WPS in Brief: January 2025
Libraries, Early Childhood, Dual Language, School Buildings, School Choice
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Welcome to the 25th issue of WPS in Brief. This month covers key topics from two school committee meetings and two standing committee meetings. By happenstance, many of the topics discussed this month were topics I touch on in my in-depth exploration of literacy in Worcester. I got so much great feedback from readers on those pieces. To me it shows that people want, and have the capacity, to understand complex issues around education. And there is absolutely a desire for more community reporting like this. I hope these articles spark a deeper conversation around next steps for advocacy, because there is so much opportunity here.
Ok back to the this month’s brief. Let’s dive into what happened:
Libraries.
At the Teaching, Learning and Student Success standing committee meeting on January 23 the committee discussed an item on librarians and libraries and the district explained the ways that Worcester Public Library is supporting WPS students. Four parents spoke during public comment in support of hiring librarians for the elementary schools, which currently have none. School committee members Mauren Bineinda (at-large) and Alex Guardiola (district D) both emphasized they are supportive of elementary libraries, but said that there’s not enough money.
This is not quite true. In the budget there is money allocated to staff five specials—art, gym, music, technology and world culture1— at the elementary level, which cover the five prep periods required as part of the teachers contract. That has been the case since 2023, when the school committee voted to approve the fifth special at the elementary level, World Culture and Language, and allocated money to hire 39 new teachers to teach that class. It was a choice to add world culture as a special instead of library. Having 39 world culture teachers and 39 librarians costs the same. Along those lines, Sue Mailman (at-large) made a motion requesting a review of the possibility that the world culture special be combined with library. For a more extensive background of libraries (or lack thereof) in WPS, check out part two of my literacy piece.
Early Childhood.
Also at the TLSS meeting there was discussion on how the district is collaborating with community preschool providers—Guild of St. Agnes, YWCA, and Edward St—with the help of a grant from the state. The goal of the grant is to learn from each other and strengthen access to high quality preschool in Worcester. The TLSS members and the district spoke about how expanding full day preschool for Worcester four year olds is a priority. But the district only receives $5,000 from the state per preschool student, regardless of whether they are full day or half day. One way around that funding dilemma is a two year kindergarten program, and the district is in year two of a two year trial for a program like that. Called “preppy K” and housed at Quinsigamond Elementary, it is a transitional full-day Kindergarten prep program for students with birthdays between September 1 and December 31. “Preppy K” gives those students a two-year kindergarten experience without changing the kindergarten entry age, which if adjusted to September 1, would cost the district about $3 million in the implementation year. As I wrote in “Worcester’s Literacy ‘crisis’”:
There’s another reason WPS kindergartners are below the national average: One-third of students in each grade are younger than the vast majority of kindergarteners across the country and the state. Worcester has a kindergarten cutoff of December 31, where in almost all other districts the cutoff is in late August or early September. We are asking four-year-olds to meet state standards set for five-year-olds.
School Buildings.

The January 9 report of the superintendent focused on facilities, specifically how the district is planning and prioritizing the gargantuan task of getting our school buildings in better shape. A long term plan to improve facilities is one of the strategic plan goals, as many WPS buildings are in desperate need of work, mostly due to deferred maintenance for many, many, years. The end goal is “future-ready” schools, which the department defines as “flexible learning spaces, full technology integration, energy-efficient or net zero energy consumption, health and well-being focused, safe and secure, spaces connected to the community, inclusive and accessible for all students and staff, and resilient building materials.”
Some highlights:
The district spends $683 a year on facilities maintenance per student. The foundation budget from the state allocates $1200 per student.
The facilities department is reviewing all spaces in every single school to collect data on how it is actually being used. They also continue to work on a plan for school boundary assignments and they are looking at adjusting the times that school starts, primarily at the secondary schools.
A Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) study on the condition of school buildings in Massachusetts will be conducted again in 2025. The last one was done in 2016, when 55 percent of Worcester’s buildings were ranked a 3 or 4 (with 1 being the best and 4 being “in poor condition.”) Statewide only 16 percent of school buildings ranked that low.
The planning for a new Burncoat High continues and Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen mentioned that as part of the MSBA building process they are looking at combining Burncoat Middle and High School so that it is a grade 7-12 school. The MSBA typically will not fund two buildings at once within a district, so this is a potential way for Worcester to replace both schools, which share some mechanical spaces. The building committee as appointed by Mayor Petty are as follows:
From what I can gather based on publicly available information, City Councilor Jenny Pacillo is the only parent who has children that would actually attend the new school when it opens in 2031(ish). Pacillo has announced she’s not running for re-election, so it’s not clear if she will stay on the committee when she is no longer the District 1 Councilor.
School Choice.
At the January 27 Finance, Operations, and Governance meeting, Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen explained that after consulting a lawyer, the district will need to adjust certain admissions policies for programs in the district that previously required residency (Worcester Tech and Goddard Scholars, for example). The lawyer determined, based on Massachusetts state law, that if students from other cities and towns are accepted as school choice students in the years before admission to those programs, “they receive the benefits of any other WPS students and are lawfully allowed to attend those programs.” Right now there are seven non-resident students at Worcester Tech and two at Hanover Academy.
Meeting Moment to Watch.
At the January 16 school committee meeting, dual language parent Javier Meléndez spoke about growing up in Puerto Rico and attending an immersion school from kindergarten to 12th grade. Meléndez said “the impact that this education had on me cannot be overstated.” Like many kids who make up the multicultural fabric of Worcester, Meléndez’s children are bicultural. “While my children might be first-generation Americans on my family’s side, they are fourth-generation Worcester natives on my wife’s side,” Meléndez explained. “The dual language program has not only helped me and my children connect to my culture and language in a way that better prepares them for an increasingly multicultural world, this program very directly benefits the city and the people of Worcester, both newcomers like myself, and long time residents.”
And that leads us to:
Dual Language.
The January 16 report of the superintendent meeting was a “Dual Language Program Status Update.” As I wrote in part two of my literacy series
Research has solidly shown over and over and over again that two-way dual language programs are the only model that closes the gap between ELs and monolingual students. And longitudinal research over decades has shown that dual language programs have an “astounding effectiveness” for ALL students, especially students with disabilities and monolingual students of low socioeconomic status, not just English learners.
Having high quality dual language programs, and making them accessible to all students, is an equity issue. The report provided an overview of the dual language programs, and the department shared goals for the program moving forward, shown above. Unfortunately, there was no detail provided on specific plans to reach those goals.
Bits and Bobs.
It is not possible to convert North High bathrooms to gender neutral bathrooms, as petitioned, due to plumbing codes.
Facilities will hire student employees (16+) for the summer.
The city and the schools are finalizing an MOU so that a few elementary schools can have exclusive use of some city parks during the school day. Schools included are Burncoat Street Playground, Lake View Playground, Providence Street Playground (Vernon Hill School) and Bennett Field (Gates Lane School).
An item on athletic trainers for the high schools will be sent for budget consideration, with the estimated cost being $465,000. That’s equivalent to 4 full time teachers (or librarians).
New “free cash” allocated to the WPS budget from the city is being used to provide an after school/late bus three days a week for every secondary school for the remainder of the school year.
A grant for electric buses will allow the district to add 15 more school bus routes to support student transportation next year and it would provide busing for some additional athletic needs. It could also potentially allow the district to reduce the walk radius for middle schools from two miles to 1.5 miles and reduce the walk radius for high schools to less than two miles (they are still working on the numbers).
Recommended Reads.
I would love to continue the community conversation around Worcester’s Literacy “Crisis” and A Road Map for Improving Literacy in Worcester. Please share the articles with your fellow WPS parents and WPS colleagues, your principal, your neighbor, your electeds. Let’s keep talking about it, and see what is resonating. Let me know if your PTO, your community group, your nonprofit would like to facilitate a conversation.
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Upcoming dates.
All school committee meetings have virtual options with Spanish translation, see the school committee site for more information.
School Committee meetings are February 6 and 27, 6 p.m.
Teaching, Learning and Student Support is February 13, 5 p.m.
Finance, Operations and Governance is March 3, 5 p.m.
Also.
What is happening nationally right now is scary and confusing, and I encourage us to focus on the local. I wanted to remind you of ways you can get involved in WPS outside of the school committee.
Attend your school site council meeting. Sometimes starting small and hyperlocal helps with the overwhelm, and there’s a lot to learn about schools through the site councils.
Go to Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council (CPPAC) Meetings.
There are currently three schools who currently do not have a representative at the Superintendent’s Family and Community Engagement Roundtable: Claremont Academy, Elm Park Community School and Worcester East Middle School. If you have a child at these schools and would like to participate please reach out to the Office of Family and Community Engagement. If you’d like to know who represents your children’s schools at the roundtable, you can ask the school wrap around coordinator.
Thanks for reading. If you find WPS in Brief valuable, please share it.
Worcester Arts Magnet elementary is an exception. WAMS has six specials: art, music, gym, dance, drama/theater, and world culture. They do not have technology like all the other elementary schools.