Last Night At School Committee Shah Family Foundation

Last night’s meeting featured the Superintendent’s Report and three reports, including reports on participating in the school choice program and the district’s facilities plan. The meeting began with a brief Superintendent’s Report. Members asked about the status of the district’s budget, which is currently being considered by the City Council. There have been four budget hearings so far, on topics including special education and school offerings, and City Councilors have continued to express concern.

The first report of the evening was an amendment to the charter memorandum of understanding for UP Academy Dorchester and Boston, slated for a vote at the next meeting. The second report addressed the Massachusetts School Choice Program for the 2024-25 school year. Annually, the School Committee decides whether to participate in this state program, and traditionally, the district has opted out. More than half of the districts in Massachusetts allow School Choice, meaning students from other districts can enroll in their schools and vice versa, while Boston and its surrounding communities do not (this map from 2017 shows interesting geographic trends across the state on school choice). Last night, the Superintendent and her team advocated against participation, citing several reasons but omitting many benefits of the program. School Committee members highlighted potential advantages like allowing families displaced by rising housing costs to remain within the district and increasing diversity in Greater Boston schools through a pilot initiative. Nevertheless, the Superintendent emphasized the program's perceived negative impacts.

The final report of the evening was an update on the district’s facilities planning. At the last meeting, the Superintendent announced that her team would come to the Committee on May 22nd with a list of recommendations for mergers, closures, and reconfigurations. Last night, the Superintendent’s team provided updates on current projects and gave historical context, noting that they would be investing in and creating thousands of high quality seats. However, the report did not include a long-term strategy nor any budget, enrollment projections, and timeline. School Committee members continued to point out the need for a long-term plan and strategy. The Superintendent will bring forward proposals at the next School Committee meeting.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are over 50,000 teacher vacancies in classrooms across the country, with certain parts of the country seeing large numbers. As the number of individuals enrolled in teacher prep programs has dropped off and more and more teachers are leaving the profession, schools are struggling to keep teachers in the classroom.

In today’s episode, Jill and Ross dive into the teaching shortage issue and how to keep teachers in the classroom with two experts: Dr. Tequilla Brownie and Dr. Carole Basile. Dr Tequilla Brownie is the CEO of TNTP, a national organization that works with schools and teachers across the country to advance high quality education for all students by ensuring an effective teacher in every classroom. Dr. Carole Basile is the Dean of the Arizona State Mary Lou Fulton Teachers’ College. Dr Basile is leading efforts at Arizona State focused on redesigning the education workforce and changing practices in teacher and leadership preparation. 

To learn more about Dr. Brownie’s work with TNTP and Dr. Basile’s work at ASU, check out the resources below.

Dr. Tequilla Brownie’s Bio

Dr. Carole Basile’s Bio

About ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

About TNTP

The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness

The Irreplaceables: Understanding The Real Retention Crisis in America’s Urban Schools

A Broken Pipeline: Teacher Preparation's Diversity Problem

One Million Teachers of Color (1MToC)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last night’s meeting was fairly light, with only one report. The meeting began with the Superintendent's Report, where she announced that her team would have an update on the district’s long-term facilities plan on May 22nd, including an initial list of closures, mergers, and reconfigurations. The Superintendent then went on to briefly discuss student assignment and demand data, where she noted the release of this past year’s assignment data that shows the number of families that chose a particular school and the number of families on a school’s waitlist. School Committee members highlighted the importance of this data in understanding what families want, and how it can guide the district’s decision making about school closures and mergers. The Superintendent also discussed exam schools, where she highlighted baseline data from this past admissions cycle.
The only report of the night was an update on summer learning. As the Superintendent’s team provided an update on the increase in the number of offerings and opportunities for students, School Committee members raised some concerns, including the difficulty for parents to sign up for summer school on the website. There were also questions about the impact of ESSER funding on summer programming and future funding, as well as the usage of pools across the city and whether students would actually be able to use them this summer.
Despite the light agenda, the Committee is gearing up for significant discussions in the coming weeks and months.
The next School Committee meeting will be held in-person or on Zoom at 6 pm on May 8th.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

According to the National Center for Bilingual Education, by 2030, over 40% of K-12 students in the US will be native language speakers of a language other than english. As this population continues to grow, education experts say that the needs of these students continue to go unmet, with schools struggling to help students learn English while also facilitating learning in their native language.  

In today’s episode of “Deep Dives," Jill and Ross are joined by two experts to explore this topic: Maria Brisk and Angélica Infante-Green. Professor Maria Brisk is a renowned expert in bilingual education and language development. Professor Brisk’s research and work have been instrumental in understanding how bilingual students acquire language and how educators can best support a student’s learning journey. Angélica Infante-Green is the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education for the State of Rhode Island. Commissioner Infante-Green has spent her career supporting English Language Learners by implementing nationally recognized programs and initiatives to support bilingual learning in New York and Rhode Island. 

If you’d like to learn more about Professor Brisk and Commissioner Infante-Green’s work, check out the resources below:

Commissioner Infante-Green’s Bio

Professor Brisk’s Bio

Professor Brisk’s Research

Rhode Island Blueprint for Multilingual Learners’ Success
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The agenda for last night's meeting appeared to be rather light and straightforward, but the meeting proved to be much different.
The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where the majority of the discussion centered around the exam school admissions process. The Superintendent announced that the district had released decisions to applicants at 4:30pm and applauded the BPS team for releasing the decision earlier than last year. However, this timing was not early enough, as many families were required to put down a deposit for private schools by 12 pm the same day. Given the focus on enrollment, it was surprising BPS could not move their notification a few hours earlier.
The sole agenda item that evening was the district's quarterly report on transformation schools, as required by the state department of education. This report, while echoing the troubling patterns noted in previous updates, prompted School Committee members to voice their concerns and frustrations with the district's approach to addressing chronically underperforming schools. Members debated the ongoing support for these failing schools and questioned the timing for decisive interventions, including potential closures. The discussion underscored a deeper concern among committee members: the lack of urgency of district leadership in improving outcomes for all students.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last night’s meeting concluded the district’s FY25 budget process, with a vote by the School Committee to approve the Superintendent’s budget proposal. Before the vote, the School Committee heard dozens of public testimony about three issues. There were about half a dozen public commenters speaking about funding cuts for librarians across the district, urging for the continuation of this funding. There were also more than a dozen families and staff from the Henderson Inclusion School community speaking about ongoing issues regarding safety and need for stable leadership. Lastly, we heard from staff members from the Dearborn STEM Academy speaking about foul odors that have gone unaddressed. Following public comment, the School Committee then heard a report about the renaming of the BCLA-McCormack school community to the Ruth Batson Academy.

The School Committee then held a discussion and vote on the Superintendent’s FY25 budget. For the past two months, the School Committee has held numerous discussions and budget hearings about the FY25 budget, which totals $1.52 billion. While the budget represents an increased contribution from the city, the end of federal relief money and declining enrollment has led to many schools receiving budget cuts. Multiple members expressed concerns about the budget and frustration that their questions about the budget remain unanswered, which have been highlighted over the past few weeks in policy briefs. This prompted Chair Robinson to request frequent updates about the implementation of the budget and its impacts moving forward. The Committee voted and approved the budget, with two members voting no.

The budget will now move on to the City Council, where the Mayor will look to get approval from the Council as part of the city’s budget.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices