June 2026 Board of Ed; Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School

 the report is here

completed the tasks described in the three conditions, around governance of their board
different than demonstrating sustained improvement
will have additional governance requirement; expected that they will apply for renewal next year
now having some conversation around the transportation item
condition was for them to develop a plan; they haven't fully implemented a plan

June 2026 Board of Ed: opening comments

 As I noted earlier this week, this agenda has the end-of-year group of reports today: one on civics, because 250th anniversary of the Declaration; the end of year Student Advisory Report; probably some talk about the statewide graduation report, which had its own meeting last night; the Mitchell Chester award; plus they have regulations to update.

There's a pre-meeting rally happening in the courtyard outside about immigration, 'though there has not been a lot directed to the Board on that (and the Governor issued guidance on this topic last month)

The livestreaming video is here.

from my walk to the meeting

It's a two meeting week for the Board of Ed

 As a reminder: the Board has a special meeting tonight (Monday) at 5 PM virtually, specifically on the recently released graduation report. 

They have their regular June meeting tomorrow at 9 AM (yes, both agendas are a single page) in Everett. That agenda includes the end of the school year things--the Mitchell Chester award, the end of year report from the student rep from the State Student Advisory Council--along with some end of year informational reports (off agenda) including both the chronically underperforming schools report, and the non-operating school districts report (my personal favorite Massachusetts education trivia question!). 

There is also a report on civics education (you might remember this was a request of the chair at the last meeting) and a report on the operating conditions of Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, who the Commissioner is recommending being released from their current conditions but:

 While I recommend that the Board remove the current conditions, concerns remain about the board’s governance practices, such as an Open Meeting Law violation and other deficiencies in complying with the Open Meeting Law; inconsistent implementation of the board’s review and approval processes; and, based on review of board and committee meeting minutes and observations of board meetings, indications that board trainings have not led to improved governance practices or a clearer understanding of the role and responsibilities of the governing body. 

This is pretty interesting, as (as you would see if you searched their history on this blog), PVCICS has had what I'd call a storied history when it comes to their relationship with the state that charters them. Among other interchanges, they're the only example I remember of Paul Sagan, when he was chair, being utterly exasperated by something publicly, when they applied over the head of the Commissioner for an expansion that had been refused by the Commissioner. I would say that they have a culture of going their own way, so to speak. Speaking so directly to their governance is interesting. 

There are also two rounds of regulations up for vote: special education (which is aligning regulations with state and federal law) and interpretation and translation. I did a brief thread on my own comment on the proposed regs yesterday on Bluesky, but I do recommend reading the public comment summary overall. 

I won't be on for tonight's meeting, but I'll be posting tomorrow from Everett. 

Do they read all the comments? Yes! There's mine.

April 2026 Board of Ed: House Ways and Means budget update

 Look, there is a document on this! There is also a PowerPoint, which NEVER happens
This is also being taken out of order on the agenda

Martinez notes the literacy grant wasn't in the House Ways & Means budget, nor were the literacy institutes, nor reimagining high school grant (pay for AP exams) and support early college and MyCap

Bailing twine and bubble gum: school funding in the House Ways and Means proposal

 The House Committee on Ways & Means released their FY27 budget last Wednesday, and they're currently taking amendments before the House debate on the budget starts next week. 

I've been considering what to say about it since then (sorry if you've been waiting for me to post on it), and the refrain I kept coming back to is what state law says is the intent of the Legislature when it comes to school funding: 

The full section reads: 

It is the intention of the general court, subject to appropriation, to assure fair and adequate minimum per student funding for public schools in the commonwealth by defining a foundation budget and a standard of local funding effort applicable to every city and town in the commonwealth.

Board of Ed for February: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here. The meeting is fully remote.

tree in my backyard
why they are fully remote

Today will be (I believe) the sole appearance of  Amy Kershaw, as Acting Secretary of Education, as Steve Zrike will have started before their March meeting. 

Some things to look at from across the country

•  In another round of trying to get religious charter schools to happen, Oklahoma has rejected a Jewish charter school, and the proposers plan to sue. This is of course aimed at getting such a case back in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, whose 4-4 decision last year on St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was due to Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself.
  
  
• South Carolina has advanced a bill out of their education committee which would bar districts from having minimum grades rather than the grade actually earned for students. One might expect the conservative support, but I'll observe that support also came from their state teachers' association. 
  
  
• Maine is looking at their school funding formula. I thought this part was especially interesting: 
  

  Maine Educational Policy Research Institute proposes a 90/10 model for calculating how much of their costs districts can afford to cover with local funding. That means 90% of the expectation would be based on property taxes (the current system) and 10% would be based on the economically disadvantaged student rate. Researchers found that rate to be the best proxy for the poverty level in a community.

  Note that Maine's formula does include transportation, which Massachusetts does not include. Also this is an "I know, right?" with a different answer: 
  

   Johnson said special education is the area of the model that is “the most under stress.” Because of a step in the formula that bases state funding on past spending, the current formula disproportionately privileges wealthier districts.

  But before changing the formula, the institute proposes shifting special education to a regional model, wherein districts would collaborate on providing special ed services. Researchers are planning a forthcoming special education-specific report.

FY27 Governor's budget proposal

As I noted on Wednesday, Governor Healey has filed her proposed FY27 budget; as this is the second year of the legislative term, this is "House 2," as she files the bill with the House. 

As per usual, I'm keeping a running "account-by-account" for K-12 over here. This year, I honestly started by downloading this page from the state website and then playing with it; you might also find that useful. 

As always, dear readers, I post here for me and for you and in an entirely unofficial capacity. 

On revenue

I think the big story here is one Sam Drysdale at State House News Service caught and covered and then...no one picked up their coverage, as best as I can tell, so it is (sigh) only behind their paywall¹. 

October Board of Ed charter school audits

 asking for the Board to waive the requirement that charter schools submit single audit by November 1
prior to the government shutdown those single audit requirements were not updated
only for those that spend more than $750,000 of federal funding
other districts are not governed by a state statutory date; other districts are due nine months after the close of the fiscal year (so March)
November 1 is in regulation; January 1 is in state law
Curtin: Board doesn't have the authority to waive the statute
regulatory deadline of November 1 can be waived by Board

and adjourned

next meeting November 18

Dearest Legislators: on the charter reimbursement override

Dearest Legislators,

It has come to my attention that you plan to override Governor Healey's July veto of nearly $20M in charter school tuition reimbursement. As this represents millions of dollars to some of the most needy districts in the state¹, this is very helpful. Thank you!

Many of you are no doubt under the impression that this money goes, as is intended by state law, to the school districts themselves. This is, however, is the case only for regional school districts. For municipal school districts, because charter school tuition reimbursement isn't designated as going to schools "without additional appropriation," the money goes to the city or town general fund.

Cities and towns have long since passed their budgets. Unless someone takes additional action, these funds you intend for schools will not go to schools.

Were it possible for you to pass these funds with language so designating them, that would be most useful. 

If not, perhaps you could ensure that the Department of Revenue generates updated cherry sheets, and you could ensure the cities and towns in your districts are aware of where the money should go?

With very sincere thanks,

Someone who wants to ensure the Worcester Public Schools gets their $2M

¹As a reminder, here are all the amounts over $1M:

Things to read this Sunday

Some weeks, I find I have time to write, and some weeks, I have this build up of things I want to say something about and can't find time.

Please enjoy the harborside fall planting 

Here are some things I read this week that I recommend:

Public school districts having to provide transportation for other schools hurts public school students

Obligatory school bus photo, from my recent vacation in Canada,
because, yes, I take photos of school buses even on vacation.

Making the rounds right now is this report in The Guardian from Ohio, which, like Massachusetts, requires that public school districts provide transportation to students within their bounds to private and charter school students in their bounds.¹

A shortage of drivers and buses combined with the threat of fines, means that public school districts in Dayton and around Ohio find themselves relegating their own students to the back of the transportation line.

Massachusetts isn't fully funding charter school tuition reimbursement

 For reasons that are unclear to me, this doesn't seem to be getting any attention, but Massachusetts isn't fully funding charter school tuition reimbursement. 

As of the May 6 projections, charter school tuition reimbursement statewide should have been (per DESE's numbers) $215,792,970. The conference committee instead agreed to $199M. It wasn't fully funded.

And that was before the Governor vetoed another $19.9M over the weekend: 

The Governor isn't wrong that the account fluctuates over the year; charter enrollment does, so the amount needed does. 
What this misses is that midyear money isn't the same as July money. It also misses--again, something the state seems rather stuck on--that midyear funding doesn't, save in cases where the funding is allocated "without further appropriation" to the school district itself, get to municipal school districts. It goes into the municipal general fund. 

The Legislature could override the veto, though State House News reports:

House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka both provided thankful quotes for Healey's budget action press release, each of them referencing a shared commitment to "responsible" budget management.

Fully funding charter school reimbursement is part of the Student Opportunity Act. It thus is not the case that the commitment of the SOA is being met.  

Public education lives to fight another day

Raise a glass today to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, whose decision to block a religious charter school was upheld today due to a deadlocked Supreme Court: 

This is like when a motion deadlocks in a public body; it doesn't go forward. Thus there is no written decision, and we don't even know who voted which way (though the bets are that Roberts went with the more liberal justices).

K-12 Dive has the education take here; Nina Totenberg for NPR is here. You know I'll recommend that you read Chris Geidner of Law Dork, who notes the following: 

The one-sentence ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court creates no new national precedent, and the tie was the result of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s recusal from the case. A new challenge not requiring her recusal could easily return to the court in short order — especially now that the court has shown its interest in taking on the issue.

Still celebrate the win: 

But, with Thursday’s decision, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School’s application to become the nation’s first religious charter school cannot go forward.

On the Senate's Ways and Means budget

In the Senate Ways and Means budget released Tuesday, most of the education lines are parallel to the House budget, with these exceptions: 

The circuit breaker is still down from the Governor, so the open question here is what they're doing with the supplemental, which does have supplemental circuit breaker funding in it.
Related to this line, incidentally, is that there is word out there that the Legislature doesn't plan to take action on the supplemental budget until taking action on the FY26 budget, despite some of the funding in the supplemental budget for circuit breaker being for FY25. That's WAY too late. If the intent is for it to be for FY25, it needs to get to districts this fiscal year, which it will not if they wait until conference committee.

The Senate puts rural schools back to $16M.


The charter school reimbursement is down $14M from the House Ways and Means budget, with no clear reason as to why*. I've taken a look at some of the bigger districts on the updated preliminary cherry sheets and district by district loss in charter school reimbursement compared to the House Ways and Means budget:

•  $2M Worcester
• $3.5M Springfield
• $1.75M Lowell
• $500K New Bedford
• $1.5M Lawrence
• $1M Fall River
• $1.5M Brockton
• $389K Barnstable
• $478K Chelsea
• $657K Everett
  
  

UPDATE: Having taken a look at the updated DESE numbers, the Senate just doesn't fully fund charter reimbursement. The account should be $215,792,970; it's $183,828,858. It's funded at 85.2% of what it should be.

I hear a lot of people talk about "deals" and "commitment" this time of year. This is not either.

___________________
*Boston's charter reimbursement is up by about $4M, but tuition is also up by $10M, which I assume is the approvals from the Board of Ed meeting earlier this spring coming through.

Worth reading this week

•  MassBudget has shared their analysis of the FY26 House budget. 
  
  
• I want to say more about this, but we all really really have to be paying attention to Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, which was argued before the Supreme Court this week. This could well put into question if states are going to want to have charter schools at all anymore. 
  
  
• Regarding the ongoing delusion that generative artificial intelligence is the wave of the future that we must in education ensure we're adopting, gosh, go read "Reality Check" by Edward Zitron.
  
  
• I highly recommending this piece in Boston Magazine on Sharon High sophomore Rohan Shukla who was injured at last year's Thankgiving Day game. 
  
  
• The connection here for the blog is tenuous, but I want to be sure you're familiar with the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford University tradition on May 1. Here's a video recording of this year's: 
  
  

Board of Ed for March: Management organization (Uncommon Schools)

 Johnston: Management organizations can only contract with charter schools in Massachusetts through the Board

(I think it is fair to say it is discouraged)

passes

February Board of Ed: charter schools

 and on to charter school expansion

• Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School
• Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers: A Horace Mann Charter Public School
• KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School
• Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School
• Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School
• South Shore Charter Public School

February Board of Ed: opening comments

 The Board of Ed meets today at nine. You can find the agenda here. You can find a livestream here. 

Please enjoy this photo of swans preening on the Malden River this morning.

It is a "something for nearly everyone" agenda today--vocational admission! charter schools! teacher licensure! graduation requirements! who is going to be the Commissioner, anyway!--and there is a full room (the usual DESE staff in the back of the room are, I assume, watching from their offices), so I assume public comment will go on awhile.

I will further observe that we are getting another good "who has access" view, where Lynn (bless them) has packed the room, and the Pioneer Valley, which is just as outraged, is not as represented, because do you know how hard it is to get here from Hadley for 9 AM??

Healey still has seats to appoint

 As the Board tomorrow will vote on FIVE¹--FIVE!!--charter school expansions, I think it is crucial to note that the Board that will vote is one in which Governor Healey continues to leave one seat open and two members whose terms have very very clearly expired. 

Katherine Craven was appointed in August of 2014. There is no reality in which February of 2025 is not beyond her two five year terms provided by law.

Mary Ann Stewart was also appointed in August of 2014; it is now well beyond two five year terms.

Paymon Rouhanifard has not been seen in over a year (more?) at this point, leaving his seat vacant by state law.

Whatever the votes are tomorrow, this is not the Board² that should be voting this.

______________________________________________________________

¹Note that one--Edward M. Kennedy in Boston-- is a Horace Mann, which means it is under control and consent of the local school committee.
²That one is the Secretary's former district of Lynn, a district that barely makes net school spending when it makes it there at all, makes this even that much more wrenching.