Worcester parents, CPPAC is meeting

First meeting: October 6, Fanning Building, 24 Chatham Street

CPPAC is the Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council, run by parents for parents; by charter (and by theory), they have representation from every school in the city. 

 They are not, unlike some other options in Worcester, selected by administration, nor is the agenda set by anyone other than those gathering. Their first meeting will be "to review the mission of CPPAC, introduce the new executive board members, and come together as a community to identify our priorities and goals for this school year. We need caregiver involvement to ensure that CPPAC is the powerful agent for advocacy that it can be, so we hope to see you there."

While it has had its highs and lows of effectiveness, I recommend attending. Per the invite:

Interpretation services will be provided in Spanish and Portuguese, childcare is available, and pizza will be served! If you need interpretation services in languages other than Spanish and Portuguese, please let us know by Friday, October 2nd, 2026. 

No CPPAC in Worcester tonight

...and it's not clear what happened with the State of the Schools...

The CPPAC meeting scheduled for tonight has been postponed until next Wednesday, November 20th from 7 to 8:30 PM at Worcester Technical High School. https://t.co/1zTBoEoQHS

— Worcester Schools (@worcesterpublic) November 13, 2019

Yes, this notification went out this afternoon. Not a great deal of care for families' time there. 

The website description now has this of what is happening next week:

The CPPAC will meet with representatives of the Worcester Public Schools about the Portrait of a Graduate Project that the district has undertaken. This is a year-long collaborative effort to determine the skills, aptitudes and attitudes that will be vital for all WPS graduates to be successful throughout their lives. This work will involve educators researching the rapidly changing economy and world and will also ask a wide-variety of stakeholders for their perspectives. This meeting will give us an opportunity to hear directly from parents what they feel is most important for their children now and in the future. 

No liveblog from me on that; I already have a meeting scheduled. 

Worcester Citywide Parent group calendar for the year

For those who don't get the CPPAC emails, the first meeting is tomorrow night, and here's the calendar for the rest of the year:

• October 16th Parent Agenda Items and Open Time for Candidates for School Committee to speak
• November 13th State of the Schools Address at Durkin Administration Building, 20 Irving Street Worcester, MA 01606 5:30-8:30 PM 
• January 8th Guest speaker Sarah Kyriazis presenting on Technology Plan 
• March 11th Guest speaker Brian Allen presenting the on Budget 
• May 13th Guest speakers Dr. O’Neil and Superintendent Binienda presenting on the year end review

November is interesting: there hasn't been a State of the Schools in some time.
Also, not the fault of CPPAC, but at least two of the comprehensive high schools are having their parents' nights tomorrow. 

Worcester Public Schools FY20 at CPPAC

I tweeted a few things out:

Thread by @TracyNovick: "Periodic tweeting as warranted from the @worcesterpublic @WorcCPPAC meeting on FY20 at @WorcesterArt @worcesterpublic @WorcCPPAC @WorcesterA […]" #PROMISE #FBRC #toGoogle

Worcester Citywide Parent group schedule for the year

It looks as though CPPAC (the Worcester Citywide Parent Planning and Advisory Council) is moving to a mostly every-other-month, administration speaker schedule. Here are the dates for the year (including tonight) from the email I received yesterday:

• October 10th: Guest speaker (Manager for Instruction and School Leadership) Marie Morse presenting on New Literacy Curriculum and Assessment
• November 14th: Guest speaker (Director of English Language Learners and Community Engagement) Carmen Melendez presenting on ELL Programs
• December: OFF
• January 9th: Guest speaker (Manager of Instructional Technology and Digital Learning) Sarah Kyriazis presenting on the new Website
• February: OFF
• March 13th: Guest speaker (Chief Financial and Operations Officer) Brian Allen presenting on the FY20 budget
• April: OFF
• May 8th: Guest speakers (Deputy Superintendent) Dr. (Susan) O’Neil and Superintendent (Maureen) Binienda presenting on the year end recap and plans for the future

Meetings are at 7pm at the Worcester Art Museum (in the education wing; go in from Lancaster Street). 

CPPAC hears about the strategic plan on Wednesday

Last night, families received a connect-ed, letting us know that the citywide parent group CPPAC willl be hearing from the Rennie Center on Wednesday night about the strategic plan. CPPAC meets at 7 pm at the Worcester Art Museum.

Note that there is again no mention of interpretation or childcare. Plus, the art museum is not on public transit (it's a hike to get there from most bus lines).

I can't go because Burncoat is having a session on financial aid that night. If you go, take notes! Also, I've received notice from the Attorney General's office that they've received my Open Meeting Law complaint. 

It appears that Worcester CPPAC meets tonight

A Connect-Ed last night announced that the citywide parent group in Worcester, CPPAC, is meeting tonight at 7 pm at the Worcester Art Museum. Superintendent Binienda will be there, and there was mention of an update on the strategic plan.

I won't be there, as I have another event to be at tonight. CPPAC has for years met on the second Wednesday, so I (like, I imagine, others) had last week marked off. Twenty-four hours notice isn't enough. 

City Manager Augustus and Superintendent Binienda at CPPAC

at least nominally on budget, but we'll see where the questions go...

Supt Binienda: FY17 adopted budget $322M; FY18 recommended $334M
not including grants
increase of over 3%
"foundation budget is really well below what we need for what we need to do."
runs through account by account increases
notes special education increases, translation (which is hard to project and legally required)...
"process we have is a really great process": resource allocation meetings
principals meet with their schools, fill out resource allocation form, meet with district managers
each school has an hour to an hour and half to make their case
priority 1, 2, 3
"try to fill priority 1 for this year"
were able to fill all priority 1 for this year

Worcester school meetings this week

and there are a few...
The Governance and Employee Issues subcommittee meets on Wednesday at 5:30. Of note at this meeting: they're reviewing the student handbook--which suggests no substantive changes--and section I of the district policy manual (that's Instruction)--which I also don't see anything to raise eyebrows on--with one exception: they're about to let vocational students out of the two years of foreign language requirement ('though that's only in the handbook, not in the policy manual...and the two should agree). That would mean that students who don't complete that requirement would be ineligible for admission to (for example) UMass, which is why the MassCore requirements (including the two years of language) were adopted.
They're also hearing about collaboration around the Byrne Criminal Justice grant and discussion of municipal governance and of registering students to vote.

On Wednesday night, the final CPPAC meeting of the year is 7 pm at the Worcester Art Museum, and the guest speakers are Superintendent Binienda and City Manager Augustus to talk about the budget. A good time to ask questions...

The School Committee picks up budget again at 4pm on Thursday. The sequence of accounts is here, and they left off with security guards. There's a lot left to get through. If past experience is a guide, they'll go as far as they can til 6, recess to executive session, come back at 7 for the regular meeting, and pick up budget again once they've completed the regular meeting.

The regular meeting has a LOT of recognitions.
The report of the superintendent is on the ALICE security protocol, which includes training students and staff to fight intruders, rather than lockdown. The presentation is here. It appears, from the presentation, that the administration adopted this protocol without a school committee vote or any public notice.

There are also responses to motions made during and surrounding the budget deliberation two weeks ago: the motion on non-fulfillment of transportation, on leasing buses, on the wall by Tatnuck Magnet School, on Seven Hills charter school and WRTA grant-funded transportation, on McKinney-Vento transportation reimbursment (36% last year), on the Foley Stadium revolving fund, on graduation expenses, on what the crew team needs, on the repair of athletic equipment, and on athletic supplies purchased.

Mr. O'Connell is proposing having public meetings and hearings as part of the development of the new South High School.

He also wants to discuss departmental consolidation with the city.

He also is suggesting two meetings a month in summer (continuing the regular year schedule) and an additional meeting in months that have a fifth Thursday.

Miss McCullough is asking for a report on itinerant special education staff caseloads, specifically referencing Boston, and also a report on "what, if any, orientation, training or ongoing professional development is provided by special education department leadership to principals, as it relates to itinerant special education staff."

The committee is being asked to accept a donation of $19.10 for classroom books, of $1000 for SAT for seniors, of $1000 for a scholarship (due to Mr. Allen's award), of $676 for special education transitions, of $250 for the alternative program (from an award they won!), of $660 from Intel, and of $13,000 from the Quinsigamond Village Improvement Council for equipment. They're also being asked to vote a prior year invoice of $585 and invoices of $7695.

Mr. Foley is suggesting the following:

To ask the Mayor and the Superintendent to develop a new approach to the School Committee agenda that will make the meetings more effective, productive, and deliberative. Suggestions would include the establishment of a consent agenda for items such as routine approvals of donations and recognitions, the development of criteria for recognitions, designated meetings for honoring recipients of recognitions, and the presence on the agenda at each meeting or every other meeting an important educational policy issue facing Worcester Public Schools that school committee members would learn about (through materials distributed prior to the meeting) and discuss with administrators at the meeting.

There is an executive session scheduled for 6 pm on a grievance, contract negotiations with the teachers' union and with non-represented personnel (both non-administrative and administrative), and:

To authorize the Superintendent to negotiate an employment contract for Susan O’Neil, Ph.D. as the Deputy Superintendent, effective July 1, 2017.

...which I assume means that the committee voted in favor of the hire?

FY18 Worcester Schools budget at CPPAC

FY18 is being discussed at CPPAC tonight.
Posting as we go. 
Looks like the presentation is this one.

Brian Allen: first look at budget from Governor's budget; school budget (and city budget) come from House budget
school side "not anticipating many changes" from Governor's budget
enrollment changes--"up significantly from last year"--and low inflation factor
certain costs continue to exceed normal inflation (what's normal inflation?)
school resource needs are "significant and urgent but exceed available revenue"
"our challenge for the next six weeks is to essentially prioritize"

"we're a foundation aid community" one of only 92 districts
(growing demographics is rare in the state)
continued low inflation rate
Governor's budget acknowledges health insurance gap (per FBRC) by $66M ('though $16M is state funding)
$935,000 underfunding for Worcester alone in charter school reimbursement and special education circuit breaker projected for this coming year (subsequently: $635,000 of that is charter reimbursement)

have same number of students as we had in 2003, but eight fewer schools to put them in

To a Q about per pupil spending, "Newton is spending that much...because that's what it takes" pointing to the need for overhaul in the foundation budget

ELL students went down in 729 because the state's guidelines changed (and now have changed, somewhat, back)
economically disadvantaged students is up 543
employee benefits up by $1.7M; "but our gap is almost $30M"
inflation factor is only up 1.1%

city's contribution is only going up by $227,515
in total WPS budget revenue going up by $9M...which is almost identical to how much the WPS Ch.70 is increasing by
level service budget goes up by $10.6M or 3.3%

Q as to what the appetite is for increasing taxes at city "so we're funding locally the way that other communities are"
Rosen..."not much appetite for raising taxes" on City Council
Q on city at a dollar value has gone up over the past years
"for the last six years, we were below the foundation level...this is the first year we're above the required level"
most of that is carryover, "so next year, we'll be above for the first time in years

House budget comes out April 12
FY18 WPS budget comes out May 12

A few Worcester notes

A few things from this past week...

CPPAC, the Citywide Parent Planning and Advisory Council, is meeting September 14 at 7 at Chandler Magnet. As is customary, the superintendent will be at this meeting.

Class size made the T&G this weekend, with Scott O'Connell quoting my tweet from last Monday. It's worth noting that (as Melissa Brady pointed out) this is both a secondary and elementary issue, and it has yet to make it into anything that has been discussed at School Committee. When I spoke with Deb Daigle from WGBH about this over the weekend, I pointed out that (you guessed it!) Worcester is at least 660 teachers short under the failure of the state to reconsider the foundation budget. This isn't just a Worcester issue, and it isn't going to go away until the state fixes the formula.

Did you catch the contradiction between the implementation of the cell phone policy and the intent? At least some of the schools are emphasizing the draconian crackdown consequences under the revised cell phone policy, whereas the technological intent was in the article from earlier in the week: "is allowing high school students to have greater access to their smartphones during the school day this upcoming year," in other words, a Bring Your Own Device policy. How much the fearful response to the cell phones of kids is out of step with other districts is illustrated by this blog post on in-school use of social media by students by the Assistant Superintendent of Burlington, though the examples are myriad. These are the kids that our kids are going to "compete" with (that's what we're supposed to worry about, right?) once they've left the Worcester Public Schools. It's a shame that the policy implementation is so far out of step with best practice. Instead, it appears, the School Committee is going to spend time of the discredited conspiracy theory of the dangers of wifi.

Scheduled Know Your School Nights have been posted on the district calendar.

And while this post from me went up before I heard the suggestion about how Worcester should pay for summer school: yes, it's entirely relevant.

CPPAC tonight: testing

starting with presentation on testing from WPS admin
Perda: not really a great year to look at results, first of two year test drive in which stuck with MCAS and others tried PARCC

CPPAC: DA's office and school safety

that eventually segued, as it so often does, into budget

CPPAC

Superintendent Boone:
look forward to being here in September and talk about what's exciting and connect with you
throughout the year, members of the district leadership team will be here
CPPAC expo: see programs showcased, give parents a chance to see what's going on
"Great opening of schools"
today was tenth day of school
had heat issues last week as well as this week: principals pay attention to the conditions; water available to all students;
situations in particular schools with windows being replaced
use DPH guidelines on heat and humidity: have never reached that
have had uncomfortable areas
"if we send the students home, we send them in many cases to conditions similar to where they were leaving"
very pleased with what's happening in our schools
monitoring enrollment numbers: enrollment increases after Labor Day
look at enrollment by classroom and by school
report to SC next year on general trend on enrollment
MSBA projects done this summer: West Tatnuck, Clark Street, Union Hill
windows still left to be done at Goddard being done overnight and evening
"see what a real difference that new windows and doors make"
Community Eligibility program: free lunch and breakfast to every child in WPS
encourage your children to participate in this program
balances will be refunded if you like
we are in this for several years; USDA supported
free and reduced lunch status used for many things
working on the quality of our meals; hired a chef last year to work on food quality
school safety: schools are safe
things sometimes happen in our schools
headlines in our schools unfortunately grow legs and tentacles and take a life their own
broad view of safety (as heat, above)
only shift was end of last year was deployment of police liaisons
in conversation with the national school resource officer association
they are not there as armed sentries, not as first line
support school administration when called upon
two additional officers for 7-12 schools and middle schools
"very exciting with what has happened with our liaisons"
school safety audit: review policies, practices, and procedures to see what we're doing well and where there are gaps
we have a number of steps in place
date has closed on RFPs, then reviews take place
15 of our schools (1/3) will be reviewed; schools in every segment and type
all to be reviewed
addressing safety in a broad based and authorative manner
IB school: leadership position is posted, will be named soon
International Baccalaureate program to be put in place
Still figuring out where to put it for now; affiliated with Doherty, still looking at space options
FY16: delegation aided us in returning the Quality Kindergarten grant, funding 22 of our IAs in kindergarten
balanced budget based on enrollment growth
"do we have everything we need? Absolutely not."
end of staffing that we held for enrollment
waiting for Foundation Budget Review Commission coming out in November
what will they recommend to the Governor and Legislature
"strongly urge you to stay tuned into the Foundation Budget Review Commission"
will take voice of parents to push that
Central Mass Recovery High School: opiate issue is not demographic specific
only region of the state that did not have a recovery high school was central Mass
took at long time for the state to issue the RFR
opened on August 26 the first recovery high school
students to suggest some names for the school
ribbon cutting coming this fall
"not one of those places where if you slip, we put you out"
going back into the recovery mode
a health crisis, see it across all demographics
opiate addiction through athletic injury and availability in the home
majority of students enrolled have been through organizations providing care or direct referral by families

CPPAC note: it always meets the second Wednesday of the month at 7 pm. Generally meetings are at the Worcester Public Library. For October, however, CPPAC will be hosting a forum for the candidates for School Committee, place TBA.

First CPPAC meeting of the year!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is the first Citywide Parent Planning and Advisory Council meeting. It's at 7 pm at the Worcester Public Library and you don't have to be a parent to attend! This is a citywide gathering of parents and community members from Worcester's public schools.
Tomorrow night to open the year, Superintendent Boone is the guest speaker.
Join us!

I usually blog these, but I'm coming from one of my children's Know Your School Nights, so I'm going to be late. I'll blog once I'm there.

CPPAC Wednesday

Quick reminder that CPPAC meets Wednesday at 7pm at the library. Superintendent Boone is their guest speaker: updates on budget, the Advanced Academy, the recovery school, and the like!

I have an MASC meeting, so I won't be there, but do attend!

Governance report

Regarding "school of choice"

• give schools a chance to present on Ch 11
• create a video for realtors
• asking for time of next survey
• asking for open houses for grade 5
• highlighting successes on Ch 11 and a quadrant newsletter (which we received the first edition of today)

regarding Title I parent council

• requesting parent organizations and parent involvement at CPPAC

regarding H3793

• letter of support going to administration

regarding social media policy

• passed as amended

A few notes from CPPAC

The citywide parent group met last night (by coincidence, at Chandler Magnet). Most of the meeting was taken up with discussion of the WPS FY16 budget, as Mr. Allen was there for his annual presentation. A few notes from the meeting:

• The Parent Expo will be held at WPI this year on May 2. This is a great place to get information about different WPS programs and other programs in the community. Please plan to come! 
• A reminder that you can still send in comments to the Foundation Budget Review Commission! 
• Regarding the budget: you can see the PowerPoint above, or look at my notes from the School Committee presentation or my summary. A few things that were new to me as of last night:  because state Chapter 70 aid is going up by $104M, and Worcester's Chapter 70 aid going up by $10M, we're getting 10% of the increase (Yes, that's obvious math, but I hadn't done it.) Key point: THE AID GOES UP BECAUSE THE NEED DOES. 
• Also, because the city's contribution usually goes up by between $3M and $4M, this year's increase of $1.66M is smaller than projected; thus this is an opportunity not to be missed for the city to make up ground on their underfunding education. 
• Finally, the parents had a good discussion on their priorities which included class size, secondary electives, technology and IT support staff, instructional materials, facilities materials and spending, science labs...they'll be sending it out to School Committee and I'll share once I have it. Related reminder: the School Committee sets FY16 priorities TONIGHT. Get in touch!

Meetings and events next week

Lots of meetings of note next week!

• On Monday night at 6pm, we have the quarterly meeting of the Finance and Operations subcommittee. You can find that agenda (just posted) here. On it is our quarterly finance update and transfers as required. This is where the FY15 budget cuts hits the WPS budget, so this isn't going to be pretty. We also have the MSBA statements of interest for this year. That also includes an updated facilities report, per Ms. Biancheria's request. We also have the various auditors coming in. And we're considering the transportation bids.  Lots of important stuff there; that meeting is at the Durkin Administration Building, 4th floor.
• On Tuesday night, the Worcester Public Schools Fine and Performing Arts Departments host their annual "Meet the Artist" night at the spring festival of the arts at the Worcester Public Library downtown. That starts at 5:30pm.
• On Wednesday night at 7pm, CPPAC is holding their monthly meeting. This month it's at Chandler Magnet School on Chandler Street (across from Worcester State). The presentation this month is on the FY16 budget with a presentation something like this one by Mr. Allen. This is your chance to come and ask questions (per request, another post to follow on what we know so far);  I would really urge people to attend this.
• On Thursday night at 7pm, the Worcester School Committee meets at City Hall. The agenda on that will be posted tomorrow afternoon. 
• On Friday morning, the Worcester School Committee is hosting a Legislative Breakfast with our delegation; as it will be a quorum of the School Committee deliberating matters under our purview, it is a posted public meeting. That's at 9 am in the Harrington Room at Worcester Tech.

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, March 5

Yes, two in a row, due to the February calendar.
You can find the agenda here; we also have a supplemental, which is just sending the bus bids off to the March 16 F&O meeting for consideration.
We're recognizing our Posse Scholars this week!
We have a communication coming in from the EAW regarding the new fingerprinting law.

The report of the Superintendent this week is the first FY16 budget estimates. Note that the Governor's budget is set to come out the day before, on March 4 (which is why there's no backup on this item as yet). If you can't make the meeting this week,  Mr. Allen will be at CPPAC on March 11 at 7 pm at Chandler Magnet with the same presentation (or a similar one).

We have a response from administration on Constitution Day activities.
We have a response from administration regarding the CSX funds.
We have a response from administration regarding the Betty Curtis Young Writers' Conference.
We have an item on the auditors' reports which we're sending off to F&O, to discuss at the same March 16 meeting.
Mr. Monfredo has asked that we congratulate the Valentine's Day contest winners.
Ms. Biancheria is asking for an update on North High.
We're being asked to accept a donation of $45.05 for Tatnuck Magnet School.
I have an item congratulating WPS on the second reception of the Meritorious Budget award!
I've asked that parents receive the specific dates their children are scheduled to take PARCC or MCAS.
I've also asked that we get some information on the impact the changes in vocational school regulations passed last week by the Board of Ed will have on admission to Worcester Tech.
Finally, administration is requesting authority to enter a 10 year lease agreement with the YMCA. Jacob Hiatt uses their gym and some parking spaces.