WPS in Brief: September 2023
WPS in Brief: September 2023
air conditioning, potential school boundary changes, Superintendent’s goals, new directors of special education and multilingual education, subsidized drivers ed, Roosevelt school traffic issue
Welcome to the September issue of WPS in Brief. This month covers key topics from two school committee meetings and two standing committee meetings. I always appreciate feedback, questions and yes, tips! You can email me at wpsinbrief@substack.com.
Let’s get to it:
The superintendent reported on the start of the school year, and here are some things that came out of her report:
Air Conditioning and Facilities.
In the second week of school there were two early dismissals due to heat and the lack of air conditioning in 40 out of 50 school buildings. News outlets reported on the heat wave and on the districts that had to cancel school, but most did not report on why and what those districts have in common: a historical lack of resources. For decades the state and federal government underfunded districts that have a large majority of high needs students, including Worcester. In order to keep teachers in front of students and focus on programs, districts had to defer maintenance on buildings for many, many, many, years. That is the main reason the majority of WPS buildings are in the state they are in today. The Superintendent reiterated again that it is going to take many agencies (local, state, federal) working together to help WPS on facilities, and she committed to the goal that by the end of June 2026 the district will have developed and identified an “on-going revenue stream for the WPS facilities master plan.”
Potential School Boundary Changes.
Along with deferred maintenance, the other facilities struggle is having physical space for students as enrollment in Worcester continues to grow. According to the Superintendent, right before school started there were only 1,000 spaces left in total in the entire district. That can fill up quickly. As an example, Lincoln Street School and Chandler Street School lease space to help alleviate overcrowding, and Belmont Street is currently full and cannot take any more students. Dr. Monárrez also mentioned that when looking at facilities work they are paying attention to where housing developments are being built in the city and where we might have increases and over enrollment. She said, “down the line we are going to have to look at some potential boundary changes, that no one likes to do, but we’re probably going to have to do that. And If we continue down this route we are going to have to have additional schools.” School Committee Member Tracy O’Connell Novick reiterated this at the finance and operations standing committee meeting, saying that changing school boundary zones is a top ten topic that will “light a school committee meeting on fire,” but that it’s a conversation that is well overdue in Worcester.
Transportation Systems Improvement and Changing Walk Zones.
The superintendent advocated for a system improvement for next year to post bus routes earlier in August for students and families. It will definitely pose some challenges, but she has seen other districts do it and she thinks we can, too. This year, for most students, the routes were shared a week before the first day of school.
There was also an item to look at changing the transportation eligibility policy to lower the mileage cutoff. Currently, the cutoff for taking a bus for secondary students is 2 miles. For elementary students, there is no specific mileage cutoff, but the policy says: “The district may also offer transportation to students living closer than two miles to the school to which they are entitled to attend for reasons of safety at the superintendent's or their designee's discretion.”
Do note that preschoolers are the only population of WPS students who do not qualify for any transportation unless required by an IEP (individualized education plan). Legally, public schools in Massachusetts are only required to transport K-6 students who live two miles or more from school. The item was sent to the finance and operations standing committee because a change would have significant cost implications.
New Director of Special Education and new Director of Multilingual Education.
Given Worcester’s student demographics, and the fact that MCAS data released this week showed that English Learners and Student with Disabilities scored “significantly behind students overall,” WPS hired two very important roles this month: Jessica Mandes is the new Director of Multilingual Education, who comes to WPS from the Ham (my hometown!) And Dr. Tammy Murray is the new director of Special Education. Murray is a trained occupational therapist, worked in WPS for over 20 years, and most recently was the Director of Special Education at the Central Massachusetts Collaborative. Dr. Murray’s spouse, Tim Murray, is the Executive Director of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and recently signed a memo to the Massachusetts Attorney General urging her not to certify an MCAS ballot question brought forth by the Massachusetts Teacher Association.
Superintendent’s Goals.
The school committee approved the superintendent’s goals for the 2023-2024 school year. The process is similar to how other school administrators are evaluated, with a key difference that the superintendent is evaluated by a collection of people (the committee), and it’s done in public meetings. The process here is important, because when done well the goals serve as a roadmap and are a vital mechanism for accountability and communication throughout the rest of the school year between the superintendent, the school committee, and the public.
The two district goals are:
100% completion of highest priority emergency projects identified in the safety audit.
narrowing the gap between overall student and staff demographics by 10%.
While not explicit in the text of the goal, based on the data the superintendent presented that 28% of staff are BIPOC and 73% of students are BIPOC, the implied demographic for the goal is race.
The student goals include:
increasing grade 3 reading performance demonstrated by the STAR assessment
increasing the percentage of secondary (grades 7-12) students who self-report that they are engaged in school
You’ll note on the student goal slide that there is a section talking about increasing DESE accountability scores (which is mostly based on MCAS data-80% at the elementary level and 60% at the secondary level). Since the scores do not come out until September and the superintendent’s goals must be achieved by June 30, the committee voted to take those measures out of the superintendent’s goals, but do plan to evaluate them September 2024 when the data is released.
Meeting Moment to Watch
School Committee Member Jermaine Johnson shares his experience having just one black teacher during his time as a student in WPS, and then reflects that his daughter has never had one. He says, “Damn, thirty something years later, my daughter is now in 9th grade and she has not sat in front of a teacher that looks like her. Thirty something years later and we’re having this conversation.” These comments were in reference to the Superintendent's district goal to narrow the gap between overall student and staff demographics by 10%.
Subsidized Driver’s Ed.
Through grant funding, there will be an opportunity for 100 students to have subsidized driver’s education classes in the evenings starting in January 2024. The total cost will be $199, which is $100 for the class and $99 for the license test fee. Priority will go to students in vocational programs (also referred to as Chapter 74) so that they can have access to more internship, apprenticeship, co-op or other career opportunities.
Roosevelt School Traffic Issues.
In the quarterly facilities report during the finance and operations standing committee meeting, the facilities department gave an update about dozens of projects completed at schools over the summer, including the Elm Park gym floor and ADA (American Disabilities Act) upgrades at Worcester Arts Magnet. There was significant discussion on the continued Roosevelt School traffic issues, with the facilities department walking through all the potential solutions, none of which are perfect. If you want updates on that issue you can watch that section of the meeting here.
Recommended Reads.
The state updated health and sex education standards for the first time since 1999!
There was a forum for at-large school committee members last night. Here is video and notes
The school committee will look at cell phone policy and also at cultural dietary needs of students.
Upcoming Dates.
All school committee meetings have virtual options with Spanish translation, see the school committee site for more information.
School Committee Meetings are October 5 and October 19, 6pm
Governance and Employee Issues is October 3, 4:45pm
Teaching, Learning and Student Supports is October 10, 5pm
Finance and Operations is October 24, 5:30pm
Also.
The strategic planning process is underway with the first report scheduled for the Oct 3rd Governance and Employee Issues standing committee meeting. You can see updates here: https://worcesterschools.org/about/superintendent/strategic-plan-updates/
Thanks for reading. If you find this newsletter valuable please share with WPS parents, students, staff, your school’s PTO, neighbors and friends. If you’d like to support my work you can send me a tip. See you in October.