June 2026 Board of Ed: State Student Advisory Council

 State Student Advisory Council 
for some reason, they never link to the presentation from the SSAC on these...I wish they would

used extensive amounts of data in their work
host successful regional and statewide stakeholder engagement events

Moving right along: Board of Ed membership

Periodically, I am asked about the length of terms of the current Board of Ed members, particularly given that we have a largely Baker-appointed Board and an ostensibly more education-friendly Governor now. While the state does have this chart, it's not fully updated, has weirdly set everything to June expiration dates (which isn't in state law), and has more than one ending date just plain wrong.

I did the first version of this post in 2017, with an update in January of last year.

The Board of Ed meets today: opening comments

 You can find the agenda for today's Board of Ed meeting (indeed, all of this week's meetings!) here. This meeting will be livestreamed here.

I will update this blog post as we go. 

June Board of Ed: State Student Advisory Council

 report of the State Student Advisory Council so this one is over to Eric Plankey
And I don't have this report, so I have no links as yet
state council of 50 members, then 5 regional councils which produce reports for the larger council
changes in student advocacy this year, too
first year of meeting back in person: moved the meetings from Malden to Worcester to increase access

student reps: opportunities for youth involvement in every district
should have two students from every high school in Massachusetts
how do student voices get represented across the state
student government; affinity groups; advocacy groups
handbook for student government, focused on policy change

financial literacy: bundle of resources for districts
life after graduation, paying for college
documented past work to build off of
lesson plans series
presentations from guidance departments on paying for college

health and wellness: youth risk behavior survey
consistent feeling of sadness/hopelessness: 50.1% of girls; 26.6% of boys
only 20.4% of students getting more than 8 hours of sleep
40-50% of LGBTQ+ students had seriously considered suicide
bullying down; alcohol use down
peer on peer support groups
up to date occupational advisors
make sure students aren't overloaded with work; stay balanced

now reviewing regional work: 
Greater Boston: list of recommendations for updating health curriculum; building codes and sustainability
Northeast: guidance on religious holidays
Central Mass: wellness week
Southeast: brochure for school spirit; initiatives on BIPOC history
Western: outreach for representation

Stewart: where can see report? need space on website

"got students thinking about what was happening in their districts"

Mass Association of Student Representatives:
student reps to school committees: every district required to have student rep, have student advisory to school committee
"there isn't a lot of compliance with it"
help spread best practices of students getting involved in their local districts
proposed amendment for student reps voting rights

Student Union of Massachusetts:
coalition of local youth groups from across the state 
local reform efforts to improve student voice
facilitate student gov reform
create template policies for local implementation

three levels of decision making now has a dedicated student advocacy to that level
"creating something special in MA"

Lombos: sees parallels between student organizing and work organizing
excited to see if can bake in continuity

Plankey plans to connect incoming student rep with Board and Department members
"state should be prepared to engage with students as partners"
suggests DESE solidify of SSAC as a partner with the Department: "one stop spot as student voice" for Department

Ella Gardner, Wellesley High School will be incoming rep for next year

Board of Ed: state student advisory council report

Carris Livingstone runs through the regional councils and what each was working on in their workgroups
health and wellness workgroup:
educate students about mental and physical health resources
created a brochure including resources available to students
curricular reforms:
financial literacy student survey, research on need
history framework: need for Native American representation and Asian American history and supplemental information
college and career readiness program
much preliminary data gathering; follow up needed particularly in the curricular areas
DEI: want to diversify the Council
"have a lot of the same type of students that tend to come to our meetings"
emphasize that need diversifying the Student Advisory Council to ensure being welcoming to all types of students

regional highlights:
digital divide work: survey and a district brochure
financial literacy: focusing on online platforms
I think I missed one in here
curricular reform to increase representation
student government reform: resources including platforms to bolster leadership
mental health and wellness: social media page that outlined facts and disparities
college and career readiness: resources for receiving important information
"often there are resources; it's about students being aware"
climate change: how students can clean up their community
student representation: infographic to gain leadership skills and resources on how to make students grow
western group worked on shared resources: AP access

ongoing work on communication

Lombos asks for other feedback
Carris Livingstone speaks of greater communication between the advisory council and the Board
in a continual process throughout the year, not simply a report at the end

What happened at Worcester School Committee last week

 I've been fighting the flu since Wednesday (obligatory #NoItIsNotCOVID), so I've been pretty much out of commission; I am trying to keep to reporting out, particularly as our local news continues to be more weakened. 

You can find the agenda for Thursday (the 7th) here. We came late out of executive session (and if you look at the items that were posted for executive session, you can see we had a number). 

We did go back to the mask policy, which had been held from the prior meeting pending more information regarding wastewater testing; this was in relation to my motion to add language that we require a reconsideration of the policy in consultation with medical professionals if the Upper Blackstone Wastewater Treatment testing numbers rise about 300K for two testing periods in a row. We had Nick Durham of Biobot join us to discuss the testing. On Member Mailman's motion, that amendment was referred to Governance. 
Note that the levels have been above 300K for two testing periods in a row at this point; the most recent testing was this: 

Effective* virus concentration
(copies per liter of sewage)
936,582

The report of the Superintendent was on portrait of a graduate, which Superintendent Binienda said is now required by NESDEC (?). The logo/image for it is here: 

The full report starts on page 36 of the agenda. I don't really have a lot to say about this, because it isn't really connected to much of anything else that we're doing in the district. 

We had two subcommittee reports: the first was from this March 15 TLSS meeting. As this meeting took up the district's continued use of--and the administration's continued defense of the use of--Fountas and Pinnell, Member McCullough specifically noted that the next report back should include the perspective of teachers. I noted that there are major issues with our continued insistence on using this program. I think it's important to note that this puts the Committee in an awkward position: we, legally, approve curriculum after vetting and recommendation from administration, who are to be the day-to-day experts. If the administrators are continuing with something that it is clear does not work, can the Committee effectively withdraw that approval?

We also had a report out of the Ad-Hoc Search meeting at which the questions for the semi-finalist superintendent interviews were drafted and approved. I requested that we as a Committee commit to have the superintendent interviews translated; you can now plan on that.
Also, note that the finalists will be announced on April 19 at a special meeting of the Worcester School Committee; they'll be in district for visits and interviews the week of April 25. 

The student representative's report included a s/o to the Burncoat Drama Club (congratulations!). They also brought to our attention an email from the Deputy Superintendent, calling for student representative elections before April vacation, without additional information regarding those responsibilities as put together by the our Student Advisory Council themselves. A number of us regarded this with concern. We have now pushed those off. 

We voted acceptance of a $30,000 preschool grant that is supposed to be a full community needs assessment on preschool, done in partnership with Edwards Street Child Care, YWCA, and Guild of St. Agnes.

We reflected on the page and a half response (pages 104-105) on student disregulation, a report I requested in November, which didn't actually hit most of what has been asked for. This was recommitted to the administration for a full report of the superintendent at our next regular meeting. 

We then had an update on COVID. We've had several requests that we share number of cases broken down by school, which Superintendent Binienda said the health community has advised against. We are seeing an increase in cases this week, as expected, with 33 student and 24 staff cases this week, an increase of 9 and 6, respectively. The full history of WPS reporting is now here.

We received a lengthy response to an item requesting an update on the after school/additional learning time programs being run through the ESSER funding (it starts on page 110). Much of that is a building by building standard form. 
My two concerns in asking the question was first, how are we responding to student need--this gave an overview of that--and second, how are we managing the resources allocated to us. The second question is the one I drilled on in questions, as the FY22 budget set aside $8M for summer and after school programming for this fiscal year. Remember, the district is required to spend 20% of ESSER III spending on "learning loss," which for Worcester is close to $17M. I know we didn't spend anything close to that $8M this past summer--I don't think we even spent $2M--and so I was looking for some information there. The final two pages of the report gave the following: 

So that's $1.18M. 
I won't recount the full back and forth here--and there was one--but I tried to get an answer on if this figure was arrived at by asking each school what they needed, costing that out, and then allocating. I did not actually get an answer, which I am suspecting means the answer is 'no'. If that is the case, it means that the administration has severely underbudgeted the learning recovery program of the district in our first year back in buildings full time since the pandemic. 
And yes, the administration has done that, as the School Committee allocated significantly more funding than was moved forward.

I, Sarah Kyriazis, and Bob Walton gave a brief update on the work of the municipal broadband committee. The city has been in contact with both Google and SciFi, looking at two different models for municipally offered broadband service. Dr. Kyriazis updated on the FCC's Affordable Connectivity program (you can learn more 6 pm Tuesday), for which all WPS families qualify; there's district outreach going on for that, as well. Mr. Walton spoke of the district applying for a third round of federal funding for the home connectivity. 

We received an update on middle school sports, which you can find on page 175 of the agenda.

We passed BURNCOAT HIGH as our number one rebuild/renovate project to go to the City Council and to the MSBA.

We had a number of requests for information, including, coming in from both Members Mailman and Johnson, the still-outstanding MOU between WPS and WPD, which we were supposed to have for the end of January. No one, it appears, has seen it as yet. The superintendent noted that we thus remain under the prior MOU, which I don't understand how that is possible, as that outlined WPD being in the buildings and now they are not. 
I also asked that we get an update on principal succession planning, as we have several principals leaving (which we haven't received notice of, incidentally).

I asked that we make sure students have appropriate provision for observing Ramadan.
I proposed that we revise for the current year our cap on 7 days of excused absences in light of the pandemic; this went to Governance. 
I also asked that we send building enrollment to F&O.
And the Mayor filed an item on the Office of the Inspector General audit on the Temporary Emergency Impact Aid, so expect to see that in F&O as well.

And that was the meeting!
While I have you here, note that there are two subcommittee meetings this week

• Finance and Operations meets tomorrow (Monday) at 6 pm for the monthly transportation report, though we're getting a tour of the new WPS transportation facility at 5; expect photos!
• Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports meets Tuesday at 6; summer reading, ethnic studies, tutoring, mental health, and libraries are on the agenda.

Student representative

Walker (Doherty):
Senior class last day changed
Boone: last year went through the coordinated program review with the state
"it seemed to be an awful long time between the seniors last day and the last day of school"
state found that we were short days
making up snow days: "we're going to sit back and see what the state says"
"going to pray that it's not an issue"

Jenkins (South High)
"it was received poorly from students"
I'll let my fellow students know
"appreciate that greatly"
concerned about the hoodie policy
"to try to prevent hidden faces...outcry of the student body"
"this policy is likely not to be as accepted by the students right away"
"very similar to that of the outdoor jacket policy"
students already wearing hoodies to school; protest to wear hoodies to school
rumors that homecoming was cancelled: mention to principals that this was done
Boone: you answered the question I had on homecoming
"as far as the hoodie issue, we've been around that several times"
Rodrigues: two weeks ago, met with all principals and assistant principals, one of the themes was students who are not obeying protocol of not having hoods down, not where they should be; principals were concerned about that
has come to my attention that a couple of schools have said that students could wear the sweatshirt to school, but not in school
"not one of the items that is forbidden within the policy handbook"
Jenkins: we were informed of the policy on the first day of school
many students come to school only wearing hoodies, especially young women
school programs that sold hoodies, National Honor Society wear them with pride
"they understand the policy of the school, but they feel this is unfair"