Agenda Preview: February 5 School Committee Meeting
Preliminary budget estimates, Screen time policy, Student data privacy.
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for February 5 at 5 p.m. There is an executive session, which starts at 5, and then the general meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m., but it depends on how long the executive session takes. See the full agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Youtube Live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.
Let’s dive in:
Preliminary Budget Estimates.
The report of the Superintendent is on the preliminary budget estimate. The good news is that we’re in better shape than a lot of other districts in Massachusetts, but the bad news is that the budget outlook for next year isn’t great. From the presentation slide deck it looks like the general budget will have an estimated increase of $27,804,976 and the estimated cost increases to maintain current operations is $27,900,000. So we’re looking at about a $100,000 deficit.
This is because enrollment is down 101 students from last school year, which means less money because the state funds education “per pupil.” Even more so than enrollment being down, the demographics of the student population have shifted, with 595 fewer low income students and 243 fewer multilingual learners. I do not know if that means Worcester is gentrifying, how students are classified as low income has changed, immigrants are leaving or being forced to leave, or more multilingual students are reaching proficiency. Regardless, this is a pretty big demographic shift.
Screen Time Policy.
In response to an item from Sue Mailman (at-large), the district is not recommending a screen time policy, but outlines some guidelines. If you have elementary students I highly recommend you read it. It offers more clarity around the 1:1 devices than I’ve seen in my 3.5 years of being a WPS parent, and it’s helpful to understand what is expected in terms of device use, screen time, and time on learning.
Other Items:
An item supporting legislation changes to the Massachusetts School Building Administration (MSBA) program to allow schools to build indoor tracks in the hopes the district can build one at the new Burncoat.
An item to request changing the school calendar for the 2026-2027 school year to give two weeks off for “Christmas break.” This would add three days on to the school year, which if tacked on to the end would push the last day of school to June 22, 2027. (If they do that, pray we don’t get any snow days.)
A request for an enrollment report for the Hanover Program and Goddard Scholars program, including sending schools and demographics.
TLSS Subcommittee Meeting Rescheduled.
I have two petitions on the TLSS agenda around student data and privacy, which I wrote about in an op-ed in the Telegram last weekend (here’s a free link). Give it a read, and if you’re so moved, please email school committee members your thoughts or come speak at the meeting. Due to technical difficulties the meeting was rescheduled to Tuesday, February 2 at 5 p.m. at the Durkin Administration Building. Here’s the agenda.
That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com