Agenda Preview: September 4 School Committee Meeting
Mastery Based Grading (again), Back to School Report
For all the new folks here after the big splash caused by the campaign data piece on Sunday, a reminder that Worcester Sucks is a team effort, and Aislinn’s WPS In Brief holds it down on school reporting like no one else could. Please consider chipping in to help us provide the local news the city deserves and desperately needs.
Also today is (preliminary) election day—go vote! Guides to: Council race, School Committee District E race. We’ll have results up as they come in and I’ll be streaming with the WCT3k crew tonight on Twitch. Kicking off 8 p.m. —Bill
Hope you all survived the first week of school! A bittersweet one for me, with my youngest starting kindergarten. He skipped up those bus steps on Thursday and never looked back. A sincere thanks to all the bus drivers, educators, support staff and people behind the scenes who get our kids to school, teach them, feed them, keep them safe, and get them home at the end of the day. You are the heart of our community and I am grateful to you all.
Here’s my preview:
September 4 School Committee Meeting.
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for September 4 at 5:30 p.m. There is no executive session. See the full agenda. You can watch it via zoom or YouTube Live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.
Updated Grading Policy.
An item on the new mastery based grading policy was held from the August 14 meeting (see my August Brief for a recap), and now the administration has drafted a proposed policy for the committee to vote on. Key aspects of the policy include:
a minimum assignment grade: students will get a nonmastery grade of 40 for “incomplete or incorrect work; students may revise/resubmit within two (2) weeks.” or did-not-attempt grade of 0 “if the student has not been present, did not complete work and the absence is unexcused.”
Assignments are divided up into major, minor, and practice/engagement with certain weight percentages and “revision window” timelines to allow students to revise their work.
The passing grade minimum will be changed to 60 (currently passing is 65 or higher).
Because this item was held, it will be voted on before public comment. Although, Mayor Petty has been known in the past to suspend the rules and allow people to speak if he knows they are there for an item. But you can’t count on it. If you want to share your thoughts on this item, your best bet is to email the school committee members ahead of time.
Report of the Superintendent.
At most school committee meetings there is a report on a specific topic, called the Report of the Superintendent, although more often than not the Superintendent isn’t the one actually giving the presentation. (Here’s the proposed topic schedule for the 25-26 school year.) This meeting’s report is on the start of the school year, and based on the backup, will provide an overview of some organizational processes, a report on facilities, and an update on preliminary student enrollment.
An enrollment slide from the presentation (above) indicates that initial overall enrollment is higher than last year, but initial kindergarten enrollment is the lowest since the fall of 2020. But fear not, because that decrease had been predicted by the budget office with incredible accuracy—the exact number of 1,810 to be precise. The district uses 80% of a given year’s birth rate in Worcester to predict how many kindergartners there will be, see chart below from the FY 2024 budget presentation.
Why am I telling you all this? Worcester receives funding from the state based on how many students are enrolled on October 1 of the previous school year. Being able to accurately predict enrollment helps the district plan strategically for future budgets. Financial oversight and budgeting is one of the most important responsibilities of our elected school committee members.
Bit and Bobs.
Other items on the agenda:
The city is transferring some land to the jurisdiction of WPS off of Northeast Cutoff.
A proposal from Mayor Joe Petty to cancel the November 6 school committee meeting (this would leave just three post-election school committee meetings before a new committee is sworn in).
An item to approve meal prices for the 2025-2026 school year.
There’s four items from Kathi Roy (district E), which is the most I have ever seen from her. More often than not she has no items on the agenda. Topics include anti-bullying, physical education, and reviewing the process for honoring students with outstanding academic achievement.
Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com