What happened at the December 7 Worcester School Committee meeting

 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). 

Also, it appears the T&G is going to do a terrible job covering this meeting, so I guess it's up to us again.

Note that the agenda is over here.

Jack Foley recognized

Among those recognized with MASC Life Membership last week at the MASC Joint Conference was former Worcester School Committee member Jack Foley. I just wanted to share what was said about Jack there:

Jack Foley’s 22 years of service on the Worcester School Committee were an exemplar of, as the MASC Code of Ethics states, school committee service as “means of unselfish service with no intent to ‘play politics’ in any sense of the word or to benefit personally from their Committee activities.” 

Jack’s service to the larger Worcester Public Schools community began with his co-chairing, with eventual Secretary of Education Paul Reville, the successful city override vote of June 1991. That vote, two years before the McDuffy decision, was a marker of the needs on not only Worcester’s children, but the state’s children, for which Jack would continue his work on Worcester’s school committee. 

His service was always to those most marginalized, his focus always on the otherwise unheard. His leadership in committee work on school finance made him a trusted voice in the decade’s long work to reform the school funding system, 25 years after McDuffy. 

His professional career was as an administrator at Clark University in Worcester. In that capacity he was instrumental in helping to organize the first of MASC’s Poverty and Equity Summits, which Clark hosted. 

He is recognized for his work with other MASC leaders in focusing on equity and services for students and their families and for modeling the best in local elective public service.

Jack will receive this award at a December Worcester School Committee meeting. 

A word on the position of vice chair on the Worcester School Committee

 With a new school committee will come the election of a vice chair, as the Worcester School Committee (unlike the Worcester City Council, for whom the vice chair is the mayoral candidate who came in second whilst also winning an at-large council seat) elects its own vice chair. 

This past term, of course, our vice chair has been Jermaine Johnson. While Jermaine did come in first in the at-large race in November of 2021, his election was a recognition of the historic nature of his taking the seat, as the first Black man to serve on the Worcester School Committee.

In the 2020-21 term, the vice chair was Jack Foley. Jack had also come in first in the election of 2019 (recall that Brian O'Connell's name was on the ballot, but he died in October), but Jack, we also knew, was retiring after his decades of service to the district, and thus was elected to the position.

In both cases, at least part of the consideration was also the power of the vice chair under most city school committees, and now under Worcester's, to work with the superintendent to set the agenda, and to ensure that the Committee fulfills its legal obligation to meet with the Student Advisory Council every other month. While this rule change only was implemented in this (2022-23) term, the revamping of the rules began in the 2020-21 term, to ensure that the Worcester School Committee was (finally) reforming itself in light of the critique of the Committee's lack of adherence to its business in the Comprehensive District Review of 2017 by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

Prior to these two terms, the tradition--though this was not in the rules--was for the position to rotate among members. As the position of vice chair prior to this term had no authority beyond chairing the meeting in the absence of the mayor, considerations such as the ability of the vice chair to work with all members and with the superintendent, the knowledge the vice chair had of the role, purview and authority of the school committee, and the temperament of the vice chair did not play into the decision.

The recent history of the position is as follows: 

2019: Molly McCullough
2018: Jack Foley (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2017)
2017: Dianna Biancheria
2016: Brian O'Connell (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2015)
2015: Dianna Biancheria 
2014: John Monfredo (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2013)
2013: Jack Foley
2012: me (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2011 by 11 votes)
2011: Brian O'Connell 
2010: Jack Foley (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2009)

Worcester budget input sessions

This only works if you come!

• Monday, Feb. 10 at Claremont Academy 
• Thursday, Feb.13 at Burncoat High School 
• Monday, March 2 at Doherty Memorial High School 
• Wednesday, March 4 at North High School 

 ...all at 6 pm.

 As Mr. Foley said yesterday, site councils should also plan to weigh in, there is a section coming on the district website, and you can, of course, always contact a Worcester School Committee member.

Worcester Finance and Operations subcommittee

And the agenda and backups are here.
The big thing, to preview, is the second quarter report, which gives some perspective on where the budget will end up by the end of the year.

How is Worcester handling the April 1 reporting plan under the new funding?

This is from my last updated version of 70 on 70, regarding the required plans.

If you go to about 1: 26 on the video of the Worcester School Committee meeting from Thursday, you can find, first, Superintendent Binienda shares the presentation the urban superintendents received last week from the Commissioner on the reporting requirements under the Student Opportunity Act, and subsequently, the discussion. These came in, mainly, under items from Mayor Petty about process both until April 1 and then afterwards.

Some of this is still being worked out in particulars, but what we do know is:

1. The full School Committee is holding a hearing in each of the four quadrants over the course of February. At the meeting, Mondays (save the Presidents' Day holiday) were mentioned as possible dates, stretching to the first one in March. As yet, we do not have that confirmed, nor do we have locations nailed down but I'll share once we do.
2. Site councils were specifically noted as being integral not only within the act, but also by the state and within the deliberation. Budgetary review is under their purview. 
3. The act also specifically recognizes the Special Education and English Learner Parent Advisory Councils, which were also specifically referenced in the deliberation.

I also added in passing that our student advisory council (we have one! Did you know?) would be an excellent resource for student input, were they willing. 

While the first hearing, if this schedule holds, will be before the next regular meeting, the next regular meeting should have the FY21 budget as the report of the superintendent, and thus will be the next source of good information on specifics of what we can expect for funding. There's also usually at least some initial deliberation around priorities by the Committee.

The Governor's budget is out this coming Wednesday, January 22. 

Worcester Public Schools' enrollment changes: it's complicated

Today's Telegram and Gazette front page headline: "Worcester school enrollment sees biggest decline in 12 years"

...sigh...

Let's first acknowledge that the main reason this matters in Worcester is that Worcester is a foundation funded district: the district is funded at just above foundation (if that; I expect we fell below it this year), so enrollment changes and inflation = budget changes. Period. Scott O'Connell knows this from covering Worcester, thus the article.
And it will matter that, as Mr. Allen notes:

Specifically, Allen said, the district would be starting off with a net decline of $3.7 million because of the drop in enrollment.

But the headline, and even the article, miss the story of the Worcester Public Schools and enrollment.
Yes, a difference of 371 students to this year from last year is the biggest single year drop since 2008.
It is not, however, the biggest single year change--the district gained 432 students from 2015-16 to 2016-17, for example--nor is the enrollment in the school district dropping year over year over time.

Here's the previous ten years of district enrollment:

FY20 WPS budget, p. 410. Yes, there is a typo in the year.

To give a little more perspective on this, here's a chart that goes farther back from the FY15 budget:

Yes, I am being lazy and taking a picture of the page; it's p. 334 in the budget book.

As Jack Foley noted Thursday night when we were discussing the air quality report on Columbus Park, Worcester closed eight schools in the early 2000's. As you can see in the above chart, the district hit the lowest point in 2007-08, but has climbed back up above the levels at which the schools were closed.
So now we have over 25,000 students in eight fewer buildings.
Nelson Place was built for larger enrollment (in part due to special education), but that only takes on so much.
We were told Thursday night that about half of our schools have classrooms that are in basement spaces.
Also, there are eight classrooms of Chandler Elementary that have classes at the Main Street Y; they aren't even in the building.

And we haven't been talking about this.

On Thursday, the School Committee recommitted the Facilities Master Plan to the Finance and Operations subcommittee and asked that updating it--it only includes schools build prior to 1990, as those would be possible for MSBA renovation and rebuild--be considered as part of the upcoming budget.

We really have to talk about the lack of space, the lack of updates, the lack of funding for regular work on buildings, for our schools. New high schools are great and are needed, but a new South and a new Doherty takes care of 11% of our students.

It is also crucial that we put district enrollment changes in context. This isn't some huge drop of students; this isn't large numbers of students moving out; this is how it nets out over a large number of schools.

I will add, though, that there is one thing that raises a question in my mind, having now run the school by school changes: what happened in Head Start? Why the drop from 551 to 393?
School by school changes (from the 2019-20 and 2018-29 district profile pages) after the jump:

What happened with Worcester schools transportation last night?

Good article from Scott O'Connell this morning, but just to be clear on the School Committee items coming from the discussion:

1. Mr. Foley sent a standing item to the Finance and Operations subcommittee (which meets at least quarterly) on busing issues.
2. Once MyStop is running, the School Committee is to receive weekly reports on time performance (how many buses were late or didn't run, which ones had to have routes picked up by the other for lack of drivers, by Durham or WPS).
3. I added that a simple, smartphone-friendly form be added to the transportation website for families and students to use to report late buses; and
4. That up until MyStop is running, that THOSE weekly results be shared, including the late bus reports also filed by administrators at the schools (who I urge to keep filing those reports!).

Update: on the video of the meeting, this starts at about 26 minutes in with Mr. Foley taking up the item, the public comment, and the response of members. The ongoing issue, as he says, is that the School Committee has no idea how Worcester Public School bus service really is in the city right now. There was an rejection that this is an issue from a few members--perhaps summed up as how could we bring this up again?--but we should note that this assurance is not based on any actual data. We can't know how this is going if we don't know.
Right now the only people who know this are, to some degree, the schools, and, of course, students and families.

If you're interested in what's going on with Framingham, you can read here, here, and here. And while you're looking, you could read about Cumberland this week.
How vendors with whom we do business conduct their business is our business.

A few notes on the superintendent's midcycle review

In response to a question from Ms. McCullough, the superintendent said that they are still working on hiring a new principal for Chandler Magnet--the person to whom they have offered the job is from Costa Rica and has not as yet accepted it--and they will not have that in place until June. Ms. Perez is, as described, going to be doing some of the after school duties of the Chief Diversity Officer position in addition to her principal duties.

Foley notes the disconnect between the upheaval earlier this year and the self-evaluation of the superintendent, in particularly noting:

• the bidding process for transportation being ethically questionable, at best, while the superintendent gave herself an "exemplary" score in following laws, ethics, procedures
• the breakdown that sent students and others repeatedly to the School Committee not being heard, while the superintendent gave herself an "exemplary" on two-way culturally proficient communication
• the ongoing lack of data use and sharing while the data item likewise received a high score

The Mayor said that he'd like to see the School Committee gather in the new year for a several hours retreat to review and set goals and align (he didn't use that word) new funding with the goals.

The Superintendent reported at last week's urban superintendents' meeting the Commissioner told them that he will expect that the report on spending due to him on April 1 must first be passed by the school committee.

Due to timing, Foley said that would then mean it would need to be approved by the Committee at the end of March, so the Finance and Operations subcommittee will hold hearings over the course of February, mentioning WEC and the Research Bureau in particular as partners.

Worcester gets an article after all: building a bigger table

...but before we talk about that, let's note this nice piece from Sentate President (and former Ashland School Committee member and yes, I am always going to remind us of that) Karen Spilka:

This week, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the Student Opportunity Act unanimously. This historic vote demonstrates our commonwealth’s continuing commitment to ensure a quality public education for all our children.
It also represents a deeply personal achievement for me and MetroWest, as I first ran for the Legislature 18 years ago to address what I saw as inequities in school funding in my hometown. With my two young children in public school, I first ran for school committee, and then convened the Chapter 70 Roundtable.
A statewide coalition of parents, teachers, administrators, school officials, advocates and stakeholders, we sought to advocate for equity, adequacy and predictability in educational funding. the passage of the Student Opportunity Act, I am proud to say that we are finally seeing the culmination of that advocacy two decades later.

Very true, and we should note that the leadership of Senate President-emerita and former Worcester School Committee member Harriette Chandler, as well, and that list is considerably longer. 

Earlier this week, I was lamenting the losses among the local press and what that meant for coverage of this school funding bill's impact locally; I am more than pleased to have been proven wrong this morning:

Front page of the Sunday Telegram has a headline that reads "Filling the blanks" over an image of a teacher leaning over a little girl with headphones looking a laptop screen

And the article is online here. 

I would say there are three things happening in this article:

1. Is this really over?

This is the crux of the question over if the potential lawsuit involving Worcester will be dropped, for starters. We should note that Worcester, involved in the potential Mass Association of School Superintendents lawsuit, has not been among those represented in a currently filed lawsuit. The lawsuit that aleady exists through the Council for Fair School Finance (of which, yes, MASC is a member), is Mussotte v. Peyser, was filed in June, and involves children from Chelsea, Chicopee, Fall River, Haverhill, Lowell, Orange, and Springfield. That lawsuit has not been dropped, and I don't know anything of that decision, but the note coming from Worcester's administration that this becomes about implementation is, I think, the key.
I think we also need to remember that "they're trying" was more or less the state's (successful) defense in the Hancock case, so the hopes of a lawsuit being successful under those terms is much less certain.
Which brings us to Brian Allen's answer to "how much?":

As Worcester’s chief financial and operations officer Brian Allen pointed out, while the SOA establishes the goal-funding rates, left unsettled is at what number those rates will be phased in each year.
“It appears to fully cover the gap in the foundation budget we’ve been talking about,” he said, referring to district estimates that Worcester has been underfunded by around $100 million under the current formula. But a host of variables, including the performance of the economy, means that money isn’t technically guaranteed as of the passage of the bill, he added. “Our individual yearly budget will still be subject to what the rates are phased in at (in any given year) ... there’s still going to be a level of uncertainty.”

 This isn't a money bill.

My slide from my 70 on 70 presentation; this is what this becomes about.

There is no actual funding being passed by this bill. It lays out a plan SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION of what will be done, and, as Mr. Allen notes, there isn't an actual schedule in the bill, either. There are also, as I noted back when the Governor leaked DESE spreadsheets, a lot of pieces that are still WAY up in the air: how are we changing the low income count? are we changing the municipal finance side? what are the inflation rateS (there are two now, remember)? and yes, does the economy slide or worse?
That is in ADDITION to the pieces that change year to year, anyway, with the biggest being enrollment, district by district (WHICH DESE DID NOT HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER), and what the municipal economies look like.
We don't know a lot of that. And even the part that we DO know for next year (as we'll be using the FY16 low income counts, for example) is something we know for one year.
AND we still don't know what state implementation will look like.
Thus Superintendent Jokela is right in not getting ahead of things. We need to plan, but we also need to wait.
I've now said this to school business officials, and to school committee members, and to superintendents: the most accurate numbers right now are going to be LOCALLY GENERATED.
And they're still only going to be for one year.
This is one of two areas our advocacy needs to shift to: we need year by year commitment by the Legislature and the Governor to implementation.

2. But are we going to get anything at all?
Let me note up front that this is not a Worcester question; the answer for Worcester is yes, but HEY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MUNICIPAL CONTRIBUTION YESTERDAY.

For many other districts, it's the question of if the state is going to be contributing more than the minimum per pupil increase, along with the fear that their local contributions are going to be increasing a great deal. On the first, there's a reason the Education Committee included charter reimbursement and the (massive) addition of out-of-district transportation to the circuit breaker (which is getting frozen at the FY20 level, plus inflation). ASK HOW MUCH THAT IS FOR YOUR DISTRICT.
On the second, let me direct you back here . This is one that you CAN with a little work mostly figure out; you just have to know how much your actual municipal contribution was for last year, versus how much was required. Rolling forward, what's the division on foundation of the target? Most of you are going to find that your local municipality(ies) are already well over minimum required.
...which brings me to what IS my main concern here: If you are a district that lives in the 5%/7% or so over, and it's a struggle every year to get there, my concern is those that would prefer to spend no more on schools are going to say "we've given you what is required; you should be fine," when perhaps you are not.
If this is your reality, the time to start having those discussions is now.

3. What do we do now? 

Even given Mr. Allen (et al)'s conservative (small c) caution on implementation, we're going to see the largest increase in school funding in Massachusetts since the 1993 Education Reform Act. What are we going to do with it?
If you read this blog with regularity, you can perhaps tell that Scott caught me mid-blog post in my comments in the article. Thinking back to Ben Forman's work on how representative school committees in cities in Massachusetts are (not), we have a responsibility to be very blunt in our assessment of who is at the table and who is not, and work strenuously to counter that.
Long term, this means electoral work; for this coming budget, it means we make this as big a table in as many contexts as possible. Jack Foley, to his credit, has been absolutely unrelenting in making this point over the past several months in Worcester; if you're reading this from elsewhere, is anyone making that point in your district? If not, make it you.
That is our other round of organizing work: when the Governor's budget drops in January and we start that countdown to July 1, we need to be gathering around tables across districts to get everyone's voices heard. That isn't always going to be about the district doing it--though I would argue that the school committees have an absolute responsibility to make this their job--but about any group of any kind that cares about kids and the future to get people together to have these discussions.
And for those who are in Worcester, please consider this my open invitation; I want to hear about these! 
As we have those discussions, I also think we have--and here I mean as people we have--a responsibility not to get distracted by the bright and shiny. We have bedrock needs that are not being met in our districts:

Many underfunded districts have become accustomed to going without the kinds of essential, often ordinary things, like up-to-date novels or working drinking fountains, that wealthier schools “basically take for granted,” Novick said.
“There’s almost an attitude shift that has to happen, to acknowledge the level of need, that this is how big the gap is,” she said.

I mean it when I say that I think that we don't even know what we don't have. We have gaps that are chasms in basic things like teaching and student supports, in building maintenance, in supplies. That's not about new programs, before meeting current needs; it's not about new buildings, before fixing the ones we have; it's not about shiny new curriculum or technology, before getting updates to what is crucial.

The work isn't over; the advocacy and organizing isn't over. Let's start NOW to shift gears towards implementation at the state and local levels.
And let's build a bigger table as we do so.

Worcester Finance and Operations subcommittee: FY19 close and FY20 first quarter

and the report is here
Allen: tracks closely with the second and third quarter report
$2312 at close
salary account balances are vacancy or when positions were filled
some of the accounts were corrected in the FY20 budget
were used to influence budget planning
Foley: investments repairs, technology, curriculum
no question or answer on Misc Ed OM
motion to pass

FY20: Foley: facilities ordinary maintenance, having to contract out
offset by saving in the salaries line
Allen: correlation between vacancy factor and contractual costs
final FY20 state budget isn't appropriated until the city sets the municipal tax rate
assumption in the budget is that they're applied as recommended
because they came in fairly late
knew there'd be vacancy savings in the first quarter due to how late the budget came through
some vacancy in administrative salaries
transporation have added four bus routes since the beginning of year
WPS buses started several weeks ago; Durham buses starting next week
Foley: under personal services: targeted professional development at turnaround schools?
Allen: yes
McCullough: elementary materials and textbooks important
Foley: motion to approve transfers

A budget exchange that may matter later

I didn't blog this last night (as I was out of battery), but there was a discussion later in the meeting that may matter later: Mr. Comparetto spoke to his item on the need for wraparound services and staff in every school, and of their being allowed to do their actual job rather than other things. Mr. Monfredo, responding, rather oddly remarked that while the Student Opportunity Act would get the district more money, it wouldn't be enough to get wraparound coordinators in every school.

...er, what? If the School Committee decides that's the most effective way of working on the issue of poverty in the schools, yes, there will absolutely be enough money for wraparound coordinators in every school. That's a pretty out-of-touch remark.

Mr. Foley said that he had been planning to wait to make a motion on the budget until the bill passed (wise), but since it had come up, he made a motion that either the full committee or the Finance and Operations subcommittee plan on holding a public hearing early on regarding use of the funds. Mayor Petty deflected it back to Foley, saying that it should probably be done by the subcommittee.

Miss Biancheria then stood to insist that it had to be done by the full committee, 'though her argument seemed to be about every member being included rather than about, say, public transparency.

I should note that Mr. Foley has brought this up more than once, most recently at the Legislative update held by the Worcester Educational Justice Alliance last week.

Anyway, as I've said elsewhere, we are going to need a more thorough and inclusive public budget process, and that was stepped towards last night.

And what happened on Superintendent Binienda's goals?

They’re back. Flying through the agenda - didn’t spend more than a couple minutes on the superintendent’s goals (no presentation, no substantial committee feedback).

— Scott O'Connell (@ScottOConnellTG) July 19, 2019

Scott notes that only five of the committee were there: both Foley and Comparetto were gone. 

And what is going on in Worcester?

My NSFW title for this could be what I was asked by a friend I hadn't seen in awhile that I ran into downtown yesterday: 'What the * is going on with Worcester School Committee?!?"


After a three hour executive session during an off-week meeting, the Worcester School Committee on Thursday night voted 5-2 to grant Maureen Binienda a three year contract at $215,000 a year, with a 2% raise each year, Comparetto and Foley opposed. Further details of the contract have not been released (though it is a public document).
Incidentally, I've requested that the minutes of all executive sessions regarding this negotiation be released, as the reason for the executive session is now complete; the school department has 10 days to respond and 30 days to release them.

There is, of course, much more that has been going this week than that.

• An Open Meeting Law complaint was filed against the Committee for communications regarding the ad in support of Ms. Binienda's contract renewal at three years. The email gathering signatures was sent out by John Monfredo, three members of the Committee signed the ad, and it is known that at least one other received it. It was also circulated to staff of the Worcester Public Schools. 
• I heard (yes, this is literally hearsay) multiple reports of teachers being asked by principals to sign the letter of support of the superintendent. The just-re-elected head of the teachers' union Roger Nugent was also collecting signatures in support of the superintendent. 
• There were, it seems, ongoing meetings with community activists over the course of the week with the Mayor and the Superintendent around the list of action items Mayor Petty has put forward. The discussion, it appears, was around putting those into her contract, or otherwise tying the renewal to those issues. While the Mayor did again read those items at Thursday's meeting and I am told the Committee voted in favor of them, it does not appear those are in her contract, nor that they were issued as goals or otherwise formally part of her evaluation. The Committee has not created new goals for the superintendent since her evaluation in December. Superintendents in Massachusetts have a mid-cycle review halfway through the year, which on this schedule should be taking place around June. 
• There were activists on both sides of the contract renewal at Thursday's meeting; Bill Shaner noted the demographic divide. There were also seven police officers, which is unusual. 
• While committees can and do have who they like in their executive sessions when it comes to staff, it is worth noting that School Safety Manager Rob Pezzella was in the mayor’s office at one point. 
• The Teamsters, who organize the bus drivers who work for Durham, were among those present at the meeting on Thursday; the superintendent has made her support for continuing to work with Durham clear, even as there are continued issues with Durham's service for the Worcester Public Schools. 
• While the vote was 5-2, the Mayor's vote in favor was tempered with a significant amount of critique which extended beyond the issues around disciplinary disparities recently discussed into the bussing contract, the district's lack of a health curriculum, and others. 
• Dante Comparetto released a statement Friday, saying that while he will finish his term (it runs until December), he will no longer be running for re-election due to this vote. Nomination papers for School Committee (300 signatures of registered Worcester voters are needed) are due this coming Tuesday, so it appears unlikely this will add people to the race. This does leave an open seat on the Committee, and I believe means the School Committee will not have a preliminary election in September. 

Post-blog of the Worcester Public Schools FY20 budget hearing

I only caught the very end of last Tuesday's Worcester Public Schools FY20 budget hearing (I keep haunting this page in hopes the presentation will be posted), so I thought I'd take one of my train commutes to watch the video of the hearing and take some notes. Sharing below for what it's worth...

Mr. Allen: WPS budget will come out on May 10, as is past practice will be from House Ways and Means budget; though Senate budget will come out May 8, WPS budget will not be updated again until after the final state budget is agreed upon (in June? we hope?).
"it's been about fifteen years of kind of budget cutting in each of these hearings...first year since then that we've had modest growth in our revenue..."
"had really some robust conversations about the needs of the school district...truly hearing what the needs are of the school district are out in the schools"
House Ways and Means "aligns closely to Governor's"
increase "will not match all of the needs out there"

Themes of FY20: modest inflation growth (3.75%); overall enrollment growth; initial foundation budget formula proposals (in Governor and House)

foundation budget going up $21.7M:

• $18.1M in Ch.70 (a 7.2% increase)  
• $3.6M in local city required contribution (3.8% increase)

Change from FY19:

• inflation at 3.75%= $13.2M 
• enrollment change (overall 189) = $1M
• econ disadv (310) = $1.2M
• totalling a base foundation change of $15.5M "would be going up...anyways"
• new funding from FBRC changes = $6.1M

HWM budget uses Governor's goal rates but phasing in over a quicker period of time but end result would be the same

"it appears the House budget, anyway, is adopting the Governor's goal rates and just adopting quicker"

Biggest change between House and Governor for Worcester is adding back in English learner students (the Governor's budget had a lower count due to students who had higher English achievement not being counted as EL) 

HWM does not provide high needs increment and does not propose early college line

Change for Worcester between Governor's budget and HWM is $852,306; increase is essentially all English learner funding amount (due to change in count)

take out charter and choice of $1.8M (in $21.7M) plus loss of $300,000 of impact aid from Hurricane Maria

thus change over FY19 for Worcester Public Schools is $19.6M (5.8% increase)

level service cost increase:

• employee salaries $5.5M
• employee benefits $3.3M
• transportation increase of $0.9M
• tuition assessment $0.6M
• all other accounts $0.7M
• ...for a total of $11M

And the budget increase is $19.6M (better when it works that way than the reverse!);$8.6M available for new spending

HOWEVER: $21.6M in new spending requests from principals and programs:

• 42 secondary teachers; "primarily content area teachers, reducing/eliminating studies" ($5.6M)
• 30 ESL teachers ($2.6M)
• 23 special ed teachers ($2M)
• 19 elementary teachers "for class size purposes" ($1.9M)
• 21 student support positions "school adjustment counselors, wraparound coordinators..." ($1.8M)
• 38 special ed IAs ($1.5M)
• 11 guidance counselors ($1M)
• 9 assistant principals ($0.9M)
• 8 preK enrichment ($0.7M)
• additional Chromebooks; going 2-1 in K-2; 1-1 in 7-12 ($0.7M)
• 9 school nurse/clinical care ($0.6M)
• instrutional supplies and PD ($0.6M)
• "student information system" with an online grading access for parents and students" ($0.5M)
• 12 ESL tutors ($0.3M)
• 10 literacy tutors ($0.2M)
• 34 school and district support positions ($2.7M)

"as we mentioned we have $8.6M in new spending...not every one of these will be funded in the FY20 budget"

"hopefully the Senate version will be higher than the Governor and House version"

Worcester Public Schools budget released on May 10; hearings on June 6 and 20

Worcester Finance and Operations takes up transportation (and the second quarter)

The agenda is here;
Second quarter report is up first, as Superintendent Binienda intends to attend (unusually) for transportation.
Balance being run plus charter hold aside being used for textbooks, security at Worcester Tech, and building repairs/environmental abatement
Mr. Foley says he's thrilled to see a full staff and vacancies covered in custodial.
pleased to see textbook allocation
Miss McCullough: nice to see utilities in positive this time
subcommittee votes to approve transfers as recommended

On to bid specifications for transportation
Mr. Foley asks administration to give summary of report, will allow questions from subcommittee, then take public comment

Allen: 223 vehicles transporting about 12,000 students each day
administration has conducted an analysis of self-facilitated transportation
as has been done in a number of other areas, zero-based budgeting
goes through history of district, of surrounding districts, of transportation audit
have conducted visits to districts that have switched to in-district services
Recommendation is a phased approached to student transportation that will possibly lead to full-self-conducted transportation in the future
first 7D vans switching
"the plan the superintendent has put forth would be this phased approach"
then will wish to review bid specs
next school year will be fifth year of a five year contract

Binienda interested in sending
"have felt that Durham has done a good job of meeting with us and addressing any issues"
meet with WPS transportation weekly; admin monthly
point of meetings is to bring up challenges and try to meet them
"And I really feel that they have done their best on that"
have worked on My Spot (GPS app)
have been working on a direct line from Durham to transporation
"have also felt their being very generous to us" to send staff to DCU Center
joint production  from South and Burncoat to Hanover
"never been a time that I've called them that they haven't gone an extra length for us"
"they stay positive on the collaboration that we have"

Allen on bid specs:
unless we can hold the contractor for the item we're not adding it
(thus for example, block heaters eliminated: "either they run or they don't run" says Allen)
supervisors required at both locations
elimination of substitute drivers now left to Durham ("again, either the bus runs or it doesn't run" and they get paid accordingly)
page 17 and 18 include new service credits that district would recover
made at recommendation of current contractor

Foley: no problem with the bid specs as recommended
find report
"inconsistency of report" with recommendation
"as I read the report, I find something very different here"
"this has been a tough year for bussing"
"what was included in that report...is the fact that Durham has not been as responsive this year as they should have been"
getting from point A to point B
cameras not working
hoping to have GPS to have real time monitoring a year or so ago
the first question is "I haven't seen Durham performing"
"I'm concerned it's a national trend"
"our eleven buses have given us far better services...and greater levels of flexibility"
Binienda: "I don't agree with that: I think Durham has been responsive"
"we had some challenges ourselves"
"it's a process...they've tried to work with us"
"I truthfully don't think that this year has been difficult because of Durham"
Foley: "I think people would disagree with that"
would we have capacity?
Binienda: "We don't have the capacity...very few places take over transportation"
"We right now have our hands full with improving instruction and turnaround schools"
Foley: trend nationally is much more taking over transportation out there
would say to superintendent if we ran our own system could provide our own 'free' bussing as needed
and with far less expensive field trips
projection is to save $36M over ten years, and that's backloaded
$2M for first five years, significantly more over subsequent years
Allen: agree that it would be backend savings in latter years
Foley: from a cost savings point of year
Binienda: we don't definitely know we're going to make that savings
"the work, and who's going to be running the bus company...we're not a bus company system"
"don't have the capacity to do that and we don't have the expertise"
Foley: saving $400K
Binienda: believe that some that funding is rebates
Note the report says this: 

Overall, the transition of eleven district-operated big buses saved the district $402,000, with $208,000 invested in new support positions for transportation operations (see pages 62 and 176-177 of the FY19 budget book) resulting in FY19 savings of $194,000.

It is a different line than the contracted bus services Foley: we do take on in-house services that we have done very well and saved significant money
really a single operation nationally is Durham
"I worry about that...we're looking at a reduced time frame...any vendor will be looking to maximize their dollars...than over a five year contract"
driving this price through the roof and there's very little competition for the vendor
puts us at real risk of a very high bid
Binienda could come in lower

McCullough: can appreciate district focus on instruction
"one of the most frequent complaints I've gotten from community members has been bussing"
will change in bid open to other contractors?
Allen: as Mr. Foley correctly points out, there are probably only two contractors who could bid on a contract of this size
McCullough: it's a safety factor
in some cases parents not even calling anymore
"knowing it will save money and improve service"
"can we at least have a comparison of services?"
could we have buses for special services?
Allen: if we had more buses, yes
McCullough: routing, would make sense to take over sooner
would support at least looking to see a comparison over two to three years
have been contacted with a member of the Framingham School Committee
"this year it seems more prevalent than ever"

Comparetto: share concerns of using a private, for-profit company
"horrible customer service and really bad communication"
looking for best practices
best practice across the country: cities are bringing these services in house
have been having this conversation for ten years now

Monfredo: "very interesting topics"
"to be honest with you I haven't heard of many districts successfully providing transportation for our students"
at least take time to see what would work and does not work
"do think phasing in makes sense than jumping in on something that we're not even sure of"

Biancheria: a couple of things we need before we can look at this
need some examples: how many employees, how will house
when we look at the city of Worcester, we have WRTA, what are those issues?
do we use Worcester Airport as an example?
"we're not in the business of running buses; we're in the business of education"
"very fortunate that we've stayed with employees in the Worcester Public Schools"
"have I been happy with Durham under the past year? No...but that doesn't mean I would sit back and run my own bus company"
"doesn't mean we won't create additional challenges"
think we should "get the information compiled"
maybe we need to back up a little and look at the actual savings
"when you have bus drivers, you have unions...what would those union stipulations be?"
"need to look at all the costs...certainly open for all the getting this information together"
"communicated to everyone and the public"'


Allen (to Q from McCullough): the $400K was entirely through taking back routes, not taking credits

Valentin Goins: "have never had the problems we have had this year"
starting in the first week this year...late from August to February
"they get marked late...staff is rushing them...burden is being placed entirely on students to solve a systems issues"
systems solution
"staff should say that I should call the bus company...that's absurd...that's not a job we should be doing"
"to say that lack of existing capacity stop us..." does not make sense

Foley: still see the need to have a comparative bidding process
what would be timeline to take over service?
Allen: one is space and one is vehicles
"some time...but not years"
"next one is around employees...clearly the biggest issue we would face"

Foley:
MOTION: to prepare two year with optional third year; to prepare a five year plan; and to have WPS to submit a bid to self-operate transportation
Allen: would go out end of month, would receive bids first week or so of May
motion passes
(note that it will still need to pass the full committee on March 21)

Worcester Public Schools FY19 budget hearing

Posting as we go once it starts...
Foley: hearing at a time that the budget has been issued
information that's really important about the public schools
"strategic direction" of district
hearing, then one item regarding legal services
ensure there is also information about the foundation budget
"many, many years now have been dealing with the same issue"
"what is going to happen at the state level to find solutions and fill gaps that are crippling our public school districts?"
1st and 3rd Thursdays of June at 4 pm will be School Committee review of budget
"whatever you say tonight, we will make sure gets conveyed back to the full committee"

Binienda: budget based on limited dollars
hopeful if the Senate and House pass a better budget, hope to restore teaching positions to elementary
"large portion of our population has switched from elementary to secondary"
"certainly we feel this budget meets the needs of the district...btut we want to do more than that"

Allen: condensed presentation of full committee will include addition of foundation budget
budget change over last year is $6.5M (inflation factor, benefit change, enrollment drop, change in poverty allocation, charter assessment)
Level funded budget is $7.2M
schools requested add $11M additional

And worth noting that here is what the principals said they needed... pic.twitter.com/Sdt5eDlGlJ

— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) May 21, 2018

elementary enrichment "will focus on technology or literacy" scheduled similarly to art and music
insourcing transportation of 11 buses is estimated to be $194,000 less than under the contract with Durham (I think I caught that verbal number correctly)fixed

"we were able to continue all of the services we were providing this year" save elementary tutors
summer school for next year not in budget "that's a temporary reduction" to be revisted next year

(there's FBRC slides here that I'll add)

#FBRC gap slide: pic.twitter.com/UnFYfnWCfl

— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) May 21, 2018

Here’s what Worcester is missing today: pic.twitter.com/XnMbxMPAMY

— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) May 21, 2018

Note from Allen that Senate includes some ELL implementation in their budget


Foley: reminds me of late 80's, early 90's..."but it reached the point in the late 80's and early 90's where we reached the breaking point"
"we've done what we can around the edges to save some money"
"all we're doing now is shuffling money...I find it really frustrating to be looking at a budget every year that does the same thing"
"from the point of view of what do as a community...push our reps to ask what is being done with the reconcilation of the Senate and House budget"
"it's not going to change things overnight, but it's going to stave off some disaster for us"
"long term play is still to change the foundation formula"
"the idea of legal action is right in front of us...often times it's the only way to get some equity in the community"
"we will keep pushing on our side...I think that is the only way"
notes 2% increase in health insurance
"what really frightens me is the loss of those tutors...I still think we need to look at that...the kind of support they provide at the elementary level...I do worry about that"
615 teachers...teachers really struggling at the elementary school level
need support K through 12...that's what we're pushing for with our dollars

McCullough: agree with Mr. Foley
appreciate what administration is able to do with the small amount
"can't say enough about how we need to look at the long term"
what teachers and services that students needs
"those tutors...it's going to be a great loss at the elementary level"
"it's amazing that we've been able to do what we do do with what we have"
"what a crisis this really is"

Comparetto: lack of adjustment counselors and guidance counselors; any increase?
Binienda: that was in the extra request from principals, but there is no increase
Comparetto: increase of million in policing?
Allen: not an increase, now at a million dollars in policing "second year of that level of funding"

Foley notes progress on funding over minimum required: work of mayor and city manager
"given limited dollars at city level...have really worked to find free cash here and there"
"give people real credit in support for our public schools"

And now the public comment
WPS parent
$1M to police in budget
"that's a million dollars that can be used for our students and teachers"...restorative justice, wellness programs
"things that have a proven record"
"caring mentors given spaces to build resiliance"
"research supports the fact that educating students in resortative justice" has positive impact
no evidence of cameras, security guards in preventing school violence
"why not invest in more youth workers"
vast disparities in student suspension rates
how will young people benefit from this?
police officers are not trained as social workers
"my children's safety and the children of those I've worked with" is deserved
"a million dollars spent is a million dollars spent on our young people"
Binienda: the million dollars does not come from Worcester Public Schools
"do believe in social justice in our schools"
"if the Senate version of the budget gets passed"
Foley: all support the idea of peer mediation, of trauma informed work in our schools
work at Claremont has been tremendous
young people "understand more about themselves"
Comparetto "if the city is providing this money for policing, couldn't we use that money for peer mediation, adjustment counselors?"
Foley: it becomes part of their equation under net school spending
Allen: the city is allowed to count the police officers' salaries towards net school spending
the city would have to give us a million dollars from another source

Ruth Rodriguez: why is it only majority children of color schools that have policing?
majority white schools have counselors
strong parent advisory council
"it really hurts our community when we see the way our children are being treated"
hear they don't have money in the budget for bilingual counselors, they don't have money for parent councils
"is the money that comes from Puerto Rico" going to go to the students; concerned that it goes in the general fund
It looks as though it went into a special revenue fund...
"I don't understand that we in this day and age are still struggling with services for English Language learners"

parent of young students and member of SURJ
question of the amount of money that is going towards policing in the city
"what I remember from looking at the item was maybe a doubling from 2014 to 2019 for the Worcester Police"
"I'm curious of what the impetius of that was"
psychological impact of police in school on youth of color
"we all know that the faculty and administration of the Worcester public schools don't necessarily reflect the diversity of" Worcester
while teachers are working their hearts out, doesn't mean that we wouldn't benefit from implict bias training
Binienda: "I really do like the police officers in the schools...I do believe they're necessary. I do believe they've established relationships with students."
"they make great relationships with all kids"
"the police officers have been very positive; I'll recommend that they still be in our schools"
"I think there's even more a need with what's going on in the world"
"not a budget item for us, but if it were, I'd still recommend the police stay in our schools"
"I think we still have some work to do, but we're going to keep our schools safe."

Nancy Caswell: systemwide music teacher, 2nd vice president of EAW, speaking as an individual
"human relationships are priceless...learning to read is priceless"
"the answer to fourth prep period for the elementary teachers is not, I believe, cutting the literacy tutors"
"I find myself advocating for a position that's not a union position, but it's a needed position"
"the testing is abominable"
"I think it's time that we as citizens...and as public servants stand up and say 'enough is enough, we need to put things back'"

What's a consent agenda and why you should care if you're in Worcester

As I mentioned in my preview of the final Worcester School regular meeting of the school year, Mr. Foley raised the issue of a consent agenda, something which is covered in today's T&G, as the item was held for the July meeting. The item as filed reads:

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.

So, what's a consent agenda, and why is this being discussed?

A consent agenda takes all of the items that don't need deliberation, items that are simply going to be passed, bundles them together, and has the committee vote a single time to pass all of them.  No one, for example, votes against donations; rarely is there any discussion beyond a request that thanks be sent to the donor. There is no need for individual votes for (to look at that same meeting) donations:

• 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
• of $13,000 from the Quinsigamond Village Improvement Council for equipment

Should they be on the agenda? Yes, and they're legally required to be, as the committee must vote acceptance of donations. But do they need to be taken separately? No, not at all.

And if someone thought one of them warranted discussion, they could make a motion to take the item off the consent agenda; if that motion passed, the item would be taken up during the meeting as a regular business item. 

Another example, and one raised by Mr. Monfredo in the article, is recognitions. You may have noted that I no longer spell those out in my agenda summary. Frankly, recognitions have exploded over the past year and a half. In that same June 15 alone, for example, there were nine different recognitions, some of several people, several of which were recognitions of individuals who have been recognized more than once this year already! And while recognitions may well be popular--and I doubt highly they'll ever go away--they are not, by any means, a core function of the School Committee, which, under the Mass General Laws, are: 

...to select and to terminate the superintendent, shall review and approve budgets for public education in the district, and shall establish educational goals and policies for the schools in the district consistent with the requirements of law and statewide goals and standards established by the board of education.

More to the point, for each of those recognitions, there is an item filed at an initial meeting, at which at least the filer of the item speaks to the item, and then the item is brought back for the recognition, at which someone else, at least, speaks to the item. And NONE of that is actual school committee business!
If the committee wants to bring people in to recognize them, those who wish to do so need not take up two rounds of committee time in order to do so. Put the initial filing on the consent agenda, and have the recognition at a subsequent meeting.

There's an additional thing going on here, which is mentioned in the article:

In its recent comprehensive review of the district, for example, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education opined the committee was filing too many requests for information from the school administration – requests that often had little to do with the school system’s most pressing priority of improving teaching and learning, the report said.

This is a touchy subject: after all, DESE overreach and the tug-of-war over who manages what is something of a going concern in Massachusetts education and of this blog in particular. However, a quick glance back at some recent agendas speaks to the point:

• a request for a list of STEM events during a particular month
• a request for a report from a particular presentation at which the committee member was present
• a request for a list of summer events
• a request for a report on specific minor repairs undertaken to a specific school (out of 50 buildings)
• a request that brush be cleared at particular schools

Can a school committee member make these requests? Absolutely. But as section BCA of the Worcester Public Schools policy handbook says about the responsibilities of school committee members, members will: 

Refer all complaints to the administrative staff for solution and only discuss them at Committee meetings if such solutions fail

In other words: Can it be done with a phone call? Can it be done with an email? Then it should be.
Otherwise, you're just putting it on the agenda to put your name on the agenda.

This will be taken up at Thursday night's meeting. EDIT: no, no regular meeting this week! Check in August! 

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?

Worcester Public Schools FY18 budget hearing

The presentation for tonight is here.
The full budget is here.