And because I know there will be questions...

 Worcester has moved their last day to tomorrow, Tuesday, June 18:

The last day for most of the district was Thursday--for Burncoat, Friday, due to the cancellation in December due to no heat--and Wednesday was already off due to the state observance of Juneteenth. 

No doubt, some of you are wondering: Doesn't that mean the Worcester Public Schools won't go 180 days?
Yes! This  February 2011* memo from the late Commissioner Mitchell Chester explains what Worcester is invoking here, namely item 3: 

Districts will not be expected to make up any days lost to health, weather, or safety emergencies that occur after June 1.

Enjoy the break! Here's hoping Worcester gets some cooling stations and splash pads open early, eh?

_______
*Do you remember February 2011? I do. And then that was the October when we had a Halloween snowstorm...

Worcester Public Schools summer facilities

 ...work is in the news today, and I just wanted to be sure people knew now that we'll be having a full report on summer facilities work at the Finance and Operations meeting on September 18. 

The Board of Ed closes this school year on Tuesday

...and you can find the agenda here. The livestream will be here.
My understanding is that so many people have signed up for public comment that they maxed out the time raising questions about what that means during a pandemic when people may wish to question state guidance.

An update on DESE-pandemic-related action is on the agenda, as is the fall re-opening guidance, and a proposed emergency amendment to time on learning regulations, though a description of what the proposed changes are is...not attached to the agenda. Interestingly, both of those items were added Friday night to the agenda. 
As a side note, note that the CDC updated their list of who is at increased risk or may be at increased risk from COVID-19 on Thursday. 

There is the annual June update on actions of the Student Advisory Council.

There's an update on the FY21 state education budget (fingers crossed they know something?).

There's also a vote on on making permanent the change in the regulations that have been allow the Commissioner to alter deadlines, I believe (that one ALSO doesn't have a backup...can we please post what the Board is discussing when we're doing something like changing regulation?

There's the annual "we're not meeting during the summer" delegation of authority.
There's proposed modifications to the probation for City on a Hill and Paulo Freire charter schools.
There is a proposal for the regular Board meeting schedule for the coming year.

And there is also the evaluation of the Commissioner, with no backup. Here's the deal: the Commissioner is an official is who is appointed and evaluated by a public body, which itself is subject to the Open Meeting law. As such, the evaluation document cannot be shared with the Commissioner unless and until it is shared with not only the entire Board, but also the larger public.
As the document is not posted, are we to believe that neither the Board nor the Commissioner has seen his evaluation as of now?

Other Items for Information:

• Annual Report on Non-Operating School Districts Approved by the Commissioner
• Notification of Commissioner Approval of Loans beyond Charter Duration
• Chronically Underperforming Schools Quarter 4/Final Reports

There also is a (very rare) executive session, regarding the lawsuit of PLESH v DESE, which alleges discrimination against Latino families in the Holyoke schools; the case is against a number of people in positions in Holyoke and the Department.

What poor kids miss in the summer

It matters:

While nearly two-thirds of students from non-poor families visited an “art galleries, museums, or historical sites with family members during the summer,” only one-third of poor students did. 

Just 15 percent of low-income families reported taking their kids to a play or concert over the summer, compared with a third of non-poor families. 

There were also major gaps in students likelihood of attending summer camp: 39 percent of non-poor kids did, compared with just 7 percent of children from poor families.

What aren't they missing?

A larger subset of poor families than non-poor families said they had their children work on math and writing activities every day...And one-third of kindergarten graduates of all income levels looked at or read books every day.

(Note those are two articles covering the same study.)

I hope this summer the phone calls from the district are less about reading and math and more about free concerts, museums, and other events.

PS: Dan Gleason (Ayer-Shirley School Committee) notes one more thing poor kids miss in summer:

With lunch. Another thing missing over the summer for many poor kids.

— Dan Gleason (@DAN_GLEASON) May 31, 2018

Free Fun Friday tomorrow!

Tomorrow's Free Fun Friday from the Highland Foundation includes:
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
OCEAN EXPLORIUM
THE ERIC CARLE MUSEUM
LARZ ANDERSON AUTO MUSEUM
SPRINGFIELD MUSEUMS
MASS AUDOBON'S BOSTON NATURE CENTER
SANDWICH GLASS MUSEUM
Enjoy!

Free Fun Fridays!

Tomorrow, July 11, is another FREE FUN FRIDAY!
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
Worcester Historical Museum
Fruitlands Museum
Cape Cod Children's Museum
New England Historical Genealogical Society
Pilgrim Hall Museum

Worcester Art Museum is free on Friday

This is part of the Highland Foundation's Free Fun Fridays. Also free this week: Franklin Park Zoo, Cape Cod Maritime Museum, Tanglewood, The Sports Museum, Mass MOCA, and the MIT Museum. 

Summer building work

There are often projects going on in our schools over the summer; this summer, we have several BIG projects happening:

• Worcester East Middle School is getting new boilers.
• Chandler Magnet School is getting the rest of their new windows. They're also getting the roof work and solar panels done, thus the flags around the roof.
• Worcester Arts Magnet School is getting new windows, as well as some work done to the vestibule and the bathrooms.
• Columbus Park is getting its new boiler, as well as having the new windows installed.
• Tatnuck Magnet is getting new windows.

Good stuff! (And thanks, MSBA!)

Happy last day!

Enjoy the summer!

And remember: there are no specific assigned summer reading books for the Worcester Public Schools. Does it have words? Are you enjoying it? Then read it!

Our new mobile food truck!

This morning we unveiled the new Worcester Public Schools mobile food truck at Vernon Hill Park! It went to work on Wednesday of this week. It was donated to us by the Worcester County Food Bank, and funded by the Our Family Foundation of Stop and Shop, 'though the food comes through the USDA.

A lot of our kids in the city are dependent on free breakfast and lunch for healthy eating, and summer can be a hungry time for them. This truck gets breakfast and early dinner out to where kids are.

Any child under 18 can come by the truck when it is there, Monday through Saturday, and be fed, no questions asked.

The food truck is at Vernon Hill Park for breakfast from 10-10:30 am and for dinner from  3-3:30 for dinner. The food truck is at Bennett Field (in Webster Square) from 11-11:30 am for breakfast and 4-4:30 pm for dinner.
The meals (and the truck is equipped to handle 1000 meals at a time) are being prepared in the North High kitchens, and the refrigeration means that we're able to get much more local produce out to our kids!
Currently, only one in seven children eligible for summer food from USDA gets it. That's a lot of hungry kids, so please spread the word!

And if you missed this article from rural Tennessee, demonstrating the importance of these programs, I would urge you to read it. 

Spray park open for the heat wave

The City of Worcester has just announced that the Greenwood Street Spray Park will be open today through Sunday from noon to 7 pm.
The park is on, yes, Greenwood Street in Quinsig Village, 'though you can best access the spray park from Forsberg Street.

Every SINGLE thing?

Tangential, as the point of the article is not this, but I gasped aloud this morning when I got to the end of this comment in an article on extended school years:

“It is true that we have an unfair society, and it is true that kids who are coming from the poorer backgrounds and whose parents don’t do a lot of reading are losing reading skills over the summer,” said Peter Gray, research professor of psychology at Boston College. “But let’s look at other solutions.” He added, “Whatever job we give to the school system, they ruin it.”

(emphasis added)
I will resist the temptation to toss some psychology into why we'd have a professor of psychology making such a generalization, but...really, Professor Gray? Every single thing? Ever?

And regarding summer learning loss, be sure to read Alfie Kohn on just what it is we're losing.

Round up of missing links

Sorry for the slow posting: summertime! A few links you may want to look at:

• Alfie Kohn on summer learning loss: " ...summer loss mostly applies to 'factual and procedural knowledge' such as 'math computation and spelling skills,' according to the 1996 meta-analysis that’s still the most widely cited source on the topic.[5] This echoes what we know about the whole idea of “time on task,” which turns out to have a much less significant relationship to learning outcomes when those outcomes are intellectually ambitious. More time reliably leads to higher achievement mostly when the task involves very little thinking."
• Updates on Superintendent Carol Johnson: plans for a shake-up of top staff and the question of mercy and justice
• The Sunday dialogue on standardized testing and the Common Core came through and it was pretty much unanimous: "Let us re-evaluate the principles our education system currently embraces and focus again on the skills and values that have made our society profoundly successful."
• Mayor Bloomberg's "turnaround" process isn't working.
• And h/t to Diane Ravitch for passing on this flash mob from Italy:

Round-up of summer work

I know that several of you have wondered just what is going on at your neighborhood school as you're out and about this summer; as I've gotten several questions, I thought a post was in order.

• If you've been by West Tatnuck and Worcester Arts Magnet, you may have noticed dumpsters. They are getting entirely new lighting, under an energy conservation deal National Grid has offered. We're only paying a fraction of the cost, and the schools will have new lights
• New boilers are going in this summer at Union Hill, Worcester Arts Magnet, Quinsigamond, Claremont/Woodland, Roosevelt, and Norrback. Among other things, this rids us of the last of the "born to fail" round of boilers/chillers at those 1990-era buildings.
• Solar panels are going on at Sullivan and at Worcester Tech; Tech is also getting a small wind turbine.
• Attic insulation is going in at Quinsigamond, Union Hill (both buildings), Goddard, Harlow Street, Heard Street, Midland Street, and UPCS.
• Goddard's upstairs bathrooms are being renovated.
• Tatnuck Magnet is getting some replacement flooring and having the bathrooms renovated.
• Window sealing, spot light fixture replacement, fresh air intake cleaning and balancing, and surface cleaning is happening this summer at Belmont Street, Burncoat Middle, Burncoat High, Chandler Elementary, Chandler Magnet, Clark Street, Columbus Park, Doherty, Elm Park, Flagg Street, Forest Grove, Greendale, Harlow Street, May Street, McGrath, Mill Swan, Nelson Place, New Citizens, Rice Square, South, Thorndyke, Tatnuck Magnet, Union Hill (new building), Wawecus, West Tatnuck, Worcester Arts Magnet, Worcester East Middle. Exceptions: West Tatnuck and Worcester Arts (as listed above) are getting entirely new lights; May Street, Chandler Magnet, and New Citizens are getting new windows next summer, and so are not having their windows sealed. 
• There's a huge amount of smaller work (you can find it listed here under the ESCo projects) in the way of water conservation, sensors and timers, building infiltration work (getting rid of the drafts, you might say), and so forth.

Summer Band Concert

The Worcester Public Schools Summer Band is having a concert tomorrow night at 6:30 at the Institute Park Band Shell! Please join us!

Finance and Operations: summer staffing

high school students being able to change their schedules during the summertime
We've got a chart of what the staffing was and how many kids came in
Foley comments that the staffing at Doherty seems much lower
being checked

three years of calendars

approved through 2015
Make your vacation plans now!

three years of calendars

approved through 2015
Make your vacation plans now!

The Schoolboy

The Schoolboy by William Blake I love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the skylark sings with me: Oh, what sweet company! But to go to school in a summer morn, — O it drives all joy away; Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. Ah then at times I drooping sit, And spend many an anxious hour; Nor in my book can I take delight, Nor sit in learning's bower, Worn through with the dreary shower. How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring? O father and mother, if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away; And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and care's dismay, — How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear? "The Schoolboy" by William Blake, from Songs of Experience, 1794. Public domain. This came through via The Writer's Almanac today, and I thought it appropriate.