Board of Ed for April: educational vision including Milken award

 on the award here
boost educator morale, affirm their work and impact, sharing best practices
Jillian Levreault, Southbridge Middle School
Levreault: had an unconventional start to teaching career
"I didn't have a great school experience myself"
need and want to make a difference "to be the teacher I wish I had"
try to bring authenticity and honesty
"teaching is more than just learning content"
build self-confidence so they can and want to access content
OpenSciEd "very inquiry based"
can change their minds based on new evidence
high expectations to take academic risks
prepare ahead of classrooms
administrators who also hold themselves to high standards
"will my students have an advantage in the world because I am their teacher" is what she asks herself each day
Tutwiler notes that tomorrow is Villar's last day as Southbridge receiver as he moves to be superintendent in Connecticut
Villar thanks Secretary, says seven years have "been difficult, but the most rewarding time of my career"
break for photos and...still a break...

Worcester School Committee this week plus a report to check out

 Note that: 

• the Standing Committee on Finance, Operations, and Governance meets tomorrow (Monday) at 4:45; the agenda is here. It's a three item agenda--students as custodians; three proposed years of calendars; and the proposed Haas donation (remember that?)* with a recommendation the item be filed.
  The calendars adopt the city's "Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day" phrasing. They also continue Good Friday as a "non-school day."
  
  
• The full Committee meets Thursday at 5 (for executive session); the agenda is here. The report of the superintendent is on alternative programs. 
  Also on the agenda: the reports related to the above; the approval of new courses (which one would expect to go to subcommittee); a request for a utility easement at North High; a proposal that something at Doherty High be named after deceased Worcester Fire Department Lt. Jason Menard; and a request for the costs of the climate and culture specialists.
  Interestingly, among the items is a request that the Committee approve a Statement of Interest for renovation/rebuild for Burncoat Middle School. To quote from the accompanying memo from the Deputy Superintendent:
  

As part of the MSBA’s onsite review of the school, it was recommended that the district would need to submit a Statement of Interest for Burncoat Middle School to be included in consideration to be included in the new school project during the feasibility phase of the project. 

The High School and Middle Schools share some mechanical infrastructure and significant instructional programs (dual language program, 7-12 advanced scholars' academy, and the district’s performing arts programs).

The approval of this Statement of Interest is intended to have the middle school considered as part of the feasibility phase of the high school project. The determination by the city whether to combine the high school and middle school into a shared facility (but remain as two separate schools) would be determined during the feasibility study of the project. That project timeline is expected to take place between 2025-2028.

The deadline for the major renovation/replacement projects is Friday, April 12, 2024.

Do note that the School Committee last term requested that the middle school be included in the consideration; this is the (state required) next step in that. This also must be approved by the    Worcester City Council. 

• While we're thinking about Worcester Public Schools facilities, give a review to the latest release by the Research Bureau, "Building the Future: Investing in Worcester Public Schools facilities."
  
  
• And speaking of the Research Bureau, nominations for the annual Thomas S. Green Public Service Award are open, so nominate your favorite teacher, custodian, bus driver, paraprofessional, nurse, school nutrition worker, crossing guard, school secretary...and so on!

_______________________________________

*Short version from me: Should the Worcester Public Schools name a facility after a man who committed felony conspiracy, witness intimidation and federal tax evasion to the tune of $30M in retaliation for the federal government fining him for patent infringement, in return for a donation of $350,000 to upgrade a shop at Worcester Tech? You can read all the documentation here.
The motion to file here means "end it all."

The Board of Ed meets in January: Teacher of the Year

award winners 2024 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year De’Shawn C. Washington and Milken Award winners Michelle (Shelley) Terry and Andrew Rebello

Shelley Terry from Plymouth North High speaks of her unique and engaging experiences she's been able to give students
locally developed curriculum built on the standards
"what I personally love about my department is we are not required to use a certain program or textbook"
if you think that this isn't directed at recent efforts to centrally require curriculum, you don't understand teachers
"deeply personal discussions...contribute to their personal growth and development"
"having the ability to create magic in the classroom..is what keeps me coming back day after day"
cell phone hotel; students spending hours on cell phones
"students have rarely had to be bored"
I will say that much of my generation watched TV when they came home rather than read books, to be fair here
"our world has changed"
"sometimes the most frustrating is when the student who can't read won't"
"a happy medium between the past and where we were today"
put books in people's hands, educate about screentime

Andrew Rebello from Diman Regional, notes that he is a "proud New Bedford High graduate"
work that teachers have done: 98% graduation rate, chronic absenteeism down to 4%
"turn the impossible into the inevitable"
"one size fits none"
"our life ready mission extends to everything in schools"
dress code extends to not having cell phones in schools 

De’Shawn Washington of Lexington Public Schools (who's our state Teacher of the Year)
he teaches elementary school! Isn't that great?
notes that he's the first Black man to be the first MA TOTY
building up the child in who they're going to be and in who they are
great reminder of building up civic minded individuals in our society
"I am an active and engaged learner"
developing a curriculum, developing children 
"I am still learning"
call to service in this year of being teacher of the year
supporting our students in their current being
"The call of service is a real thing...I get to do an awesome activity called listening"
"what's happening in our schools, what's happening in transformative learning"

Worcester meetings this week

Two Worcester school meetings this week:

• The Governance subcommittee continues their power drive through policies with a meeting on Tuesday at noon (very conducive to public input). Note that this section includes those on students (J), on negotiations (H), facilities (F), community relations (K), and educational agency relations (L). Most of the policies are MASC boilerplate. Interesting that the superintendent's chief of staff (I have to check the org chart; I didn't know there was such a position) is being given the power to approve WPS statements.

The School Committee meets Thursday at 7 pm with an executive session at 6. In executive session, there are still negotiations with custodians, computer techs, IAs, and educational secretaries, plus there is a teacher discipline case and pending litigation.

MASC will be out to give a series of awards to community members and to Mayor Petty, who is this year's All-State School Committee winner in Division IX (urbans). 

The report of the superintendent is on nursing in the 21st century. There are the usual beginning of year appointments, resignations, and retirements. 

There is a response that the Capstone project--which is the big AP push--was funded in the current year budget; a short response on the wraparound coordinators working at schools; a response on the QUEST program at QCC; a response on the "Seeds to STEM" program from WPI; and a response on improved manufacturing options. 

There's also a response on possible federal grant impacts, which begins with "Federal initiatives are very much in a state of flux," which may be the understatement of the administration. 

There is an update on the  "management plan activities" on the PCB situation at Doherty and Burncoat. The committee (again?) proposes to review the resolutions before the Delegate Assembly of MASC in November. There's a proposed building fee change (no report) and the close of the FY18 books (also no report as yet).

The administration is proposing participating in the model Educator Evaluation system (?no backup?).

There are a series of donations.

Mr. O'Connell wants to invite a representative from MNA to tour the schools; to modify the McKinney-Vento grant to include hurricane impacts (uh...); to investigate licensure options for those coming from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and to ask DESE to extend the October 1 count to later, considering those who may be evacuating elsewhere.

Miss Biancheria wants to discuss the Community Addiction Response Program.

I'm also confused by a series of financial responses coming in from Mr. O'Connell and Miss Biancheria from the last meeting, as there were no fiscal reports on the last agenda, nor any items filed. There's a chart from the Operational Services Division of tuition rates. There's the Educational Divisions supplies account from the FY18 budget. There's an explanation of the changes in the administration account from FY17 to FY18. And there's a report on the Environmental Systems Management. These all feel like budgetary questions, coming during second quarter; did someone just review their budget now?

Worcester, you have good people working for you.

Congratulations to:

Sara Consalvo, Worcester Public Schools Budget Director, who was awarded a "Friend of MASBO" award at their Annual Conference on Thursday, and...

Brian Allen, Worcester Public Schools Chief Financial and Operations Officer, who was awarded the 2017 President's award.

We don't hear enough in Worcester about the good work that people are doing.
Nemo profeta in patria

Best Practices in School Budgeting (MASBO Annual Institute 2017)

Presentation is here
They're also referencing the Government Finance Officers Association Award for Best Practices in School Budgeting.
And, as would only be right, there's a reference to ASBO's Meritorious Budget Award.

Cheers!

From last night!

.@Brian_E_Allen as @worcesterpublic receives the Donald G. Johnson operational & cost efficiency award #MASBOAI16 pic.twitter.com/Wx4MBQ7HxM

— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) May 19, 2016

The award was created to:

recognize school districts for their efforts in developing  cost efficient approaches to addressing particular operational areas that commonly tax the budgets of school systems and that are also capable of being replicated by other districts throughout the Commonwealth.

This year's award for WPS recognizes the cost savings--and improved services!--due to bringing services for students with autism back in house.

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

Yes, due to our April schedule being off due to holidays and vacation, we meet two weeks in a row!
You can find the agenda here.

We are honoring our Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing award winners!
And Donna Lombardi, our School Nutrition director!
And the Y, which was a great help to our crew team on their spring fundraiser!

The report of the superintendent is on the end of the three year cycle for Worcester East Middle School (my recollection is that we approved more than Worcester East Middle three years ago; I'm asking about the others)

We'll have a report coming out of F&O (which meets at noon on Thursday on the third quarter and on school lunch prices for next year).

We have a few responses from administration: on the facilities report online, on recess spending, and on Channel 11 funding.
Mr. O'Connell is asking about re-establishing the Doherty Satellite program, and is asking about bookbags in the schools.

And that's it! No executive session this week.

WPS Teacher of the Year and IA of the Year

If you're in the WPS email system, you got an email on this!
If you're a parent, your principal has the forms!
And they'll be going up online on this page...in a bit.

Go nominate someone!

Worcester School Committee meets TONIGHT!

Worcester School Committee meets tonight! You can find the agenda--and one of our two (rare) supplemental agenda--here.
Very quick overview today due to time constraints ('though it's also a short agenda): we have our Valentine award winners coming in tonight.
Two major items on the agenda:

• The first is the (oft-written of) reconsideration. PLEASE NOTE: nothing that happens tonight changes the basic standard that yes, you may, as a parent, opt our child out of taking the pilot PARCC exam this spring. Should reconsideration succeed--we have to have a majority vote to even reconsider the motions--we are deciding if everyone (parents, teachers, principals, the School Committee) should have the administrative protocol around opting out, and if we should forward to the state a letter, like those of other districts, stating our legal objections. If reconsideration succeeds, then we will have this discussion. If it fails, the vote from two weeks ago stands. If we have the discussion, we have a revote of those two issues.
• The second very important issue being discussed tonight is budgetary priorities. We have this backup regarding this item; take a look at page 2 for a nice overview of where the schools are at in how we're using our resources. The School Committee will be speaking to this issue individually and possibly at length. I would urge you to at least watch this portion of tonight for an update into the thus far fairly horrifying budget projections. 

I hope to get to the rest of the agenda--several donations and grants coming through! prior year payments! committee reports--but should I not, go take a look. 

And remember: the meetings stream live through Channel 11.
I will, as per usual, liveblog those portions of the meeting that I'm not speaking during. Should anything of particular note happen, I will endeavor also to get it out via Twitter.

Know a fantastic alum of the Worcester Public Schools?

Nominate them for this fall's WEDF Distinguished Alumni and Friends award!
Nominations are due May 15; the awards are in November.
Not sure if they've already been honored? There's a list at the link. 

Monday morning links

Should you have missed them over the weekend:

• You should read this great story from 1839 of how knowing how to read rescued a boy kidnapped into slavery. Also, I love that we have T&G reporters digging through the Worcester Historical Museum files! Nice work, Mr. Caywood!
• An important read on how the correlation between being married and avoiding poverty may well be for the reverse reason than is being forwarded.
• Matt Damon did an Ask Me Anything on reddit and tackled education policy. To wit: "We would never let businessmen design warheads, why would you cut out educators when you're designing education policy?" His mom is Nancy Carlsson-Paige, who we are fortunate enough to have as an early childhood ed advocate in Massachusetts, so he does know whereof he speaks. 
• There was a massive march at the North Carolina state capital on Saturday to support the Voting Rights Act, part of the "Moral Monday" marches that have been held there to protest an array of government actions, including some lousy education policies.
• I was saddened to learn that education advocate Ted Olsen of Oregon recently died. He was among the first to break publicly with Stand for Children when it became clear that they do not, in fact, stand for children. I share this column about his granddaughter's close friend and how our system continues to fail them in his memory. Thanks, Alain!
• OUR local education reporter, Jackie Reis, got a second place award  for education reporting in the 2014 New England Newspaper and Press Association awards.Congratulations, Jackie!
• Finally, more to come on this, but public comments on the  proposed changes to the charter school regs are due next week.

Nominations!

More nominations! This just in from the Mass Department of Elementary and Secondary Education:

The Department is now accepting nominations for the following educator recognition programs: the 2015 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, the 2014 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year, the 2014 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the 2014 George Washington Teachers' Institute, and the 2014 Distinguished Elementary Educators. To learn more about these programs, go tohttp://www.doe.mass.edu/educators/recognition/.

Do you have an excellent principal?

Nominations are currently open for the Thomas Passios Outstanding Principal of the Year award:

The Thomas Passios Outstanding Principal of the Year nominations are being sought. This award is presented every year to an outstanding principal nominated by parents, teachers, superintendents or principals. The recipient of this award also becomes the NAESP National Distinguished Principal from Massachusetts. 

The Thomas C. Passios Outstanding Principal Award was established in 1979 to honor the memory of an outstanding school leader. The award is presented annually at the MESPA Spring Conference by the Commissioner of Education to an elementary and middle-level principal who has demonstrated clear leadership in developing successful programs for children and teachers, exceptional dedication to education, outstanding professionalism and an unselfish attitude toward helping others.

If that sounds like someone you know, click on the above link for information about the nominations.

Have you sent in your nomination for the Thomas S. Green Public Service Award?

Nominations are due November 26!

• Municipal employees in Worcester County
• Exceptional competence and efficient handling of all assigned responsibilities.
• Willing performance of tasks above and beyond the call of duty.
• Friendly, helpful, and cooperative attitude toward the public and fellow employees.
• Important, but not required, volunteer community service outside the scope of job-related responsibilities.   

I have it on good authority that they NEVER get enough teachers nominated, so if your child, or you, have had a GREAT Worcester Public School teacher, please nominate them!
You can find more information, including the forms, here. 

Know of an outstanding municipal employee?

If you know of an outstanding municipal employee in Worcester County, please consider a nomination for the Thomas S. Green Award, awarded each year by the Research Bureau. Nomination forms can be found here.

• Municipal employees in Worcester County
• Exceptional competence and efficient handling of all assigned responsibilities.
• Willing performance of tasks above and beyond the call of duty.
• Friendly, helpful, and cooperative attitude toward the public and fellow employees.
• Important, but not required, volunteer community service outside the scope of job-related responsibilities.   

Worcester School Committee meets tonight!

sorry for the late agenda review...lots of running around this week!

The Worcester School Committee meets tonight at 7 pm at City Hall. You can find the agenda here.

First up, we have the annual Opening of School report from Superintendent Boone. Plenty of important things here, including preliminary enrollment information--yes, the district is continuing to grow!--the rundown on summer hiring, program and curriculum changes, the facilities and technology work, and more! We won't have an MCAS report tonight; the state is allowing the release of that tomorrow.

We have another round of retirements/appointments to take a look at.

We have four responses coming back from administration, all in response to questions that were asked during our budget hearings:

1. a breakdown on team sport transportation
2. a report on which schools have or will have smart meters (answer: None)
3. an update on E-rate (not good news)
4. a report on adult education funding

We've got a report back on the chapter 74 vocational funding by program.
We have a response on the query around the new nutritional regs (answer: the part in question doesn't apply to WPS).
We have a report on the Common Core standards (much of which I think we've seen before).
We have an item coming in on working with others to make Main South safer for our students walking to and from school (this in response to concerns raised by Councilor Sarai Rivera, who represents that neighborhood; I know that there was a meeting on this on Monday, so we should hear something tonight).
We're being asked to approve a prior fiscal year payment of $750 for translation, $350 for the UPCS NEASC report, and $2123 for a prorated alternative stipend.
We're being asked to approve a $75,000 grant from DESE for "technology innovation" in teacher evaluation; $60,000 of this is going to for consulting to ClearPond Technology who appear to be the group behind TeachPoint (honestly, can't find these guys online anywhere; is that weird or is that me?). TeachPoint "...is one of the fastest growing providers of Teacher Evaluation solution. We innovatively combine the power of cloud computing and mobile technology to create precisely tailored and intuitive solutions for K12 Schools Districts" according to their website. Yes, I will be asking about that.
Administration has filed an item about developing financial reporting requirements for parent-teacher and other associated WPS groups; that's going to F&O.
There are also are items to:

• recognize Shelia Harrity on the NASSP principal of the year award.
• review the promotion practices of WPS.
• request the Body Mass Index measurement schedule
• request a report on preschool (application, sites, numbers, timeframes, playground equipment)

We're being asked to approve the hiring of some nurses (yes, we do the nurses) and approve a timeline for hiring a new nurse coordinator.
We have an interesting response from City Solicitor David Moore on my query regarding filing items such that we comply with the Open Meeting Law.

And there you have it: 7 pm tonight!

Congratulations, Mr. Allen!

Brian Allen, the Chief Financial and Operations Officer for the Worcester Public Schools, has been awarded the Distinguished Eagle Award from the Association of School Business Officials International. You can find the press release in our Friday letter from yesterday. Of Mr. Allen, ASBO says:

Allen is a hands-on leader who often is out in the field, on school campuses, evaluating facilities, talking with staff and students, and ensuring they have the resources they need. Throughout his 14 years with the district, he has continuously reallocated funds to safeguard dollars in the district's classrooms. His commitment has ensured funding for the district's alternative and special education programs.

 ASBO's annual meeting is in Boston this year at the end of October, and they'll be presenting awards then.

Worcester School Committee meets on Thursday

The Worcester School Committee meets this Thursday for our last school year meeting.
We'll start in budget session at 4 pm with account 500-91133, School Nurses, to which it is proposed that we add three (hurray!). And do recall that no account of the budget is officially passed until the whole budget is passed by the School Committee meeting in budget session, and then by the School Committee meeting in regular session.
We'll recess to exec at 6, and be back at 7 (or thereabouts) for our regular session, for which you can find the agenda here.
As it is the last regular session, we have a large number of recognitions coming through (including this year's nurse and teacher of the year award winners). It's also the last meeting of Sergio Paez, who is heading off to be the superintendent of Holyoke. I've also just learned that Kaitlyn Furcinitti, who is coming through in recognition of her music scholarship, is going to be playing the National Anthem on the cello for us!
We have Governance and Employee Issues coming back with their report on the policies review.
We've also got a series of reports from last week's budget session, including a question on federal grant funding, what we have for gymnastics equipment, and what we might need to run a gymnastics team. If you're interested, take a look at that and let me know what you think.
We've got a response coming back to the Center for Nonviolent Solutions teacher course (that it's being publicized).
There is a proposal coming in from Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Monfredo that we comment on proposed regulation on school lunches (though the back-up is a letter from two majority members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and I can't find the proposed regulation...a little confused on this one).
We have several proposed congratulations.
We're being asked to receive a donation to the Worcester Tech plumbing department from the Donald Martineau, Sr. Memorial Fund.
We're doing our annual selection of a delegate and an alternate to the Mass Association of School Committee annual meeting in November (willing to bet this one is coming in from Dr. Friel; if we register early, we save money!).
I've asked that the City Manager report on the short and long term benefits of contributing to an Other Post-Employment Benefits trust fund (that's OPEB; a report we haven't seen).
We're being asked by adminstration to consider all items filed by the School Committee in light of the FY14 budget (this is the annual "you know that these things aren't free" reminder).
We're supposed to be getting a mid-year report from Superintendent Boone relative to her goals prior to the meeting on Thursday. I'll post once I have it.
And then my item, below, (which apparently Mr. O'Connell contacted the clerk to co-sponsor) regarding questions on the One Library system.

Also, a reminder: we'll return to budget session after our regular session if we haven't completed the budget when we recess to exec at 6. We will, however, pass our budget, one way or the other, on Thursday night.

Recognizing the Boston Globe award winners

Art and Writing Awards from Burncoat Middle, Burncoat High, and Doherty Memorial High.
Contest began in 1923.
judged on technical skill and the "emergence of a voice"
about 900,000 submissions

Burncoat Middle School

   Teacher: Victoria Caezza

Anika Nyman                Gold Key

 

Burncoat High School

   Teacher: Margaret Grasso

Derek Beeso                 Gold Key

Wylesha Rodriguez         Gold Key

Sthefany Lamoureux       Gold Key and Honorable Mention

Maxwell Amoah              Silver Key

Teahna Naples               Silver Key

Nia Holley                      Honorable Mention

Holli Carlson                   Honorable Mention

 

Doherty Memorial High School

   Teacher: Laurie Atchue

Chelsea Fairweather        Gold Key

Sabrina Nguyen              Silver Key

Athena Parella                2 Silver Keys

Carrie Bliss                     Silver Key

Irvi Stefo                       Silver Key

Dylan Brisbon                  Honorable Mention

Samantha Shannon          Honorable Mention