Ep. 49, Last Night @ School Committee: 2/15 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

Last night’s meeting was the first School Committee meeting since the announcement that Superintendent Brenda Cassellius will be resigning from her position. Cassellius, who began in July 2019, announced in a press conference with Mayor Michelle Wu that she will step down at the end of the school year, and Mayor Wu expressed her commitment to hiring a new superintendent by June.

The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which included updates on COVID-19 testing protocols and mask mandates in Boston, the status of acceleration academies for students during February vacation, and a preview of future announcements around summer programming. Committee members asked pointed questions that circled back to key outstanding issues from the last meeting, continuing to press for updated enrollment and graduation data.

The School Committee tabled a planned report on an agreement between the district and the Boston Teachers’ Union regarding the citywide vaccine mandate due to a court decision earlier in the day that prevented Mayor Wu from moving forward with the mandate.

Public comment included numerous teachers objecting to the vaccine mandate and the tentative union agreement. In addition, the public comment period featured a large coalition of students and community members of the P.A. Shaw Elementary School advocating for the promised expansion of the school, as well as from the Boston Day and Evening Academy (BDEA) asking the Superintendent to ensure the program would continue to have necessary space and resources.

The School Committee heard two reports last night, with the first one regarding extended pay for four in-district Horace Mann charter schools. The final report of the night discussed the impending search for the district’s next Superintendent. Glenn Koocher, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, outlined best practices for a search and detailed potential challenges in recruiting candidates. Chair Jeri Robinson outlined next steps for the process and discussed the coming release of a new RFP for a search consultant.

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