And then a discussion about school committee authority broke out

 Something happened at last Tuesday's Board of Ed which doesn't happen at 99.9% of Massachusetts Board of Education meetings¹: someone not only mentioned school committees, but there was even a smidge of a discussion about them.

This came in response to a (properly posted) update from the Commissioner on Fall River. You may have seen that the Fall River School Committee recently moved to fire their superintendent without cause; she resigned. At the request of the Mayor, the Department is completing a targeted review of district governance.

Fall River Public Schools had their last comprehensive district review in 2025, as required by MGL Ch. 15, sec. 55A, under state regulations 603 CMR 2.03. Those regulations, passed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, require that the review include: Leadership and Governance, alongside Curriculum and Instruction; Assessment; Human Resources and Professional Development; Student Support; and Financial and Asset Management. Those are always the areas reviewed for every district.²

Within that last report for Fall River, released in November 2024, within the Governance analysis, DESE reported the following: 

According to focus groups, working relationships between district leaders and school committee members are still in early stages and are sometimes tense. As mentioned above, the superintendent is new to her role and began leading the district in July 2024 and, as such, a formal evaluation has not yet been completed. According to interviews, the superintendent is still working through her formal entry plan into the district and trying to “build a little bit more of a network and relationships with the school committee.” However, district leaders also reported that the current superintendent faced opposition from several members of the school committee upon her promotion to superintendent from her previous role as assistant superintendent and chief academic officer. Currently, there are still reported tensions between the school committee and the district superintendent, and both agreed that there was occasionally “strain” in the relationship regarding the best way to collaboratively fulfill their responsibilities and benefit the district. Despite this, in interviews and focus groups, both parties reiterated their commitment to Fall River and their desire to collaborate effectively to improve the district and outcomes for all students. Building rapport between both parties is an area for growth in Fall River.

As they were doing a report early on in a new superintendent administration, this is a measured, but early warning, view of what the Department saw then. Then the Fall River School Committee underwent an election last fall in which three of the six seats changed (the seventh member, the mayor, stayed the same), with the above being the outfall.

What I found most odd about the above bit of discussion in the meeting, beyond it happening at all, was the common concern of Chair Katherine Craven and Vice-chair Matt Hills: they were very concerned about the Department's relationship with the "democratically-elected school committee."

While I agree that the lines of authority are always³worth keeping an eye on, it's very odd to hear this from the Board leadership, which in its tenure, has not expressed all that much concern about the very removal of school committee authority that state receivership is. The school committees in receivership districts are also democratically-elected, and yet it has been from the successor of Commissioners after Jeff Riley that the impetus has come to return them to local authority. That could have come from this chair and vice chair at any time in their tenure. Instead, it took Russell Johnston as acting receiver to finally move. That, mercifully, has continued forward. 

The Commissioner is appointed by and evaluated by the Board. If "democratically-elected" school committees having authority was this much of a concern, Craven and Hills had ample opportunity and reason to speak earlier. They did not. 

Interesting time to speak up. 

¹I have been to almost every one for fifteen years. Take it from me.
²You can find the list of district review reports on the Department's website here. They are not always right (in my view) but they are always worth reviewing.
³not just in the 0.1% of the time they deign to remember that school committees exist, let's say.  

So where is Dr. Monárrez going?

You will of course have seen local news that she's been hired by Orange Unified School District in California. The reporting from the California end can be found here. As that says: 

Orange Unified School District serves approximately 26,000 students in the cities of Orange, Villa Park, Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, along with unincorporated areas of Orange County.

The district has 42 sites and cites its enrollment demographics as 57.7% Hispanic, 23.7% White, 9.9% Asian, 2.3% Filipino, and 1.3% Black/African-American (2022).

Just a reminder that, despite all the right-wing action around school board

 ...that largely isn't who is winning: 

...despite enormous advantages, most conservative education board candidates lost in Ohio—even in conservative districts. Similar school board election outcomes occurred in 2022 and 2023, from Wisconsin and Illinois to North Carolina and Texas.  

Why? Well, for one thing: 

 It turns out that most people don’t want someone else’s parents or some outside group telling their kids what they can read or what ideas they can consider. I sure as hell don’t. Like me, most trust teachers, schools, and librarians to do the job, and they vote accordingly.  

But this doesn't just happen: 

Leave no seats uncontested. Anywhere. 

Leave no incumbent extremists unchallenged. Anywhere.  

Take it as your responsibility to fill these seats wherever you are. And if the candidate taking on that run is not you, help them in any way you can. 

As Teresa Fedor, Tom Jackson, and Katie Hofmann prove, even in Republican areas, standing against censorship is not just a moral obligation. It’s a political winner. 

Joint Committee (Education and Finance & Operations) meets Monday at 5

 Part of the structure of the subcommittees of the Worcester School Committee is that the Finance & Operations subcommittee periodically meets with the Education subcommittee of the City Council "concerning issues of overlapping interest," as the item has it. Councilor Thu Nguyen chairs Education. We'll be having our first joint meeting on Monday at City Hall at 5, and the agenda for the meeting is: 

• gb #1-343 - To consider recommendations from the School Safety Task Force on the removal of the School Resource Officers. (the Education subcommittee also has a similar item)
  
  
• gb #2-60 – Request that the Administration evaluate and update compensation practices whereby school committee members are compensated at 50% of city council level.
  
  
• gb #2-115 - To request City Council ensure City Council and School Committee districts are parallel, so as to ensure public clarity.

Meeting link as follows:  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/96739569567

Hearings on Worcester's way to elect the School Committee start Thursday

 who knew? h/t Steve Foskett

The City Council's Municipal Operations committee will hold a series of hearings across the city on the three options the Council is considering for the election of the School Committee. The first is this Thursday. The full list of dates are: 

• 6 p.m. Thursday, November 4, Great Brook Valley Recreation Center, 33 Freedom Way

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, City View Discovery School, 80 Prospect St. 

• 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, Union Hill School, 1 Chapin St. 

• 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22, Belmont AME Zion Church, 55 Illinois St. 

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, Worcester Youth Center, 326 Chandler St. 

Please spread the word!

I haven't posted about this, because it would come off as trying to make it an election issue--which it isn't, beyond perhaps considering if you should vote for councilors who oppose a voting rights lawsuit--but I'll work on getting something up in the coming weeks. 

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

And the agenda is here, as a PDF with hyperlinks? I think this is new.
Finance and Operations will be reporting out from their Monday meeting.
The report of the Superintendent is an update on the strategic plan (no backup as yet).

There is a response on interactions with homeschooling families (the link doesn't work; it's page 28): of 158 plans in 98 families, the adminstration reports that 96 were approved within the first week, 26 within the second week, 19 before 20 days, and 17 required more than that. The report states that the 17 were all incomplete upon submission, missing "evidence of progress." They state that only 2 plans are missing. The report says a "recent court ruling supported the WPS standards for evidence" though the case is not cited by name nor is it included.

There is a list of Chapter 74 programs and the number of students enrolled, as well as the after school and evening programs and enrollment.

Mr. Monfredo and Miss Biancheria are proposing support for the Baker-Polito effort to reduce domestic and sexual violence among young people.

Mr. Foley and others note Mr. Hennessey's award of 2019 Administrator of the Year from School Bus Fleet.

There is a proposal to update policies - JB – Equal Educational Opportunities; ‑ JFABD - Homeless Students: Enrollment Rights And Services; ‑ JFABE - Educational Opportunities For Military Children; ‑ JFABF - Educational Opportunities For Children In Foster Care (it's language tweaking).

There are eleven pages of outstanding administrative items that the administration is suggesting be filed as the term comes to a close.

There is a request that the following donations be accepted:

• $400.00 from a donor to Claremont Academy to be used as a scholarship for Latino female of Latina who plans to attend college.
• $84.60 from Box Tops for Education to Canterbury Street Magnet Computer-Based School
• $225.00 from the Digital Federal Credit Union to McGrath Elementary School
• $500.00 from the District Attorney's Community Reinvestment and Crime Prevention Program to Forest Grove Middle School to assist with their bullying campaign

There is a request for information about the new vocational tracks at Doherty (which the Committee has already voted in favor of).

There is a request (without backup) to approve a prior fiscal year payment for $308.79 to Airgas ("industrial, medical, and specialty gases").

Then there are a slew of items from Mr. Comparetto:

• Request that the Mayor consider alternative methods to electing and appointing School Committee members that includes, but is not limited to, district School Committee seats. 
• Request that the Mayor and School Committee establish Worcester Public Schools’ Safe Zones.
• Request that the Superintendent present an annual report on the status of education for Latino students.
• Request that the Administration incorporate best practices for creating a diverse workforce.
• Request that the Administration provide an update on current restorative justice practices.
• Request a moratorium on suspending K-2 students for non-violent offenses.
• Request an "equity audit" of the Worcester Public Schools in accordance to best practices.
• Request that the Administration provide an update on the efforts of the Administration to create ethnic studies programming

Miss Biancheria wants an update on the South High building project (shouldn't this be a standing item in a subcommittee somewhere?) and an update on recess (which I think Ms. McCullough has an outstanding item on already).

And there is another prior fiscal year payment in the amount of $1,484.10 to Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP for services performed at Burncoat High School (fire supression?).

And there is an executive session: for arbitration with the Mass Nurses Association; for litigation with the Estate of Suzanne F. Miville; and for collective bargaining with the computer technicians.

Yes, I am planning on being there and blogging.

What does local accountability look like? Discussion with Ben Forman of Mass Inc

Ben Forman of Mass Inc, who wrote the piece on local accountability recently, came out to talk to me last week about local accountability. We also got into local elections, site councils, criminal justice reform, housing stability, who runs and who doesn't, and turnarounds.
Thanks, Ben!

DeVos is Secretary of Education

A few quick notes:

• It's not clear at this point what impact this is going to have on state ESSA plans. The House is busy gutting the Obama administration's issued regulations of ESSA, but many states that plan to send in plans early have followed the language of the law directly, rather than regulations.

• While there is reason to be concerned about impacts on K-12 funding (and you know me: I'd never tell you NOT to worry about funding!), the bigger concern is this: U.S. DoE's major role is ensure access to and quality of education for students with disabilities, LBGTQ students, girls, low income students, students of color, students who are learning English...we've seen NO commitment to that from her. We need to watch this like a hawk at the state level, but then fight as hard as we can for national oversight to ensure we don't lose kids in other states. Also, Sessions is not yet confirmed as AG, and with his horrific history on civil rights, we lose education oversight there, too. Don't stop calling! 

• I have seen more people more mobilized on this fight than I have ever seen care about anything in public education. Teachers and parents, sure, but I've seen people who don't have kids, who don't know anyone working in a public school see this threat and be mobilized like anything. For those of us who have been around these fights awhile, this amount of support for public education has been incredibly encouraging. DON'T BACK DOWN!

Finally, a word from my favorite fictional president:

If you are upset about Betsy DeVos, here is your homework: Go to your next school-board meeting.

— Josiah Bartlet (@Pres_Bartlet) February 7, 2017

And make sure you vote in local elections.

Detroit has an empowered, elected school board!

...for the first time in decades!

Sabrina Stevens: Cornerstones of Democracy (notes)

I'm a speaker tonight at the MTA Summer Institute, which means as a bonus I get to hear Sabrina Stevens, who is their keynote (lucky me!). Posting as we go..
Public education as cornerstone of democracy

Not a big surprise to see the charter lobby threatening a ballot question again

...as they're doing today. After all, that worked in 2011, right?
The thing to note in that report is that "Families for Excellent Schools," the group that spent millions attacking New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio when he dared stand up for his city's public schools, are setting up shop in Massachusetts.
They're not families, and they're not for excellent schools, either. Heads up, though, as they're coming.

Josh, you'll be missed!

Yeah, not really related to education...
Josh Meduna of the city election office is leaving us later this month; he's joining the BIG LEAGUES of the State Department!
Unless you've register to vote or turned in papers at the Election office, you may not know Josh. He's one of the people who quietly go about making sure democracy happens and rarely get any mention for it (I'm glad to see that Mr. Rushford got a chance at Council last night!). He's always happy to have people register to vote and people run for office; he's a cheerleader for local democracy. I am going to miss him, but he's going to be a real credit to the U.S. as he goes to make sure democracy happens other places.
We'll miss you, Josh! Best wishes on your new work!

Vote tomorrow

I realize that many of you already know this, and so posted with apologies to those of you who have already had several phone calls this evening asking if you have "a voter plan" for tomorrow.

It is an Election Day in Massachusetts tomorrow.
There is a primary for one of Massachusetts' two Senate seats.
If you are a Republican, you can vote for Gabriel Gomez, Mike Sullivan, or Dan Winslow.
If you are a Democrat, you can vote for Stephen Lynch or Ed Markey.
If you are registered with the Green, Libertarian, Pirate, or other party, you do not have a primary tomorrow.
If you are unenrolled--in Massachusetts, this means you are registered to vote, but not registered to a party--you may vote in EITHER primary. Just tell them when you come in which ballot you would like. It does not change your unenrolled status.
If you live in Worcester, that's it.

If you live in a Massachusetts town, though, there's a pretty good chance that you have town elections, as well. I know I have said this before, but it's important: you should vote in these elections! It is not unusual for these positions to be determined by very narrow margins; your vote really matters. Plus, these are the people who decide how much your water bill is going to be, if they're going to repave your street, if that development down the street can go in, and (quite possibly) how you're spending money on schools. In terms of most of us, our local officials have the most to do with most of how we live.
And ALL REGISTERED VOTERS can vote for these positions.
Go choose them tomorrow.

Ann B. Earle was first

Mr. Southwick has some Worcester--in fact, some state--history for us in his column today:

It is ironic that two Worcester women won political office even before they could vote. Ann B. Earle and Frances Baker were elected to the Worcester School Committee in 1868, the first Massachusetts women to be elected to anything. 

Go read how they got in: a coup in the caucus!
While Mrs. Baker did not serve, Mrs. Earle did, and she won re-election two years later, too. That makes her the first woman to serve in elected office, not only in Worcester, but, as Mr. Southwick says, in Massachusetts.
We should remember her more than we do.

Elsewhere on the ballot on election day: a wrap-up UPDATED

So we know the news from the top of the ticket--and there's a good letter here to President Obama this morning--but there were a number of other education-related issues and positions of interest nationwide.

• Congratulations this morning to Glenda Ritz, the state superintendent-elect in Indiana! Ms. Ritz defeated Tony Bennett, who has been pro-corporate type reform and was HUGELY funded by those sources. Ritz has been quoted as saying there's too much emphasis on standardized tests. Good news!
• Bridgeport, CT defeated a ballot question calling for a mayorally-appointed school board. Score one for democracy! Michelle Rhee's group spent $100,000 on that loss.
• According to the tweets coming out of Chicago last night, the city would like to elect their school board, by an overwhelming (80%!) margin. That measure was non-binding. 
• Miami-Dade County in Florida has passed a $1.2 billion (with a "B") bond issue for schools. 
• Houston, Texas passed a $2 billion (likewise, "B") bond issue for their schools.
• California defeated Proposition 38 which would have progressively increased state income taxes to fund education. However, the state passed Proposition 30, which is Governor Jerry Brown's measure to increase taxes on the wealthiest, as well as add a temporary increase to the state sales tax, all for education funding.
• Alabama defeated the change to their constitution, that, while taking out the language on segregated schools, would have cast doubt on the guaranteed right to a public education.
• Georgia passed a measure that moves the power creating of charter schools back to the state level (from the local level). And we know how well that one works...
• I've heard reports that Washington also passed their measure 1240 on charter schools--that state hasn't allowed them--but I can't find definitive word.

Mixed, but not a bad night for education. And Mr. President? We're holding you to that promise on sequestration not happening.

Hey, guess who's now a PAC?

Stand for Children!
Not only that, they've now joined forces (check the addresses) with our old friends, Democrats for Education Reform (hereafter, DFER). You'll remember that this comes (not coincidentally) at exactly the same time as Stand's atrocious ballot initiative, tying all decisions around teachers to student test scores (it's called, with the ed reformers' genius for Orwellian language* "Great Teachers Great Schools").
Gee, you think they're planning on spending some money?



*and totally lack of attention to punctuation. But I digress.

More from Denver

via the Nation
(And PS: Emily Sirota's website is here. You can donate to her here.)

This is what democracy looks like, Denver style: UPDATED

Big report from Denver on the big money pouring into the city school board election. The same story is playing out there as elsewhere: privatizing interests pushing an elected board which has a (vocal) minority standing against them (and, as it happens, their second superintendent in a row).
Now from Mayor Hancock comes this:

“I’m very nervous,” he said of the impending election. “I don’t believe the current board of education and its level and tone of conversation reflects the values of our city. I have painfully watched board of education deliberations on television. And as a former legislator, I was embarrassed by the discourse that occurs. No protocol, no decorum, just absolutely disrespectful of one another and the superintendent,  and no one talking about kids. It was painful to watch.”

Now, I'll admit that I don't watch Denver School Board meetings, and maybe they are lacking in "protocol" and "decorum." I'm suspicious, however, that this is less about procedure and more about content in the meetings. In an elected body, people are going to disagree (one hopes). There are going to be split votes. That's actually the way it's supposed to work. It's when all your votes go 7-0 that one should examine if things are working.

 UPDATE: Here's the word from the ground troops on one of the campaigns facing that big money:

As many major campaigns as I’ve worked on, and as much experience Emily has in the public policy arena, we didn’t realize that local races had become this corporatized. Maybe we were naive, or overly idealistic, but the point is that something has gone deeply wrong in America when elections about our local schools have becomes yet another chess board for oligarchs...

 along with wanting her to win, I also want our family’s experience to be a small, microcosmic reminder about how high the stakes now are in every level of our politics. Big money is intent on owning every public institution from the White House to the schoolhouse. You need to know that if you ever think of running for office — and, as important, you need to remember it the next time you get your ballot.

And on that big money and where it's heading:

...a few years ago, insiders say, Senator Michael Bennet, then Denver Public Schools Superintendent, went to Republican oilman (now-University of Colorado president) Bruce Benson. What followed was unprecedented campaign contributions from large Republican donors into school board races in Denver. The big contributions changed the face of Denver's school board races.

Two years later, a so-called "grassroots" group based out of Portland, Oregon called Stand for Children came to Denver. It's first organizer, Johnny Merrill, was open about the intent of the group: to impact the Denver school board races, and that Bennet had invited the group to Denver.

Make no mistake about it: this group, with an avowed agenda to undermine teachers, is specifically designed to siphon dollars from Wall Street and the Chicago investment community into local races across the country.

In 2010, for instance, Stand for Children spent unprecedented sums in Illinois in legislative races last election cycle, outflanking the supporters of traditional public education, resulting in legislation that killed basic protections for teachers in the state. The group's executive director subsequently bragged that in spending such huge sums of money, "individual candidates were essentially a vehicle to execute a political objective" - one aiming to fundamentally undermine traditional public education. He also bragged that "luckily it never never got covered that way" as "the press never picked up on" what they were doing.

In other words, this organization fully acknowledges that it's whole r'aison d'etre is to secretly buy education policy. And now this very same organization has joined with the biggest of big money donors to dump massive amounts of corporate cash into the Denver School Board elections.

It's happening all over, folks. Pay attention.

Dear Boston School Committee: it's not the public

This article on the Boston School Committee's push to make their meetings "more civil" was sent to me while I was away. The quote from Barbara Fields is exactly right:

“With this appointed board, we seem to be moving further and further away from the Democratic process, especially by stifling public input,’’ said Barbara Fields, a member of the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts, who has been an observer of the city’s School Committee meetings for three decades.

“I don’t favor people booing, but I think the committee needs to look at the root cause - why people are behaving that way. It’s systemic of the frustration people are feeling with the School Committee,’’ Fields said.

Boston has a school committee appointed by the mayor. The public thus has no recourse when it comes to the committee; they cannot vote out members, and the members have no reason to listen to the public at all.
And it shows.
If the committee wants more civility from the public, they might attempt, even in their appointed states, to act as though they were holders of the public trust.

Thinking of those who can't vote

Jeff at Wormtown Taxi did a nice job with this one today, so I will only add a bit.

I have a sticker on my car right now that says "Kids Don't Vote; Moms Do!" (I got it from MomsRising.) I know that I am hardly original in keeping in very close mind what would be the best outcome for my kids in voting (thus my opposition to Question 1, for example). I also think about other people's kids (even more opposition to 1 there, but also thoughts on health insurance, day care, a clean environment, etc.).

But what about non-American kids?

What about the kids in Dafur?
What about the kids on Pacific islands who are already losing their homes due to rising ocean levels?
What about the kids who had to flee their homes in Georgia when Russia invaded?
What about the kids in China whose parents can't buy food that says something other than "Made in China" on it, and are being poisoned as a result?

This is just my list, off the top of my head, and it could go on. But I do feel some sort of global parent responsibility since I've become a parent. It's the same thing that makes you keep an eye on that toddler that isn't yours when he's just a bit too close to the curb. You've got a sense on kids.

Use it when you vote today. For everybody's kids.