Comments on report

Monfredo: hope everyone sees that our school system continues to move forward
most impressed by positive test scores
schools look fantastic: many others in

and then I asked a whole lot of questions,which I will write up later. The mayor mimed wiping his brow when I finished.
asking that the report be shared more broadly; thank admin for prompt responses to queries as school opened
Could we have the ad that ran on college enrollment? Could it be shared with Council?
Do we have an MOU on One City, One Library yet? No, but making progress (largely due to turnover in WPL leadership)
Do we have a data wall policy? Not yet, but coming soon.
Any policy or guidance on teacher use of websites and such with sharing information about students? Also will be included in that same policy
math curriculum is citywide? Rolling out now, so not all schools as aware as others
science and social studies "half the year for a full year of curriculum"
scope and sequence being worked through; communicating with principals


Biancheria: "acting assistant principals" and non-acting? what's the difference?
Luster: means that they haven't been hired through the process; will be posted in January and then hired
enrollment: WEMS? They increased by sixth grade last year
Biancheria: innovation academy...science labs...woven into sixth, seventh, eighth
ELL program: does that advance them further? or is that stand alone?
increasing number of students who are taking AP courses
enrollment of college courses: yes, get them twice a year
at 75% on free and reduced lunch; do we see it increasing? Always fluid
Asks for MCAS information to be sent by paper

O'Connell: 85 teachers to Eagle Hill
secondary class size? Yes, coming
MCAS information coming broken down by school and demographic?
trends, by year, by grade level and by content, and Levels of schools
Is this the first time that we've done an online requisition? Paper until now?
Had been moving there, now there

Opening of school report

Can be found here
My notes here are going to be light, as much of the info can be found in the report itself: posting as we go

As of right now, WPS enrollment is 25,397, which is 483 students up from last year
(That isn't our official enrollment, as we won't do that until October)

High school enrollment increase of 3.6% (overall)
Middle school enrollment increase of 0.7% (overall)
elementary is going in both directions: largest increases at Burncoat Prep, Vernon Hill, Chandler El, Rice Square, Chandler Magnet (and all are double digit percentages)
Largest percentage drop in elementary at Goddard, Clark St, Tatnuck Magnet, Wawecus, Columbus Park (none of which are a trend)

Classroom teacher to student ratio is 1: 22.2
adult to student ratio is 1: 20.9
(in both cases in elementary, and there is variation across classrooms)
302 of elementary classes have fewer than 23 students
208 of 23-26 students
59 classes of 27-30 students
2 classes of 30 or more and both are due to space
(and those numbers don't balance yet, as shifts are happening)
October 1 report will be sent to school committee

while there are positions eliminated, there were also new hires (due to retirements and resignations) 203 new hires
there also were 2641 payroll changes
WPS has 3840 employees, making us the city's third largest employer (after UMass Memorial and UMass Med) (and that doesn't include coaches or after school programs)

piloting the electronic report card in 8 schools
last year, evaluated the K-12 arts magnet program
rolling out literacy plan
Family and Community Academy happening
5 new courses happening this year
Diesel Automotive added at South High
PSAT test now available to all 10th and 11th grade
expansion of ABA service delivery to children with autism
district-wide mathmatics pilot is underway
professional development institute for grades 4,5,6 and 10 teachers this year
more work with K-3 and grade 9 (they had the institute last year)
Universal Design for Learning for all coaches and liaisons ('how do we think about instruction in a meaningful way')

Now serving 12,000 breakfasts served daily and 15,900 lunches
22 elementary breakfasts in the classroom (over 400 classrooms)
75% free and reduced lunch eligible students
14 schools added for the state fruit and vegetable grant
Over the summer, over 13,000 students were served over the summer; 50,000 meals over July & August. Another truck coming, so that will be even bigger next summer.

96 large school buses; 135 smaller buses
12,320 students transported each day
10,000 miles a day; 1,800,000 miles a year

last year we were awarded $38,6 million grants (70 grants of which 24 were competitive)
online requisitioning over vendor portals for school and office supplies

Several MSBA projects either completed or ongoing
boiler WILL BE IN for October 1 (hooray!)
window projects ongoing at Columbus Park, Worcester Arts Magnet, and Tatnuck Magnet; completed at Chandler Magnet
and go check out those nice new windows and doors at Chandler Mag!
and all the good stuff on this list here

7500 new computers and monitors out there (and we recycled over 70 tons of electronics as a result)
district internet speed has doubled (hooray!)
completed the transition to the web-based student information managment system

NO MCAS RESULTS YET: COMING TOMORROW!

Principal and Assistant Principal appointments

This afternoon, we received the following from Superintendent Boone:

I am happy to announce the Principal and Assistant Principals selected for the following:

• Siobhan McKenna Dennis, Principal, Columbus Park School
• Lauren Chuk, Acting Assistant Principal, Canterbury Street School
• Susan Donahue, Acting Assistant Principal, Rice Square School
• Patricia Murphy-Brown, Acting Assistant Principal, Vernon Hill School
• Maureen Power, Assistant Principal, Jacob Hiatt Magnet School
• Joanne Quist, Acting Assistant Principal, Sullivan Middle School
• Tina Schirner, Assistant Principal, Grafton Street School

Reporting out: Joint committee and F&O

And I'm not going to take notes on this, as you've already seen them. This is the joint meeting that was held on December 18; notes here and following. 
Possibly the first some are hearing that we are under net school spending by $1.3M due to benefits of city administration not being able to be counted towards education spending.
Also, yesterday's F&O meeting, with Mr. Foley reporting out on addition of assistant principal at North High and special education increases.

Full committee approving quarterly transfers:

• $135,000 from Custodians to Custodial Overtime
• $95,000 from Maintenance Services to Custodial overtime
• $50,000 from Maintenance Services to Maintenance Overtime
• $80,000 from Administrative clerical to Support Overtime
• $100,000 from Non-instructional support to Support Overtime--drivers
• $10,000 from Non-instructional support to Bus monitor Overtime

Full committee approving Statements of Interest to send to the Mass School Building Authority 
Again, those are South High, Burncoat High, Doherty High for renovation/replacement
Clark Street, Goddard, Union Hill, West Tatnuck for window replacement

Finance and Operations meets Wednesday at 5!

The Standing Committee on Finance and Operations meets this Wednesday, January 22 at 5 pm. You can find the agenda here.
And welcome, Ms.Ramirez for her first meeting!

• We're getting a report back from Administration (on a motion I filed) on fixing the pesky problem of knowing what door to go in. 
• We have the Blue Ribbon Technology report up for consideration. You'll remember that we've funded the first round of computer rentals, so we'll be getting a progress report. With the needs we also have with the upcoming PARCC assessment coming in, there's some cross referencing we need to do here as well. And possibly capital funding.
• We're sending both the FY14 budget and the FY14 capital budget to our joint committee with City Council.
• WPS participated in the drafting of the 2013 Open Space and Recreation Plan, a document that the City is required to submit every seven years.
• We have the usual quarterly budget report, with an update on all accounts. It looks to me that the big things here--beyond underfunding workers' comp, which you'll remember we discussed at our last meeting and are taking up again at this one--are special education costs and a few categories of overtime. 
• We're getting an overview on the review of playgrounds that has happened. Schools do have the specifics for their own playgrounds; do keep in mind that this is a citywide view. I've already gotten some questions: if your school has a brand new playground, chances are that what you need is a sign and possibly better groundcover. 
• Mr. O'Connell had a query on adding assistant principals. 
• It's MSBA Statement of Interest time! The rebuild/renovate proposals remain the same: South at number one, with Burncoat and Doherty to follow. Proposed accelerated repairs for this year--all on windows--are Clark Street, Goddard, Union Hill, and West Tatnuck. Those have to pass out of F&O, through School Committee, then through City Council, and (in the case of the accelerated repairs) all by the first week of February.
• Miss Biancheria inquired about WRTA bus passes. 
• I've got some concerns about our snowblowers and lawnmowers. You have to read between the lines, but that's a worried Facilities department. 
• And Mr. O'Connell referred the school nutrition account here, so we should get to have some conversation about school lunch!

It's a long one, but it all starts at 5 on Wednesday! Fourth floor of the Durkin Administration Building (or live on Channel 11). 

Worcester School Committee meets this Thursday!

two more meetings this year!
The Worcester School Committee has its regularly scheduled meeting at 7 pm on Thursday at City Hall. You can find...hmmm, no, you can't. Let me get back to you on that. UPDATE: agenda is here. 
You might remember that we had a super-short meeting last time, and many items were held, as both Mr. Foley and Mr. O'Connell were not there. Those have all carried over to this meeting.
We have several recognitions, including the Quinsigamond Land Task Force for cafeteria tables, Worcester Tech for the PRIME Manufacturing award, Team BEMANY for the solar decathlon, the Alden Foundation for their funding of field trips, and Mr. Allen for the Professional Eagle award.
We're getting the Finance and Operations report back from November 12.
We have some retirements and appointments.
We have more than one PARCC item: one on delaying implementation until student accommodations are done, and another recognizing it as an unfunded mandate. To that end, incidentally, you might take a look at this letter that Commissioner Chester sent out to superintendents (no, not to School Committees) regarding the state's authority regarding field testing. As this will be coming up on Thursday, no comment from me on this.
We're inviting members of the Model United Nations team at South to come make a presentation to us about possible expansion.
We're setting some dates and doing some recognitions, including one for the great work of the teachers and students involved in the "Night at the Oscars" program (which is now up online...I'll post it in a bit!).
Mr. O'Connell is concerned about cursive.
We have an item coming in regarding bumping teaching assistant principals to full assistant principals.
Miss Biancheria is asking for an update on the finances around our recent enrollment increases.
She is also asking for an update on 504 plans.
We will also have an executive session (as per usual) at six. 

By the way: you'll see that the agenda has a somewhat irregular profile when it comes to co-sponsorship. About halfway through the time since the last agenda, we started using the system the Attorney General has required in order for us to be in compliance with the Open Meeting Law. Thus the later items are sponsored only by a single member; all co-sponsorship must be done from the floor during the meeting.

conversation around assistant principals

some about cohort training, who has it, who's applying for positions, who's eligible for positions and not applying

I don't know exactly what it is either; I'll get an answer.

WPS FY11 budget: April 15 memo

Waiting for us at our desks last night at School Committee was a new budget update memo based on the Massachusetts House Ways and Means Budget. I have it only in hard copy, so I can't post it all, but here's the gist and some quotes:

The House Ways and Means budget calls for, as expected, cuts to ch. 70 of 4%, unless that would drive the district below foundation, as it would in Worcester.
The HW&M budget uses federal stimulus funds to reach the foundation budget level, which the Governor's budget did not. Worcester would receive $3.7 million of federal stimulus funds from the state under this plan.

Grants for programs like kindergarten, adult basic education, and funding for special education reimbursement all look as though they will be level funded.

Cuts are proposed to literacy grants and extended learning time grants. How that ends up playing out is not yet known ('though, and this is my interpolation, if it concerns you, contact your House member! ).

It looks as though the House will debate the budget starting the week of April 26.

The superintendent has revised her original WPS proposal: she is no longer planning on cutting the stipend for teaching assistant principals at the smaller, non-STEP schools. She plans to cut an additional (as yet unspecified) central office administrator in order to fund this.

She has recommended the following priorities, should there be additional funds available (and this is quoted):

• low elementary class sizes
• school safety
• early literacy
• comprehensive curriculum programming
• College preparation, AP classes, increased rigor and relevance of courses

Specifically, I would recommend additional elementary classroom teachers to address class size concerns. Also I would restore as many of the elementary intervention tutor positions as possible in order to address literacy development. Additionally, I would recommend funds to restore some of the secondary teacher positions to support college preparation and 21st century coursework.
(end quote)
Comments welcome!

NO teaching assistant principal layoffs

We just as we came in got an updated budget memo. I've only started to read it, but it does say that the proposal to cancel the teaching assistant principal stipend is off the table.

Teaching Assistant Principals

We haven't gotten to the FY11 budget yet--we've been talking organization--but you may remember that the administration did come out with a proposal to close the budget gap. Among the proposals was cutting the assistant principal stipend for those elementary schools with a teaching assistant principal, an enrollment below 400, and no STEP program.

For those who are wondering about where the teaching assistant principals currently are whose positions might be lost, they are:

Lake View School

May Street School

Midland Street School

West Tatnuck School

Lincoln Street School

Francis J. Mcgrath Elementary School

Worcester Arts Magnet School

Thorndyke Road School

Wawecus Road School

Canterbury Street Magnet School

Heard Street Discovery Academy School

The twelfth is Vernon Hill School, but Vernon Hill is projected to go above 400 next year, so that's been looked at again.