WPS in Brief: January 2024
WPS in Brief: January 2024
One year anniversary! Multilingual Learners, OSV field trips, State cuts to current school year budget, and yes, we are still talking about Roosevelt School traffic
Welcome to the 13th post of WPS in Brief. This month covers some key topics from the January school committee meetings and some other local news. I always appreciate feedback and questions: wpsinbrief@substack.com
In lieu of tips this month, I hope you’ll consider a donation to my 40th birthday fundraiser for the Chandler Magnet/La Familia PTO to support a volunteer-run, bilingual school library. I’m $820 away from my $4,000 goal–will you consider donating $40 in honor of my 40th?
Ok, let’s dive in:
One year anniversary and some news about the future.
Here we are, exactly one full year since I published my first post of WPS in Brief. When I started this newsletter there were no journalists covering school committee meetings and the offices of Communications and Family and Community Engagement did not exist. From my perspective, there are more eyes on public meetings, families and students feel more engaged, and communication from the district has improved 10 fold. The landscape has changed drastically in a year. We’re moving in the right direction, but the work continues.
As I approached this one year anniversary, I’ve been thinking about the role of WPS in Brief in this new landscape. From the feedback I’ve received from you all, I know there’s a place for this newsletter in breaking down the bureaucratic processes and sharing digestible, relevant information about the governance of our school district. I want to continue to offer an entry point for you to feel informed without feeling overwhelmed.
And so, I’m happy to share that starting in February, WPS in Brief will move over to Worcester Sucks and I Love It, joining Bill Shaner and Shaun Connolly to write about the city we love. Good, local journalism is essential to a healthy city. It leads to higher voter turnout and less political polarization. We don’t all have the same priorities, but in order to have productive conversations we need to be working with accurate information. In joining Worcester Sucks and I Love It, my hope is that even more people will be informed about the governance of our school district. Please support our work and consider a paid subscription to Worcester Sucks.
Report of the Superintendent: Multilingual Learners.
Assistant to the Superintendent, Dr. Marie Morse, and the new Director of Multilingual Education, Jessica Mandes, reported on the current state of multilingual learners, and gave information about the audit conducted by American Institute of Research (AIR). The gist is that English Learners are not faring well in our district, and while there are some strengths, there needs to be a more purposeful strategy. At the end of the presentation Superintendent Monárrez emphasized this, saying: “When you see data that shows single digit outcomes for multilingual youth, you should be outraged. You should not be okay with it. We can do so much better, our children can do so much better, and we have to be intentional about what we do…So if you walk away with nothing else from this presentation about what this third party told us, it told us that we had a lot of great activities, but it lacked that intentionality.” Next steps will be putting together a workgroup of stakeholders, prioritizing recommendations, and developing an implementation plan.
Old Sturbridge Village field trips.
Despite the extensive media coverage of a “boycott”, WPS third graders will be going to Old Sturbridge Village for field trips this spring. According to the Masslive article, the field trips will be partially funded by a state earmark and will have “exclusive access to field trips with exclusive Worcester-related programming.” So what happened to the boycott?
If we go back to the language of the April item it says: “to request the administration arrange for an alternative LEAP (field trip) in lieu of the current trip to Old Sturbridge Village; further, request that the Administration ensures that no Worcester Public Schools funds voluntarily are allocated to Old Sturbridge Village, Inc., or its affiliates.” So the item was a request to the administration (administration is generally referring to the Superintendent and her “cabinet”) to consider alternatives, and the only power the school committee has here is in the approval of WPS funds.
Some background: WPS LEAP field trips for grade 1-12 are funded directly through the Worcester Education Development Foundation (WEDF). WEDF is a 501(c)3 non-profit that offers a way for foundations/donors to donate money to support WPS when they cannot or do not want to donate directly to public schools. WEDF funds the field trips directly with the organizations, so field trip money from WEDF is not approved by the school committee like other donations or grants to the district are.
So it appears, perhaps because the role of philanthropy in schools is layered and complicated, that the administration has made a decision to continue field trips to OSV. There are still two school committee items around assessing field trips on the docket for the Teaching, Learning and Student Supports subcommittee, so the field trips conversation isn’t over.
Meeting Moment.
Brian Allen gives the 600th (kidding) update on the plans to alleviate Roosevelt School traffic issues.
$830,000 cut to the current school year budget.
As mentioned in my October post and in this month’s agenda previews, the state cut the school committee’s current budget by $830,000. This is mostly because the final state budget underfunded the charter school reimbursement by $688,455. To put it simply, the state is not meeting its financial obligation under the state statute and did not allocate the money due to WPS. As we have seen for years and years, Charter schools continue to be a financial drain on our district, while taxpayers have no say at all in their budget or governance. To make up for the deficit, the committee transferred savings from the paraprofessional salary line due to vacancies. Had there not been a surplus to draw from, it would have potentially meant cuts to programs or services.
Recommended Reads.
Understanding your neighborhood schools. The Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB) has come out with this wicked cool mapping tool showing the assignment zones for schools and data to go along with those zones. As I mentioned back in the September post, redistricting is most likely on the horizon for the elementary schools, and this tool offers helpful insights for us as a community as we have those conversations.
If you want to understand some of the political, and personal dynamics that played out at the January 18th meeting, Bill Shaner covers the deliberation between the school committee members on a bunch of items, with videos included. He also offers his analysis of the dynamics of the new committee.
Electric School buses are coming to Worcester
10-year-old Worcester student hopes he can turn passion for music into a career
WPS News this month hosted by Claremont students
Telegram coverage of the Jan 18th school committee meeting.
FY 25 Budget.
(aka the “fiscal year” that runs from June 2024-July 2025, so next school year)
It’s budget season, arguably the most important time to be paying attention to WPS. Some opportunities for giving input over the next few monthst:
February 1: The Superintendent provides a preliminary budget presentation to the School Committee.
February 27: WPS Budget Forum hosted by Worcester Equity Roundtable. On Zoom. Get free tickets here.
March 5: Budget Presentation to Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Committee
March 7: Budget Presentation to Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee.
March 13: Budget Presentation to Family and Community Engagement Roundtable.
March 27, 2024 (this date is subject to change.): Budget Presentation to Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Committee (CPPAC).
Upcoming Dates.
School Committee Meetings are February 1 and 15, 5:30 pm
Hopefully the Mayor will appoint chairs for Teaching, Learning and Student Success (TLSS) and Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) soon so the committee can get to work!The Mayor appointed the subcommittees:Finance, Operations & Governance (FOG): Chair Molly McCullough (district A), Vice Chair Dianna Biancheria (district C), Jermaine Johnson (district F) and Kathleen Roy (district C).
Teaching, Learning and Student Success (TLSS): Chair Alex Guaridiola (district D), Vice Chair Vanessa Alvarez (district B), Sue Coghlin Mailman (at-large) and Maureen Binienda (at-large)
Also.
If your kid was born in 2019 or in 2020 it’s time for kindergarten and preschool enrollment. The updated enrollment page is easy to navigate, informative, and clear. It’s like night and day compared to trying to enroll my oldest kid two years ago. Props to the Communications and the Family and Community Engagement offices, and all the people who worked hard to put the site together. It’s a thing of beauty.
See you next month over at Worcester Sucks. Please consider a paid subscription!