Ep. 35, Last Night @ School Committee: 7/14 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 Boston School Committee meeting. The five-hour meeting began with the Superintendent providing an update on summer learning, the hiring of new positions in the district, and more.

The bulk of the meeting focused on the Superintendent’s proposal for a new Exam School entrance policy, which was different from the previous proposal presented to the School Committee at the last meeting. The new policy sets a weighted composite score consisting of a test score and grades to rank students via tiers based off of census tracts, with additional points going to students living in Boston Housing Authority housing, in the care of the Department of Children and Families, and experiencing homelessness, or to students who attend a school with 40% or more of students from economically disadvantaged families. Even as many during public comment offered their support for distributing 100% of seats via tiers, many opposed the policy and argued for using the previous admissions policy, while others offered their concern for approving the new policy given the lack of simulations running the new policy and no opportunity for the public to provide feedback.

Even with many of the members expressing confusion and wishing to review the policy further, the School Committee unanimously approved the proposal and agreed to revisit the policy at a later meeting in September.

The School Committee will meet again on August 4th at 5pm.

Ways to Engage and Resources:

• Email School Committee members feedback and questions about the Exam School admissions policy that was voted on last night
• Chair Jeri Robinson: [e-mail]
• Vice Chair Michael O’Neill: [e-mail]
• Dr. Hardin Coleman: [e-mail]
• Ernani DeAraujo: [e-mail]
• Quoc Tran: [e-mail]
• Meeting Presentations and Materials
• Exam Schools Admissions Policy Recommendation
• Horace Mann In-District Charter Renewal: Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School
• UP Academy Charter Amendments

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