Agenda Preview: January 8 School Committee Meeting
New vice chair, $1.8 million in budget allocations, Superintendent mid-cycle review.
Happy New Year! Hope your 2026 is off to a fine start and that you had a restful winter break.
The 2026-2028 school committee term has officially begun with the January 2 inauguration, as well as a quick meeting to vote on vice chair and to pick seat numbers. While it’s the same cast as last time, the seating changes will create a new meeting dynamic. More to come once the seating arrangement is confirmed.
Vice Chair.
At the January 2 meeting, Molly McCullough (district A) was elected vice chair in a 7-2 vote (Vanessa Alvarez and Sue Mailman voted for Mailman). McCullough is the second longest serving school committee member, after Dianna Biancheria.1 This is McCullough’s second time being vice chair (she was vice chair in 2019, although the vice chair position back then was not the same as it is now.) The main job of the vice chair is working with the clerk and the superintendent to assemble the school committee agenda, and to make sure the committee meets with the Student Advisory Council.
Jermaine Johnson had served as vice chair for the previous two terms, elected unanimously in 2022, and then in a 6-3 vote in 2024 (that year Bianchera, Binienda, and Roy all voted for Binienda). It is common for the vice chair position to rotate, and so the fact that Johnson held it for four years is a testament to his leadership. But this voting shift from a unanimous vote for a vice chair in 2022, to a split off of Biancheria, Binienda and Roy in 2024, and then a split off of Mailman and Alvarez in 2026, is emblematic of a more complicated school committee—one where allegiances are shifting and, perhaps for some, political futures are on the mind.
As I was thinking about this shift, it reminded me of a post by Tracy O’Connell Novick back in January of 2024, where she offered her reflections about the role and functions of a school committee. Novick wrote:
“[This Committee] needs members to know their rules, their policies, the district strategic plan, and ensure their business meetings (for that is what they are) focus on that work, and not on personal hobbyhorses, vendettas, or political pursuits…If members get off-focus, deciding to chase individual committee district interests (not an agenda item), settle old scores, get irked and not get over it, it’s ultimately the district that will suffer. When the district suffers, it’s the kids who bear the brunt of it. The public can (and, I’d argue, should, to go back to Brandeis) remind members of their job, but ultimately, it is up to them to do it.”
In rereading this in 2026, it’s very prescient. This past term, many of the warnings Novick lists did happen. My hope in the dawn of this new term is that school committee members might reflect on Novick’s words and refocus on the work (and maybe do some team building).2
Ok, onto the agenda preview.
January 8 School Committee Meeting
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for January 8 at 5:30 p.m. There is no executive session. See the full agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Youtube Live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. Always a good reminder that remote participation is a courtesy, and that the meeting will continue even if there are issues with the virtual broadcast. So if there’s something you really want to speak on or listen in on, in-person is always the most reliable bet.
Let’s dive in:
Current School Year Budget Changes.
The school committee votes on the yearly budget in June, before the final state budget comes out, and sometimes that means there can be mid-year changes. This year, the actual amount the city had to pay in charter school tuition and school choice tuition was higher than estimated, which leaves a $2 million gap. The city manager has allocated free cash, of which about $3.8 million will go to the general fund for the schools for the rest of the school year. This allows the district to shore up the $2 million gap without making cuts, and have an additional $1.7 million to allocate. Here is a list of how the district proposes to use the money, including a new secondary ESL curriculum, covering high school graduation costs, purchasing furniture for classrooms as well as allocating new positions (as outlined below.)
Proposed positions:
Classroom teacher for the new elementary wellness room (the district plans to reallocate a school adjustment counselor and a paraeducator position for this).
Sub-separate classroom teacher and BCBA positions
Eight special education paraprofessionals for the subseparate programs
Positions that were added at the start of the school year, but weren’t part of the original budget:
An assistant principal to Rice Square
Audiologist
Speech teacher
Two special education paraprofessionals at Roosevelt Elementary
The final decision of how the money is allocated is up to the school committee.
Report of the Superintendent.
This meeting’s report is the Superintendent’s mid-cycle review. It’s halfway through the fiscal year, so Superintendent Allen will present a progress update of his goals (for specifics see my original coverage of the goals back in September here.) Superintendents are required by the state to have three goals: one district goal, one student goal, and one professional goal. (You’ll see that Allen actually has three district goals.) Evaluating a Superintendent is (arguably) one of the most important responsibilities of a school committee.
New Curriculum Approval.
Up for approval is a new ESL curriculum for middle school and high school multilingual learners, called National Geographic Impact and Lift. In the proposal, the Multilingual Education Department says, “WPS’s lack of complete, high-quality ESL curricular materials has created inconsistency in instructional practice across ESL secondary classrooms, which is greatly affecting student performance. We currently have over 1,300 long-term English Learners at the secondary level, which includes students who have been designated as ELs for more than 5 years. Adopting a DESE-designated high-quality ESL curriculum is a key step in addressing this stagnation in students exiting from English Learner status.”
Nelson Place No Confidence Vote.
Right before winter break there was an article in the Telegram about Nelson Place educators taking a no-confidence vote in principal Mary Sealey. The Telegram reported, “In Verdier’s email, she encouraged union members to attend the School Committee meeting of Jan. 8, where the results of the no confidence vote are to be shared with the committee.” Back in May of 2023 the union held a no-confidence vote against the school committee, but the last time I could find a no-confidence vote on a principal was in 2017. There were actually two no-confidence votes within about two months of each other, the first was Yuisa Perez-Chionchio at Goddard (she was replaced by Karrie Allen, who is still the principal there), and the second was Margaret Doyle at Quinsigamond School (she was temporarily replaced by Marie Morse, who is now the Deputy Superintendent). At the time, the Telegram reported that then-Superintendent Maureen Binienda “didn’t believe it was necessary for the union to broadcast its no-confidence vote.”
Other Items.
Report from the district on school accountability.
A report on the difference between bullying, harassment, and conflict.
Approval of a lease of a parking lot on Chatham St. for $2,405 a month for the Fanning Building. The lease started in November.
Approval of a fairshare grant from the state to pay for the resurfacing of the gym floor at May St. School and resurfacing of the playgrounds at Worcester Dual Language Magnet School and Nelson Place.
Approval of a state grant for North High for a “program is designed to mitigate dropout and improve graduation rates.”
Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com
Biancheria has served since 2009, except for a break from 2021-2023, when she was not re-elected. McCullough was first elected in 2015, beating out incumbents Tracy Novick and Hilda Ramirez that year.
We’ll see if Mayor Petty’s choices for standing committee chairs reflect this. If done by experience, they should probably be Jermaine Johnson, Maureen Binienda, and Sue Mailman (typically the vice chair does not also chair a subcommittee, which is why I do not mention Molly McCullough). But if Petty makes choices by political allegiance, Binienda and Mailman will most definitely not be subcommittee chairs.