A primer to the 2024-25 Worcester School Committee

 as requested

As I regain today what Justice Louis Brandeis referred to "the most important office,"¹ I offer here in that capacity² a primer to the 2024-25 Worcester School Committee. 

This does not pretend to be exhaustive, but to, as the title notes, present some foundational elements on which to build.

A word on the position of vice chair on the Worcester School Committee

 With a new school committee will come the election of a vice chair, as the Worcester School Committee (unlike the Worcester City Council, for whom the vice chair is the mayoral candidate who came in second whilst also winning an at-large council seat) elects its own vice chair. 

This past term, of course, our vice chair has been Jermaine Johnson. While Jermaine did come in first in the at-large race in November of 2021, his election was a recognition of the historic nature of his taking the seat, as the first Black man to serve on the Worcester School Committee.

In the 2020-21 term, the vice chair was Jack Foley. Jack had also come in first in the election of 2019 (recall that Brian O'Connell's name was on the ballot, but he died in October), but Jack, we also knew, was retiring after his decades of service to the district, and thus was elected to the position.

In both cases, at least part of the consideration was also the power of the vice chair under most city school committees, and now under Worcester's, to work with the superintendent to set the agenda, and to ensure that the Committee fulfills its legal obligation to meet with the Student Advisory Council every other month. While this rule change only was implemented in this (2022-23) term, the revamping of the rules began in the 2020-21 term, to ensure that the Worcester School Committee was (finally) reforming itself in light of the critique of the Committee's lack of adherence to its business in the Comprehensive District Review of 2017 by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

Prior to these two terms, the tradition--though this was not in the rules--was for the position to rotate among members. As the position of vice chair prior to this term had no authority beyond chairing the meeting in the absence of the mayor, considerations such as the ability of the vice chair to work with all members and with the superintendent, the knowledge the vice chair had of the role, purview and authority of the school committee, and the temperament of the vice chair did not play into the decision.

The recent history of the position is as follows: 

2019: Molly McCullough
2018: Jack Foley (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2017)
2017: Dianna Biancheria
2016: Brian O'Connell (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2015)
2015: Dianna Biancheria 
2014: John Monfredo (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2013)
2013: Jack Foley
2012: me (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2011 by 11 votes)
2011: Brian O'Connell 
2010: Jack Foley (Brian O'Connell was the top vote getter in 2009)

September Board of Ed: opening comments

 The agenda for today is here; livestream will turn up over here.

They've started late due to traffic. Hearing the Orange Line is slow today, too.

Public comment: none (no one commenting)

Peyser: celebrating the Ch.766 50th anniversary tomorrow
Forerunner of the IDEA law, ADA law
STEM week is coming: October 17-21
next meeting is in STEM Week "so I am sure you will all dress accordingly and wear your party hats"
Craven: mother and sister of people with Down's Syndrome
father used to talk about Ch.766 all the time
shows book given to her parents when her sister was born
"adding color to the law" is really important
"these things didn't happen without groups of dedicated parents"
today's efforts on dyslexia are also championed for parents

Election of vice-chair
reworking of subcommittee, as well
Moriarty nominates Hills as vice chair; passes
Craven appoints Rouhanifard and Canavan to teacher diversity
Mohamed and Plankey to budget (along with Stewart)
wants to have a special committee on pandemic literacy recovery
Moriarty to chair, Rouhanifard, West, Lombos

Riley: most schools have been back for a month
"quiet opening, quiet is a good thing"
Staffing challenges
licensure flexibilities and ways of getting people into the field
"President said yesterday that the pandemic is over, and while we know that is technical true, we have to live with it"
have asked districts to have supplies on hand
MCAS scores coming next month: think a 3 to 5 year recovery
"as we predicted on this Board being out of school would have two major impacts" mental health (this is actually not supported by research) and academic
process prior to the pandemic: Boston coming in

Hills: be very clear about flexibilities that could and couldn't happen if there is a surge
remote schooling not counting towards 180 days
Riley: may have seen snow days are going to be snow days; kind of a side note but important to say
Moriarty: "lean harder into them" on receiverships
have to understand where they're at
Rouhanifard: underscore 3-5 year
"typically...where there's disregulation...there are academic challenges as well"
"high dosage tutoring" being used in some districts
"creating sustainable solutions"
Riley: "people are using SOA... to avoid a cliff effect"
Rouhanifard: West mentioned Medicaid funds (municipal districts don't get the Medicaid reimbursements, generally)
Canavan: speaking of program in Tennessee; scaling
"like the idea of a statewide strategy"
Plankey: some districts have clubs run by students for tutoring
conversations between students, helping social-emotional pieces
Riley: have chances to go look at things in the field

Lisa Graf: public comment
bullying: aggressor expanded to include member of school staff
hope will consider adversives used to control students as examples of bullying

School Committee meets tonight at 7

The Worcester School Committee meets at 7 pm tonight. You can find the agenda here.

• We have the staff of the Fanning Building coming in to be recognized for the Thanksgiving that they have every year for their students. 
• We're being asked to open negotiations with our secretaries.
• We've got an item coming over from the City Council on the South High pool (which last I checked, was actually still in the City Council Parks and Rec subcommittee, awaiting an administrative answer. Checking that again.)
• Finance and Operations is reporting out (but not TLSS, which was cancelled due to weather).
• Teacher appointments coming through.
• We have reports back from administration on class sizes at Union Hill; on community gardens; and on principal contracts and work days.
• We're changing the reimbursement per mile (as required).
• We've got several requests going into Administration, including a request for a report on the incidents last week near North High.
• And we vote for a new vice chair, as the School Committee traditionally has single year terms for vice chair.

7 pm (and no exec beforehand, so probably about on time!)

Election of the Vice Chair

Biancheria nominates Brian O'Connell for the year of 2011.
She thanks Mr. Foley for his service.
Motion carries.