WPS in Brief: November 2023
WPS in Brief: November 2023
strategic plan draft, safety audit results, Q-teams, Burncoat bathrooms, another naming, and chapter 74 programs
Welcome to the 11th issue of WPS in Brief. This month covers key topics from two school committee meetings and three standing committee meetings.
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Let’s get to it:
Strategic Plan Draft.
A draft of the strategic plan for 2023-2028 was presented to the Governance subcommittee. The plan envisions what WPS will be by the end of the 2027-2028 school year. Just for context, that’s when kids born in 2023 will be finishing their pre-k year and current fifth graders will be completing their first year of high school.
In the plan there are six key priorities, with each key priority having two to four aims, and each aim having one or two goals with performance indicators. In total there are 18 aims and 30 goals—though some are intentionally overlapping in more than one key priority. Here’s a sampling of some of the goals:
By the end of the 2027-2028 school year
schools will implement the WPS instructional framework to ensure that historically underserved students feel connected to the learning environment
increase readiness at targeted grade levels
all schools will implement the WPS Vision of a Learner
schools in the district will improve two-way communication to help families understand expectations, track student progress, and where and how to seek support for their children
schools will implement a restorative practice model to ensure that school communities grow and thrive
increase annual retention of staff from 80% to 85%
schools will implement a comprehensive evidence-based K-12 counseling model
Increase spending on operations and maintenance to the foundation budget level as supported by state and local funding
develop a 5-year capital plan using cost analysis of current building operations to prioritize projects
In addition to the five-year goals, there will be annual implementation goals in the district operational plan. Because of the transition to a new superintendent, the strategic plan process was a little delayed, so we are already halfway through the first year of the five-year plan. The draft plan will go to the full committee on December 7 for feedback and then the final draft will be presented on December 21. Now is the time to give your input! Email school committee members or consider speaking at public comment.
Safety Audit.
The school safety audit was finally presented to the school committee, and the consultant that conducted the audit said that a lot of the issues they saw were common in other school districts similar to Worcester, especially when it comes to the age of buildings and deferred maintenance. There was a safety assessment done in 2015, but that was only in 15 schools and it appears that many of the issues were not fixed. So this is the first comprehensive assessment done in a long, long time.
One thing that did stand out to the consultant team was the antiquated door-locking hardware (both external and internal). This is one of the concerns raised frequently in the open responses from community members who filled out the safety survey. In that survey 58% of respondents felt very safe or somewhat safe in their building and 37% indicated that access to the building was not restrictive enough.
Here are the areas of improvement:
Areas of strength and where the district is making progress:
The administration explained that they made a school-by-school critical improvement dashboard from the audit report and are continuously adding items based on observation and conversations with school leaders. This dashboard will help make sure that safety issues get prioritized for maintenance support. They also created a safety drill dashboard to monitor that schools are conducting the necessary drills (fire, medical, bus, standard response) and mentioned that they would like to move to an electronic visitor check-in log. The school committee voted to front load money in the FY24 (2023-2024) budget so that the district has funding to implement the recommendations from the audit.
Quadrant Teams.
In a Superintendent’s report the administration described the Quadrant Support Team (known as a Q-team) model that they rolled out at the start of the school year. Q-teams are organized by district quadrants and are a comprehensive group of skilled individuals from multiple departments whose goal is to provide efficient and consistent support to students and schools. The cross-department Q-team members rotate through the schools in their quadrant, and provide coaching, modeling, mentoring and guidance. The goal is to work with schools to create systems and structures that meet the needs of all students and to solidify WPS as a cohesive school system. At the end of the presentation there were almost 30 minutes of positive testimonials from Q-team members and school teachers about how the model saves time, improves communication and helps them feel supported. The majority of people on the Q-teams were already working in the district, so there is minimal fiscal impact on implementing this model.
Meeting Moment to Watch.
Burncoat Middle School students petitioned the school committee to reopen and revitalize their school bathrooms with a fun and thoughtful video. Every middle school in Worcester has two bathrooms per gender, except Burncoat, which only has one for 700 students. The other two non-working bathrooms are currently being used for storage. The petition was referred to finance and operations.
And while we’re talking about Burncoat-and unfortunately it probably won’t help Burncoat Middle- we should hear shortly about the status of the statement of interest to replace Burncoat High School through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Even if the Burncoat project is accepted today, it could be 2030 before it’s ready. That’s when this year’s second graders will be entering the 9th grade. (Doherty was accepted into the MSBA pipeline in 2017 and will finally be open next fall, seven years later.)
Chapter 74 Programs (Vocational Programs) at the Comprehensive High Schools.
The Teaching, Learning and Student support standing committee discussed an item on Chapter 74 programs at the comprehensive high schools. These are vocational programs as described in Massachusetts Law Chapter 74, hence the name, and districts apply to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for approval. Here’s a list of the programs in WPS. As you can see from the data below the enrolled students reflect the demographics of the applicant pool. This year is the first year that there will be an automated lottery rather than lotteries at individual schools, which should streamline the process.
Another naming.
The Committee approved naming the Union Hill basketball court after Assistant Superintendent Dr. Marie Morse. In terms of process, this one is confusing for me. In the last few months there have been three other naming suggestions that have come before the committee: naming the auditorium in the Durkin Administration building after retired school committee clerk Dr. Helen Friel, naming a shop at Worcester Tech after Gene Haas, and naming a program at the alternative school after retired educator Dr. Michael O’NeilI. In each case it was made clear that the process was to “specify a consideration period that allows for public comment, following which the Committee will deliberate and vote on the name.” Each of those namings were referred to the Governance standing committee and are still being considered. In this case, though, the Dr. Morse naming was immediately approved without a consideration period.
Recommended Reads.
Summaries of the two school committee meetings in the Telegram are here and here.
Channel 25 did an investigation into sexual abuse in public schools in Massachusetts.
Two WPS staff members were named Hometown Heroes by Worcester Magazine:
University Park Campus School Principal Kaitlin Kelley Snow
Burncoat Middle school teacher Samantha Smith.
Upcoming Dates.
All school committee meetings have virtual options with Spanish translation. See the school committee site for more information.
School Committee Meetings are December 7 and December 21, 6pm
Teaching, Learning and Student Supports is December 12, 5pm
Finance and Operations is December 19, 5:30pm
Governance and Employee Issues is December 20, 4pm
Also.
Tracy O’Connell Novick writes in her personal blog that the FY25 budget (the budget for the 2024-2025 school year) is not looking great, mostly due to a low inflation rate for the foundation budget, and because the state revenue has been below projections for a few months now. I know the budget can be boring and feel hard to understand, but my goal over the next few months is to break it down and help it be more accessible.
Thanks for reading. If you’d like to support my work you can send me a tip. Those of you who have sent tips along, thank you so much! I really appreciate it!
See you in December for the last two meetings of the current school committee term.