Announcement from the Worcester Public Schools

from Superintendent Binienda's call this evening:

This is Maureen Binienda, Superintendent of the Worcester Public Schools with this very important message.
The Worcester Public Schools announce that all schools and programs, including the Parent Information Center, will be closed until at least Monday, April 6, 2020. The Durkin Administration Building will be open to employees and closed to the public but available by telephone. The district is taking proactive steps to protect our students and staff during this current pandemic to prevent community spread of the virus. The district will closely monitor the current situation and determine if the planned opening date needs to be extended.
The district will be updating students and families on the dates and times of access to schools to retrieve personal items. We are working with city and community partners to develop plans to provide meals and other essential services to students during this shutdown period.
All staff should check their employee email that will be sent by 5pm on Sunday for details about work assignments, accessing personal items from the school, payroll, and other information.
I will continue to update you on this evolving national emergency as it pertains to the Worcester Public Schools.

Eve Ewing, author of "Ghosts in the Schoolyard" at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Not sure how well a liveblog will work for this, but I'm going to give it a shot. We're in the basement of the Gutman Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Posting as we go.
The subtitle is "Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side" as the book focuses on the 2013 closings (or read more here).
Currently she's an asssisant professor at University of Chicago; research of the impact of school closings by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research is here.
Note: really solid livetweet thread here. 
Going to give a preview of the book, and then give time for Q & A
in 2013, Chicago closed 50 schools (10,400 students); 90% of those schools were majority black students; 71% has majority black teachers
1 in 4 schools with majority black students and majority black teachers were closed

Eve Ewing will be at Harvard Tuesday

...to talk about her new book Ghosts in the Schoolyard on the school closings in Chicago.
More on her and her work in the NY Times here.

Speaking of race and power

...I'm looking forward to this book coming out later this fall from Eve Ewing, on the Chicago school closings.

CPS may insist that the past has no impact on the present, but Ewing says otherwise—while the closures might not seem racist to the actors, they “were the culmination of several generations of racist policy stacked on racist policy, each one disregarding, controlling, and displacing black children and families in new ways layered upon the callousness of the last.”

School's out forever

Two in-depth articles this week covering the challenges faced by small rural schools:

• This article in The New York Times looks at Arena, Wisconsin and their last day and year. 
• This one from Hechinger looks at Chelsea, Vermont, Vermont's Act 46, and Chelsea High School's closure.

Note that this is also what districts in rural parts of Massachusetts are also facing. 

And speaking of school buildings in Worcester

The Worcester School Committee's Finance and Operations subcommittee met yesterday with the City Council's education committee to talk about the long-awaited facilities report (yes, that's a link to the report online; it's up!). I caught a bit of it in the car (tweets here) and was caught by the new discussion of possible mergers of elementary schools...
...as was T&G reporter Scott O'Connell, thus this morning's headline.
Note, though, that as much as the consultant did seem rather taken with this notion of mergers, this was less about that, and more about Worcester having (not news to us) a lot of old buildings and smaller schools. If those need major rehab, such that new buildings would make more sense, we (and MSBA) aren't going to build on the same plan. New buildings have cafeterias and space for special ed and follow modern specs around light and air and such. And they're bigger.

And yes, that's my way of telling you not to freak out over mergers. And, as noted in the article:

While Mr. Allen said district administrators have not begun planning any such school consolidations yet, he noted Worcester went through a similar contraction several decades ago. In response to a committee question about how families might react to losing their school to a possible merger, Mr. Allen said, “If you can show parents what you can get with a larger, newer school,” the School Department hopefully will be able to earn community buy-in.

Worcester isn't new to school mergers. And unlike other places, it hasn't been our less vocal, more poor, more of color sections of the city that have lost schools.

Don't lose sight of the main point here, though: We have a massive backlog of needed renovation and repairs at our schools. That's on the city capital budget (and, more broadly, it's on the state's foundation funding, in terms of maintenance).
What are we going to do about that, Worcester? 

December Board of Ed in sum

The Board of Education met in Malden on December 20.
Note that the Board of Ed not only is now being livestreamed during the meeting, but the meetings are beginning to be archived online.
In his opening remarks, Commissioner Chester noted the substantial number of proposed changes to regulations and standards that are currently out for public comment. I've posted all of those here.
Public comment included an early childhood perspective on ESSA, concerns about a proposed dropping of the instructional technology license, and grave concerns from MTA president Barbara Madeloni regarding the MCAS proposals. Madeloni asked the Board to "step back" from the increase of testing, saying "we've found ourselves in the smallest place of what teaching and learning can look like."

There was an update on the receivership of the Holyoke Public Schools, with a particular focus on the Morgan School, which went into state receivership a year ahead of the district. There was a particular emphasis on data updates and secondary pathways by student.

The Board then took public comment on the Mattahunt in Boston, followed by their own discussion of the school and future for its students. Several of the Board members clearly were concerned about what happens to the students being moved (with member Craven mentioning that they likewise had requested updates of what happened with the students of Dorchester Collegiate when it closed, which they have not received). There was also some concern about the community not having the same understanding of how the school was doing as the state did. The Commissioner, commenting that he had heard nothing in the last month to change his views about the school or decisions made, said it was time to move on.

There was a presentation on and a discussion regarding the PISA results which came out earlier this month. While there was some discussion of the stellar results of Massachusetts students, the Commissioner mentioned what he referred to as "very provocative" points on schools in China, Singpore, and Vietnam, which in some cases outperform Massachusetts in math, commenting that they have large class sizes of 40 or 45 students, but a low adult/child ratio, and teachers don't spend as much of their time teaching students.

There was a presentation on the state's plans for ESSA, particularly in light of the public sessions (one pager on that here) that took place in November and December. Additional indicators the public comment sessions indicated as important include school climate, access to the arts, and access to a well-rounded curriculum (one pager has them all AND acknowledges potential problems with them, as well). At this point, DESE plans to present again to the Board on this next month, with the plan before them in March, possibly to be submitted in the earliest window of April 3. All also acknowledge that no one at this point is clear of the plans of the incoming administration at the federal level.

There was an initial discussion about proposed changes to educator licensure. The changes, to my eyes, largely seemed about making it a more straightforward process.

There was an update on MCAS, specifically on the high school competency determination. The biggest change here is the proposed addition of a history assessment, which, as Secretary Peyser noted, is already in regulation and would thus require no change, just an implementation. Deputy Commissioner Wulfson commented that the state is "looking at all of our options: not tying ourselves to a pencil and paper or a computer based options" and was clearly open to inclusion of classwork, projects, and other assessment methods for this assessment.

There was a fairly lengthy presentation and discussion (of which I only have a hard copy) of early college high school ahead of next month's joint meeting with the Board of Higher Ed. Essentially, a substantial amount of groundwork has gone into possibly expanding such programming in Massachusetts.

While they had the recalculation of low income to economically disadvantaged on the agenda, there was no discussion of it.

As mentioned above, the January meeting is a joint meeting with the Board of Higher Ed, to be held at Bridgewater State.

December Board of Ed: Mattahunt

Mattahunt: public comment then discussion
and I'll apologize in advance for no doubt missing names
her daughter who is in third grade wanted to be there
quoting here her daughter: current principal is her third principal
"education unlocks your dreams"
wants to be a fashion designer: make clothes that are not just pretty but functional
"always cold in the cold weather"
mother: been very frustrating for her
need for wraparound services: only one school on transfer list does
"have to be at work at 8:30, finish work at 6"
can drop off early, goes right into extended length of day
"cannot get these kinds of services at any other type of school"
students at school do not learn like students at other schools

early childhood centers: are longer time, schools are not (or may not be)
a lot of confusion and anger from parents
"can't say if teachers will be teaching there next year"
parents went to welcome centers and staff had parents fill out transfer forms for this year
some transfers went through and were removed from the rolls
parent who refused to fill out form as she wanted to visit schools first was told she'd lose her slot
parent who doesn't want to move her son again at the end of the first grade
another, daughter in third grade, has been in three schools already; son has IEP and his location will depend on services
"mother is adamant that she is not moving her daughter a fourth time"
parent who chose the Mattahunt upon moving from Haiti as cousin was there; no family priority for cousins
70 homeless families at the Mattahunt right now, citing DESE
how does Boston's "home-based plan" work for families without a home?
urges Board to obtain BPS five or ten year plan for the Mattahunt and plan for Mattahunt students

Barbara Fields, retired teacher, resident of Mattapan:
requests around information from BPS about assignment of students
chronology of events: two week period of time from informed of possible closure to school committee vote of closure
requesting vacancy by grade in schools being offered to parents
and services at schools offered
"parents are going at this blindly; they don't know if they're going at this in a reasonable way"
not only school level, but where they're at in the turnaround, are they going up or down
"that you really look at the schools that residents of Mattapan are able to attend, based on capacity"
"schools have been disproportionately closed in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan"


"cautionary tale...don't want tale to be lost"
what questions were not asked before school was closed?
"in our view context matters...symptom of a larger problem"
"fundamental equity issue"
"there's no argument that closing schools has a perilous impact on communities, and a disproportionate impact on communities of color"
parents see school closure as a done deal
people feel they are powerless
some are fearful they'll be punished by being denied a school of their choice
community really wants to work with BPS admin; "let's look at what successful turnarounds have done"
successful parent engagement
willing to work with administration to identify obstacles to parent engagement
"let's embrace the opportunity to do what should have been done during the years of turnaround, but were not for whatever reason"
no ability to sustain change with turnover in administration
funding was "primarily devoted to two hours of extended day"
"that in and over itself was not enough to move the turnaround"
asks for an independent evaluation of turnaround work in Boston
this happens, but those reports aren't always public
Stewart: parents who have extraordinary barriers in front of them right now
"who is the champion for the students at the Mattahunt right now?"

Sagan now takes the Mattahunt out of order
Sagan's understanding is that Boston School Committee has now reconfirmed their decision
"we do not run those schools"
to the question of oversight, "some of that resides with this Board"
Chester: comfortable with plan of BPS admin
"what's been happening under the authority that the school district has basically flatlined the school"
runs through again the Dearborn school
(citing this as a positive plan with DESE, as opposed to history cited by Boston School Committee)
comfortable with Mattahunt students ending up in a better place
"nothing that has transpired in the last month has changed my mind" with regard to the decision of the School Committee
spoke with Supt Chang, mayor's staff, Chair O'Neil
Boston School Committee "they're comfortable with where they've landed"
"I see no further action that is warranted here."
will continue to follow through with parents and kids
30% English Language Learners; reflective of district as whole
wonder how many are former ELL?
spoke to students at the Mildred Avenue School "and students were quite" outspoken on difference between Mattahunt and Mildred Avenue Schools
(positive at Mildred Avenue and negative at Mattahunt)
Sagan: seeing gap between services offered and those seemingly being offered
very close contrast with Boston and "how it's being operationalized"
open enrollment in Boston schools opens January 3; families find out in March
Boston has informed parents that there may be further changes to their choices
If there are other schools that are closed, schools will follow up with parents
DESE has said can't be lost year
residency in school now; support schools in social emotional
concern on early literacy, PD for teachers
"acceleration academy" during vacations
student rep notes that majority of sessions are in weekday mornings
DESE will follow up
Noyce: that the school was truly failing appears to have caught the community by surprise; how to make that better?
was a local stakeholder group that informed that plan
one of the goals was parent engagement
worry that students are not proficient; make sure that communities are well informed about progress of schools
community meetings at Dearborn with use of "data dashboard"
Doherty: no effort on part of school system to change their minds in the past month
information that parents are looking for that they haven't been able to get
Craven: progress of Level 4 schools
needing context
Dorchester Collegiate Academy: wanted follow up of what has happened to students; don't recall getting updated
calls out involvement of Morton in keeping Board informed on Springfield
"don't have larger perspective" of district
"magnitude of what we're dealing with in Boston
"change our context around Boston"
Stewart: appreciate comments of Craven
do have structure of monitoring: technical assistance teams in BPS
coordination of assistance to Boston Public Schools in turnaround
McKenna; assume when we're talking about monitoring Level 4's "not just in Boston"
asks for a report on Holland and Dever again "they're our schools"
Board will get update on all Level 5 schools in January

Chester: while we rely on local school districts to run local schools, state judicial court has made it clear that state has a responsibility to education
law codifying lowest 20%,
"giving districts additional authority and schools" to turn those schools around
and then giving state the authority if those efforts don't work
"not to take full responsibility for efforts at Level 4"
"it's a balance on our part...we want nothing more than to see every one of those efforts be successful"

the Mattahunt (Board of Ed)

also dealt with here

Chester: question is what is the better path for the students in that school going to be?
receivership one option
Commerce into empowerment zone
solution Boston brought "made sense to me"

November Meeting of the Board of Education public comment

The agenda is here. It will start with comments by the Chair, the Commissioner, the Secretary, and the public.
updating as we go
Oh, and they're livestreaming

Budget at CPPAC

I'm not going to liveblog the entire budget presentation as you had that here. You can also see that presentation here.

Posting as we go

Allen: show what the budget looks like at this time, but no recommendations at this time; those will come over the next month or so

Nice work, Pittsburgh!

Congratulations to the city of Pittsburgh, as last night their School Committee (which includes some newly elected members) rescinded their contract with Teach for America and voted to stop the process of closing an elementary school.The decisions to have the contract with TFA and to close the school were among the last ones made by the outgoing board.
Full story over at Yinzercation.

And from Chicago

From last night's meeting in Chicago:

CFO of CPS "We won't get all the savings from closing schools this year" Wow reports show closing schools COST $100 mill... #CPSCuts
— David Stieber (@D_Stieber) August 2, 2013

Meanwhile in Chicago

...the Chicago Board of ed (mayorally appointed) voted to close 49 elementary schools and a high school.
That's about 10% of their district.
More on this tomorrow.Check out #CPSclosings on Twitter for more. 

Public testimony (updating as we go)

updating as we go
testimony from Flagg parent: which is projected to lose three teachers, which would be moved elsewhere

Protest in Chicago today

There is a protest planned for Daley Plaza in Chicago this afternoon at 4 pm CDT. The city has erected barricades at the Board of Ed.
For the best information, follow #CPSClosings on Twitter.

Chicago closes 54 schools

...thus beating out Philadelphia who as of last week was holding the "most school closed in a single year" label.
Over the course of yesterday, principals were informed in Chicago that their schools would be closing at the end of this year. Only at the end of the day was there a central announcement that it is 54 schools, with another 11 slated for shared space. (Twitter became the best source of information, as people tried to work out which schools were slated for closure.) It's expected to affect 30,000 kids.
The New York Times notes that, while finances are what are cited as the reason for the closures, it won't necessarily help:

Some studies have shown that savings are often less than anticipated.“Our research found that school districts tended to save under $1 million per school” closed, said Emily Dowall, a senior associate at the Pew Charitable Trusts who has studied school closings. “So in some ways that’s not a game changing amount.”

Note also that it is disproportionately poor and minority-majority schools that are affected:

Critics say that even more significant than cost, school closings tend to affect the poor and minorities disproportionately. In the 100 schools that have closed in Chicago since 2001, 88 percent of the students affected were black. Over all, black students make up 42 percent of the city schools enrollment.

There is also enormous concern for student safety, as Chicago students will have to go farther to get to school through what their families fear are unsafe streets.
There is lots of commentary out there; I would point you to Kenzo Shibata and  Xian Barrett to start.

Philadelphia protests tonight's vote to close 30 schools

Up for a vote tonight in Philadelphia is a plan to close 30 schools. The vote will be taken by the School Reform Commission, which, no, is not elected. I've been following #phillyeducation on Twitter for the latest. There was a large protest outside the building beforehand, then number of protesters blocked the doors before the meeting and were arrested; among them was Randi Weingarten, the national president of the American Federation of Teachers.
I'd recommend the Notebook as a good source for information.

I'll try to do a longer post this evening on this. Philadelphia is not alone; Chicago is facing a plan to close 13% of their schools, and there are many others.

TWO HOUR DELAY

Worcester Public Schools will have a two hour delay tomorrow, Tuesday, November 13.

_____________________________
From the Superintendent:

Update:  Based on the most recent information from the City Manager, I am announcing a two-hour delay for tomorrow morning.  There will be no AM preschool. A Connect Ed message is being sent out and the information will also be on the website and local news media.

 

Donna Lombardi has taken action to adjust menus that will allow students to be fed given the water limitations.  Additionally, due to the limited water, DAB and 52 week employees will also be on a delay.  DAB will open at 9:00 am tomorrow morning.  This decision is based on restrooms not being accessible until water service is restored.

 

The pipe has been exposed and the area needing repair has been identified.  The city has also issued emergency calls to homes indicating that once water is restored early tomorrow morning that a boil water order will be in effect for 24 hours after that time.

Don't expect a call tonight

Commissioner Moylan is now hoping to have the water back on for 7 am. If we have water, we'll run school.
We can't run without it.
You'll hear in the morning if there's a cancellation.
__________________________________________________
WPS website has the following:

MAJOR WATER MAIN BREAK MAY IMPACT SCHOOL FOR TOMORROW!

A major water main break in the city this afternoon may require an extended period of low or no water pressure throughout the city.  This may impact whether we can open schools tomorrow.  At 7pm, no decision has been made about school operations for tomorrow.  It is possible and likely that a decision is not made until tomorrow morning.  The Worcester Public Schools is in close communication with city officials regarding the repair and time frame.  Once we have a better sense of the time for the repairs we will make a decision about school opening for tomorrow.  Please keep updated with local media, our website, and our Twitter feed for any announcements.  We will also send a Connect Ed message to homes if we cancel or delay schools.  Thank you for your patience and understanding as we assess the impact on school operations.