Last Night At School Committee

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Ep. 78, Last Night @ School Committee: 1/18 Meeting Recap Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

Last night’s meeting focused primarily on three policy areas. The first dealt with contractually-obligated back-pay for BPS staff. Despite agreeing to pay increases in the most recent union contract, BPS has yet to implement these increases, with Superintendent Skipper noting they hope to have the issue sorted by mid-February. BPS teachers and staff members, including the Boston Teachers Union president, spoke at public comment about their frustration with this issue and the lack of communication from BPS leaders.

The second focus area last night was school closures and mergers, which was a dominant topic in last week’s public comment period. In her report, Superintendent Skipper discussed the merger of the Sumner and Philbrick school communities, and School Committee members raised questions about how to develop a more robust community engagement process. Chair Jeri Robinson tabled that conversation until a future meeting.

The third and final focus area last night was school safety, headlined by a presentation on safety recommendations from the Council of the Great City Schools. While safety is a top concern among BPS parents, there was no data presented last night on safety incidents within BPS, and School Committee members questioned what specific issues this presentation was meant to address.

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Ep. 77, Last Night @ School Committee: 1/11 Meeting Recap Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

Last night was the first full School Committee meeting of 2023, following last week’s annual Organizational Meeting in which the Committee approved their 2023 meeting schedule and reappointed Chair Jeri Robinson and Vice Chair Michael O’Neill to their leadership positions.

The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where Superintendent Skipper provided updates on COVID-19, school safety, and enrollment. The Superintendent also announced the formation of a new transportation advisory council and discussed updated bus performance data – a topic that dominated the remainder of the meeting.

After a public comment period focused on health and safety concerns as well as frustration from parents at the Sumner Elementary School regarding the proposed merger process, the meeting continued with a report and recommendations on transportation from the Council of Great City Schools. Transportation is an issue that has plagued BPS for decades and was highlighted as a key area for improvement mandated by the State last year. Last night’s report echoed previous reports of the past decade in providing recommendations such as implementing a three-tier bell system, improving routing methods, and improving data collection. However, School Committee members expressed concerns that BPS does not have data on how many kids actually ride the bus each day, a key data point that must precede any proposed reforms to the system. Members also noted limitations in their ability to institute change as a result of the new bus drivers contract that the Committee itself approved last year.

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Ep. 76, Last Night @ School Committee: 12/14 Meeting Recap Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting was the last School Committee meeting of 2022, and the School Committee spent the majority of the meeting kicking off the process for next year’s budget discussion.

The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where Superintendent Skipper discussed student safety, transportation, and rising COVID-19 cases in Boston – an issue raised by several public commenters last night. The main report of the night was a financial update from BPS CFO Nate Kuder. The report showed that schools have only spent half of their federal ESSER relief allocations. In addition, the report showed that priority positions and other priorities funded by ESSER would move into general funding to avoid a “fiscal cliff” when that funding expires. At the same time, that ESSER money will be reallocated to cover “soft landings” for the following two years – funding to under-enrolled schools that allows them to maintain their current staffing levels. While this trade-off avoids a “fiscal cliff,” it will lead to difficult conversations two years down the road when relief money runs out for dozens of schools. With projected enrollment declines and the coming expiration of ESSER funds, paired with BPS leaders’ interest in new investments in areas like multilingual education, special education, and school construction, it is clear that there will be tough, consequential budget decisions ahead in the new year.

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Ep. 75, Last Night @ School Committee: 12/7 Meeting Recap Dec 08, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting was five hours long, beginning with the Superintendent’s Report, the majority of which celebrated the district’s Educator of the Year award recipients.

The first Committee report last night was on union contracts for food service workers, police patrolmen, and custodians. All three contracts were approved. The second report was a presentation on school and spaces renaming projects, including the renaming of the McKinley School to the Melvin H. King South End Academy. The third and final report of the evening was an annual presentation from the Office of Equity, which focused primarily on significant increases in bullying and sexual misconduct complaints. While there was information in the report about proactive trainings held this year, the report did not go into detail on what steps are being taken to address the concerning rise in misconduct. Several key topics in the news and on parents’ minds were not discussed at last night’s meeting, including continued issues with on-time arrival of school buses, steep declines in enrollment, insufficient support systems for addressing the impacts of the pandemic on student learning, and continued teacher staffing shortages.

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Ep. 74, Last Night @ School Committee: 11/16 Meeting Recap Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, the majority of which focused on transportation. The Superintendent reported that on-time arrivals for morning buses increased to 89% in November, up from 88% the previous month. School Committee members asked questions about how many students are actually impacted by these delays and how students are being tracked, and district leaders were unable to provide this information.

There were two reports presented to the School Committee. The first was a report on special education in the district, which was given by the Council of Great City Schools in response to a requirement in the State-mandated improvement plan. The report echoed prior reports on this issue and underlined significant gaps in the success of special education students in BPS. School Committee members highlighted the need to address these issues immediately and discussed moving toward fully-inclusive schools, but the report did not include goals, targets, or timelines for addressing these much-needed reforms. The last report of the evening was an update on the collective bargaining agreements with the cafeteria workers and bus monitors unions, which featured increased pay and other clauses aimed at driving interest in these key positions that still face hundreds of vacancies.

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Ep. 73, Last Night @ School Committee: 11/2 Meeting Recap Nov 03, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, in which Superintendent Skipper covered student safety, transportation, absenteeism, and teacher diversity. The Superintendent highlighted the impact of social media on student behavior, noting that tense online conversations often spill into in-person interactions and calling on everyone to come together to help students re-engage with one another productively. She discussed continued disruptions to transportation, an issue brought up again last night during public comment, but did not provide updated numbers regarding on-time performance. Superintendent Skipper also noted that student absentee levels are as high as 28% so far this year, consistent with previous years but concerning nonetheless.

Following public comment, there were two presentations made to the School Committee. The first was a presentation from the Superintendent’s team on Transformation Schools, which are some of the lowest performing schools in the district and are labeled by the State as needing intervention. The Superintendent’s team discussed the current status of the 28 transformation schools and highlighted two schools that have improved test scores. However, the presentation lacked clarity on what action steps will be taken to improve outcomes across the district, especially given critical disparities in student performance at different schools, as shown in this tool from the Boston Schools Fund.

These issues were echoed in the last report of the evening: the annual BPS hiring and workforce diversity report. The report provided updates on the 800 vacancies in the district and a breakdown of the district staff’s racial diversity as it relates to the requirements of the 1974 order by Judge Garrity. Still, the report left key questions unanswered about how the district plans to fill these vacancies and whether the district staff is truly representative of the students they serve.

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Ep. 72, Last Night @ School Committee: 10/26 Meeting Recap Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting was four hours long, with the School Committee hearing only one presentation after deciding to delay their report on hiring and diversity to next week’s meeting. The Superintendent began with her report with updates on enrollment, transportation, and test scores. Superintendent Skipper informed the Committee that, as of this month, there are 48,734 students enrolled in the district, representing a steep decline over the past decade. She then addressed ongoing transportation concerns, acknowledging that the district is not meeting its state mandate of 95% on-time arrival. Superintendent Skipper also noted that her team is working to address concerns and complaints that were filed by two advocacy groups on behalf of students with individualized educational plans (IEPs) who are not arriving to school on-time. She concluded her report by addressing the recent results of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) in Boston, which showed steeper declines in performance than indicated by the recent MCAS data.

The only presentation of the night was an update on the BPS “Green New Deal.” Announced last year by Mayor Wu, the “Green New Deal” is a vision for improving BPS infrastructure and building modern, climate-resilient facilities. However, last night’s presentation did not go into detail beyond that vision and left many unanswered questions about the possibility of future school closures and mergers.

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Ep. 71, Last Night @ School Committee: 10/12 Meeting Recap Oct 13, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting was Mary Skipper’s second as superintendent, and it began with a solemn acknowledgement of recent incidents of violence in the BPS community. Superintendent Skipper continued her report with an update on transportation, in which she discussed continued disruptions for families due to uncovered routes and insufficient bus monitors. The Superintendent next presented data on student absenteeism, which has increased over the last three years, and School Committee members pressed for further detail on this data.

There were two reports presented to the School Committee last night, the first of which was a report on the past year’s MCAS results. The results showed that, while BPS is trending slightly better than the state and other urban districts, achievement gaps persist among certain student groups. There was no discussion about trends at the school level, nor did the School Committee hear from teachers or school leaders to understand what is working. The last report of the night was a presentation of a strategic plan for the Office of Multilingual and Multicultural Education. The report outlined an ambitious goal of providing multilingual education to every student for whom English is not their primary language, but it lacked clarity on strategies or action steps for achieving this vision.

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Ep. 70, Last Night @ School Committee: 9/28 Meeting Recap Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting was Mary Skipper’s first as BPS Superintendent. The School Committee welcomed Superintendent Skipper back to the district and also introduced and welcomed new student representative Diego Mehta. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, in which Superintendent Skipper discussed her vision for “getting back to basics” on transportation, attendance, school food, and student safety. She acknowledged the continued frustrations felt by families facing bus delays and uncovered routes – a topic raised multiple times during public comment – and committed to addressing these issues.

The meeting continued with unanimous votes to approve a new contract with the Boston Teachers Union as well as an additional one-year appropriation from the City to cover the added costs of the new contract. Questions were raised by School Committee members both about the strategy driving this new contract and about how these costs will be covered in future years. The meeting concluded with an update on the Mission Hill School investigation, involving publication of the long-awaited third report into the failures of school leaders and Central Office staff to protect student safety.

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Ep. 69, Last Night @ School Committee: 9/14 Meeting Recap Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

Last night’s meeting was the first meeting since the start of school and the last for Dr. Drew Echelson as Acting Superintendent before Mary Skipper starts on September 26. The meeting began with Chair Jeri Robinson announcing that a report on the Mission Hill School would be postponed to the next meeting. Although there was no presentation during the meeting, the Boston Globe reported yesterday that the district is preparing for two federal lawsuits in response to the findings from this investigation.

The rest of the meeting featured discussions on transportation, special education, school safety, and teacher vacancies. Dr. Echelson and his team spoke optimistically about the district’s work in these areas while downplaying key issues that have been publicly raised by community members, the press, and even the School Committee members themselves. Members were left without answers as to how the district will address uncovered bus routes, the plan to fill hundreds of remaining vacancies in schools, where those vacancies are concentrated, and what the district is doing to proactively prevent safety incidents. Later in the meeting, members heard a report on a new bargaining agreement with the Boston Teachers Union. However, when prompted with questions about specific details of the agreement, there was a lack of clarity in implementation and implications for students and schools.

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