The second February Worcester School Committee

 Yes, it's taking me about a week to get to these. It's budget season...
Hey, do note that due to this being a Leap Year and February having five Thursdays, there is NOT a Worcester School Committee meeting Thursday; you can have this week off. There is, however, a Teaching, Learning, and Student Success meeting on Monday at 5 pm.

The February 15th agenda can be found here; the video is here.

And there's a Worcester School Committee meeting this week

 And while I again will not offer commentary, this week is going to be the week if we see if the Committee caves to being ombudsmen. As a reminder, items filed by members per rule 26 of the Committee:

...shall be under the purview of the Committee, focus on the business of the Committee, and should be concise and specific. Members shall not file items that can be disposed of via contact per rule 9. Items not following this rule shall not be placed on the agenda.

The agenda is here.
The report of the superintendent is on the implementation of the Family and Community Engagement framework. 

September Board of Ed: student mental health

Speaking: Behavioral and Mental Health Specialist Chris Pond
Student and Family Support Assistant Director Kristen McKinnon
Associate Commissioner Rachelle Engler Bennett
Chelsea Public Schools’ Social Work Department District Administrator Brenda Pena
Holliston Public Schools’ Director of Social Emotional Learning and Equity Jariel Vergne

McKinnon: work ongoing
how to support schools and districts to support the long term
working the sibling state agencies
continuing to do work with students, parents

Pond: many Department supports and resources 
social emotional learning and student mental health grant
really look at multi-tiered systems of support
we lost the livestream for a bit here

Pena: youth mental health day
"Trails for Wellness" tier 1: comprehensive school mental health leadership time
telehealth
importance of family partnerships
Rouhanifard: how funded?
Pena: through mental health grant, also all are licensed mental health workers
Moriarty: watched Chelsea taking a guiding and leading position
Chelsea Hub?
Pena: amazing work done together
"when there is a need, it is a very mighty district"
social workers have data tool
Moriarty speaking of the hurricane impacting Puerto Rico
Pena thanks him for bringing it up, as her family is there now without electricity
very impressed with Chelsea and the amount of resources and support for all in community
West: ESSER funding? Cliff?
Pena: not sure how to answer your question
How do we create it but also how do we sustain it?
Trying to find all of the funding resources available

Vergne: SEL mental health team in Holliston
identify gaps to see where they want to begin; look at SEL curriculum
"wherever we go, it will not be rushed"
speaks to need of students and our staff; if gets to point of staff calling for it, rollout goes a lot further
Working with And Still We Rise
have tools and feel comfortable engaging across racial, cultural, linguistic connections
dada dialogue process; local stakeholder group to assess data
"equity's not something schools can solve on their own"
"when we think about long-term sustainability" need to think beyond school by school
challenges in the field: mental health challenges, mental piece move to virtual spaces, how to pace priorities
think about solutions together, schools and communities
Stewart: students and parents in data dialogue?
Vergne: engaging in multiple ways, not only data, and creating a culture of that

West: structure of grant program?
seems really important to capture some of the lessons emerging to use them for additional funding or share others
Chuang notes money is very new 

Worcester Voter Registration Initiative presentation

Students presenting on "increasing voter turnout in the city through community engagement, workshops, and civics lessons"
only one out of six registered voters vote
encouraged and excited to vote
civics bill and education and projects and experience in civics
all student run: college and high schools
targeting voter education: getting information to our youth
educational lessons for different age groups: elementary, middle, high
"my own education growing up in Worcester, I wasn't able to have the education I would like it to be"
really connect with our peers
talking about the voting process, how to participate in the community, local state and federal reps
2018 bill only provides a short
especially on the local level
test run with Nativity School in a week
building through Zoom; interactive
talking to different neighborhoods in Worcester
"has to start at our schools"
"especially with the diversity in our city"
"can't have [lack of voting] happening"
have an internship program: making videos, making content
suggestion of what you guys would want and bring it out to students
work with specific history teachers
learning about community and our city
college students working to teacher in different classrooms
using their platform to get information out

Organizing in Worcester? WEJA is looking!

If, post-election, you're seeking ways of moving forward around educational justice in Worcester, the Worcester Educational Justice Alliance is looking for help!

There are openings on the Steering Committee at this time. In addition to the monthly General Assembly meetings, the Steering Committee members are expected to attend an additional monthly planning meeting and be a voting member. The Steering Committee includes:
a. 2 Educators: Educators who work for public schools in Worcester, MA.
b. 2 Parents/Guardians: Parents/Guardians of public school age children in Worcester, MA (Pre-K through 12th grade)
c. 2 Youth: Ideally students who are attending or eligible to attend secondary school in Worcester. This can include recent attendees of Worcester Schools however youth should not be over 20 years of age.
d. 2 Community Members: This can include residents and members of the Worcester Community who are not eligible under the above three categories.

The categories of educators, parents/guardians, and youth currently have openings. WEJA adds: "In our process for selecting new steering members, we will be considering trying to address many forms of diversity (including but not limited to: affiliated schools, race, age, gender, sexuality and more)."

Interested? Email: info@WorcesterEdJustice.org

NSBA Trainers Conference: Cultural Responsive Social and Emotional Learning

 Another of the periodic postings from the NSBA Trainer Conference in Juneau. Today's session is "how school boards can integrate social-emotional learning and development with culturally responsive practices that create high trust/low-stress environments, re-build the natural confidence of the most marginalized students, and improve their ability to turn inert facts into usable knowledge?"
We're in the Alaska State Library this morning.
Presenting today is Heather Coulehan of the Association of Alaska School Boards
CRESEL i3 grant (Culturally Responsive Embedded Social & Emtional Learning)
"what does this work look like in a particular context?"

Massachusetts Teacher of the Year presentation at the Board of Ed: Cara Pekarcik

Cara Pekarcik: honor to represent teachers in the Commonwealth as teacher of the year
a career changer: started as a marine biologist, now a biology teacher
"wonderful opportunity" to be a career changer, supports that path being available
focus on "things for me to have as goals"

• doing, not just seeing
• scientific literacy
• personal growth
• connected educator
• empathy and SEL

"safe, structured, dynamic, engaging learning environment for my students and for myself"
hands on projects for students to bring more to their learning
"bring real things into my classroom"
"these were students in my classroom that were very skeptical about having this woman come into my classroom"
"...amazing for them"
"I am not an expert in everything that I teach...so why not allow experts in the field to come and share with your students"
"find organizations and places where students might be able to involve themselves in the classroom"
scientific literacy: important for them to read about current science topics
advocate for professional development
"important to care about my students"
teachers teach because they want to teach
make teachers feel as if they are valued in their community; not as valued as it used to be
"I don't feel that I am looked at like a professional in the community like I should be"
important to explicitly express the value of teachers

Sagan: how do you pay for all of these?
Pekarcik: can put up pictures of what I do and maybe people think they can't
people come in voluntarily
for going out, finding grants
"if I have a student who maybe can't afford it, I'll make sure they get there"

West: important on career switchers
Pekarcik: teachers coming out of school to teacher "are awesome too"
importance of mentoring
"to know that there was a community that was supporting me"
limited time to mentoring and pushed too late
many teachers wish there was more that they could do

Board of Education: update on Southbridge

backups for this is here

Dr. Jessica Huizenga, receiver, presenting
Chester: plan is to have a receiver come to each Board meeting this year
"very excited about the leadership and energy"
remarkable visit to Southbridge
last year "too often treated students as disposable, as creatures to be controlled"
had lunch with students, how things have changed culturally in that building
respect among students, between students and adults, deescalation in discipline
"instructional program has a long way to go"
"getting culture right allows for that occur"
Huizenga: been six months, seems much longer
released the turnaround plan: five core areas
first six weeks of school: focus on academic and instructional improvement; family and community engagement; social and emotional learning
"went undercover boss...made it to fourth period before they figured it out"
"got to see Southbridge through the eyes of a student"
Academic and Instructional: district-wide to develop systems necessary "evidence based literacy practices in tiered instruction"
action plan for district literacy
K-12 math curriculum mapped; common assessments on a computer platform with immediate results
teachers on cumulative assessment as well
gathering data on instructional quality: developing well-structured lessons and use of assessments (including common formative assessments)
bimonthly walk-through; beginning instructional rounds
overhauled teacher instruction
virtual mentors for staff through Better Lesson; doing case study on virtual v in-district lessons
Sagan asks how this works (is it a real person?): connection with a person online
one to one model in sixth grade
partnership with AeroVenture Institute: 26 students taking part in aviation science
credit recovery for 9 students; 4 now on track to graduate
Family and Community Engagement: families at home; library, community
"lots of hope and optimism" as well as what had gone off track
superintendent's roundtable: work with receiver to determine core values, determine progress
PTO at middle school, school councils forming
Rotary presentation
Quinsigamond Community College for dual enrollment
You Inc, Harrington Hospital, the Y partnering
Social and Emotional: strong systems of support for all students
breakfast in the classroom: won an ASSA for one school; EoS for two more schools
32% participation last year; 90% this year at West Street School
breakfast at middle school as part of middle school advisory
Sagan: sustainable?
Huizenga: grant for materials
McKenna: pays for itself; federal reimbursed
Climate and culture committees for all schools
district wellness committee; family resource committees in process
behavioral screener
Mass EDCO grant to add a guidance counselor for college and career planning
developing systems to improve processes: meeting with town meeting weekly
control of POs up to $10,000
did ALICE training with PD and FD
new district student information system for accurate data
increase technology infrastructure: none in elementary schools, coming next week
IDing ELL students; 14% last year, now 19% and not yet done IDing students
"so you can imagine how many students were not provided services"
community committee for dual language immersion at one of the elementary schools; going K-12, graduating bilingual
updated website, weekly blog
concern with sustainability: ensuring how those things will stay in place over time and be owed by the community
clarity around what good educational practice is
accountability with reciprocity: expect much more from you, but more more support
collaborate with multiple stakeholders
"have to build capacity" largest challenge
turned over 60 staff; "we're never going to sustain what we do if we continually turn over staff"
Sagan: on turnover: how much was choice versus involuntary
Huizenga: majority of staff "that we turned over was at the middle school" issues with classroom management
also adding many new positions
60 higher than usual
embarking next on receiver's review: gathering data on key areas
to staff: intent is meet standards, to have a high quality teacher in every classroom
a lot of professional development, voluntary for them to take if they're on receiver's review
"regaining the staff's trust"
being in the classroom, support
gotten feedback on that at superintendent's roundtable
Moriarty on dual language: ELL director leading community group
action plan: work to enlist support from community to understand what community is
launch in K and 1, adding a grade every year: 60/40 (Spanish/English) with native speakers 50/50
seen as a way of bridging cultural divides in the community
would love to see this K-12, connected to a global studies diploma with other opportunities for students
Fryer: engage faith community?
has met with, have gone back to churches and followed up
Fryer: any not engaging?
Huizenga: school committee hasn't really engaged; "in the long term, I'm going to have to shift my focus and attention back to" that
civic participation in last election was 9%; have to engage all participants after we're gone
Stewart: poverty lack of access as well as lack of resources
Morton: encourage look at Teach Western Mass

Update on Southbridge

written update on Southbridge here
Johnston: receiver starts May 2
already collaborating with her on key decisions
separating middle and high school into two schools, as building was designed
need to hire principals for each building: applicants being vetting, receiver will decide
stakeholder group met for final time last night
development of turnaround plan begins once receiver starts
budget: Paul Dakin helping with that
broader work of stakeholder group: weekly updates sent out to staff and parents
community conversations: "place based"
smaller groups: community members, students, parents to be part of discussions around the district
what's working well, what needs to be improved, what suggestions do you have?
have had four so far: worked with parents on location
have had about 70 participants so far: 10 to 30 participants per meeting
Southbridge is a very proud community
"a lot of comments like 'it's about time'" for receivership
very disappointed that it's come to this; get community engaged in a conversation on needs for kids in city
"it's governance"
less clear on folks understanding quality of classroom instruction
"a source of education" we'll have to pay attention
parent involvement: started as almost an accusation; moved to what are the challenges? why aren't people involved?
maybe parents don't have the support themselves to support their students
one social worker in district; need more support
community members feel they're not used as a resource (beyond parents)
opportunity to bring town together "to restore Southbridge"
work to pull in receiver on these conversations

Stewart: leadership in schools to invite partnerships
district take advantage of that resource

To cheer your Thursday...

...go look at the photos by Steven King of the Union Hill second graders visiting the Worcester Senior Center for a lesson on Johnny Appleseed and apple pie!

O'Connell on having a public hearing on slots parlor

regarding a public hearing, regarding a report from the superintendent
"direct educational focus on the slots parlor"
"some of the schools that struggle to retain an interest in academic"
two of the schools in that area are our Level 4 schools
inform our parents of potential impacts
"does it change the cultural and the tone and the tenor of this community"
"does it pollute the affect of hard work leading to success" rather than taking a large chance at great odds
refers request to administration
HOLDS his item on a report until we have a report back

Foley: I think asking the superintendent to give an administrative viewpoint, enters into a controversial topic
look at other communities with slots parlors: "that kind of data may be available in that community"