WPS in Brief: December 2023
WPS in Brief: December 2023
school food, opportunities for budget input, Superintendent’s mid-year review, a new Burncoat, final strategic plan, new committee rules, and other bits and bobs
Welcome to the 12th issue of WPS in Brief. This month covers 9 hours worth of standing committee and school committee meetings.
I always appreciate feedback, questions and tips. You can email me at wpsinbrief@substack.com. Please subscribe and share!
Let’s get to it:
Superintendent’s mid-year review.
It’s halfway through the academic year, so the Superintendent and members of the Cabinet presented a mid-year review on the Superintendent’s goals (for specifics see my original coverage of the goals back in September here.) Some mid-year highlights include:
elementary reading data from the Star assessment is showing “very promising growth” with the mid-year data already meeting what the end of year data was last school year. This is the first year the district is implementing the new elementary language arts curriculum CKLA.
the social emotional learning (SEL) assessment, Panorama, was administered to offer a “pulse check” on where students are around a positive, welcoming, and inclusive environment at their schools. Compared to last spring there were significant increases across all questions at the elementary level (4-6 grades) and the secondary level (7-12 grades).
this school year 23.7% of staff “identified themselves as being reflective of students that they serve.” Last year the number was 18% and the current number exceeds the target for improvement, which is 23.5%. It was not specified what demographic criteria was used to come up with these percentages.
Also worth noting that the Superintendent was named in the National School Public Relations Association “Top 25 Superintendents to Watch” for her communication initiatives and accessibility to the public.
School Food.
The finance and operations subcommittee discussed an item on aligning school nutrition with student cultural and dietary needs. The nutrition department has a plan to roll out some changes, but a huge challenge is staffing. There are currently 100 unfilled positions in nutrition–or one third of the staff they need. As many folks pointed out at the meeting, it’s incredible that they have been able to maintain normal operations. It was also announced that Ashley Hays, a long time executive chef who beat Bobby Flay, moved from her position in the administration and is now the Assistant Director of Nutrition. She will be working on culinary innovation.
School Year 2024-2025 Budget Input.
Budget season is here and arguably the most important time to be paying attention to WPS. Above is the updated budget calendar leading up to the school committee budget meetings in June. In red I’ve highlighted places for stakeholders and the public to offer input. Many of these entry points for feedback are new. Note that individual school resource allocation requests must be in by January 30. This means that at the January school site council meetings all principals should be reading over their school-based budget proposal for site council review. This is a great opportunity to learn what your school is prioritizing and offer input at the school level. There are no site council meetings currently listed on the public WPS Calendar, but you can always email your school principal to find out when the January site council meeting will be held.
MSBA/Burncoat.
Exciting news that Burncoat Senior High School was finally accepted into the MSBA “pipeline.” The school has been submitted by the district over a dozen times since 2008. That's since this year's senior class was three years old. On Talk of the Commonwealth the Superintendent spoke about creating facilities for the exceptional performing arts magnet and the potential for vocational tech in the arts such as sound and lighting and set design. She also emphasized how stakeholder input, including staff, community partners, neighbors, and students will be vital to the process. Estimates are that a new building would open in 2030/2031.
Final Strategic Plan.
The 2023-2028 Strategic Plan was approved by the school committee. Worth a read in full if you can. Or read my overview from last month’s newsletter here.
New school committee rules and new subcommittees.
Because next term will be a new school committee structure, the rules and the subcommittees needed to change (rules like 5 members make a quorum, versus the 4 that was needed before). Policy changes need to pass by a 2/3 majority, so after much back and forth, a new version of the rules were finally approved by the Committee. Some of the changes include (to be clear this is my paraphrasing. Here are the new rules):
that the Vice Chair of the school committee, as well as the chairs of any subcommittees, must have attended the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Charting the Course program prior to being eligible. State law says the orientation must be completed by all members within one year after initial election.
School committee members should notify the Superintendent or Executive Directors of visits to individual schools unless acting in their capacity as parent/guardian or vendor working with the school.
The Chair of the School Committee (aka the Mayor) can approve an item after the deadline for the agenda, but before the 48 hours required by open meeting law, if the Chair determines that an item is time sensitive. Right now the deadline to get items on an agenda is the Wednesday a week before the next school committee meeting. The Vice Chair is the one, in concert with the superintendent, who oversees what goes on the agenda.
Starting in January the four subcommittees will merge into two and consist of four school committee members each. One committee will be Finance, Operations and Governance and the other will be Teaching, Learning and Student Success.
Bits and bobs.
The new contract for school bus drivers/monitors was finally approved and covers from July 1, 2023 through June 2026.
The controversial Gene Haus naming was held in subcommittee as requested by the administration. They did not say why.
When students return from break menstrual products will be available outside all the bathrooms at secondary schools. They are still working on a plan for elementary schools.
School committee accepted a grant that will help the district train teachers and educate families on the new IEP form rolling out for the fall of 2024. This is the first time the form has been updated in 20 years.
An item to change the transportation eligibility policy to lower the mileage cutoff for secondary students was filed due to not having sufficient bus drivers to expand it.
Next school committee term.
This meeting closes out the current school committee term, one that Mayor Petty called “one of the best school committees I have worked with.” I agree that this committee was high functioning, understood their purview, and got a lot of work done. As we move into the next term, it’s important for us to remember that the school committee has certain functions and responsibilities, including finance/budget, education policy and goals, curriculum, advocacy, and collective bargaining, to name a few. These are the things we need the school committee to focus on and be good at getting done. Specifically, I think the work that will be the most critical over the next two year term is:
supporting the superintendent’s implementation of the committee’s five year strategic plan
stewarding Student Opportunity Act money
school culture and climate and student mental health
facilities/building work
educator support and retention, especially those in special education
Advocating at the state level
If you’re looking for ways to get involved in WPS check out my post here.
Upcoming Dates:
All school committee meetings have virtual options with Spanish translation, see the school committee site for more information.
Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council (CPPAC), January 24, 6:00PM at TBA. Guest Speaker is Chief Academic Support Officer Annie Arzaloza.
School Committee Meetings are January 4 and 18, 5;30pm
Standing committee meetings have not been posted yet for January.
Also.
You can subscribe to agenda previews by going to your account page and toggling it on.
Thanks for reading and for sharing. See you in the new year!