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-Bill
Welcome to the July issue of WPS in Brief. This month covers key topics from one school committee meeting.
Let’s get to it:
Superintendent’s Goals and Self-Reflection.
At the start of every school year the superintendent of schools presents goals to the school committee for approval. Then at the end of the year, she gives a report on how those goals were achieved (or not). This is an important process, because when done well, the goals serve as a roadmap and are a vital mechanism for accountability and communication between the superintendent, the school committee, and the public. The report was over an hour long and there was a ton of information presented. Each of these areas in and of themselves could be their own extensive post, but in trying to stick to the whole brief thing, I break it down as simply as possible.
The first district goal is focused on the workforce:
The “impact evidence” of this goal is:
10% Narrowing of Staff & Student Diversity Gap and Increase in BIPOC Staff. The gap narrowed by 8.47%, so they didn’t quite make the goal. The BIPOC staff numbers have increased by 4.6% since 2020.
Decrease Staff Grievances at the School Level. There were a total of 15 staff grievances for the 2023-2024 school where the average for the 7 years before was 32.7. Essentially, grievances were cut in half.
The second district goal is focused on facilities:
Some of the highest priority safety projects include creating vestibules at schools where the front office isn’t right near an entrance, as well as replacing the locksets on 326 doors. The Superintendent explained that they made a school-by-school critical improvement dashboard from the audit report and are continuously adding items based on observation and conversations with principals. This dashboard will help make sure that safety issues get prioritized for maintenance support and it will help provide clear communication with principals. They also created a safety drill dashboard to monitor that schools are conducting the necessary drills (fire, medical, bus, standard response), which had never been tracked before.
The student goal focuses on third grade reading data, as well as secondary student engagement and English Learner reclassification.
Impact evidence for this goal includes:
Increasing grade 3 reading performance demonstrated by the STAR assessment. Generally, when looking at literacy data what we’re looking for is growth, and there was an 11% increase in students reading at or above benchmark from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. When broken down by demographic subgroups, Black/African American students had a 13% increase, but Hispanic/Latino students, students with special needs, and EL students were 7%, 6% and 8% respectively. This is the first year the district is implementing the new elementary language arts curriculum CKLA.
Literacy is complicated—and is so much more than benchmark scores based on an assessment—but this gives one data point. As you can see above, there are less 3rd graders reading at the benchmark this year than were the year before. But there was more growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. For context, the third graders in this data were in Kindergarten in the 2020-2021 school year, which was almost entirely virtual (the district didn’t move to in-person school until mid-May of 2021). I’m working on a project to take a deeper look at literacy in our city, which will dive into this more. Stay tuned.
Increasing the percentage of secondary (grades 7-12) students who self-report that they are engaged in school. The social emotional learning (SEL) assessment, Panorama, was administered to see where students are around a positive, welcoming, and inclusive environment at their schools. Compared to last spring, students' sense of engagement was up 2% for middle school students and 4% for high school students. Black/African American students, English learners, and students with disabilities scored higher than the district as a whole. An example of a question asked was “How often have you been so engaged in class that you lose track of time?”
For students’ sense of belonging, favorable responses are up 1% for middle school and 2% for high school compared to last spring. A sample question was “How much do you feel like you belong?” When broken down, the percentage of favorable responses from Black/African American students, English Learners, and students with disabilities were higher than the district as a whole.
Increase the number of Formerly Limited English Proficient Students (now FELLS)
Students who are no longer considered English Learners are “reclassified” and this happens when they meet a particular reclassification criteria. This school year 10% of ELs tested met that criteria, which is higher than the last three years. This is important because it allows students to access a more rigorous curriculum (like AP classes) and opens pathways that might be otherwise unavailable to them.
Next month the committee will evaluate the Superintendent, which is a requirement of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). And so, parents, teachers, and community members, it’s that time of year to email your school committee members and let them know how you think Superintendent Monárrez is doing and how her superintendency has impacted your kids’ experience and/or your experience in the classroom. Please don’t take her leadership for granted.
Public Comment. Uncharacteristic of most school committee meetings, there was 30 minutes of public comment with about a dozen people speaking in support of Superintendent Monárrez. They spoke about how they feel thankful for her administration over the last two years, lauded her strengths in listening and open communication, and also emphasized her work to shift the culture to high expectations and rigor, as well as restorative practices. Many explicitly spoke about how it was a welcome change from the previous administration of Maureen Binienda. See what people said and more on the general feel of the meeting from Bill Shaner here.
Namings. There was a request for reconsideration of a vote from the June 20th school committee meeting from Member Sue Mailman (at-large) on the approval of naming the basketball court at Chandler Elementary Community School after Antonio Rossi and the gym at Doherty after Officer Manny Familia. Her reasoning, which is required as part of the request, is that there needs to be school site council and/or parent and student input on these naming as required by the naming policy. That request for reconsideration failed 6- 3, with Alex Guardiola (district D) and Vanessa Alvarez (district B), voting with Mailman. (Not sure why the committee is so adverse to asking school communities for input on names suggested for spaces in their schools/following their policy?) There was also a separate item on the agenda from Member Molly McCullough (district A) asking that the naming policy be reviewed, which was sent to the Finance, Operations and Governance subcommittee.
As a watcher of school committee meetings I have seen a pattern over the last few years. The committee is not following the naming policy and has an inconsistent process that raises questions about why some are held to higher standards than others. Some, 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. And others live in limbo, like the request from 2023 by previous school committee member Laura Clancey to name the alternative school after Mike O’Neil. For the vast majority of them it has not been clear how the school community has been included in the naming process, if at all. But when the school community has had a clear and democratic process—like the proposed new name of the merged Chandler Magnet/La Familia School—it’s not enough. They are all over the map.
I honestly believe this is not intentional—I think most of the members have never read the policy, which is a pretty good one. But by not adhering to it, it can feel that those with more political power are able to name things easily, while those without are not. Naming things is an inherently contentious process, which is why, I’m guessing, the majority of our schools are named after the streets they’re on. Having a solid policy and following it are critical, so that all the voices of our community have equal weight.
Meeting Moment.
Member Sue Mailman (at-large) speaks about her item to review turf fields and about the many communities who have banned them due to their containing cancer-causing PFAS. Kathi Roy (district E) thanked Member Mailman for putting this item on and also voiced her concerns. The newly constructed Doherty High School will have a new turf field installed this summer. I hope we are doing our due diligence here in Worcester. Especially when our own Diane Cotter is a national activist in the fight against PFAS.
School Committee Purview.
Throughout the meeting there were a few discussions where Mayor Joe Petty, Jermaine Johnson (district F) and Alex Guardiola (district D) raised concern that Member Binienda (at-large) and Member Diana Biancheria (district C) were discussing things that are not in school committee purview and reiterated that their job is not to micromanage the day to day operations of the schools. Again we see the school committee voicing what I think most of us with children in the schools and/or who work in the schools are feeling: this is serious work that requires collaboration and we need the school committee to focus on their responsibilities to move the district forward.
Recommended Reads.
Excellent journalism happening in our city right now around education. I love to see it. Please give both of these articles a read.
From Neal McNamara at the Patch about the ethically dubious choice of School Committee Member Maureen Binienda (at-large), receiving her state retirement pension while also working as an interim superintendent in another district. Puts Binienda’s explicit criticism of Superintendent Monárrez’s contract during budget deliberations, in a different light.
Tom Marino at This Week in Worcester takes a deeper look at some of the issues that came up during budget deliberations.
Upcoming Dates.
All school committee meetings have virtual options with Spanish translation, see the school committee site for more information.
School Committee Meeting, August 15, 4pm
Also.
As we look to start a new school year I thought now was a great time to reshare some ways you can get involved in governance of our schools.
Thanks for reading. If you find WPS in Brief valuable, please share it. If you’d like to support my work you can send me a tip. See you in August.
Truly excellent summary: informative, substantive and objective. Thank you.