Evaluation of the Commissioner

Vice Chair Morton (presenting for the evaluation subcommittee)

Evaluation of Commissioner in his second year

looked at agreed upon goals and objectives

looked at:

• student growth and achievement; 
• management of DESE; 
• external relations; 
• relationship with Board

interviewed those in and outside the Department

compare notes in consistency in feedback from stakeholders

rated 4.5 out of 5 overall

student growth/achievement

improvement of IEP, teacher diversity, acceleration academies

"see great promise in the MOU agreement with the Boston Public Schools"

4.2 out of 5

Management: 

out of box visionary thinking; impressive leadership team

continued to engagement outside of DESE to promote overall goals

and that's when the livestream died...it's "off air"

Proposed adoption of permanent alteration of regulatory deadlines and delegation of authority

Backup is here

would expire unless it is extended today, but expires when state of emergency expires

No discussion 

adopted

plus delegation of authority (for the summer, essentially)

passes, after Member Matt Hills asks (in essence) couldn't/shouldn't we meet in any case?
The response is: they might! 

Student Advisory Council end of year report

Matthew Tibbitts, student rep
60 MA public high schools; every county save Dukes and Nantucket
college and career readiness; how to direct students to resources that already exist
61% of students haven't heard of DESE
those that had and went to website found it difficult to navigate
the few who could find their resources found them useful
Legislative advisory: lobbying on the EMPOWER and SOA
worked on civics education framework
civics engagement
Equity in race and economics: 92% of teachers are white/ lopsided with demographics of students
ensuring we have teachers that can teach students that look like them
supporting teachers of color
Global outreach: MA languages
shifting narrative in language acquisition
advocated for world language and ELL to be single program

State education budget update

Bill Bell
last day in fiscal year '20

obviously big question is what next year will look like

$5.25B spending authority signed last week: continuing budget

continue to run programs at level funded maintenance level

DoR: guidance sent out to communities that initial Ch. 70 payments based on FY20

"what you received in your payments last July is what a community could expect to receive starting tomorrow"

charter school and school choice instead based on June 2020

"think the big thing we're hearing on [FY21] is everyone needs to have a better idea of where we'll be on FY21"

includes income taxes due in 16 days, "as well as any further revenue support from federal government"

ESSER grant: $214M: $194M grants to districts based on Title I

$20M for DESE to fill gaps

in process of additional sources of funding: $200 plus million school focused COVID-19 relief fund

allocated on per-student basis of $225/pupil from foundation enrollment in House 2

Includes charter schools

Craven: broadband is another issue on the technology issue

Bell: Department has been working on

Moriarty, also bring in Department of Housing

Notes on remote learning guidance with presentation

final guidance on reopening won't come out until July
guidance on graduation, on summer school, issuance of P-EBT cards

plan for in-person learning "given the medical parameters we've been given"
"this is different guidance than we typically have"
"we actually had to bring in the experts in the medical field"
"numerous physicians"
guidance "had to be first ground on the health and safety of our students and staff"
"what it looks like to get back to school"
don't know trajectory of virus nor funding from Beacon Hill "so it's prudent to plan for all contingencies"
all?

Notes from the June remote meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Agenda is here; livestream account here

Craven would like to continue the Zoom capacity as people are able to testify
We also appear to have a new labor representative, though the agenda isn't updated to reflect that

Darlene Lombos, it appears 
Also bidding goodbye to Matt Tibbitts of Ludlow, the student rep

Doherty building committee votes on Preferred Schematic Design

The meeting is on the Esther Howland Chamber. You can call 415-655-0001 (Access Code: 735751404) to participate.
The PowerPoint is here. The actual report, which crashed my laptop, is here.
A thing that it seems as though we should be talking about is this:

Construction: $238,910,676
Total project budget: $293,384,178
Estimated MSBA grant: 47%