School Committee Preview, Feb. 15
Community engagement report, classroom locks, S.A.F.E. working group
Hey everyone! Bill here with a quick editor’s note. What you’re reading is the first post of the WPS In Brief column here on the Worcester Sucks platform. Aislinn’s work will be spread between two sections: a monthly WPS In Brief column, which will go out to all subscribers, and shorter School Committee agenda previews, like this, which go out to those who opt to have them. Do so below!
Thank you! Have a nice rest of your snow day.
-Bill
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 15. Executive session starts at 5pm and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30pm. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. The full agenda is here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.
Here’s my selective preview:
Report of the Superintendent will be an update on the Family and Community Engagement Framework Implementation.
Student/Teacher Communication. The student advisory committee has an item “to consider a variety of strategies that will improve communication amongst students and teachers, which can include a suggestion box or mandatory meeting that will provide a sense of comfort and understanding in a classroom setting.”
WPS Safety Advisory for Education (S.A.F.E) working group. The administration has come back with a response to an item asking them to create a safety advisory committee. The SAFE working group “will consist of representatives from the Administration, building principals, assistant principals, high school deans, teachers, paraeducators, support staff, EAW leadership, parents, community members and organizations, local emergency management, and students.” Those invited to join the group will be asked to commit to a two year appointment and quarterly meetings. The working group will have most of its meetings divided into two subgroups: one on Student Safety & Sense of Belonging and one on Campus Safety, Training, and Funding.
School Classroom Locks. Members Dianna Biancheria (district C) and Kathi Roy (district E) are requesting reports on the number of classroom doors without functioning locks for each school in their respective districts and the timeline for replacement. Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen reported on this back at the December 21 meeting during the superintendent’s mid-year goal review. Allen outlined that the safety audit identified 326 individual classroom and office locksets that are in need of replacement, and the goal is to have locks installed on all those doors by June 30, 2024. Since the audit, the WPD and WFD have both approved the locksets that will be the standard for WPS moving forward. A part of the Superintendent’s goals this year is “100% completion of highest priority emergency projects identified in the safety audit” and this includes door locks. So the completion of the installation of the door locks is something that will be part of her evaluation at the end of the school year in June.
A bunch of funding report requests:
Member Mailman requests a report on after school program funding sources and funding models.
Member Biancheria requests a report on J-ROTC and its budget.
Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) requests reports on:
1/5 teachers and their cost per school
10 years of data on the amount of funding per school for credit buyback
funding for CPR training for health and PE teachers
the number of schools with water filling stations and cost to provide them to all schools (the district has used a SWIG grant as well as ESSER funds to install these in schools recently)
Member Molly McCullough (district A) is requesting a presentation on the modern classroom project.
Member Sue Mailman (at-large) is requesting a report with five years of enrollment data broken down by quadrant, grade, school, and class size as well as the last time schools were “redistributed.” (check out Understanding Neighborhood Schools if you haven't already!)
That’s it, have a lovely week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: wpsinbrief@substack.com