There is a Board of Ed meeting on Tuesday

 And you can find the agenda here.

The out-of-the-ordinary part of the piece of this is that they are meeting in Williamsburg at the Anne T. Dunphy School. For those not familiar, Williamsburg is northwest of Northampton, and it is quite lovely! I recommend visiting sometime, 'though perhaps not for a Board of Ed meeting; don't miss the general store. 

The meeting will start at 9:30, presumably so those making their way west can find it (I will observe here that the heavy traffic actually goes east, and yet, somehow, those are the meetings that start at 9).

In any case...the State Student Advisory Council is sharing their goals for the year, one assumes via student member Sara Khan, who is president of the group. Also on the agenda is the Commissioner's evaluation, and the proposed regulations on literacy.

There is also "K–12 Statewide Graduation Standards: Foundational Coursework and Postsecondary Planning" as an item. I will be interested to see if that notes that the graduation report is a proposal that requires legislative action to move forward--more on that this weekend--and not a done deal, as it has been framed by the Commissioner to date.

None of the above has any backups (which is unusual at least for the regulations, such that I wonder if that is an oversight) as of Friday evening at 6 PM. 

These are Worcester trees,
but I imagine we'll get to enjoy some pretty trees on the drive to Williamsburg.

Board of Ed for January: on educator prep

 There is a memo here.

Erin Hashimoto-Martell
Claire Abbott who is really soft and hard to hear
there are over 1200 preparation programs; 62 sponsoring organizations; 4300 completers on average each year
periodic formal review done by DESE (itself; not outsourced); approval generally is for seven years

What are we doing here, Worcester?

 I am of course posting this after the Worcester School Committee meeting at which this was discussed. This is partly because this isn't intended as anything other than my thoughts, but it's also rather been a bleak week. It's a hard week to pull together the through line to write. 

A round-up on WPS things

 So much to post, so little time. Some WPS notes in the meantime:

• At tonight's Worcester School Committee meeting, the School Committee conducts Dr. Monárrez's annual evaluation. The presentation is here. As I noted last month, there is a SINGLE evaluation of a superintendent, not, in Worcester's case, nine. The evaluation as presented overall evaluates her work as proficient, which, as the DESE standards remind us, is a "rigorous expected level of performance." This is an official action of the School Committee and will be voted. 
  
  
• The agenda tonight also has a proposed meeting schedule (which I suspect will need to be amended) and a proposed calendar of agenda reports.
  
  
• Oddly, still no update on the bottom line of the budget. 
  
  
• With the first day of school for students grades 1-12 on August 26 (preK and K on the 29), there's a back to school letter shared on the district website. This includes a list of new principal and coordinator assignments, which I'll include below. I assume these went through a community committee screening, 'though it's odd that it never had any public side (aka: not the internal school community) outreach for those. 
  
  
• Note that the WPS Transportation system not only had routes available for families LAST WEEK--it's never in my memory been that early!--they're also starting the year FULLY STAFFED with drivers. There's going to be 101 bus routes this year in Worcester. And don't miss WPS mechanic Jim Hicks on WBUR this morning! 
  
  
• You've probably caught some of the Doherty coverage; yes, the new building is done and will open with the rest of the district. The T&G also had a piece on late WPS superintendent Leo T. Doherty, after whom the building is named. We can't say "on budget" on this due to the pandemic, but remember that the inflationary increase was covered by the state. 
  
  
• And yes, Burncoat is still going next; yes, that's actually official; and if you want to bug someone about it, ask when the building committee is going to be announced. There are districts that were accepted at the same time that are WAY ahead of us on timeline (we can actually go quicker than the deadlines!). 

__________________________________________

New assignments: 

Challenge and Reach Academy: Scott Moriarty

Chandler Elementary: Margaret Murphy

Claremont Academy: Christopher LaBreck

Clark Street Elementary: Christopher Dodge

Gerald Creamer Center: Angela Plant

Jacob Hiatt Magnet Elementary: Amanda Martinez (acting)

Lincoln Street Elementary: Karen Allen

New Citizens Center Secondary: Dr. Erin Goldstein

Rice Square Elementary: Fjodor Dukaj

Thorndyke Road Elementary: Susan Donahue

Transition Program: Dr. Brenda Diggs

Vernon Hill Elementary: Tammy Boyle

A word about superintendent evaluation

To the extent that we have a superintendent evaluation season in Massachusetts, it is superintendent evaluation season in Massachusetts¹, and so a few words on it, with a note or two for my fellow Worcester residents, as our school committee has to turn in their individual evaluations to Mayor Petty by the end of this week; those then are put together into a single composite evaluation.

My evaluation of Dr. Monárrez

All of the evaluations are here.

 Overall comments: 

PROFICIENT

The Worcester School Committee seeks an experienced,
educational leader who is a strategic thinker,
who will champion the district’s need for education equity,
and who has demonstrated a track record of superior educational management.

So opened the brochure the Worcester School Committee shared last year in our search for a new superintendent. In re-reading the brochure in preparation for this evaluation, I continue to be astounded at how well Dr. Monárrez is precisely what and who is described therein. That the community, speaking through the Committee, knew what the district needed is borne out by the work of this past year. 

Evaluation of Dr. Monárrez: a few notes

 The Worcester School Committee evaluates Dr. Monárrez for the first time this afternoon. Two weeks ago, I devoted my Sunday evening Instagram update to how this works:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tracy O'Connell Novick (@tracyoconnellnovick)

The Mayor has been compiling our individual evaluations into a composition evaluation; it is that composite--and ONLY that composite!--which is the legal evaluation of the superintendent. 

It is crucial that the Committee speak with one voice. The MASC pop quiz version of this is "how many bosses does the Superintendent have? ONE: the Committee meeting in a posted session." This very much applies to the evaluation, which we then will use to create her goals for next year.

Past practice is that the Worcester School Committee does share the individual evaluations (they are public record); should that happen, I'll post a link. I'll also post my individual evaluation, along with the composite (once we have it electronically) in a new post here.  

UPDATE: you can find the composite, as well as all of the individual evaluations, here.

June Board of Ed: Commissioner evaluation

 Hills: "in the interest of time, and because everyone already has the material"
which I guess is here
each member was asked about the year, strengths and accomplishments, focus going forward, key priorities going forward
Hills wrote a summary of the Committee's view
two key takeaways: a year of a range of really significant accomplishments including in teaching and learning
need a clear roadmap on goals that are addressing the outcomes that we want, with check ins over the year
Hills that suggests a timeline for creation of goals and periodic check in on them over the year
"universal respect and appreciation for the Commissioner"
"very strong feeling that Jeff is exactly the leader we need, not simply coming out of the pandemic...but from where we were ten years ago"
"it's a collaborative thing and we're all going to own it"
Stewart: feel entirely separated from strategic plan
"do need a renaissance in teaching and learning
tension over relevance of Board
Hills: we need to own key goals that we have approved; key overall goals, not micro goals
"should have virtual no involvement with anything having to do with internal management of the department"
maybe they want to reconsider their subcommittees, then
Lombos: a retreat: understand role, understand goals
Mohammed: helpful exercise you're laying out
interesting to get perspective on what the Commissioner has learned for the year and what he might change of what he might do
Riley: thanks to team, "noting short of incredible"
"have done ed reform for 25 years...know it worked...have been flatlined"
look at data dispassionately; it is time to change
flat regardless of COVID
"need to move away from ed reform and move towards an education renaissance and figure out what's next and what's best for our children"
Craven says it was the legislature that created ed reform
wild how this always leaves out the McDuffy suit
"we've had a lot of discussion of the mechanism, the test"
the test isn't the end, it's the measurement

Hills moves acceptance of the evaluation which passes

May Board of Ed meeting: opening comments

 The agenda is online here.

Public comment:
on proposed vision: "DESE does not value the beyond"
(this is on gifted and talented, as every month)

TECCA superintendent: request for remote MCAS was refused
requesting the contract with MCAS and requesting a review
he also wants this on the June agenda

Hills: update on Commissioner's evaluation
"going to get a self-evaluation from the Commissioner"
Then will reach out to each Board member
then will have a draft to discuss

Tutwiler: Senate has released its budget "which we're really excited about"
mental health awareness month: proposed $1M increase for mental health screening

Riley: busy several weeks traveling around the state
recognitions of the teachers 
Boston: reporting on four areas: safety, special ed, transportation, data
working on a more detailed plan
"we'll be looking on next year as a bellwether year"
Craven: what progress has been made?
Riley: progress being made not only in assessment but in the beginning of the planning
"Obviously, the Boston administration came before us and said they have this. We'll know in the fall."

What happened at week's Worcester School Committee meeting

This would be the February 16 meeting, held very much in hybrid form, as we had two members and the superintendent* participating remotely. The agenda is here; the video of the meeting is here.

Hey, go listen to that great edition of the National Anthem!

Please note that we continue to have at every meeting discussions in executive session regarding negotiations with collective bargaining units.

The report of the superintendent was the second of the two-part presentation on special education. Note that this part included some discussion of the Multi-tiered Systems of Support (inevitably abbreviated as MTSS, this being education): 

Note that part of what is going on (not only in Worcester, but many places) is work around making more of what is done in schools the universal supports (and making sure they truly are supports!); this was part of the response to my question on how the district intends to work to eliminate bias in the referral process. 

This leads into the next steps for the district:

Governance reported out, which means that we've now adopted goals for Dr. Monárrez for this school year as follows: 

District Goal

By June 30, 2023 collaboratively develop WPS handbooks and guiding documents to improve district systems in the topics of portrait of a graduate, student wellness and support and family and community engagement with equitable fiscal resource allocation to support implementation. 

  

Student Goal

By June 30, 2023 an inclusive learning environment for WPS staff, families and scholars will be established and/or strengthened through the development of district level documents.

Professional Goal

By June 30, 2023 participation in New Superintendent Induction Program (NSIP) year 1 will have been completed with all required projects submitted. 

These are REALLY IMPORTANT because this is what the School Committee will evaluate her on this summer. This is one of those "don't assume that adopting the subcommittee report doesn't matter" things!

PLEASE NOTE: while Member Clancey did report out, and we did adopt, a change to district policy which now only requires communication from a caregiver for an excused absence for illness, the overall district absence policy was recommitted back to Governance, and otherwise has not changed. This is because what we were looking at was the policy in the student handbook; our absence policy also lives in our district policy manual, and right now, those things don't agree with each other. Thus you'll be seeing more on this one! 

The Committee (without me; I recused myself) adopted the Mayor's request that MASC "work with local school committees to increase funding for the MSBA and to work with communities to get the MSBA accelerated repair program that was delayed this year restarted." This of course hits everything from Burncoat High's replacement to Worcester East Middle's windows to if we'll get a new roof on Union Hill. Badly needed!

The Committee passed my item (and on the Mayor's motion, we also sent this to the joint committee with Council education) that we take the position of requesting an equal split on cable access fees between school, government, and local access channel. This is the fee from the Spectrum contract that pays for WEA-TV as well as the city channel and local cable access. Currently, that split is 20/25/55. Given rising costs, what the station staff currently does, and what we'd like them to do, it only makes sense.

Member McCullough's item that we look at the policies regarding the use of playgrounds on and adjoining school grounds was sent to Governance. (Did you know that Worcester Public Schools playgrounds are open to the public from dawn to dusk during non-school hours? They are!)

We also sent her item requesting collaboration on the use of Worcester Public Library space at Worcester Public Schools to administration. 

We also updated the wages for Certified Nursing Assistants from $25/hr to $30/hr and Licensed Practical Nurses from $35/hr to $40/hr effective February 1. That part wasn't clear from the backup and got sorted out in deliberation.

*Dr. Monárrez and Dr. Morse were at the National Conference on Education in San Antonio.

What happened at Worcester School Committee on January 5?

The agenda of the meeting is here.  I've shared the slides of the Report of the Superintendent here.

The themes of the entry plan listening and learning

I don't always note this, but I do want to note that the Worcester School Committee always has executive session before public session, and almost always it is negotiation-related. There were five different bargaining units on Thursday's agenda.

There have been discussions in the past about what community groups we have relationships with; Thursday's agenda gave us a list.

I always find the elementary class size report fascinating, and this year, really amazing in terms of progress. Worcester has generally fought hard to keep elementary class sizes--even as we were/are hundreds of teachers short--smaller; the average has generally hovered around 22. To see it below 20 this year AND to see how few of the class sizes in the high twenties and into 30 we have is really great. This is directly as a result of ESSER funding; in past years, if we had had the sort of enrollment drop we did during the pandemic, because our budget is so closely tied to our enrollment, we would have had to cut positions. We didn't; we used federal dollars to keep teachers on. We're now picking that cost up with the increases in our budget due to the Student Opportunity Act (as was the plan), and we're seeing that benefit in the numbers.
Two notes; this is a 'real' report on elementary class size. This isn't fudged with total adults in the building. This is the general ed elementary teachers class by class and the actual number of students they had for the October 1 reporting. Also, as I mentioned both during the meeting and online later, the places where there are those larger classes, as a result of lack of space in buildings to split them, very often are next to places where class sizes are much lower. That's a district assignment issue (which I know isn't news to the administration).

Likewise, the October 1 enrollment report is revealing. First, our numbers continue to go back up from the pandemic drop. In particular, the Head Start enrollment doubled last year, as parents came back to that program. The grade that was the drop, which now is second, continues to be lower, but the grade 1 and K numbers are back up. We also didn't seen a drop from eighth grade to ninth grade (often we do, as families send students to private high school) last year. Overall, we're up over 583 students (that will matter in the FY24 budget!), and our total enrollment of 24,318 makes us the second largest district in the state (after Boston; we're back ahead of Springfield).

The position description for Assistant Director of Intramural and Interscholastic Athletics was approved; expect to see that posted soon.

I really recommend anyone involved in the district at all review the report of the superintendent. The major themes she's brought forward from listening and learning are:

• Acquiring and retain talent
• Modernized and safe facilities
• Student behavior and safety
• Communication and ongoing engagement
• Wellness and mental health
• Equitable resources and educational programs

Dr. Monárrez also moved us forward into planning for the next strategic plan, reminding us of the current one, and providing a (proposed?) plan for the next one. This all will go to Governance for oversight there.

She also provided us her proposed goals for the remainder of this school year, on which she'll be evaluated in June. Those are: 

• District Goal: Refine and calibrate district-level systems ensuring safety, efficiency, consistency and coherence to positively impact school systems
• Student Goal: Amplify & strengthen inclusive learning environments for WPS staff, families and scholars
• Professional Goal: Participate in the New Superintendent Induction Program (NSIP) to refine skills and knowledge related to DESE expectations of new superintendents

I believe the only feedback specific to the goals was I suggested that the verb in the student goal needed tweaking to accurately represent what was planned for this school year, as it's more like laying the groundwork needed to "amplify and strengthen." Those are now also in Governance for what editing may be needed; they'll come back to us for approval. 
In every case, the above are linked to indicators within the superintendent's evaluation rubric (remember, this whole process is VERY structured by the state), and under each goal is a list of the evidence we'll be receiving. The question on superintendent evaluation is always "how will we know we got there?" and that's what this is designed to answer.

We had three subcommittees report out--TLSS on ongoing work, Governance on a revised social media policy for staff, and F&O on the joint meeting with Education (which was sidewalks and capital funding). 

There was a lot of money approved at Thursday's meeting: a list of prior fiscal year payments, and a number of donations and grants. As a result, just to pull some: both Burncoat and Tech are having "Credit for Life" type fairs; Tech is getting a lot of updated equipment for the automotive facility; there's more support for both innovation pathways and internships.

Molly McCullough has asked that we look at substitute rates (that's going to F&O); Sue Mailman asked that we look at the time given to the vocational programming side of ch. 74 programs at the comprehensive schools (that's scheduling, and so to administration); Jermoh Kamara asked that we receive an update on mental health services outsourcing (to administration for a report); and I had three items related to facilities and the MSBA which I'm going to give their own post over here. 

We also--and thanks to Molly McCullough for bringing back this tradition--had Burncoat Quadrivium in to sing the National Anthem, and then the Carol of the Bells, as seen in the superintendent's tweet:

Burncoat Choir honored the School Committee with their beautiful voices last night. We had a little fun before the session started. I love my scholars! #allmeansall ⁦@worcesterpublic⁩ pic.twitter.com/qYGdIQUYpp

— Rachel H. Monarrez, PhD (she/her/ella) (@drrmonarrez) January 6, 2023

We next meet on the 19th of January. 

Board of Ed: Commissioner's evaluation

 Morton, who chair the evaluation subcommittee; he's referring to a report here
takes into account Commissioner's self evaluation
interviewed others
steadfast on getting students back in schools for reconnection
"it has turned out he was absolutely right"
"those relationships were and are critically important"
"commend Commissioner for his persistence on that issue"
"initiatives represent great imperatives on our part" which he lists
high scores for accessibility, for being a good listener
"all of his actions focused...on being student centric"
diligent in work
commitment to diversity equity and inclusion
continually engage with Board
vision: what's the end? is part of job of Commissioner
rated 4.75 on a 5 scale

consistent with increases announced in May, 2% salary increase effective July 3, 2022

Stewart: see more coming from others from time to time as they are doing the work
back and forth with Boston was touchy; "I felt very uninformed for past number of weeks"
question on custodian for public records at Department?

and...that is the only comment

Defer executive session to a later meeting; motion to adjourn

The Worcester superintendent is evaluated this week: how does it work?

The Worcester School Committee evaluates Superintendent Binienda this week, so it seemed a good chance to talk about how this works.

May Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting: later blog

Due to my own schedule and the Board going for a highly unusual afternoon meeting, I missed this week's Board of Ed. Thanks to the wonders of video, however, here is my blog of the meeting, a bit late.

The agenda is online here; the video is here. 
You can also read WBUR's Max Larkin's Twitter thread here and State House News Service's Katie Lannan on the MCAS here.

Craven: values are to be as transparent as possible with the members of the public as we move forward, through this remote learning, working to improve the lives of the almost million children whose lives have been displaced 

appreciate the work of all at the Department and stakeholders working diligently towards this summer and fall with keeping kids safe

Will be letting districts know what plans are as soon as they are developed

A few notes on the superintendent's midcycle review

In response to a question from Ms. McCullough, the superintendent said that they are still working on hiring a new principal for Chandler Magnet--the person to whom they have offered the job is from Costa Rica and has not as yet accepted it--and they will not have that in place until June. Ms. Perez is, as described, going to be doing some of the after school duties of the Chief Diversity Officer position in addition to her principal duties.

Foley notes the disconnect between the upheaval earlier this year and the self-evaluation of the superintendent, in particularly noting:

• the bidding process for transportation being ethically questionable, at best, while the superintendent gave herself an "exemplary" score in following laws, ethics, procedures
• the breakdown that sent students and others repeatedly to the School Committee not being heard, while the superintendent gave herself an "exemplary" on two-way culturally proficient communication
• the ongoing lack of data use and sharing while the data item likewise received a high score

The Mayor said that he'd like to see the School Committee gather in the new year for a several hours retreat to review and set goals and align (he didn't use that word) new funding with the goals.

The Superintendent reported at last week's urban superintendents' meeting the Commissioner told them that he will expect that the report on spending due to him on April 1 must first be passed by the school committee.

Due to timing, Foley said that would then mean it would need to be approved by the Committee at the end of March, so the Finance and Operations subcommittee will hold hearings over the course of February, mentioning WEC and the Research Bureau in particular as partners.

Superintendent Binienda's midcycle review 2019-20

Let me just say first of all that the timing on this doesn't make a lot of sense: superintendents are to be reviewed (unless they've agree upon the DESE pilot) on an annual basis. The superintendent last had a full evaluation in December of 2018. Nothing then happened until she proposed new goals in July--yes, six months later. This, again in December, we're told is her midcycle review, though it is early for that--half the year from the goals being set would be January--and right on schedule for the annual full evaluation, a year after her last one.
Evaluation is the School Committee's job. The schedule should be set as the goals are.

As I mentioned in the July post on the goals, the goals themselves are problematic in several ways:

• they largely don't focus on the biggest problems in the system, and, where they do, the response is not a systemic one. 
• they are goals that in many cases are lists of "stuff we'll do" rather than the change that doing those things will make
• they're scattershot, aligned neither with much of the data we've received, nor of the strategic plan

The School Committee did not exercise its authority to alter, amend, or change the goals, and so the goals as proposed are what we have. As a result the report (a PowerPoint which auto-downloads) is, as expected, largely a list of "stuff we did." Progress by and large is not about students but about staff going through trainings (most of which seem to involve new acronyms, as a side note). 

Impact on student learning and student experience in schools is really difficult to find in this report, and the few places we do find it, it appears in charts of a new round of standardized testing.

In terms of the performance in the four standards of the superintendency--instructional leadership, management and operations, family and community engagement, and professional culture--the marks of 'proficient' and 'exemplary' are given without any supporting documentation. 

The 'exemplary' marks--which, as I've noted in the past, should be particularly scrutinized as they are to be rare--are in:

• understanding and complying with laws, mandates, policies, collective bargaining agreements, and ethical guidelines
• addressing community concerns in an equitable, effective, and efficient manner
• fostering a shared commitment to high standards of service, teaching, and learning with high expectations of achievement for all
• demonstrates strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills

Right. So. 

This is the first time I will type this here, but this is a thing that is going to happen now: I will be evaluating the superintendent on these goals as they stand unless the School Committee chooses to change them at the midcycle review on Thursday.

As such, rather than pre-deliberate: I'll save my remarks for my summative evaluation. 

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, September 5

You can find the agenda here.
Should you be wondering if the Worcester Educational Collaborative's weekly question for candidates makes any difference at all, you might go read this week's responses on balancing constituent needs and the work of the committee, which was published Tuesday, August 27, and then look at how many agenda items that reflect challengers' concerns were filed on Wednesday, August 28.
Right. So.

There is no report of the superintendent.
As I noted in my own response to WEC's question, there is again an enormous number of recognitions and appreciations.
There are some beginning of the year appointments.

There's a response to the item asking about the teaching of cursive in the Worcester Public Schools; this is one of the better responses I've seen in some time, as it cites the state standards, reviews where the state is going, lays out where the district is and plans to be, and brings it home with research. 

There's a question about mold at Columbus Park (see above on filing items that should simply be referred to administration for solution).

There's a one page request for acceptance for an $80,000 security grant upon which the only description is "locks and cameras" with program location "the Worcester Public Schools." That's a lot of money to spend so vaguely.

There's likewise a one page request for acceptance of an innovation pathways grant of $28,683, and...I have no idea what it is being spent on, as here's what it says:

• To support the development of new and effective strategies to scale high-quality career pathways, and significantly expand student access to, participation in, and successful completion of pathways that culminate in meantiful postsecondary and workforce credentials
• To provide participating students with supportive, rigorous academic experiences and career development education relevant to their next stepss after high school
• To enhance a student's ability to gain awareness and prepardness of future employment opportunities

I mean, it's the innovation pathways, so it has stuff to do with getting kids to work, but what is the $28K going to?

xkcd 1860: Communicating

There's likewise a one page request for acceptance for the $116,250 21st Century Exemplar program which is going to Burncoat Middle "to provide activities rooted in project based learning practices that were developed around the need for enhanced literacy programming." So the funding buys...what?

Lest you think I'm being overly particular, I know for a fact that the district had to supply significantly more information than this to the state to get the grant, and the district within recent memory was reporting enough information to know where the money was actually going on grants.

Miss McCullough is asking for a report on the JumpStart orientation programs at the secondary schools. I assume, incidentally, that there will at some point be a report of the superintendent on back to school?

The usual settling up from the prior fiscal year is on here without a backup at this point; it'll be referred to Finance and Operations.

The auditors are coming! The reports aren't attached; this will go to Finance and Operations, too.

Mr. Monfredo thinks there should be:

half day professional development for staff in light of the training provided to principals that dealt with SEL, the impact of homelessness and foster children and on disciplinary alternatives.

Just a reminder that professional development time in the Worcester Public Schools is very, very limited.

Mr. Monfredo also offers this:

Request that the Administration continue its collaborative work with various agencies in dealing with the needs of homeless and foster children and consider reviewing the Cincinnati model entitled “Kids in School Rule.”

Yes, that is really a "keep doing what you're doing" item.

There's a request to pay a prior fiscal year item $2,323.00 to CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP for the student activities account audit which is a little odd.

Mr. O'Connell is coming in with two alternative district policies banning cell phones in different ways, both of which made the rounds of the news this summer: San Mateo and Crestwood. It's always interesting to me which ones get picked; one could just have easily cited Stoughton's: 

Stoughton High School Student Handbook changes for 2019-2020 regarding the Electronic Device Policy.

Parents and guardians please review this policy below with your child & encourage responsible and appropriate use of electronic devices during the school day. @StoughtonPS pic.twitter.com/plisODjFt1

— Alan Bontya (@BlackKnightsAP) August 29, 2019

Note also that, so long as the district both requires technology to complete work and does not provide said technology, having a cell phone ban is literally barring students from doing their work, or requiring that they violate district policy to do so.

The Committee is requested to accept donations:
– $67.55 from a donor to the Worcester Public Schools
– $100.00 from a donor to the Patricia Falcone Memorial Scholarship
– $3,820.00 from Worcester Area Mission Society for the Summer Cubs Program held at Woodland Academy

Mr. O'Connell has put the updated superintendent rubric on the agenda for consideration; note that the redraft is only for superintendents, not for district administrators as on the agenda.

The Committee is also being asked to accept (surely we could even just group these together?) the Comprehensive School Health grant for $200,000. While the backup on this one is of no more use than any of the other grants on the agenda, luckily we know from the FY20 budget what this grant is going for: "trauma informed teams" that would go to schools in most need (that's on page 262). More specifics about how many positions are being hired should be included here, however.

Mr. O'Connell (on August 28) suggests that the School Committee should establish goals for itself. Note that during Mr. O'Connell's extensive tenure, I do not believe he has ever before made this proposal.
...and wants to review the siting of Doherty (citing the city charter, which I don't think is going to carry weight with the MSBA).
...and wants to send leftover food home with kids (as you no doubt saw on Facebook this summer).
...and wants to know when site councils are meeting (as he does this one time each year; it does not get connected to goals or evaluation at any point).


Mr. Comparetto asks for an update on ongoing transportation issues. Note that the Committee was to have the Durham bid and the WPS report on the in-house alternative by now. Keep your eye on the schedule of Finance and Operations meetings, as that report will appear there first. This is the appropriate place to bring your concerns about WPS transportation. I would think it would have to happen before the next full committee meeting on September 19. UPDATE: Note Scott O'Connell's article on this; Finance and Operations expected to meeting 9/1716, with the full committee taking it up 9/19. Again, this is the right place to bring your transportation concerns.

There is another prior year payment of $5,252.25 to Harbor Networks; since there's no backup, we don't know for what, but they do "managed IT services" which leaves more questions than answers, really. 


Mr. Comparetto, on an item co-sponsored by Mr. Foley, Miss McCullough, and Mr. Monfredo (that's interesting) calls for:

Request the establishment of an inclusive and transparent process for selecting and implementing a comprehensive Sex Education Curriculum that is age-appropriate, evidence-based, medically-accurate and LGBTQ inclusive in the Worcester Public Schools.

And yes, the candidates have been asked about that quite a bit.

Miss Biancheria would like a count on Worcester Tech enrollment and applicants; a list of Ch. 74 programs and enrollment; and AP courses, enrollments, and results (they won't be able to do a full list of this as some of the sizes will be too small; FERPA violation); and to "highlight its successes in the STEM/STEAM programs" during a week in October.

There's prior fiscal year payments totalling $7800 going to nurses, which does actually have a backup.

Miss McCullough, no doubt noting the ongoing calls these past weeks for class supply lists, request clear links to such lists, as well as calendars and forms. Might we go a step further and remind all involved that such lists can only always be optional, which is not something I saw emphasized nearly enough? For these to be expected in a district like Worcester is, bluntly, wrong.

And there's an executive session at 6: three collective bargaining sessions and three litigation consultations.

On superintendent evaluation

...we don't really know enough from today's article to have much of an idea how Superintendent Binienda was evaluated last night. It's clear from the comments cited that there is some deserved critique behind the composite scores.
The individual as well as the composite evaluation are public documents, so we'll have to see if they are shared.

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

You can find the agenda for December 20 here.
There are recognitions and thanks.

The report of the superintendent is the End of Cycle Evaluation; as yet there is no backup posted, so what the School Committee has to say about Superintendent Binienda's performance is not yet public. You might recall that the Superintendent submitted her self-evaluation back at the meeting on November 13, saying that she had exceeded her professional practice and student learning goals, met her district improvement goal, and performed proficienctly in instructional leadership and in professional culture, and exemplarily in management and operations and in family and community and engagement. If you start on page 11 of the PowerPoint linked above, you'll quickly end up with puzzling questions like how one "exceeds" completion of the superintendent's induction program or in evaluating all principals. You can't. And, speaking as a parent, my jaw dropped at an exemplary rating in family and community engagement. 
...in any case...

Finance and Operations met tonight and will report out on Thursday (and apologies for the late posting, which didn't give a heads up) for the first quarter report; the account balances are here. Note that the request for the FY19 additional allocation goes to the School Committee during the Thursday meeting. There's nearly $500K additional in special ed tuition (some through the Collaborative)...and I don't understand what's going on with the technology line (weren't the Chromebooks in the budget?). Also worth noting that special education legal is up $20K more than budgeted; that may have something to do with the homeschooling case that broke just over a week ago, as I believe the district is being advised by their special education attorney for that (that last bit is a guess). Also on that agenda is a report on snow removal equipment.

There are appointments, resignations, retirements.

There is a report on the Career and Technical Education Partnership grant involving eight students.
There is a recommendation that an item on bullying be filed;

An update on the discussed lawsuit regarding school funding against the state is of interest: it speaks of presentations that the Mass Association of School Superintendents are doing, closing with "a formal lawsuit has not been filed." Superintendent Binienda's position was requested, it appears, by Ms. Biancheria, to which the superintendent has responded:

she feels it is important for legal authorities to review past litigation and to present a legal opinion before a formal lawsuit is filed

...something which would be done as a matter of course. What is interesting is that the backup doesn't actually respond to the item, which asked for an update from Brockton on legal action.

There is a super weak response to a request about recruiting; the request was for information on recruiting outside of Worcester, and the backup comes up with only Westfield State, the statewide recruiting fair, and SchoolSpring. The request to seek information from other districts yields the information the state association of human resource personnel. The Commissioner is handing you things like this, after all. 

The administration is responding that the district does not need to make any changes in response to Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board (SJC-12331).

There is a round-up of responses coming from the FY19 budget. Really the only interesting thing here--which is worthwhile!--is the savings of switching to Voice over Internet for 20 years at $1483 a a line is $1.13M. And if you read the backup, there are other advantages to switching.

The request for an org chart for emergency protocols receives in response this:

The Superintendent, Mayor and City Manager will communicate by phone messenging and/or emails with detailed information regarding any public safety issues. In addition, the Chief of Police and WPS Director of Safety will be sent these emails in order to coordinate messages to be shared with the public.

Thus not an org chart, and no response on who will communicate what to anyone else, including those not of the public, which includes teachers, staff, students, and parents. "two-way culturally proficient communication" is part of the Family and Community Engagement evaluation standard.

In response to a request for progress report opportunities in vocational education not admitted to Worcester Tech, the response is the grant mentioned above and three new programs being approved for South High.

As mentioned in the F&O report above, the allocation of the additional funding from the FY19 conference committee is reported out (here with an additional "as recommended to the School Committee in June"; the vote is later in the meeting). I'd advise reading the entire memo, as it also discusses elementary class sizes (12 more teachers!), student supports (adjustment counselors!), some administration allocations, and the ongoing dearth of teachers at the high schools (it also may answer why high school kids are now being stuffed into gym classes instead of into study halls).

There is a response to the request for an update on the long-sought facilities master plan (remember that?). The answer...looks to be current work with no additional funding, plus the MSBA submissions. Since the report found a $70M backlog in "urgent" repair needs, one would hope that this won't be enough for anyone.

Speaking of facilities, to the request for an update on the Accelerated Repair program, we learn that Harlow Street is getting a new roof, boiler, and windows. The recommendations for this year (which the Administration requests a vote on later in the agenda) are:

• Burncoat Preparatory School for Roof Replacement
• Lincoln Street School for Boiler Replacement
• Tatnuck Magnet School for Roof Replacement
• Worcester East Middle School for Roof Replacement

There is a really important note at the end of the above memo on Worcester East Middle: it is honestly in need of a major renovation, and it has, in past years, been submitted as a second choice after Burncoat (or third when Doherty was being submitted); it seems, however that the roof situation has grown urgent enough that it can't wait. It's being pulled from the major renovation/repair recommendation this year, and being submitted just for the roof (as Accelerated Repair only does roofs, windows, and boilers, and you can't submit the same building in both programs). EDIT: And here is the T&G on WEMS and the roof. The longer memo backing up the vote relates Worcester's history with the program. 

There is also, while we're on facilities, an item on SchoolDude usage, thus giving the administration yet another chance to remind us that the Worcester Public Schools only spends 60% of the foundation budget on facilities due to chronic underfunding of the foundation budget. Someone should ask for a compounded number on that one!

There is a response to a request, based on numerous teacher requests, that the "First Day Convening" be moved to allow teachers time in their classrooms; the response from the superintendent is that teachers have "ample time during the summer months to make these preparations." 

There is a four page response to several transporation items: note that the ten buses now being run by WPS have allowed, even with the substantial investment needed, for $194K to go back into the rest of the system. Also, if you've had transportation issues this year, you'll want to read the backup, as there may well be something there for you; it looks as though having the student bus passes distributed during the summer would have solved ours. Also, student data geeks rejoice: a SAGE sped transportation module! Good thing student data is handled in house! Also, it is worth noting that Durham apparently...isn't abiding by the contract. 

There is a response that all WPS employees are informed of public employees' participation in political activities and have been since August, and this report was in October. 

There is a request for approval for a prior year payment of $56,497 to CollegeBoard (no backup, so no idea what for). 

There is a request that K-3 parent conferences be held during the day.

There is a request for a report on the changes in the school nutrition regs.

There is a request for an update on the sex ed curriculum.

There is a request for changes in policy due to the changes in laws on marijuana (no need).

And there is the request from administration for allocation of the additional FY19 funding. (man, I hope they take some of these agenda items together!) The budget goes up by $3.4M for this current year!

In the ongoing idea that the handbook is supposed to be the same as the policy manual (it isn't; the handbook should be more specific), there's some changes proposed around the passed attendance, absence, and long term absences policies.

There is also an executive session for a grievance, two rounds of negotiations, and litigation.

Lively Worcester School Committee agenda for July

Not a dull agenda for July!

First, note that there is a Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports meeting on Thursday immediately preceding the full School Committee meeting at 3:30 pm at City Hall; it appears as though this is only to approve the four new courses listed, 'though they persist in just listing every item that has been referred there on the agenda, which is not okay.

The full Committee meets at 4 pm (it's summer) at City Hall, but note the "now they're here, now they're not" schedule:

• 4:00 p.m. - Regular Session 
• 5:00 p.m. - Executive Session 
• 6:00 p.m. – Regular Session and Proposed Strategic Plan