FY27 Consensus revenue hearing

 ...which you can find here

Remember, the idea here is that they're hearing testimony which will inform the Executive branch, House Ways and Means, Senate Ways and Means in agreeing on a revenue projection.

The major players here are Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael J. Rodrigues, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz and Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew J. Gorzkowicz.

Rodrigues opens by introducing his colleagues...and my video went down
posting as we go

The stories we tell ourselves: Worcester's past 75 years of superintendent transitions

Stories are how we make meaning for what has happened to us; they give form to the past. Sometimes, though, our stories about how things happened once become stories of how they always happen, and we can miss pieces that might make better meaning of the current time.

Thus it is with superintendent transitions.

Thus, here, with my particular gratitude to the Worcester Public Library for having Worcester Telegram & Gazette archives, to whomever scanned decades of Worcester City Council manuals, and to L.H. Larned, whomever you are, are the past seventy-five plus years of Worcester superintendent transitions.

FY26 Consensus Revenue hearing liveblog

 ...will be starting here, though it appears to be the Senate adjourning right now...
I don't write down all the numbers, because I only get them orally

FY25 Joint Consensus Revenue Hearing

 hearing will be going up here (updating as we go here!) 

As reporter Katie Lannan notes:

✨three fiscal years at once✨ https://t.co/TYO13qYM98

— Katie Lannan (@katielannan) December 4, 2023

Senate Ways and Means Chair Senator Rodrigues notes that the Senate is in session, subject to the call of the chair and "I need to put fiscal year '23 to bed before I start talking about FY25"

Joint hearing on revenue

Rep. Michlewitz notes that the implementation of the Fair Share amendment will be part of the work of this year
Sen. Rodrigues looks forward to building a responsible partnership with both House and Governor
Secretary Gorzkowicz also noting partnership with chambers

Jeffrey Snyder, Department of Revenue: and there is no way that I am going to keep up with numbers, as ever
SHNS is feeling feisty

TAX FORECAST: After getting blindsided by tax refunds fueled by an FY 2022 tax collections surge that was outside their radar screens, Beacon Hill leaders on Tuesday are calling the same people back to testify on revenue projections for the upcoming state budget cycle. #mapoli

— State House News (@statehousenews) January 24, 2023

he reviews how we got the 62F funding return
lots of uncertainty in projections (as ever)
based in part on projections from Moody's and S&P Global
$1.08B above benchmarks in FY23 
$39.618B 
FY23 revenue $39.767B to $40.471B projected
FY24 includes 4% surtax 
income tax was 59%; sales tax at 21%
unemployment rate of 3% nationally; Mass employment follows similar pattern
income taxes are forecasted to be between 46M lower and 216M higher
and the surtax will impact income tax collection
$183M and $481M higher than the FY23 benchmark
unrealized capital gains a factor
FY23 Fair Share between $229M and $265M; FY 24 between $1.445B and $1.76B

Michlewitz: on surtax opponents said people would flee the state; do we know if they have or too early to tell?
Snyder: Very difficult to tell at this point; "it is top of mind...something we will continue to monitor"
Michlewitz: above benchmark, as we have been; what should we all be watching the most?
Snyder: "I would be looking at wages. That is really going to determine where we end up when all is said and done."
Michlewitz: on 62F, any insight into how far ahead of benchmark, projection as to if it will get triggered again
Snyder: don't have information needed for that
Rodrigues: one time revenue through tax code changes
Snyder: was part of 62F calculations
Rodrigues: tax code not clear on refunds versus credits; how did you decide
Snyder: credit on FY21 tax year resulted in refunds of about 14%
Rodrigues asks about debt ceiling
response is vendors keep in mind; should keep an eye on it

Treasurer Goldberg: rainy day funding up to $7.4B will be up to $8.4B "providing for...when it will rain again"
"did someone hear music? I think it was God emphasizing what I said"
investor demand for bonds remains strong: outlook changed from "stable" to "positive"
Michlewitz: bonds?
Goldberg: outlook to positive due to state management
"when we met with them in December they said 'keep up the good work'"
Goldberg: believe we will see a great deal of volatility
watching the debt ceiling very carefully, and "I think it's very dangerous"
Rodrigues: MSBA, hearing that supply change issues, interest, inflation; are there conversations going on?
Goldberg: feel strongly that we collaboratively need think about price, work outstanding, need 
did increase price per square foot
"but the formula and the cap are what hold us back to a degree"
"are concerned about having to shrink the number of projects when there's so much need out there"
"we know the need is great"

Doug Howgate, Mass Taxpayers Foundation
FY23: recommending modest upgrade
projecting growth of about 1% for FY24
"what happens in the first six months of a fiscal year often doesn't have much to do with what happens in the second six months"
.92% revenue growth for FY24
"we are not going to provide a projection on surtax revenue"
there is no prior data, because we're just starting
lack of information you'll have to build a projection into the budget
expect that it will kick in later in the year as the surtax kicks in as people exceed the revenue putting them into that category
will lack real information until May of next year
will be most volatile in uncertain times; recommend collecting revenue and then spending it
Michlewitz: is DoR's level volatility or more than that?
Howgate: when you talk about the federal government and the debt ceiling... 
Rodrigues perhaps should consider putting cap on surtax revenue as do on capital gains
Michlewitz: are we being overly cautious on capital gains?
Howgate: past two years, pandemic but also growth
revenue hearing is "giving you folks number that are reasonable to budget on"
Gorzkowicz: putting guardrails in given volatility?
Howgate: one challenge is the required use of those funds
how do we we demonstrate to the public that it is going to intended purposes

Prof. Alan Clayton-Matthews of Northeastern
time for the least exciting slides ever!
projections for FY23: $39.208B
for FY24: $42.224B
projections for surtax in FY23: $527.8M
FY24: $1.116B
assumes a mild slowdown with 2 quarters of zero or negative GSP growth and 4 quarters of declining employment
Michlewitz asks about surtax
Clayton-Matthews: "it is unknown, but relative to swings in capital gains revenue...it is less than that"
"just because a revenue source is volatile doesn't mean it's not useful"

Prof. Michael Goodman, UMass Dartmouth
will discuss broader economic context 
"this experience is not unique to Massachusetts"
33 of 41 states experienced budget growth above their original budget projections; "it wasn't just us"
likely that the pace of revenue growth likely will not be sustainable
encourage to carefully consider short and long term risks
"slow session" is how Moody describes it
interest rate connected sectors will be challenged
Tech sector grew and hired rapidly; slow
wild cards:
Looming debt ceiling crisis, very real possibility of a self-induced financial crisis
future federal monetary policy
expanded conflict on eastern Europe; oil and natural gas prices set in a global market
re-emergence of pandemic conditions; vaccinations and resistance has made a real difference; should there be another resurgence, unclear that federal government could respond
Policy issues: core competitive advantage of Massachusetts remains its people; more important than ever we make it easier for people to live and work here
housing, child care, education, training
"it remains very difficult for many of our colleagues and neighbors to make ends meet"

Evan Horowitz, Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University
tie between GDP and state tax revenue 
$40.2B in FY24; important how to distinguish between money generated and money that is overall impacted
projecting some loss of revenue due to tax avoidance
enough millionaire tax revenue should be included to cover the projected loss
should create savings plan as is done with capital gains
FY22 "saw a dramatic clash of forces"
avoiding 62F helps avoid chaos of last year but also means days of overflowing coffers are likely ending
likely to end year with shortfall of $1B this year; foreseeing April collections

AND THAT IS A WRAP! 

Who's minding the store?

As Scott O'Connell said yesterday, he did indeed have a number of questions that he asked administration.
The answers are concerning.

Principal turnover in a 44 school district is normal, and I would imagine this isn't all we'll see this year. It's still only March.
Do note, however, that North High still does not have a principal, either. Also, several of those are going to be tricky to fill: a Worcester comprehensive high school like South isn't an easy thing to lead and the superintendent has expressed less than confidence in what should be the rising leadership. Ricci Hall leaving Claremont first is a huge loss to the district--Hall could lead a district himself--and Claremont was a pretty substantially changed school under current leadership. Quinsigamond is Worcester's largest elementary school, and it's been shaky on MCAS results in past years. It will again be interesting to see if the School Committee's past interest in having a public input process appears during this round of searches.

The central admin holes are scary, frankly. As I've said before, take a look at our student body: Worcester is a majority first-language-not-English school system. In this school year, more than a third of Worcester's student body are English learners. There is NO WAY this district should be without an ELL director from January to the end of March. We've gotten almost 300 students from Puerto Rico (most of whom, you can bet, are English learners). ACCESS testing for ELL students was during January. The district literally just a year ago was almost (and finally) in compliance with the terms of a Department of Justice (yes, the federal department) agreement on English learners. The district has been under federal oversight since 2009. And note, by the way, the person who was largely interviewed in that article, Marco Rodrigues, is also no longer with the district. And those who are "covering" per the article from today's paper have no experience with this management; they're new to the district office, as well.

As for accountability and research, "getting ready for MCAS" is in no way the biggest part of that office (if it had been, my vote against creating the position would have been correct; I'll happily admit I had this one wrong). For the third largest district in Massachusetts, Worcester has done an amazing job staying out of the attention of DESE's takeovers. Compare our numbers to Springfield (poorer, but not that much bigger), for example; we've not had nearly the number of turnarounds and (knock wood) the bright idea of an empowerment zone hasn't flown here. There are plenty of things to credit on that, but one of them has been number crunching: what are we doing well? what aren't we doing well? And no, that isn't just MCAS; it's things like when our kids start kindergarten, what the information we have can and can't tell us, and how we can use what we know to do better. It may sound like a luxury--it did to me back in 2010--but it's kept us out of hot water in the time since.

Here's the thing: there's a learning curve for every superintendent, and this one has been steep. There's also turnover in every administration; in this case, that has also been steep. Some things that we ought to be asking here, thus, are:

• who is leaving and why?
• who is covering those responsibilities and what experience do they have doing so?
• why is it taking so long to fill some positions?

One can't just keep saying things are being covered by the (new) deputy superintendent and have that be okay. It's not. 

Superintendent Binienda seeking to appoint a deputy

From Thursday night's Worcester School Committee agenda:

To consider approval of the appointment of Susan O’Neil, Ph.D. as Deputy Superintendent of Schools, effective, July 1, 2017. 

That is the date that Dr. Rodrigues begins in Hudson. 
Dr. O'Neil was the principal of Worcester Arts Magnet School until last year until she joined central administration.

Note that this is also a reorganization of positions, as there is as of now no deputy position in administration; there is no note of a request of that being approved, though the creation of such positions does require School Committee approval under the Massachusetts General Law:

Upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the school committee may also establish and appoint positions of assistant or associate superintendents, who shall report to the superintendent, and the school committee shall fix the compensation paid to such assistant or associate superintendents. 

As for the appointment itself, under MGL Ch. 71

The school committee shall approve or disapprove the hiring of said positions. Such approval by the school committee of the recommendation shall not be unreasonably withheld; provided, however, that upon the request of the superintendent the school committee shall provide an explanation of disapproval.

Worcester's loss is Hudson's gain

The school committee has voted to appoint Marco Rodrigues of the Worcester Public Schools as the next Hudson superintendent.

— Dakota Antelman (@DakotaAntelman) March 30, 2017

More from the Metrowest Daily News here 

Open questions for Worcester on FY17

If the projected timeline holds, the Worcester Public Schools' FY17 budget should come out a week from today (here).

We got an answer, and a disappointing one, yesterday, to the question if the proposed building shift would be included in the FY17 budget: no, and because the incoming superintendent nixed it. When we heard last month that it was being dropped, I had wondered if that was budget-related; from the numbers involved, clearly not. In fact, a long term investment is being dropped in favor of an ongoing expanded expense.
This does not bode well.

Questions I have at this point:

• Exactly how many of the projected 15-20 secondary teachers are going to lose their jobs, at which schools, and in which subjects? What is that going to do to the class schedules of kids next year? How many study halls are we going to have now? 
• Where are those 1900 elementary school students who are going to be in class sizes of 27 or more? Are they (as I would suspect) concentrated in higher-poverty, higher-need (more crowded) schools?
• What does "administration reorganization" mean? Are positions--I hesitate to even suggest it as it would be outrageous--being added this year, while we fire secondary teachers and send elementary class sizes up?
• Are any--any?--student support positions being added? Guidance counselors? Adjustment counselors? Given the incredible mental health needs in this district...anything?
• How exactly is the cut in special education going to be managed, given the high rate of need of the WPS population?
• Does the budget calculate in the $3M in health insurance changes that it appears the School Committee (? or administration?) want to negotiate with the teachers in the new contract? 
• What's going on with the International Baccalaureate program? I've heard rumors that there's an incoming attempt to instead retrench (which is exactly what it would be) further in AP. Will the IB position be continued next year? Will an innovation plan be put together, forwarded and approved by the School Committee, and advance to the state level? Will there be an incoming class for fall of 2017 in the proposed IB academy? 
• Is anyone planning for what happens when the dual language program kids hit middle school (happening the year after next)?
• What rate is the city going to charge on grants this coming year? City Manager Augustus lowered the rate last year and said that would continue; has it?
• Who is paying for the expanded police presence at the Worcester Public Schools? Is the city entirely covering it, or are they loading it in as a charge against net school spending?
• Is there an expanded security budget? For what, exactly?
• What does the capital budget look like this year? Is the proportion of funding still completely out-of-wack in balancing city and schools? 

And, perhaps more largely:

• is there going to be any effort to actually expand funding this year?

More as I have it

Supplemental agenda in Worcester

Supplemental agenda for Thursday's School Committee meeting has a proposal to change Binienda's starting date from July 1 to April 11

— Tom Quinn (@bytomquinn) March 15, 2016

UPDATE: there's two:

an addition to the executive session for negotiations with the Superintendent-elect 

an item sponsored by "School Committee" to change the effective start date

And here's Worcester Magazine with what looks like the scoop.

Worcester Public Schools preliminary budget projections (from House 2)

And hey! The presentation is posted already!
Rodrigues: preliminary results of what we know about the FY17 budget since the Governor released it last week
met with every principal on what is needed for the FY17 budget

Allen: release of Governor's budget kicks off formal presentations to the School Committee
based on our early estimates of what we see as revenues to the school district
"what we're not going to present today is a deficit number...still a lot of work to be done"
"we can't sit here and say that there's going to be a $5 million or whatever" deficit at this time

negative inflation factor and flat enrollment, biggest challenge for this year
change to ch 70 law on capturing low income students: one time change in funding
continue to see certain cost centers exceed inflation rates
changes in Quality K and charter school reimbursements could be concerning and result in loss of funds

61% of WPS budget from state; 28% from local; remainder from federal
"as goes the state budget, so goes our budget"

DESE estimating based on level funding, between 70 and 72% for circuit breaker; a loss for WPS

slight decrease on enrollment from last year, under a 1% change
overall increase over last five and eight years; still above 2003 level (when schools closed)

breakdown changes: most of decline is at preK level "occurring across the state" (134 students in preK, down)
remainder is, "given overall enrollment, slight changes"

overall foundation budget is $332M

largest changes is ELL: 616 students up :$5.5M
economically disadvantage: down 3575 (due to change in calculation): $3.1
"that's a one time adjustment" and foundation would be flat otherwise

second time ever in the 22 years of the foundation budget; last time was 2011 when it was -2.2%
this year is -0.22
"each change is $3.3M for us"
"doesn't seem to be the right factor" on inflation

Petty has asked the City Manager to commit to (essentially) level funding city contribution (which otherwise would be reduced by $676,570)
based only on Governor's budget, budget would be up only $3.3M
last year budget increased by $14M

Quality K, districts can apply for up to $350
would be "a reduction of $450,000 in our funding" beyond cuts that have already happened

suggestion to revise charter budget: has never been fully funded
100/50/25, but would only quality for second year if at charter school cap "and we are not at the charter school cap"
"and you'd have to apply for them"
"we believe that this change would be a detriment to the Worcester Public Schools"

Initial cost estimates:
salaries: $4.7M
health insurance (7.5%): $3.3
"our increase in health insurance ALONE is the total increase in our budget"
tutition: $1M
retirement: $900K
transportation: $600K
other areas: $500K
total of $11M, about a normal year increase

from meetings with building principals:
for class size need for 34 more teachers in elementary $2.5M
for middle $200K
for high $1.6M
specialists $2.8M
sped $1.5M
ESL $2.1
support $1M
total of additional $11.7M for 172 positions

principals also called out needs in
Professional learning $500K
$1M in textbooks (which seems low)
instructional materials $500K
student furnitures $800K

adding it all up...gap of $22M
"that's not a deficit number; that's just a gap that we need to close"

NOT YET INCLUDED: anything on the safety advisory committee, nor on the advanced high school academy

health insurance: non reps already have changed contributions; discussion of unions doing same
bringing up internal capacity (as has been done for autism, energy management)
energy savings: 10 schools that either have solar arrays or wind turbines
rental costs: what's the best way to use existing space that can save money in the long run
student transportation: spent a year working with School Bus Consultants, "essentially came back and said that they didn't have any changes to suggest" without a drop in student services

"being that third largest employer, we're larger than most of the higher education and health insurance agencies in the city"

district review of resource allocation: what has to be done, what can be reallocated, what will need to be reduced
budget recommendations with the seven point plan

FOUNDATION BUDGET REVIEW COMMISSION: underfunded by $92.9
How would Worcester spend it?
I'm just going to stick a screenshot of this in

note that these would meet the current formula in those areas; this is how much the WPS budget is short in these budgetary categories
what should be done now on FBRC?
Inflation: would be $9M for Worcester next year
ELL change: would be $5M for Worcester next year

Things to watch:
Title I could go down by $1M due to census numbers (district is challenging)
Quality K formula change
new guidelines coming for FY18 in count of ELL students

Budget goes to school committee on May 13

WPS/WPD MOU is now online

If that's too many acronyms: the Memorandum of Understanding between the Worcester Public Schools and the Worcester Police Department is now online.
This was announced in this week's Creating Connections from Dr. Rodrigues and is posted here.
Not much to it.

Interim Superintendent Entry plan

You can find our backup here.
Rodrigues: how I intend to keep the district moving forward to June
build upon our successes
"effectively collaborate with all members of the WPS community to ensure a safe and supportive learning environment that promotes a high achieving school district"

1. interim re-organization of admin team; addition of third quadrant manager through June; realign office staff
2. open, fluid, honest, communication protocol: meetings with stakeholders, monthly meetings with principal leadership; weekly superintendent update; master schedule for SC items; public engagement; communication with delegation; enhance report of superintendent (including "closer look" series starting in February)
3. high quality teaching and learning: multi-tiered system of supports; advanced high school academy; focus on level 3 schools; coordinated review; focus on ELL and special ed and graduation rates; individual learning plan starting with seventh grade (through Naviance)
4. respectful, positive climate and culture: safety advisor; training in school resource officer model; revision of MOU with WPD; climate and culture report card; student/family guide to student discipline; evaluate safety audit; implementation of Worcester HEARS
5. FY17 budget: presentation with Governor's budget; ongoing budget status through spring; budget to be out May 13, 2016

Monfredo: reach out and listen to the community

communication and transparency: 

safety certainly will be a high priority

O'Connell: many of the concerns that are addressed in the plan are those that have been emphasized

communication and school safety

front and center in a key way

"would hope that meetings include...professional associations of staff"

"opportunity to express exactly what their concerns are"

"speak up very candidly and effectively"

"good news, bad news, let us know"

focus on budget: hope that we'll be able to look at it very aggressively to free up funds 

then I spoke

Foley: reflect the feelings of the School Committee

challenge to implement it all

when we do meet with the state delegation: Foundation Commission report

"we know that they aren't going to turn around and be able to generate an additional $90M" but to begin the fight

"really build upon your links to the principals"

would stress the need for immediate information as things come up

"and I don't want to hear about everything"

most important items so we can respond to them right away

"budget process past several years has been outstanding"

"going to be a challenging time for us"

"thank you and this is a good start"

Ramirez: appreciate public engagement plan

"I hope to collaborate in that"

Biancheria: "I was hoping more money could go to the classroom"

"concern that we become top-heavy"

job functions have to be distributed to the right people

transparency of creating new things and looking of things outside of the box

appreciate timely response to items

look forward to information we receive on academic 

hope for "MOU that actually works for us"
doesn't mean that it should be under the City Council or brought to City Council
"do agree with my colleagues that it has been advantageous to us to sit and discuss our budget"
comments that budget for several years came out over Memorial day weekend

Rodrigues: realizing savings by virtue of space in admin

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday at 7

The Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, December 3 at 7. You can find the agenda here.
The report of the superintendent this week--the first report Dr. Rodrigues is giving as interim--is his entry plan.

There are no subcommittee reports this week.
We have a response coming back from administration on the updated numbers on the state cherry sheet (worse than they were when we passed the budget in June) and what the final cost on gas will be, as that contract was still being negotiated when we passed the budget. And while it's lower than the projection, skim down to the utilities line in the first quarter update on where we're expected to be on building utilities for why we won't be hearing a recommendation to move funds. 

In the ongoing settling up of the student activities accounts, we're being asked to accept a donation of $6,261.81 to Doherty. 
We're being asked to accept $400 from Shaw's for Heard Street School.
We have several requests for recognitions.
Mr. Monfredo is asking that administration work to get more mentors for AVID.
Miss Biancheria is asking that the security audit be discussed at the December 17 meeting and also at the February 25 meeting.
She's also asking a number of questions around textbooks: how many are rebound, how many we have versus need, how many are on the computer, how many students don't have textbooks, and if there's a central inventory.

I'm clearing out old items (lest I linger on agendas!), so I have a list of items I'm pulling off of subcommittee agendas and out of administration (many of which have been answered, anyway).

We have the annual Head Start report. 
We have the collaborative's audit.
We're being asked to accept an alternative education grant for $20,000 (not clear on what it's for, exactly).
We're being asked to accept STARS Residency grants for Columbus Park and for Jacob Hiatt (for neat stuff, incidently: check out the backup!)
We're being asked to recognize the WPS Foundation for their constuction at the One City, One Library branches, and being asked to accept the donation of the materials and equipment there. 

Every six years, the state comes in and does a Coordinated Program Review (which, inevitably and much to my confusion, gets abbreviated 'CPR') to check on on how the district is doing with adhering to federal regulations. Ours has now come back and it includes:

• the CPR report with sections on special education, civil rights, and career and vocation education
• the CPR review of English Language Learning in the district
• the Title I review (it looks like the backup on this one got scanned out of order; page 1 is page 2) with NO FINDINGS
• the Title IIA review and more here (that's teacher training), with "Commended" status on two categories of professional development
• the safety inspections of our vocational education areas in the high schools

Note that the reports came through a few months ago; I expect that we'll have a report on what has already been changed or improved in a number of these areas.


There is an executive session for a grievance.

We have an IB coordinator!

We've just received the following from Dr. Rodrigues:

It is my pleasure to announce the hiring of Grace Howard-Donlin, Director of the Advanced High School Academy. Ms. Howard-Donlin is joining the Worcester Public Schools after successfully launching the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program at Abby Kelley Foster Charter School (AKFCS). Ms. Howard-Donlin was the IB Coordinator at AKFCS for four years. She is extremely knowledgeable of IB practices, curriculum, and program development. Please join me in welcoming Grace Howard-Donlin to the Worcester Public Schools. 

Update on State Assessments

Report of the Superintendent tonight is an update on state assessments (thus, PARCC results, as well as what we're doing next)
Rodrigues: last Tuesday, PARCC results were released statewide
23 of 39 schools in grades 3-8 gave PARCC
5 gave it on computers
those schools that gave PARCC are held harmless this year
Perda: a bit of a tough year for the district to report out
"tough to get a feel for how the district has been doing"
grade 10: 81% proficient or above on MCAS and so on down through grades
"that's about half of our kids taking the MCAS"
on PARCC there are five performance levels
"one of the first things you can see...is that it's a much harder bar...much more difficult than MCAS, and I think the results show that"
equipercentile linking: took an analysis
so there are some comparable measures across both measures
CPI is crosswalked across both tests, allowing us to make districts and school performance over time
for ELA "the results are very encouraging"
improvements across the board in every grade level
"more kids are moving towards proficiency over time"
for math grade 10 MCAS, 58% proficient or above
in math CPI negative one year changes in grades 3,4,6
otherwise positive changes
was no science PARCC: MCAS science
solid five year growth in science in CPI across the grades
5 schools had median SGP in ELA across the grades that were above target (60 or higher) while 10 did so in math (in MCAS)
6 schools that had median SGP in ELA across grades that were above target while 2 did in math
and what is up next?
Rodrigues: had a phone conference with DESE to confirm some of the details of how this will work for Worcester
Massachusetts will develop MCAS 2.0 for spring 2017: will have MCAS questions, PARCC questions, and additional questions
schools that did PARCC will stay with PARCC; schools that did MCAS can pick
schools that do PARCC in spring 2016 will be held harmless (except for Level 4 schools); statewide in 2017 with regards to test scores
will be using same method as before, talking to schools for their input to see if they want to switch to PARCC, deadline of December 18

Monfredo: will be considering keyboarding instruction?
Rodrigues: has been circulated around, especially grade 3, have discussed, don't yet have a plan
is the level of comfort of a lower grade student able to be successful
Monfredo: what is the cost to the school department?
Rodrigues: State provided test, training for teachers and personnel
have to pay attention to things like headphone costs
Foley: numbers may reflect improvement here, but different students over time
Perda: agrees
Foley: being judged on different groups of students over time
worried about familiarity of students with technology
will tests have a time limit?
Rodrigues: subcommittees will work on these issues, all will have minor or major change for next generation
logistics to be ready to be fully ready for technology moving forward
Foley: do MAP but much shorter time frame
worry that time constraint may hurt additional test scores in Worcester and across the state
O'Connell: interested in areas where we struggled a bit
while can't necessarily compare how students are doing from year to year
data, while generalized, not broken out by schools
look at school performance or broken out by questions; particular areas of instruction that we may need to pursue more agressively
Perda: happy to share at standing committee
Rodrigues: PARCC doesn't give us the same item analysis as MCAS
have information through consortium, but haven't been able to share with us
state is working on that
"math performance was very weak this year, but it was weak statewide"
looking at what the issues about grade 7 particularly that didn't make much movement this year
O'Connell do we have computer ability to be ready?
Rodrigues: have been analysing at this time
not just number of computers but the grouping of test taking
January have ACCESS test will be completely computer based
looking at logistics of taking ACCESS test; working with Bob Walton in IT
have to pay attention to the goal the department has set for 2019 of everything being computer-based
O'Connell: will we be switching kids twice if they're taking MCAS now, then PARCC, then MCAS 2.0
Rodrigues: but those who do MCAS this spring will be a change, too, due to PARCC questions being answered
either path you take, there are changes
"no matter which path you take" there will be changes
Novick: echo concern on keyboarding and technology, query on "except for Level 4" in 2015-16 with a few reflections on the Board of Ed meeting (like that "except Level 4" wasn't in what the Board passed)
Biancheria: additional supplies, after school programs, and summer programs tied into MCAS
this spring, how is the decision going to be made on which schools are doing PARCC or MCAS
Rodrigues: schools will have a large voice in this process
Biancheria: parents still opt out?
Rodrigues: state says there is no opt out, does break testing record of student, did have some of that happen last year
"if we have a parent's request, we will honor that"
Biancheria: five years on science?
at least
Biancheria: concerned that we have a couple of years here that we're going to be going back and forth
Ramirez: any Gateway district looking at the impact of all of the exams at the local level?
Rodrigues: continue to look at the subgroups, waiting to see what that looks like and see how those subgroups did
accountability groups released soon
"that will depict whether that was PARCC or MCAS"

It's official

The School Committee received this in our Friday packet: 

Thus Dr. Rodrigues will be "acting" until the end of November and "interim" thereafter. 

Research Bureau presents on International Baccalaureate

Rodrigues: has been in the works for some time

Vote of SC last year to set forth in planning year

Right now in process of hiring the director that will be heading the director for us

This school year to do the planning of the academy: about 240 students

IB course of studies will be the emphasis

Hope to be a satellite or program within Doherty; physical space at Doherty does not allow it in the building; temporary location until it has a home being looked for

Schools that have implemented IB in different capacities in different scales; plan is for Worcester to open in December of 2016

Marco Rodrigues

If you're wondering about whom it is we've just appointed interim, I'd recommend this 2010 column by Jackie Reis (with apologies if you run into the T&G paywall).

AND BACK: vote of interim contract

Note that this is an amendment to his current contract, which he will go back to, should he not be the person appointed permanently 

15% increase in salary for Dr. Rodrigues
transporation stipend as in current superintendent's contract
not precluded from applying for permanent position

Begins December 1; ends upon appointment of new superintendent or July 1
passes on a 5-2 vote, Biancheria and O'Connell opposed

RFP approved to be sent out
due by November 4
school committee will do screening and do community input with search firm