Agenda Preview: July 8 FOG Subcommittee and July 10 School Committee Meeting
Budget implications, naming policy, wellness policy, my public petition on AI training and biometric data
The following piece is a succinct distillation of specific ways the “national” bleeds into the “local.” There’s the budget cuts from Trump’s DOE of course, but Aislinn has been out in front of another pressing issue in education: AI, and the attendant data harvesting that makes AI a business, building new enclosures around public education. It’s an extremely important debate and no local other outlet seems interested in having it. All’s to say, please consider supporting our work with a paid subscription! We run on a shoestring budget, every dollar counts.
Before we get into the agenda, I want to make sure you all saw that on July 1 the U.S. Department of Education told states that it would not deliver nearly $7 billion from seven K-12 education programs. For Worcester Public Schools those grants account for about $3.5 million of the expected revenue in the 2025/2026 budget recently approved by the school committee. For specifics of what that covers check out my instagram post. Also, the final state budget that Governor Healey signed underfunds the charter assessment and reimbursement, which means Worcester needs to cut $900,000. Superintendent Brian Allen wrote in his weekly update:
“The Administration will develop recommendations to reduce our budget, but we anticipate that no staff reductions will be necessary to balance the budget. We will also be in conversations with the City Manager to discuss if there is any likelihood of additional funds through “free cash” from the city later this year. The Administration will present the budget adjustments at the August or first September School Committee meeting.”
(Also of note in the Superintendent Updates is the musical chairs of elementary school principals and a chart showing classroom sizes by school and by grade for this past school year.)
July 8 Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) Meeting
There is a recently scheduled FOG meeting for Tuesday with just one item to review and approve “high school mastery-based grading practices” which “emphasizes understanding over task completion, encouraging deeper engagement and skill development.”
I’m wicked confused as to why this is going to FOG, because this is clearly a teaching and learning item. The school committee rules state that “The Standing Committee on Teaching, Learning and Student Success addresses topics, policies and practices related to curriculum, instruction, assessment, district and school-level performance and improvement, research and program evaluation, accountability planning, professional development, instructional materials, and student support services.” Your guess is as good as mine on this one.
July 10 School Committee Meeting
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for July 10 at 4 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.
Here’s my preview:
Report of the superintendent. There is no report of the superintendent for this meeting. Typically in July it’s the superintendent presenting about their goals for the year, but with a new superintendent that isn’t happening yet. There is an item from Molly McCullough (District A) asking for an update on progress made towards Dr. Monárrez’s goals from last year and to offer feedback to inform Superintendent Allen’s goals for this school year.
Public petitions. There are two public petitions from me. One is requesting an update to district policy to require explicit consent from parents/guardians when a third party service wants to use personal information collected from students to train or otherwise develop artificial intelligence technologies. The other is requesting an update to district policies to require explicit consent from parents/guardians before a third party service collects any data from students that could be a biometric identifier, such as audio recordings, photographs, and/or video.
In June I mentioned how I was concerned when I learned that the district had students using a third party service, Amira Learning, for reading tutoring and that Amira Learning retains audio recordings of students to train their AI model. I emailed my concern to school committee members, and the only school committee member that replied to my email was Sue Mailman (at-large). So, I decided to file these petitions. If you want to understand your rights as a parent/guardian around your child’s privacy and third party services (including asking that data collected from your child be deleted), check out my instagram post. If you support these items, please email school committee members or come speak at public comment!
Wellness Policy. Up for approval is a new wellness policy. In comments on the policy the district wrote “The updated language is in alignment with the current oversight directives and the WPS Roadmap to Wellness. The team utilized the WellSAT scoring card utilized by the DESE nutrition evaluators who visited our WPS district in 2023-24. WPS was provided with a DESE coach to help guide the WPS revisions.” The policy is 16 pages long and covers nutrition/school meals, physical activity and physical education, health education, mental health and emotional learning.
Facilities Naming Policy. Exactly a year after Member Molly McCullough (district A) requested a review of the naming policy and some clarity around the process, there is a new naming policy up for approval. The policy states that all namings would go through the Finance, Operations, and Governance subcommittee before being approved, and a naming committee “may” be put together. The policy also differentiates between a naming and a dedication.
As a watcher of school committee meetings, and as a parent whose children’s school went through a renaming process, I appreciate the procedure being laid out here. But as far as the policy goes it’s a step down from what is currently in place. I think the issue is not the naming policy per se; it’s the school committee’s inconsistent implementation of it. Some namings, like the naming of the La Familia Dual Language School and the naming on the basketball court at Union Hill, were approved at the first meeting in which the item was on the agenda, with no public deliberation period despite that being required. Others like the naming of the basketball court at Chandler Elementary and the athletic complex at South High were announced before having school committee approval. While another, the naming of the Worcester Dual Language Magnet School was weirdly put up to a public online vote. In the end it doesn’t matter what the policy is when a body doesn’t adhere to it, and it can feel that those with more political power are able to name things easily, while those without are not.
Naming the new athletic field at Doherty after firefighter Jason Menard. At the most recent FOG meeting the committee addressed an item from March 2024 about naming something at Doherty after fallen firefighter Lt. Jason Menard. Molly McCullough (district A) mentioned that there had been a proposal circulating in the community and on social media about naming the new athletic field after Menard. McCullough read a statement from Menard’s wife, who was unable to be at the meeting, in support of this idea. The couple met at Doherty, and Menard was a student athlete. The item is held in FOG for “a period of community input.”
Other Items:
A report on Star data showing the student growth percentile over the last four years. For context, the expectation is 40+ points, which English learners and students with disabilities are far below. (Just me over here screaming into the void that research shows that the best model to make English learners successful is high quality dual language programs. In fact, it’s the best model for all students regardless of background.)
A response on a request for Q teams rotating through quadrants on a weekly basis. As well as a chart documenting North Quadrant Q-team support over the last school year.
Grants/Donations up for approval.
UMass Chan Medical School is offering a donation of $28,236 to fund teacher mini-grants at north quadrant classrooms. You can see the funded projects here.
Mass Life Science Center is offering a grant for $439,688 for all district high schools to fund gene expression model kids, bioethics curricula,and professional development for teachers.
Boston Scientific Foundation is offering a grant for $30,000 for students at Norrback and Clark Street Schools to fund hands-on science activities presented by actual scientists.
The George F. and Sybil H. Fuller Foundation is offering a grant for $71,271.48 for University Park Campus School to support a variety of enrichment activities for students including Jumpstart programming, field trips and after school programming. This came through Clark University and the original grant was $100,000 awarded in 2024.
The Commonwealth Corporation is offering a grant for $399,996.05 to support unemployed and underemployed individuals to be trained as diesel technicians through the program at South High.
Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com