The Board of Ed meets today: opening comments

 You can find the agenda for today's Board of Ed meeting (indeed, all of this week's meetings!) here. This meeting will be livestreamed here.

I will update this blog post as we go. 

I think we are (9:09) awaiting a quorum

Opening is Vice Chair Hills

and it appears joining today is the new student rep for next year; I didn't catch his name, but he's from Brookline

Public comment: 
Gerry Moreau: discouraging that Board only talks about encouraging districts; accountability system is "massive power"
"not signaling with an early literacy indicator"
"the accountability system is limp; it has been limp for 15 years"
another: appreciate increasing funding for genocide education
RIAC report: still "not getting it right for kids of color"
"you have every bit of information you need to make superintendents do their job"
"haven't seen one lose a check due to failing kids"
another: vocational education
"I think vocational education is a civil rights issue"
kids taking three years of carpentry training, "all going to college"
"effectively, they took seats...a fair number of them would have gone to college anyway...poor and working class kids, that would have been their chance to get a good paying job"
Dan French, Citizens for Public Schools
post Board change in vocational admission "in every category...the gaps either got wider or remained the same"
85% of schools had two more categories 10 or more percentage points lower of admission than more privileged peers
"the glaring gaps in admission rates...has continued with DESE's 2021 policy changes having zero impact"
a disproportionate number of disadvantaged students don't even apply
eliminate ability of vocational schools "to use discriminatory criteria and rank order" in determining admission
lawyer: federal civil right standard of disproportionate impact
it is the obvious nature of disparities "that is so troubling to the coalition"
"not what the plain language of the law requires" and misunderstands the protected right
"an admissions scheme that is fundamentally broken"

Stewart asks question of public comment; Craven notes that there has been a formal complaint made and this may put the Board in legal quandary
this is also not on the agenda, and so they should not be deliberating
DESE legal counsel says this is a question to follow up with to the Commissioner
Stewart persists, asking what the data is that was looked at
Craven notes that Johnston can have a comment when this comes up formally

comment on Everett Public Schools
"will continue to come here to share my hope" that they'll intervene in Everett
2024 graduate was planned to speak at graduation, hours before was told he could not and was not told why
asks that they watch last night's School Committee meeting
student who has suspended for two days didn't have suspension recorded
police department stationed at both City Council and School Committee meetings
questions use of budget: "very little going to help the students"
asks that they look at number of resignations and read letters 
search committee of superintendent violated OML by not keeping minutes; $5K to generate minutes

Yanis As...I am going to need someone else to spell that
Yiannis Asikis, Boston University Academy from Brookline 
BU Academy is a private school; I did not realize until today that MGL Ch. 15, sec. IE does not specify "public" on who is on the state student advisory; the student advisory elects their own chair, who then serves as student rep.
Thus this next year, the voting student rep on the state Board of Ed attends a school that is not subject to that Board's oversight

Craven: heard a lot from Kane last night, praises West for setting up
"data for kids needing to catch up"
"sense of urgency that I think we all share"
shoutout to Moriarity for pandemic and recovery committee
(which is not on the agenda)
Moriarty: tremendous food for thought in last night's meeting (this is not what Craven asked him about)
outreach to parents with screening assessments
"how can we quantify what parent responses are?"
other item was vetting: "think Massachusetts has a solid vetting process in place"
"solid venue that we are involved"
"state agencies...not third party vendors" Kane provided overview (how is that anything he does?)
it should be noted that this is not a power given the state
Craven says Stewart has asked for vocational; Moriarty has asked for MassCore
in fall, hear from advisory boards

Secretary: notes ending of year "what I believe was a good year"
improvement in chronic absenteeism
"not by happenstance" but deliberate work
mindful of summer slide and food insecurity challenge
thankful for summer programming offered by districts "to have fun" as well as academic work
Summer Eats program; summer EBT program
Capital Skills grants awarded recently
one more meeting, with Board of Higher Ed later this week
memories of celebrating Juneteenth in Austin, TX; wishes us "Happy Juneteenth"

Acting Commissioner: Kane recap
patterns that emerge by student background
"rate of improvement compared to other states"
Mitchell Chester awards: 
Arabella Thomas, deputy counsel, receiving 2022 award
Charmie Curry , statewide systems of support, 2023 award
PHOTO BREAK