a couple of notes on the Worcester preliminary election

 Hey, Worcester, we're having a preliminary election! You can even vote in it right now! 

First, please note that there is not a preliminary election for at-large School Committee, so while I appreciate the support, please don't think you're going in to vote for me this week or on September 5. Save that for November 7th!

There is a preliminary election in one of the new Worcester School Committee districts: District E. There are three candidates: 

• Nelly Medina
• John Patrick Reed
• Kathleen Roy
  

District E runs along much of the southern border of the city, like so:

Find that full map here. As always, you can find out what district you're in here.

You can view the one forum for this district (which Roy did not attend) here (Nicole's liveblog here); Medina and Reed were also at the Community Labor Forum earlier this month. 

Neal McNamara is posting responses to his questions; thus far he has ones from Reed and from Roy; [update] and now here's Medina.

There are also preliminary elections in City Council districts 1, 2, 4, and 5 (all but 3, in other words). 

I think it's probably good for people to know that one of the candidates in District 1 apparently doesn't support a new Burncoat High, one of the candidates in District 2 is combining the cost overrun of the ballpark with the pandemic-created (and at least partly state covered) increased cost of the new Doherty, and this whole mess is in support of one of the District 5 challengers.

Go vote! 

Back to school week in Worcester

Worcester Public School students in grades 1-12 go back to school on Monday (plan for buses and walkers, Worcester!). You find lots of useful information on the district's back to school page, which also includes a welcome video from the superintendent and all of us on the School Committee: 

Worcester will, for the EIGHTH year in a row, have universal free lunch and breakfast. You can find menus for schools here. 

Families, note that a lot of information is shared on WooEdu, which is the student and parent portal through Infinite Campus (search your app download for "Infinite Campus" and choose either the student or parent version). You'll need a claim code shared by your school.

Also I highly recommend downloading the VersaTrans My Stop app, which is the bus tracking app. You'll need student ID and birthdate for that. 

Preschoolers and kindergarteners go back on Thursday of this week. 

If and as you have questions, please be in touch! WELCOME BACK WORCESTER! 

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. 

bus meltdown in Jefferson County, KY

 As I'm always keeping an eye on school transportation across the country, the meltdown last Wednesday of transportation for Jefferson County Schools (that's Louisville) in Kentucky caught my eye. Some students didn't get picked up, some didn't get home until hours later, and needless to say, there was an uproar. The district quickly cancelled school for Thursday and Friday, to try to straighten things out, and they've now cancelled classes for Monday and Tuesday of this week. 

There's been some suggestion that the issue was caused by the district using AlphaRoute, which uses (this may sound familiar) algorithms developed by MIT: 

The program — developed by graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — uses artificial intelligence to generate the routes with the intent of reducing the number of routes. Last year, JCPS had 730 routes last year, and that was cut to 600 beginning this year. 

News in Kentucky has noted that the system struggled in Columbus, Ohio, as well. Columbus then switched to using Versatrans*

*which, for what it's worth, is what Worcester uses.

A few notes on this coming week's Worcester School Committee agenda

 You can find this Thursday's agenda here. 

A few things of note:

• You might remember that I put on the agenda and then held a proposal that we endorse the state's proposed health and PE standards. That tops the agenda this week; if you have a thought on that, please get in touch. And if you haven't weighed in yourself, please do! 
  
  
• The conversation we've already been having regarding the School Committee clerk position reporting to the Committee should be resolved to be posted this week. Please take a look at the position description draft  and see if you know anyone who would be great! 
  
  
• We have a public petition from a student, paralleled by an item from Member Kamara, requesting that we move to the observance of Indigenous Peoples' Day, effective this year. Kamara notes in the item that it would align with the city's Human Rights' calendar. 
  
  
• Dr. Monárrez is coming back to us with a draft of her goals for next year (no backup as yet).
  
  
• We're being asked to send a letter endorsing the request for a federal grant for electric school buses.
  
  
• I'm requesting that we acknowledge "the climate emergency in the priorities, policies, actions, and budgeting" of the district.
  
  
• Member McCullough is suggesting hiring 16+ aged students in the summer for custodial work and other seasonal work.
  
  
• We're being requested to raise the salaries for CNAs and LPNs.
  
  
• I compared a boatload of our policies to the state model policies, and that work is all here.
  
  
• And you can meet our new administrators via the presentation at the end. 

Summer meetings start at 4, remember, but we start with executive session for about an hour. Look for the public session around 5.

and in local news

Really pleased tonight to have joined a unanimous vote in favor of an MOU extending @drrmonarrez’s contract with the Worcester School Committee through June 2027.

Looking forward to continuing to go #FromHereAnywhereTogether!

— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) August 10, 2023

 

Just a reminder that, despite all the right-wing action around school board

 ...that largely isn't who is winning: 

...despite enormous advantages, most conservative education board candidates lost in Ohio—even in conservative districts. Similar school board election outcomes occurred in 2022 and 2023, from Wisconsin and Illinois to North Carolina and Texas.  

Why? Well, for one thing: 

 It turns out that most people don’t want someone else’s parents or some outside group telling their kids what they can read or what ideas they can consider. I sure as hell don’t. Like me, most trust teachers, schools, and librarians to do the job, and they vote accordingly.  

But this doesn't just happen: 

Leave no seats uncontested. Anywhere. 

Leave no incumbent extremists unchallenged. Anywhere.  

Take it as your responsibility to fill these seats wherever you are. And if the candidate taking on that run is not you, help them in any way you can. 

As Teresa Fedor, Tom Jackson, and Katie Hofmann prove, even in Republican areas, standing against censorship is not just a moral obligation. It’s a political winner.