Recommended reading

• You may have recognized how damaging the right-wing assault on school districts has been, but now there's a first attempt to calculate how expensive it has been. The answer: $3.2 billion. The report, posted through UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, is here. You can also find coverage in The Guardian, K-12 Dive, Chalkbeat, EdWeek
  
  
• Coming in this week's New York Times Magazine is this long read on cheer: how it became a dominant sport, how dangerous it is for girls, and how it's probably violating anti-trust laws. That's a gift link, so read and share. 
  
  
• In both Oklahoma and Louisiana, educators and parents are suing their respective states to stop mandates for Bibles (Oklahoma) and the Ten Commandments (LA) in the classroom. 
  
  
• I really appreciated this opinion piece from New Bedford superintendent Andrew O'Leary on vocational school funding.
  
  
• I appreciated the paragraphs in this piece regarding San Francisco on position control.

TLSS

charging ever onward in working to get to foreign travel (including adding two days of allowed absence)
providing alternatives to silent lunches
requesting that we look at $13,000 for cheerleading equipment
safety at athletic events
adding PD for IA's (professional development for instructional assistants)
visual arts on curriculum review
 MassCore added
policies handbook on AP

cheerleading

Mulqueen: notes of inventory done
coming to School Committee as a budget proposal
Biancheria questions the lack of storage for mats
securing mats, says Athletic Director Shea
Biancheria comments that she looks at cheerleading as a sport
asks where they're storing other equipment for other sports: aren't they locked up somewhere?
Mulqueen if we have funds for buying them, we then can work at securing them
Biancheria asks that there be a conversation around storage now
Shea: notes that Burncoat has a dance team (may be a switch-off)
distinction between teams and clubs: teams get transportation to get to competitions

Standing committee today

The standing committee on Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports meets today at 5:30 in the administration building. There are three items on the agenda: homeless students, status of cheerleading, and curriculum review. There is a chance, I am told, that foreign travel may also be taken up; it depends on the City Solicitor's schedule.
Hoping to manage a liveblog!

TLSS report

...but many of the items (including cheerleading and homeless students) are being held at the subcommittee level...