School Committee Agenda Preview: February 1
reconsideration, FY25 budget, and discipline
Just a reminder that starting in February you’ll find WPS in Brief over at Worcester Sucks and I Love it. This is my last agenda preview here.
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 1. Executive session starts at 5pm and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 6pm, but actual start time depends on if there’s executive session and how long it takes. The full agenda is here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live.
Here’s a selected preview of the agenda:
Preliminary Budget Updates. There will be a report of the Superintendent on the FY25 budget (covers July 2024- June 2025) presented by Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen. This will give us the first glimpse of a budget year that will probably require some hard decisions. Preliminary estimates show that the general fund baseline budget for the 2024-2025 school year will have a $10.7 million increase. The estimated budget cost increase (i.e. salaries, health insurance, retirement etc.) is $32.8 million. So we’re looking at a gap of $22.1 million. Here’s the presentation.
Reconsideration on graduation ceremony participation policy.
Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) filed for “reconsideration” on a policy item that allows students to walk at graduation if they are two credits short. The item passed 8-1 at the January 18th meeting, with Binienda the lone no vote.
Reconsideration can be filed within 48 business hours of a vote and according to the school committee rules, a reason needs to be supplied by the requesting member. Here are Binienda’s reasons (provided in the agenda backup):
As part of the January 18th meeting discussion about the policy, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Marie Morse—who has worked in WPS since 1988— explained, “our group, the executive directors, myself, polled the high school principals…and the high school principals agreed.” It appears through the above email that Binienda is implying that Dr. Morse mislead the committee and believes that “the correct information needs to be shared with the committee.” It’s not exactly clear what that “correct information” is.
For more context I asked WPS if they had an idea of how many students this new policy would apply to, and spokesman Dan O’Brien told me that there were six students who participated in the summer graduation ceremony last year. That’s just six students who did not have enough credits to graduate with their class, but had enough by the end of the summer. We’re talking a small handful of students here.
When this proposed policy was first discussed at the Governance subcommittee meeting, the administration wrote that there was no consistency between the schools and there was a need for district-wide guidelines. As Laura Clancey, previous school committee member who originally brought the item, said in her comments during the subcommittee discussion: “Graduation is a staple in a lot of our student’s lives and high school graduation sometimes is the only graduation that they will receive…So I think this will make a huge impact on students.”
In her comments against the policy Binienda said, “There’s rules in life you have to follow in order to achieve things.” I get the ‘rules are rules’ argument, although it did not sway any of her colleagues. I do want to note, though, that it’s an interesting one coming from someone who has already ignored school committee rules; as was the case when she voted for herself for vice chair, despite being ineligible.
Items on Discipline.
Member Kathi Roy (district E) requests a report on the status of the “Turn it Around Drug Program”
Member Dianna Biancheria (district C) requests an update on the “Safety Centers” for elementary and secondary.
Member Binienda requests a report on the “number of hearings for discipline policy violations and number of students placed in alternative settings.”
Quinsigamond Elementary Traffic. Member Roy requests the administration work with the WPD traffic division to come up with a plan to relieve congestion at Quinsigamond Elementary during drop-off and pick-up.
Worcester East Middle. There is a public petition from ex-school committee member Jermoh Kamara to redesign Worcester East Middle into an innovation STEAM school that would include project-based learning. It was on last meeting’s agenda but was held.
See you next month over at Worcester Sucks and I Love it. Please subscribe and support our work. Have a great week!