Ending the "agrarian school year" myth

My hearty thanks to the Learning Lab from WBUR for taking on the "agrarian school year" myth in today's column. Most important point:

In the early 19th century, rural schools typically had two terms: winter and summer. Yes, summer.

That’s because spring and fall, not summer, were* the busiest months on a farm. So rural children helped with planting in the spring, attended school for two or three months in the summer, went back to work for the fall harvest, then did another two or three months of school in the winter.

If you'd like to talk about ending this model, maybe we can talk about how families aren't all summering at their cottages in Newport?
*still are.

Board of Ed meets at nine: comments

The Board of Ed meets at nine; you can find the agenda here.
meeting today at Pioneer Charter of Science, as is the custom, the home school of the Board of Ed's student member

Commissioner: congratulations Margaret McKenna on her appointment as Suffolk University president
Teacher of the year appointment, very much believes in inclusion, keeps students in her classroom would not be there in other schools
in process of extending Lawrence turnaround plan for another three years
extending contract on receiver,  as well; he'll be here in June
Donahue report on Smith Vocational which I can't find online

Accountability: committee report

Perkins funding report
  Motion made to explore an agricultural program
also consider adding more Chapter 74 funding
PARCC (is coming); report made by Mr. Walton on technology needs
this is staying in the committee so we can continue to receive reports on PARCC as this rolls out
O'Connell: "not tamper with success" of Goddard Scholars program

Chapter 74 and Perkins funded courses

Novick asks about the discontinuation of the agriculture program a few years ago due to lack of interest; with YouthGROW, NOFA conference, community gardens, much farming happening within Worcester right now. Any inquiries for an ag program?
Brenner: not as yet, but sees the need. Willing to explore with community. Would need to look for appropriate placement

TLSS subcommittee: Horticulture

There's a report back in Teaching, Learning, and Student Support on the cost of recreating the horticulture program at Tech. This quickly turns into a discussion of the other horticulture/agriculture/growing things going on in the city right now, and how this ties into that. Farming is growing, we've got food coming IN from farms to our schools on a daily basis, we've got YouthGROW, the REC, community gardens...shouldn't we have a program for kids who want to do that for a living?
Most of these questions go back to administration for more information.