of the district; it also includes grant spending, which would matter as it's an ESSER year. ESSER funding comes through the state, with which districts were required to file reports on their planned spending.