I discovered last week that when I don't post1 about things, I get asked, so, in advance of the Worcester School Committee taking up the administration's recommendation of Sara Consalvo to the (recommended for re-creation) position of Chief Financial and Operations Officer, let me just say:
Worcester, you may well not know how very lucky we are.
I have the English major habit of, when I cannot find the best words myself, quoting those who put it better. I could not think more highly of Brian Allen, who the Worcester School Committee voted (8-1) to make the next superintendent of schools. I give you, thus, a passage from Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons about Sir Thomas More.
Margaret: In a State that was half good, you would be raised up high, not here, for what you've done already. It's not your fault the State's three-quarters bad. Then if you elect to suffer for it, you elect yourself a hero.
More: That's very neat. But look now … If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all … why then perhaps we must stand fast a little--even at the risk of being heroes.
This is an actual sign at the MRI clinic on Shrewsbury Street. Sometimes, no more comment is needed.
Earlier this week, I was asked what the impact would be on the districts seeing most of the state aid increases from the Student Opportunity Act once we hit the goal rates in FY27.
Ahead of Monday's public hearing on the proposed FY25 budget for the Worcester Public Schools, here's a brief look at what is in the document. I'm going to attempt to leave aside opining here on the administration's recommendations (not that I don't have plenty) but stick to an overview. As always, all of this is offered in my capacity as someone who lives here and cares, not in any official capacity at all.
First up, revenue:
This budget is projected not meet the city's legal obligation to fund schools for the fourth year in a row:
It's budget season, which means I am all over the state, so I'll do catch up on these as I can; I wasn't at this one and I can't make the next two, either, so they'll be coming later. Do note that the Committee meets this Thursday; the report of the Superintendent is on special education.
Note that prior to the public session, there was an executive session on two worker compensation issues and negotiations with the Mass Nurses Association.
The consent agenda was passed.
The Burncoat High School spirit team was recognized.
By now, if you are the family of a Worcester Public Schools student or a staff member, you will have read the letter sent from Dr. Monárrez earlier this week regarding the FY25 budget and had a bit of a chance for it to sink in. If you haven't read it, I include the letter in full below at the end.
You may also well have seen headlines from all over the state about school budgets facing real hardships this year.
Let's first note that it is not new information that the Worcester Public Schools are facing a budget gap. As noted in the links in the superintendent's letter (blogged about here), the district has noted the $22M budget gap since the release of the Governor's budget. We knew of the issue with the inflation budget as far back as the fall.
There is a danger we run into this time of year, of the relative scope of the budget and budget issues being difficult to grasp. This isn't true exclusively of Worcester, but it is as true of Worcester as elsewhere. While, as noted, the gap is 4.4% of the WPS operating budget, that is a significant amount of money.
I promise I'll go back and post on last Thursday's Worcester School Committee, but before we get too far away or lose the impact, I did want to share a few notes from Friday's Worcester School Committee legislative breakfast, As it was a posted public meeting--it had to be, as the School Committee was discussing the budget, which is under their purview--I attended and took a few notes.
The presentation at the breakfast was largely (though not exactly) the preliminary budget presentation the School Committee heard from Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen in February after the release of the Governor's budget; my highlights of that are here. You may remember that the upshot of that is:
If you're at all looking at headlines across the state, you will have caught that the picture has only gotten more grave since then (there are so many articles I could link to there that I don't know where to start). As shared at the breakfast by Mr. Allen, last week MASC/MASS/MTA/AFT-MA sent a joint letter of advocacy on inflation to the state legislature.
I am really sorry that I haven’t shared this earlier; I only learned of it Friday, which is also when the only notice to parents went out via Remind; it doesn't appear to have been shared via social media.
I will not be able to attend—like many, my schedule fills up much farther in advance than this—but urge you to if you can. As I've noted repeatedly here, but I fear far too few people know, it is going to be a tough year, and more people who are better informed is wise.
It looks like we're also getting an early look at the budget book cover, and as per usual, WPS Visual Arts has collaborated to provide student artwork. This fish represents how I feel about the inflation rate:
They've got an executive session this week, so thinking sometime after 6?
With the agenda for Thursday's Worcester School Committee meeting now posted, it seems we may need a quick explainer on a Worcester (it's part of Plan E) process, as Member Maureen Binienda has filed for reconsideration of the motion to allow students to march in graduation who have yet to complete 2 credits or fewer, a vote which she lost at the last meeting, 8-1. I wrote about this back in 2014, but let's walk through how this works for this upcoming meeting.
The Worcester School Committee had their first business meeting of the new term (and new makeup) on January 18. While I noted the change in the budget bottom line settled at the meeting (also noted by the T&G), it seems clear that this Committee where keeping the record straight is going to be necessary, and, while I do want to recommend you take a look at Bill Shaner's piece on last week, I think keeping track of what's going on will be helpful (and the tracking was kinda shaky in this meeting, to be honest, with roll calls consistently out of order and reported incorrectly more than once). As always, I'm not going to pretend here to be anything other than what and who I am, writing as a citizen of the city, so you can read with that in mind. The commentary is largely in italics.
While I plan to write up what did (and didn't) happen at the Worcester School Committee meeting on Thursday (very interesting meeting!), I did want to quickly note that the T&G caught the news of the night, which was setting a new bottom line in the FY24 (current year) budget. While the backup memo is posted here, the School Committee agendas now have backups that go to Google Drive files that don't allow download or copying, so I've screenshotted and posted the full memo here.
I hope the Committee changes that; it makes it feel as if access is deliberately being limited. As they aren't being posted as PDFs, it also means one cannot mark and link to particular pages.
There's really two pieces of news here within this memo:
The first, coming with the final vote on the FY24 (which, remember, started in July), is that, as was noted at the first quarter report in the fall, the charter reimbursement for the Worcester Public Schools is not fully funded: it's $688,455 short. That amount was cut from the paraprofessional account--an account, as was also noted in the first quarter, with vacancies--and the new bottom line for FY24 set that much less. It's that $688,455 less from the $1.2M that was already moved out of the account in the first quarter report.
The new bottom line of the budget is $461,862,571 in the general fund.
And kudos, incidentally, to Member Sue Mailman, who, in her new capacity as MASC Division IX chair (as of January), noted that this was an issue for state level advocacy, and made a motion that passed 8-1, Biancheria in opposition, to raise at the state level, including with the state delegation. One of the pieces of the Student Opportunity Act is that charter reimbursement is to be fully funded now. Worcester's, at least, was not. That's wrong, and we should be clamoring about that to say the least. It's a core piece of the School Committee's fiduciary and advocacy responsibility to see that our reimbursements are fully funded.
The second piece of news is the school piece of a City Council item from December 5; tucked in among the finance items the night of the tax classification hearing was this memo (that link goes to the Council version) that creates, with an initial investment of $1M, of a school capital maintenance fund. As Mr. Allen outlines in his accompanying memo to the Worcester School Committee:
It is, of course, a longstanding need, but it has gone unrecognized til now, as the schools' capital funding has been level funding. It is the prioritization of school facilities under Dr. Monárrez and the collaboration with City Manager Batista which means we've finally moved beyond people talking about it, to something being done about it.
A hopeful beginning to the FY25 process in Worcester.
Last night was a LOT, and with two members having commitments as parents and it being the mayoral holiday rounds, we ran part of the Committee with just a quorum, which is unusual!
That's why, oh committee watchers, I was chairing; in the absence of both the chair and the vice-chair, the senior member chairs (and then hands off sequentially, which is why Molly McCullough chaired when I was speaking).
Dr. Monárrez's contract, as of the extension passed by the Committee this summer, goes through June 30. 2027
Mr. Allen's contract, as of the extension voted (and declined reconsideration) on by the Committee last night, goes through September 30, 2028 (school business officials are covered by MGL Ch. 71, sec. 41, and thus, like superintendents, can have contracts of up to six years)
Dr. Morse's contract, as of the extension voted (and declined reconsideration) on by the Committee last night, goes through June 30, 2027.
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.
Have I mentioned that it is budget season for Worcester? Happy budget season!
Our June sessions start at 4 with budget, run until about 6, when we break for executive session, then come back at 7 for the regular session, more or less. Here's the budget session.
And remember: the budget isn't done until the final bottom lines are voted. We may review an account and come back to it, if we still have questions or something new has come up.
Because we do budget over two sessions, two weeks apart, we do have the chance to ask questions that may require reports, as they can come back in the second session. As we started Thursday, I requested the following (taken straight from my notes):
My understanding is that there are changes in recommendations from administration since the book was printed; could we have those in writing, please.
If we could please have the relative levels of vacancy in:
Teaching positions
Paraprofessional positions
Wraparound coordinator positions
School psychologist positions
School adjustment counselor positions
Custodial positions
Maintenance service positions
We have not yet received the report requested to be received prior to budget on the realignment of the social emotional learning department; could we please have that information.
We’d requested updated school-by-school budgets, as those in the book do not have all expected-as-of-now assignments; if we could please have that ahead of taking the salary accounts, please.
I’d like a report, please, on what both the intent and the perceived need is for the additional position in communications, as that is not otherwise outlined.
We have as yet not received any information regarding the efficacy of the climate and culture positions, including the deans. If we could please have that, as there is a proposed expansion.
Mayor Petty decided to take athletics out of order--Athletic Director Dave Shea wanted to make the Doherty boys' volleyball post-season game against Chelsea (they won)--and thus we took both the non-salary and the salary accounts for athletics first. Member McCullough asked if the operational budget is adequate for supplying what the athletic teams actually need, noting that it comes up often in the community, where we also see a decent amount of fundraising. Mr. Shea affirmed that it was. Member Mailman asked where we could find the streaming services the School Committee voted to add this year; it's coming from the cable access funding, which Mr. Allen noted is a special revenue fund, which we (the Committee) don't allocate by cost center. I asked how MIAA dues is calculated (it's the number of teams) and track rental ($3400). Member Johnson followed up on Member McCullough's item (sent to budget so we'll hear about it at the next meeting) asking about athletic trainers, which were not included in this year's proposed budget. On athletic salaries, Member Clancey asked what sports were being added in middle schools; Mr. Shea said the schools were polled, and the middle schools all decided on flag football for both boys and girls. Volleyball, soccer, and basketball are already played in the middle school; Forest Grove does softball, baseball, and field hockey, as well, as club sports. On that last, I tried to poke a bit at this inequity, the result of parents being able to volunteer at Forest Grove (you can see this about 24 minutes in), which is a capacity lacked by most of our middle schools, and I'm not sure that I'm all that satisfied with the answers. I also asked how middle schoolers are included in high school sports teams (grades 7 and 8 at 7-12 schools can play on the teams; grade 8 can play on an associated 9-12 lowest level team IF there aren't cuts made to get them AND we get a waiver from MIAA ahead; the district applies for the waivers as a matter of course).
On retirement, Member Mailman asked a bit about how it is put together and how those increases come about; you can find some of this on page 157 of the budget. Mr. Allen noted this account has been going up consistently at a rate higher than inflation. The state requires that the city fully fund by 2038; the city is projecting that it will be done by 2032.
On transportation, Mayor Petty opened by commenting that it has been "very successful...you proved to be correct, Mr. Allen." This account is the non-salary side, which means many of these costs are going away, leading to my question of what is going to be left here once we've moved off stop gaps. Mr. Allen said we'll be continuing to have some out-of-district contract service, even as much of that moves in house; McKinney-Vento transportation is being moved in house, and out-of-district vocational, we are doing ourselves. The "stuff" of the final line in this account is dropping as the bus leases go away. Maintenance, fuel, and technology on the buses will continue to be here. Dr. Monárrez reminded Mayor Petty of the MASBO award just received as well:
The @worcesterpublic was recognized tonight by @MASBONet with the Donald Johnson Operational & Cost Efficiency Award for the successful move to full district-operated student transportation this year! Award comes with a $2,500 student scholarship. pic.twitter.com/TRnV7BrVx4
On health insurance, Mayor Petty commented that it wasn't going up that dramatically.
On workers' comp, there were no comments or questions.
On personal services, Member Johnson asked about security guards still being included; we'd discussed that this would be discussed as part of the safety audit, which hasn't yet come back. Mr. Allen said they hoped to have an update at the next meeting; administration wants to have the report back to make a recommendation. I noted that professional development has historically been underfunded, so it is good to see it increasing. I asked what the collaboration is with UMass Med is with the North quadrant that requires payment from us; I was told that the internship for the Ch. 74 program is what is being paid for; we're also going to get further information on that. I also raised the $35,000 that we are paying WEDF for publicity and alum services; Dr. Monárrez said that this is more alum services and "ability for them to have someone to have the ability to generate the funds." I'm just weirded out by this one. Member Mailman also wanted to clarify if it was UMass Med versus the hospital back on the North pipeline.
On special education tuition, Member Mailman did some division, coming up with $35,000/student for the collaborative and $55,000 for tuition (on average). Mr. Allen noted that some programs cost more than others, that this would be the average; circuit breaker gets applied against the out-of-district costs. Ms. Seale noted that we don't, for example, have a Deaf or hard of hearing program. I asked about the lesser impact of the increase in 766 tuition on Worcester (which jumped 14% statewide this year); Mr. Allen notes that we're serving fewer students through such placements. Ms. Seale also noted that students also had aged out.
On instructional materials, in an exchange that starts here, Member Clancey reminded us that the outline of the budget was providing an expected baseline for schools, "and my question is: is $75 per pupil enough?" Dr. Monárrez offered that she'd been told by the team that it is, but looking at it, she did wonder, since we haven't done a major increase and inflation has an impact. Member Clancey asked what "behavior monitoring software" is; Ms. Azarloza said that it was the Panorama universal screener being used for social emotional surveying, saying that it drills down to which student and which social emotional competencies they are. Member Clancey asked for more information on that, leading to a back and forth on what it was that was being referenced. Member Johnson said that he had the same comment on materials, as we had talked about it, and agreed it needed to be resolved. I agreed that "behavior monitoring software" was something we needed more information on, as that sounded ominous. I also agreed that the per pupil allocation needed to be looked at. I then made a motion, acknowledging that district-operated transportation was saving us money, to move $600,000 from transportation (salaries) to instructional materials, specifically to the line A, which is the per pupil allocation, which is about $25/pupil, thus bringing the allocation to $100/pupil. Mayor Petty asked where the money would come from; Mr. Allen said it would represent savings that was realized from last year, and that there was flexibility to make the transfer. Member Mailman then asked if we had targets on funding other categories with SOA dollars; if we're 50% through. Mr. Allen said (this matters, so you're getting a block quote):
In an ideal world, we would be closing those gaps in all areas, proportionately to the complete increase in our SOA money--that'd be the ideal world--but because of ESSER and CBRF and other monies that became available through the pandemic, a lot of money has been spent on Chromebooks and instructional materials through those other funding sources, which do not get credit in those charts, so, however, when those funds run out, we'll still then have--even though we'll have all these Chromebooks and all these textbooks--there'll still be technically a gap in relation to our SOA spending in instructional supplies and materials. So with three years remaining, we will be, through purchasing Chromebooks, through additional textbooks that may come of need, and through increases in per pupil money, those are ways that I would see us over the next three years closing that gap, whether completely or not, that will kind of pan out as we get into the FY25, '26, and '27 budgets.
Member Mailman asked if asking for a three year, rest of the budget, would it be appropriate? Mr. Allen said that he thought it would be the administration's desired state as well, but if we're still adding special education positions greater than the SOA increase, still seeing employee benefits and fixed charges increasing at greater than the inflation rate, and we're still spending at foundation, then we won't get there. There need to be adjustments, but that won't happen until SOA is done and the foundation budget is being reconsidered. Mailman said as a school committee member, her confusion is how this relates to longer term. Allen said, they're agreeing; by half through SOA, we'd hope to be halfway closing the gap, but we won't be due to special education and benefits and fixed charges. Mailman asked where the biggest challenges are, if he knew offhand; instructional materials, professional development, to which Allen added operations and maintenance. Member Kamara wanted to know more about the behavioral monitoring software, as well; Mayor Petty noted that a request for a report had already been done, and reminded the Committee that nothing is done until the full budget is done. Kamara also asked about the transfer, wanted to understand "the deficit being done" through money being moved. Mr. Allen said that administration did not have any hesitation or objection to the transfer request, that it could be done with no impact on transportation services. The transfer passed unanimously.
Miscellaneous Ed OM has many things in it, including Worcester's MASC dues, which goes to pay my salary, from which I thus need to recuse myself. I asked if we had any information about Worcester Future Teachers is creating future teachers; Ms. Perez said WPS would like to see that, but we don't necessarily know that. I then asked about rental of space, and what the process is on weighing of rental spaces; some of rented spaces and some don't. I also asked about being realistic and clear on travel costs, which support professional development in some cases. Member Mailman asked why instructional technology is less than last year; Mr. Allen said it was Chromebooks coming off of lease, as presented at F&O a few months ago. Dr. Kyriazis said that the leases are being started over time so there isn't a huge single cost, with continued replenishment of supplies. Member Mailman asked about renting space; some of the space at Northeast Cutoff is the computer techs office (Nutrition, Facilities, and Transportation is also there). Mailman asked what the longer term game plan was for leases and if the city decided to sell any of our buildings, how would that be impacted. Allen said that those are the conversations that were started with the City Manager; a long term of plan for buildings, uses of space, leases of space, uses of Becker buildings, to decide if we need to continue some leases or end them. He believes we could have a more comprehensive plan over the next year for use of buildings. Mailman also asked if all vocational programs were a member of Skills USA; Allen said he'd have to check, but the increase is that the district is covering that cost for the school rather than it coming out of per pupil funding.
On unemployment compensation, Member Mailman asked about expected for this year versus projected; Allen said this is based on historical use, but that close attention would be paid in quarterly reports.
On building utilities, I said I hoped that I'd live to see line C, which is number two fuel oil, finally go away (we're down to JUST the building at Foley Stadium, now that we're no longer at St. Casimir!). I asked what "reallocating net metering costs" meant (that's part of how they balanced the budget). WPS, in addition to net metering credits from the solar arrays we have over our parking lots and on some rooftops, gets credits from the solar array at the former city landfill (you can see it from Route 146); Mr. Allen said it was a reallocation of some of those credits being referenced. I also asked if the city has yet gotten a new natural gas contract; the projected 35% change is reflective of the continued volatility of the market.
On facilities, Member Mailman noted the significant increase; Mr. Allen said it was a deliberate attempt "maybe not as much as we should have" to add money to facilities maintenance to fix the schools. Mailman asked for the connection with the capital budget; Allen said the cutoff was $150,000. Mailman said "this is a purposeful attempt to do better." Allen agreed. Mailman asked if we'd see greater detail in our upcoming F&O meetings. Allen said these funds are for not only doing the emergency repairs but do the repairs that are flagged ahead; to be proactive and do active maintenance. He said he thinks there are 6000 outstanding SchoolDude requests; they're prioritized by greatest need. Rich Ikonen, our new facilities director, was introduced by Dr. Monárrez, who noted that he'd stepped into a big task, and said that they had great confidence. I echoed the Mayor's comment that this was more money that had been budgeted in past, while still not coming close to what we know is necessary. I did ask about the $1.7M specific to schools, that it isn't going to lessen attention elsewhere; it's increasing school based requests, Allen said, without taking away. I said that measuring ourselves against foundation isn't necessarily going to be useful, as it doesn't take into account two decades of an underfunding capital and an underfunded maintenance budget does to actual need. Allen noted, as the superintendent had Tuesday, that just from 2019, what was deemed inoperable was $70M of repairs in our schools, so we'd have to clear that backlog, and then we'd need to be doing "way more preventative maintenance," but that isn't something we're going to approach in SOA. I said that it would only be of use in going back to the state. I then asked about the $1M in filters as ongoing as part of the upkeep of larger modern systems in our new buildings; Allen said upkeep of the modern systems was partially included here, but that the $1M in filters would need to be added to the general fund, as it is in ESSER this year.
and then we recessed to executive session. The budget gets picked up with salary accounts on June 15.
I'm not taking any notes on this, but here's a note you'll need:
"how can we work together as a city...to go to the state and say 'we want to find a solution that can work' and we need to do this together to find something that can work."
Colorio: asks what enrollment is "it looks like we haven't been at 24,318 in over a decade" argues that the numbers don't bear out an enrollment increase; which Allen notes our forecasting does Colorio: how many new teachers? 75 How many new administrators? "the net increase is five" Colorio: can you run down recent investments we've made in the schools in various areas? McGourthy: don't necessarily have a comprehensive list with that, the city carries debt; $15M capital debt service (as a reminder, that is three cents of every dollar) Colorio asks where the teachers are going
Russell: task hanging over the whole city's head as well as the day to day operations, "from what I can see she's doing a great job" "but that being said, it's not secret that I've been advocating for things for district 3 for a long time" "I want to be perfectly clear that I'm not trying to micromanage anything" in city government "relaying concerns" from neighborhood "but the question is where do we go...the question is could we doing something on a temporary basis" "how many times do we look at a Parks Department construction...and get on a path to where we can correct these items" going to request a detail report about traffic concerns has asked the principal, Mr. Allen, Mr. Hacker...for what it's going to take to rectify the traffic and parking around Roosevelt and Burncoat Details around where the $3.5M would go "and if that's the case, that's the case..." "is there anything we can do on temporary basis" asks if there is anything in the budget addressing these issues Allen: looking at different options that wouldn't be those in the full ideal solution for the school Russell: is there anything temporary thing, leasing spaces Allen: can certainly look at that: believe the issue is the traffic loop and not the parking per se Russell: elevate issues, look at options "if we're going to put a number in multi-millions in the parking issue, it's probably not going to see the top of the pile" Worcester East Middle School: how are we going with that? Allen: cost of window replacement is for any window deemed to be inoperable "where we will have funding struggles is where the project cost will trigger ADA upgrades" Russell: how much is it? Allen: will know when it fills that Gap Russell: have you considered applying for a waver? Allen: has been discussed Russell: is the district going to spend the money on something else Allen: the district is committed to doing the windows at Worcester East Middle Russell: have there been specific asks? Monárrez: have to come together and look at all of our needs Look at enrollment changes "need to work closer with each other on all of the work" "We need to have a strategy to ask our state to have other ways of funding districts as large as Worcester" "a building will get to a point where the MSBA won't consider an accelerate repair" for a building because it is too run down Allen: "MSBA has told us that Worcester East Middle is a core replacement" Monárrez: funds one core project at a time Russell: "I agree with the superintendent, it's clearly something we need to work together on" "what generation are we going to be talking about when we're building a new East Middle School" and apply that to several others Petty: seven millions sitting there...asks what one million in bonding gets us I have no idea what he's talking about here McGourthy: one million gets us ten million Petty: I think working together we can get through this
Toomey: thanks superintendent had a thought to use Stop and Shop parking lots which would mean even more students would walk across the street safety audit: wondering when the Council will see them Monárrez: once received, it will be shared with the School Committee, which will then make it public "perhaps available at our July meeting or August" Toomey: asking about fire alarm replacement and cameras (she's reading the capital budget) Allen: those have been ongoing projects that we've been dealing with as they come up expect these and others to be addressed in the findings training, policies, practices, protocols Toomey: repairs to Claremont front entrance paving...could you let us know what that entails Allen: Claremont walkway and driveway has been unusable for some years; has taken this long to get into the capital budget Toomey: notice that fuel oil is going down due to Allen: still working through RFP process Toomey: there's an increase in rent and quizzes both understand that there is a dedicated gas station and how does funding work Allen: Pullman Street, gas comes through the city Toomey: are you using municipal aggregation? Allen: have net metering credits; will defer to the ctiy Toomey: can I get a detailed list of administrators and salaries? Petty doesn't vote the request
Rivera: excited to see an increase of wraparound coordinators overdue to look at a building maintenance plan "what might have needed a bandaid needs surgery...it's really an equity issue" concerned to see UPCS roof as late a date as that Allen: most of the projects before this were windows, and now are roofs "have to do bandaids until they get accepted into MSBA" (assuming they bring the program back) Rivera: are we looking at growth for schools? new housing by Canterbury, by Chandler are we prepared, are we looking for the growth of children coming into these schools? Monárrez: exactly what City Manager and I have spoken about a few times housing development we know about, what is coming, so we're not waiting til our schools are bursting Rivera: UPCS not equipped for any type of physical limitations also concerned about our playgrounds: getting outdoors hard if in the schools we don't even have that capability Woodland has to take turns going out; "definitely a huge equity issue" Allen: working with some community organizations to look at Woodland the challenge there is the lack of space beyond what is on the footprint the parking lot but creates traffic and parking issues don't have a solution at this time Rivera: these things weren't looked at when these spaces were created vocational education: hope to shift it shortage in the workforce questions equity in AP access at Claremont and UPCS have there been conversations with other colleges like Clark does Monárrez: continuum of college and career a position now formalizing some of these agreements that have been happening, now from district level Rivera: work on diversity, equity, and inclusion refugee population, including unaccompanied minors speaks of a family that had a disheartening experience with a school have seen labels put on our kids "under the right administration, these kids just fly" Monárrez: thank for sharing story as part of the restructuring this school year, based on what the families said and best practice hired directors of family and community engagement very early on in conversation: what is WPS going to do for the needs for social justice "will continue to train up people" Chief Diversity Officer was to diversify workforce; moving forward, position has been reworked but will as Chief Equity Officer will be "guardian of equity" ensuring leading though an equity lens training up leaders including on unconscious biases equity doesn't sit with one person
King: last comments are music to my ears talk a little bit about any cost savings that were realized has cost savings on transporation been quantified? Allen: about 3 and a half million a year some put back into transportation for service improvements King: families having piece of mind looking forward to you guys being able to experience that daughter at Chandler Magnet wondering if there is any cost savings due to La Familia merging into Chandler Mag Allen: saving the lease cost and the cost of a principal (if looked at in isolation) King: ADA upgrades issue of equity: support Fair Share amendment "is there any sort of calculus going on or strategy currently in play for the cityside and schoolside to work on access to that funding?" Batista: currently no strategy, but that would be a conversation King: have heard a little about capital funding, increases of SOA, ESSER, city contribution increase "incumbent upon us...there are times we have to intersect to advocate for our kids" what sort of staffing and costs will there be for the Chief Diversity Officer? Monárrez: there right now are budgeted for four additional coaches, $350K King: want to talk about administrative positions outside of schools, we know waitlists for clinical resources good to see nurses, psychologists those infrastructure, coping positions, impact the public health outside "that comes from this administration and the School Committee" Worcester Tech "had become a prep school": concern about equity of access Rec Worcester: school side took on some of that, as I recall what that amount is McGourthy: WPS provided support for Rec Worcester programs going on in their buildings believe that is the number that is carried within the WPS budget itself during the pandemic, that changed Allen: on school side, it was $100, 000; now not allocating funds King: not sure what happened with earmarks Batista: trying to sustain and support what we were currently doing expanded too fast without the structure in place to support it King: expect some sort of intersection next school year Batista: currently focusing on summer; next year would be part of conversation with superintendent and youth office King: safety audit asks what happened with prior safety audit a couple of years ago Allen: the recommendations were not adopted one of the reasons that we needed to reengage at this point King: push for clinical support Monárrez: four different providers in schools ESSER funding; then SOA will come into play King: resources for mental health for youth in community Batista: ARPA dollars million dollars for crisis response team Shannon dollars for preventative measures and intervention work think Rec Worcester itself is such a program King: how many dollars are we providing over required, if you take into account the loan, OPEB contribution...(this isn't a thing) is there a round number you can give me McGourthy: FY24: $124M; city is contributing $138M; debt service of $15M; doesn't include OPEB contribution "there's not one clean number...when you look at it "upwards of $30M above the required contribution...but because of the required contribution, that is expected to be $1.5M above required" King: former city manager would decide a certain number of dollars over net school spending "and he would hang his hat on that" Batista: am familiar, $1M, depending on resources King: free cash, have in past given funding "for books" (when? what?) When was the last time? Batista: just done in October King: once that goes over, the School Committee figures out what to do with that? Batista: that's correct King: kudos on middle school coaches city has a lot of competing issues appreciate joint committee last Monday; looking forward how we can all do better together "I think Roosevelt is unique"
Petty: long night, where the issues are "especially for the city to put more money into schools" commend superintendent for the infrastructure you've put into place
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