Ep. 29, Last Night @ School Committee: 4/7 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. This meeting began with the Superintendent's report on returning to school, including the plan to return many students in k-8 to 5 days a week of in person learning beginning April 26th. The Superintendent also announced a major reorganization of her leadership team. The final presentation provided an overview of a policy regarding attendance and course completion and discussion about chronic absenteeism. Notably there was a concerning conversation about the lack of consistency in teaching and learning between and within schools in BPS.

There were two votes removed from the agenda on the day of the meeting; school committee goals and guardrails, and using masscore for the district’s graduation policy. Public comment featured 16 speakers, nearly all of whom advocated for suspending this year’s MCAS exam. The Biden administration has already granted one waiver to a school district to postpone their standardized testing.

We are left with the following questions:

• We didn’t hear a summer school update. How many openings are there? Are they in person or virtual? How many students have already signed up for a summer program?
• What is the update on teacher and school leader hiring to ensure an effective opening in September?
• How is the district thinking about using the federal stimulus funding?
• School assignments have been released for most students. What are the enrollment numbers for next year?
• With pending litigation, when will assignments go out for 7th and 9th grade students and exam school applicants?
• Which assessments will the district use for the end of year for both the social emotional needs and academic needs of our students?

Ways to Engage and Resources

• Boston’s City Council approves the school department’s budget that was voted on last night. It is the biggest part of the city budget. Make sure that they know what you think about the budget and where you have questions or would like to see changes. Advocate for a clear strategy on how the influx of recovery money will be spent for long term positive change for BPS.
• Attend an exam school task force committee meeting on Tuesday nights from 5-7pm
• Here is a recent article on the Biden Administration rejecting requests from states to cancel standardized testing
• Composite Superintendent’s School Year 2019-2020 Performance Evaluation
• Operational Readiness for the Return to 5 day In-person Learning on April 26
• Revised Attendance Policy and Procedures SY21-22
• Op-Ed from Superintendent Cassellius in The Boston Globe
• 2021-2022 Boston Public Schools calendar

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices