O'Bryant Location Decision, MSBA Funding Application, Transformation Schools Data, and Student Opportunity Act Reviewed. | Last Night at School Committee: February 28th, 2024 Meeting Recap

Last night's meeting featured a significant announcement about school facilities, a focus on student data and the continued theme of School Committee members advocating for more detailed planning. The meeting also saw City Councilor Brian Worrell emphasizing the City Council's intention to play a greater role in managing the school department's budget.

The session began with the Superintendent's Report, in which Superintendent Skipper revealed that the O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science will stay in Roxbury, reversing the previously suggested move to West Roxbury. This decision came after months of public testimony supporting its retention in Roxbury. Additionally, Superintendent Skipper reiterated plans to renovate Madison Park Technical Vocational High School but did not provide essential details such as the project's budget, enrollment projections, or an overarching vision.

The Superintendent then discussed transformation schools as part of her state-mandated quarterly update to the School Committee. She shared data highlighting troubling trends, including low student growth and literacy rates, coupled with high levels of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. These findings led School Committee members to voice their concerns and call for substantial improvements.

The evening's first report concerned an application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for a new building for the BCLA/McCormack. In last month's State of the City address, Mayor Wu announced a partnership between the BCLA/McCormack and UMass Boston to create a community hub school. The report outlined the district's request for MSBA funding for a new facility but lacked crucial details such as the budget, curriculum strategy, partnership dynamics with UMass Boston, community demand data, and potential impacts on other school communities. The absence of these details prompted numerous questions from School Committee members about the strategy and broader vision, especially given the lack of a comprehensive master facilities plan.

The second report addressed theStudent Opportunity Act, a legislative initiative aimed at providing additional funding to Massachusetts districts to close achievement gaps and enhance educational quality. It covered initiatives and data points that seem to have a limited impact on student outcomes, leading some Committee members to reserve their support pending further clarification of their questions and concerns.

FY25 Preliminary Budget Presented, MSBA Repair Funding Requested, and Member Questions Go Unanswered | Last Night at School Committee: February 7th, 2024 Meeting Recap

Last night's meeting initiated the district's annual budget process. It started with the Superintendent’s Report, followed by concerns from school committee members about their previously requested agenda items not being addressed. Members Brandon Cardet-Hernandez and Stephen Alkins requested updates on several issues, including student outcome data for the district's key initiatives and the level of support school leaders are receiving from the central office, but received no responses. The Committee voted on applying for Massachusetts School Building Authority funding to repair eight BPS schools. Cardet-Hernandez questioned the alignment of these repairs with the district's broader facilities strategy, highlighting a concern of repairing buildings that might soon be closed.

The night's main report was Superintendent Skipper’s presentation of the FY25 preliminary budget proposal, which outlines a $1.6 billion budget. This amount represents a $200 million increase from last year's budget, despite the district's declining enrollment and a per pupil expenditure now exceeding $33k. However, the presentation offered limited details on the impact this budget would have on individual school budgets, even as several school communities testified about the detrimental effects of budget cuts on their school. When committee members sought to ask clarifying questions, Chair Jeri Robinson urged them to limit their questions to only the most crucial ones and to submit any additional questions in writing. This approach frustrated members and left many questions unanswered.

Last Night at School Committee: January 24th, 2024 Meeting Recap

Last night’s meeting lasted about five hours with only one report and nearly 50 speakers testifying during public comment. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where Superintendent Skipper spent the majority of the time discussing the School Quality Framework (SQF). The district made changes to the SQF last month without a full presentation or discussion, and School Committee members have been seeking clarification since those changes were announced. Member Cardet Hernandez requested a formal presentation to look into these changes and discuss how every student has equal access to high quality schools. 

The meeting then moved onto public comment. The majority of speakers testified against the proposal to move the O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science to the former West Roxbury Academy building The remainder of public commenters spoke on different topics, including ongoing issues at the Gardner Pilot Academy, the exam school admissions policy, and the potential impact of budget proposals on school communities. 

The only report of the evening was a mid-year update, given by the Superintendent and her team. The report covered updates on transportation, health and safety, access to grade level learning, and other areas the district is focusing on. However, the contents of the report did not include any data on student outcomes or school performance, leaving School Committee members asking for more clarification and actual outcome data to help understand the impact of the work the district is doing. With no discussion on performance data or outcomes, the Committee was left with outstanding questions going into the budget process regarding which investments are impacting student outcomes.

The School Committee was originally supposed to have a discussion on task forces, but after discussing further with members, Chair Robinson announced that this discussion would be tabled to a future meeting.

The meeting ended with new business from Committee members asking to continue discussion on a few key topics, including concerns raised in public comment about the Gardner, further conversation about the SQF, and revisiting areas from the Superintendent’s evaluation.

Last Night at School Committee: January 10th, 2024 Meeting Recap

Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where Superintendent Skipper spent the majority of her report discussing the district’s recently released long-term facilities plan. This long-term facilities plan was submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, as required by the state’s Systemic Improvement Plan, and indicated that as many as half of current buildings could close. The Superintendent clarified in her report that this would not be happening and that the School Committee will receive a list of proposed mergers and closures later this spring. However, Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez questioned the lack of projections and details in the plan to help make decisions, and he pushed the Superintendent for a comprehensive master plan that gives members an understanding of how decisions will impact neighborhoods and other school communities. 

The Superintendent also discussed the announcement of a new partnership between the Boston Community Leadership Academy- McCormack School, and UMass Boston, which was announced by Mayor Michelle Wu in her State of the City address earlier this week. The announcement lacked specificity on details or timeline, and Vice Chair Michael O’Neill reminded the Superintendent that the facility is in need of immediate repairs, including basic needs, like toilets and lockers.

The School Committee’s only action item of the evening was a vote on modifications to the exam school admissions policy. At the last meeting, the Superintendent proposed modifying the number of bonus points a student who attends a Title 1 school (40% or more students living below the poverty line) receives based on the tier they live in. Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, who has consistently pushed for a different remedy involving the allocation of bonus points directly to students rather than schools, continued to express his frustration at the lack of consideration of this alternative, highlighting concerns about the timing of this change in the midst of school choice season and calling for a reevaluation of the current tiers. Many parents and students echoed these concerns during public comment. The School Committee voted unanimously to approve the modifications to the policy, which will be implemented for the current enrollment cycle.

There were two other brief reports last night. The first was on a proposed merger between UP Academy Dorchester and UP Academy Boston due to a dramatic drop in enrollment in the last three years. The second was a discussion on School Committee task forces. Chair Jeri Robinson proposed that Task Forces will no longer report to the School Committee and instead will work under the purview of the Superintendent. While there was little discussion about this change, this would remove power from the School Committee and limit the public’s ability to hear from these task force leaders at Committee meetings.

Last Night at School Committee: December 13th, 2023 Meeting Recap

Last night was the last Boston School Committee meeting of 2023, and for the second consecutive week, the Superintendent’s Report included a memo with information typically presented as a larger standalone report. This week’s memo shared an annual update from the Office of Equity regarding increased incidents of student-on-student misconduct - a topic that has been highlighted in recent news coverage - and members asked that the Superintendent come back with more information in a fuller report at a future meeting.

The Superintendent also revisited last week’s memo about updates to the School Quality Framework, saying her team has received questions from members about the underlying data and will come back with a further analysis at the next meeting. The School Quality Framework is a key component to school choice, dictating which schools students can access based on the quality of schools in their neighborhoods. The updated scores released last week included troubling discrepancies between statewide accountability scores and BPS tier rankings, leading members to question the data’s accuracy and intent, with several members noting that parents should not rely on these rankings to make school decisions (despite the fact that they are required to do so). 

There were two reports last night, one on a new proposal to amend the exam school admissions policy, and the second a finance update. The finance update is a yearly presentation that precedes the annual budget process. While the key budgetary information will be presented in the coming months, this presentation did note that more than $125 million in school and Central Office positions is currently funded by federal relief money set to expire next year, and this will have consequences for school budgets.

The second report was a proposal from Superintendent Skipper to amend the exam school admission policy. Superintendent Skipper announced that, after considering five potential alterations to the current policy, BPS is proposing adjusting the number of bonus points a student who attends a Title 1 school (40% or more low-income) receives based on the tier where they live. In the current policy, students who attend a Title 1 school in any tier school receive 10 bonus points, creating a scenario in which some students in higher tiers were mathematically excluded from getting into their first choice exam school. To address this issue, under this new proposal, students in Title 1 schools will receive a different number of bonus points based on their socioeconomic tier, with the point value calculated using the point differential between Title 1 and non-Title 1 schools in that tier the previous year. This means that, for next year, students in Title 1 schools in Tier 1 would receive 9 bonus points and those in Tier 2 would receive 11, while those students in Tiers 7 and 8 would receive 4 and 2 points, respectively. Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, who has been pushing the Committee to reopen this policy and advocating for the points to be allocated to individuals rather than whole schools, expressed his frustration with the lack of consideration of his suggestion. Members acknowledged that this is a step in the right direction and they are pleased to see the district’s new willingness to address this current policy’s flaws, and Chair Jeri Robinson noted that the underlying issue is the lack of strong schools across the district to prepare more Boston students for success in high school and beyond.

Facilities Planning Timeline, School Quality Framework Update, and Wellness Council Report on the Agenda | Last Night at School Committee: December 6th, 2023 Meeting Recap

Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, where Superintendent Skipper discussed two memos released earlier that day. The first memo addressed long-term facility planning, a comprehensive plan for which is due to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) by the end of the year. The memo noted that just 71 out of 119 schools meet standards for optimal school size, and just 18% of school buildings provide most or all of the elements defined by BPS as necessary for a “high-quality student experience.” The memo also outlined a timeline for school closures and mergers, noting that decisions will be announced this upcoming spring and planning will take place during the 2024-25 school year, with mergers and closures beginning in the fall of 2025. Notably, these decisions will be announced after both this year’s budget process and the school choice season, meaning students will be choosing schools without knowing if they might be closed after next year. 

The second memo discussed during the Superintendent’s report was an update to the school quality framework scores - the first update since 2019. Each school is given a composite score out of 100 based on 75% student performance and 25% survey responses from students, faculty, and families, and schools are then ranked from tier 1 to tier 4, with the highest quality schools in tier 1. The memo did not provide individual school scores nor any underlying data for the calculations, and the data included in the memo was surprising. For example, the Sarah Greenwood School has a 7% accountability score from DESE and is tier 1. The Blackstone School has a 6% accountability score and is tier 2. English High School has a 3% accountability score and is in tier 2, while Boston Latin School, which has a 96% accountability score, is also in tier 2, having moved down from tier 1 in this new ranking. While annual updates to the school quality framework are typically presented as a standalone report to the School Committee, last night it was only mentioned during the Superintendent’s remarks, and no questions were asked about this data by members of the School Committee.

The Superintendent ended her remarks by announcing that she will propose changes to the exam school policy at next week’s School Committee meeting. 

The only report of the evening was an annual presentation from the District Wellness Council. The report was based on 2021 data, despite the fact that updated data will be released in several months, and School Committee members expressed concerns that the findings and content were no longer relevant, stating that BPS should not be making decisions based on this data.

Facilities Rubric Presented, Exam School Policy Questions Persist, and BCLA/McCormack Renovation Concerns Raised | Last Night at School Committee: November 15th, 2023 Meeting Recap

Last night’s School Committee meeting was primarily focused on discussion of a new facility rubric released last week by BPS to guide decisions around school closures, mergers, and new construction. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, after which the School Committee Chair and Vice Chair shared their experience from a recent visit to the BCLA/McCormack School, expressing concern that the renovations promised by BPS have not been implemented. The Superintendent also responded to questions about pursuing changes to the exam school process, saying that she is looking to bring in higher education partners to look at the policy and will raise it again at a future meeting.

This exam school issue was raised multiple times during last night’s public comment session, with parents sharing frustrations with BPS leaders’ unwillingness to amend the policy in spite of consensus on the current policy’s flaws. Additional commenters testified about a concerning lack of data in the BPS facility rubric, a topic which dominated the remainder of the meeting.

Following public comment, the Superintendent's team presented the facilities rubric. This rubric comes as the district is required to submit a master facilities plan to the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) by next month - a requirement included in the district’s Systemic Improvement Plan. However, the presentation last night did not include data on enrollment trends, family demand, budget, or timeline, leading School Committee members to press the Superintendent for further details and question whether this will satisfy the DESE requirement for a master plan.

English Learner Task Force Resignations, Exam School Admissions Memo, and Workforce Diversity Update Discussed | Last Night at School Committee: November 1st, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night was a short meeting beginning with the Superintendent’s Report, in which Superintendent Skipper addressed the news earlier this week that nine members of the School Committee’s English Learners (EL) Task Force resigned in response to the BPS inclusion plan presented at the last meeting. The plan called for full inclusion of multilingual learners and students with disabilities into general education classrooms, but it did not include information about budget, professional development, or teacher recruitment, nor did it address support for increased bilingual education programs in which multilingual learners learn core subjects in their native languages while learning English. This led Task Force members – who represent the leading minds in multilingual learning across Boston – to resign their seats while continuing to advocate for a better path forward. Superintendent Skipper doubled down on the district’s proposed inclusion plan, which is awaiting feedback from the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

The Superintendent then discussed a memo released by BPS as the meeting was beginning on the new exam school admissions policy – outlining the 2021 process that led to the new policy, data from the first full year of implementation, and recommendations for further study. (For a full recap of the 2021 exam school process, check out yesterday’s special episode of “Last Night at School Committee.”) The memo highlighted outcome disparities among students who received bonus points despite not being economically disadvantaged and students who are economically disadvantaged but did not receive bonus points, calling into question whether the bonus points are necessary or are accomplishing their intended goal. Among the recommendations in the memo is further consideration of allocating these points to individuals rather than whole schools, a change that has been recommended by School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez.

The only report of the night was a presentation from the Office of Human Capital – an annual update on hiring and workforce diversity. This presentation mirrored the presentation that is given every year at this time, and it lacked key data on teacher performance, evaluation, metrics, or goals.

Transportation Improvements, Exam School Admissions Review, Transformation Schools, and Inclusive Education Plan Presented | Last Night at School Committee: October 18th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, in which we heard positive updates on transportation. Superintendent Skipper shared that on-time bus performance has dramatically improved since last year, with data from September showing 84% of buses were on time in the morning and 96% arrived within fifteen minutes. Bus times in the afternoon showed similar trends. The Superintendent spent the rest of her report providing an update on the exam school admissions process. At the last School Committee meeting, the Committee had a lengthy discussion about amending the allocation of ten bonus points. Last night, Superintendent Skipper announced that she is compiling data requested by Committee members on the timeline and rationale behind the new admissions policy and will share that memo at the next meeting. Members asked several questions about transportation, exam schools, and the recently released facilities condition dashboard, with one member pointing out that the confusing layout and lack of underlying data in the dashboard makes it difficult for parents to understand the condition of their child’s school.

Concerns around the exam school admissions policy was also a major focus of public comment last night, with dozens of students testifying that they feel they are “unintended consequences” of the new policy as it is mathematically impossible for them to gain admission to their first choice school. Public comment also featured testimony from numerous students and community members at the O’Bryant who expressed frustration with the proposed relocation of the school to West Roxbury.

The School Committee heard two reports last night, beginning with a state-mandated quarterly report on transformation schools, which are schools labeled by the state as requiring intervention. The Superintendent’s team highlighted concerning trends regarding certain student subgroups and showed data demonstrating low growth among students at transformation schools, leading members to question why the district is doubling down with more resources to its existing transformation schools approach.  

The second and final report of the evening was on inclusive education in the district. The Superintendent’s team outlined a vision for every classroom to be fully inclusive, with special education students and multilingual learners all learning in general education classrooms alongside their peers. Concerning data was presented regarding students in certain subgroups who are disproportionately deemed to need special education services, but there was no discussion of the root causes of this issue or how it will be addressed. There was also no clear plan for moving to a full inclusion model, nor was there information about budget, staffing, or process for engaging families.

Exam School Bonus Points Debated, O'Bryant Relocation Announced, and 2023 MCAS Results Presented | Last Night at School Committee: October 4th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s School Committee meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which led to a lengthy discussion of the exam school admissions policy in response to a request from member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez to amend the allocation of the ten bonus points. First, Superintendent Skipper spoke about the release of a facilities condition dashboard that gives each building in the district a condition score. She also discussed a recent open house at the West Roxbury Education Complex for O’Bryant families and announced plans to move forward with the previously-announced relocation of the O’Bryant to this location. There was no update on plans for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, which currently shares a facility with the O’Bryant.

The Superintendent went on to talk about the exam school admissions policy, saying she understands concerns regarding flaws in the policy but cannot change the policy at this time. She cited several reasons why BPS is unable to make any changes, including a five year waiting period included in the policy; lack of available data; complexity of applying data on an individual level; and respect for the task force that developed this new policy. Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez pushed back on each of these justifications, pointing out that nothing requires them to wait five years; the task force changed their proposed policy at the eleventh hour; the individual-level data already exists at the state level; the current policy makes it mathematically impossible for students in certain schools to get into their first choice exam school; and allocating the bonus points to individuals rather than whole schools would better meet their original intention of providing opportunity to economically disadvantaged students. These arguments were echoed by public commenters who expressed frustration with the district’s unwillingness to address the flaws in this policy.

After votes on new union agreements and a charter amendment for Boston Green Academy, the remainder of the meeting was spent discussing the district’s 2023 MCAS results. The Superintendent’s team indicated that the district made improvements from last year, noting they are no longer performing in the bottom 10% of districts statewide and are now labeled as “not requiring assistance or intervention.” Many schools showed year-over-year growth, though BPS leaders acknowledged the need for further improvement, particularly among multilingual learners. While BPS named the schools who showed substantial improvement in their scores, we did not hear what those schools are doing that contributed to their improvement.

Special Education Parent Advisory Report, Exam School Policy Request, Facilities Planning, and Charter Amendment on the Agenda | Last Night at School Committee: September 27th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s School Committee meeting began with remarks from Chair Jeri Robinson in which she addressed her comments at the last School Committee meeting on the troubled state of Boston Public Schools. In her remarks last night, Chair Robinson claimed that her unscripted comments were used to promote a negative image of the district and that public criticism of the district following her remarks was unproductive. These comments struck a negative chord with several community members during public comment last night, with two commenters directly addressing the Chair’s remarks in their testimony.

The meeting continued with the Superintendent’s Report, which included brief updates on MCAS results, transportation, and enrollment, all of which will be covered in greater detail at next week’s meeting. The School Committee then heard a number of standard reports on collective bargaining agreements and a charter amendment for Boston Green Academy. The final report of the night was an annual report from the Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SpEdPAC). The SpEdPAC Chair and Vice Chair presented on their strategic initiatives for the coming year and outlined key priorities, noting that all 12,000 BPS students with special learning needs are unique and there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach to special education.

The meeting concluded with new business, which began with remarks from Dr. Stephen Alkins applauding the special education presentation and requesting that future School Committee conversations be similarly structured with deep dives on key topics. School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez concluded the meeting by raising several additional items. First, he asked follow-up questions on last week’s discussion of the Green New Deal, pressing on when a master facility plan will be released and how the facility assessment rubric will be structured. The Superintendent responded by saying that there will be small facility improvements this spring, with more decisions to be made in conjunction with budget cycles over the next two years. Mr. Cardet-Hernandez then reiterated a request made in previous meetings that the School Committee amend the exam school admissions policy to award the ten bonus points based on an individual’s socioeconomic status rather than that of an entire school, and the Superintendent said this will be discussed at next week’s meeting.

First In-Person Meeting Since Pandemic Features Back-to-School Updates & Capital Planning Report | Last Night at School Committee: September 13th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night was the first School Committee meeting held in-person since the start of the pandemic, and it was conducted in a hybrid format with both in-person and remote public testimony. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which featured a number of positive back-to-school updates, including a low number of teacher vacancies, a high number of schools with fully operational kitchens, and improvements in on-time bus performance. There are still 10 percent of educators without certification and further improvements needed to bus performance, but it was clear that the district has made progress since last year and demonstrated signs of rebound from many issues brought on by the pandemic.

However, this positive update was not reflected in public comment, in which we heard from families frustrated with insufficient services and support structures in the district, nor was it reflected in the remarks made by Committee members later in the meeting. After votes approving a new admissions policy for Madison Park and approving a rating of “proficient” for Superintendent Skipper’s annual performance evaluation, School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson offered shocking testimony about the many ways in which she believes the Boston community is failing its students, calling city councilors, neighborhoods, school employees and parents to task for not leaning into or demanding a better educational experience for the district’s students. She continued by describing her perception of what she deemed to be a “failing school system” and buildings that “should be condemned.” The Chair did not outline a path toward improvement or acknowledge her ability as School Committee Chair to partner with city leadership and right the ship.

The only report of the evening was an update on capital planning in the district. Billed as a discussion of the rubric with which facilities across the district will be evaluated, the report included neither clear metrics nor timelines for facility assessment and improvement, leading Vice Chair Michael O’Neill to seek clarity about the process. The discussion last night was reminiscent of the early days of BuildBPS – the district’s last capital planning process launched nearly a decade ago – which did not achieve its stated objective of facility improvement and consolidation.

New Member Welcomed, Discrimination Investigation Results, Back-to-School Readiness, and Superintendent Evaluation Presented | Last Night at School Committee: August 31st, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night was the first School Committee meeting of the new school year, and it began by introducing the Committee’s newest member, Chantal Lima Barbosa. The first report of the evening was on the results of an external investigation into allegations that BPS leaders discriminated against administrators of color, which concluded that there were no findings of racial discrimination. The meeting continued with the Superintendent’s Report, which focused on back-to-school readiness. Superintendent Skipper shared that hundreds of new educators, bus drivers, bus monitors, and food service workers have been hired, addressing the large number of vacancies from last year. She also announced that, by the end of this semester, over 100 school kitchens will be fully operational and provide daily, scratch-cooked “My Way Café” meals, more than double the number of operational kitchens from last year. The Superintendent’s team also shared that all bus routes have been assigned and half have successfully performed test runs, with the goal of concluding all test runs before school begins next Thursday. The Superintendent then discussed facilities assessment – a topic highlighted in news coverage over the last year in light of plans to reconfigure BPS high schools and polling data concerning a lack of satisfaction with high school options. She shared that a rubric to assess facility conditions will be determined based on feedback from public hearings over the coming months, and a public tool with information about each building will be available later this fall.

After a brief public comment period, the Committee heard two additional reports. The first was a revised admissions policy for Madison Park, addressing concerns that the previously-announced policy presented unnecessary barriers. The revised policy calls for a letter of interest from the applicant, rather than an artifact and two letters of recommendation, and it received a positive response from Committee members. However, questions remain as to whether BPS plans to end its policy of administratively assigning students to Madison Park who do not choose to go there (currently 30% of the student body), and the Superintendent said she will have more information on this at a later date. The second report was the Committee’s evaluation of the Superintendent, which highlighted divisions among members in how they perceive Superintendent Skipper’s performance over the past year. Members acknowledged that this was a difficult transition year in which the Superintendent sought to address significant issues she inherited from the previous administration, and they gave her an overall rating of “proficient.

Superintendent's Annual Self-Evaluation Presented Across Four Performance Standards | Last Night at School Committee: July 26th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s School Committee meeting was a special meeting with only one agenda item: Superintendent Skipper’s self-evaluation of her performance over the past school year. Superintendent Skipper framed her evaluation in four standards: instructional leadership, management and operations, family and community engagement, and professional culture. For each standard, the Superintendent provided a list of areas in which she felt BPS made progress over the past year but did not provide baseline data or measurable goals. This led to numerous questions from School Committee members seeking to understand how these areas relate to one another and the district’s goals within each of these areas for the year ahead. The report did not touch on student achievement data or goals to improve student outcomes, leading Chair Jeri Robinson to ask how these achievements will be tangible to the many students who still go to failing schools each day.

Madison Park Admissions, Member Departure, O'Bryant Relocation, and Year-End Updates on the Agenda | Last Night at School Committee: June 21st, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night was the last School Committee meeting of this academic year, and it was an unusual one. There were no reports on the agenda (other than the Superintendent’s Report), and the meeting came in the wake of multiple controversies in the BPS community.

The meeting began with an update from Chair Jeri Robinson on the new admissions policy for Madison Park proposed last month. Chair Robinson shared that this policy created unintentional barriers for students, and that BPS will be reconsidering the policy and coming forth with a new recommendation in the fall. Next, School Committee member Lorena Lopera announced that she will be stepping down from her position after this meeting in order to take a new job and spend more time with her family.

The meeting continued with the Superintendent’s Report, which began with an acknowledgement of the recent news story concerning an adult woman who fraudulently impersonated a student at three separate BPS schools over the past year. Superintendent Skipper did not provide any further information about this fraud but said the Boston Police Department is investigating the matter. She then provided an update on BPS summer learning opportunities, sharing that enrollment data exceeded the goals set for this year with over a thousand more spaces filled than last year. After a short discussion of MassCore and a recap of accomplishments from the past year, the remainder of the Superintendent’s Report was devoted to a state-mandated update on transformation schools. This report contained only a brief mention of attendance trends among the 30 transformation schools and did not delve into any further data on performance or outcomes. School Committee members expressed frustration at the lack of content in this update, pointing out the stark contrast to the hours spent discussing the three exam schools. Members also raised the recent Boston Globe article about disparities among BPS high schools and pressed for the Superintendent and her team to develop a resource for parents that outlines the academic and extracurricular offerings at every school (similar to what was included in the Globe story).

The majority of the meeting was devoted to public comment, in which dozens of commenters testified against moving the O’Bryant School to West Roxbury, and others expressed their opinions on the personnel controversy at BLA. The lack of information about the O’Bryant announcement was a consistent theme throughout the meeting, and the meeting ended with a plea from the Committee for a more defined and robust public engagement strategy.

Last Night at School Committee: June 7th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s meeting began with a discussion of a big announcement made the previous day by Mayor Wu and Superintendent Skipper regarding changes to several BPS high schools. On Tuesday, these leaders announced a vision that included relocating the O’Bryant School to the vacant West Roxbury Education Complex in a new, state-of-the-art facility and expanding the Madison Park School to fill the space vacated by the O’Bryant, allowing Madison Park to double its enrollment. Superintendent Skipper reiterated this vision in last night’s meeting, and members asked about timeline, budget, and public engagement, noting that members of these communities and School Committee members themselves were not briefed prior to this announcement. The Superintendent’s team shared that this work will not begin until 2025 and that a more comprehensive plan will be presented at a later date.

The meeting moved on to public comment, where 61 speakers signed up to testify. The majority of comments were from teachers and community members asking the School Committee to support a comprehensive ethnic studies curriculum in the district (School Committee Chair Robinson later noted that she has not seen any written materials on this and requested that these materials be made available prior to the next meeting). Additional testimony was given on four other topics. Many parents testified about Boston Latin Academy Head of School Gavin Smith, whom the Superintendent noted has been the target of complaints from the school community. Others testified about the O’Bryant School announcement, with teachers at the school expressing frustration about not being consulted in the decision. Several parents from the Shaw School spoke about their dissatisfaction with the ongoing merger with the Taylor School, despite the fact that this merger was approved by the Committee last meeting. And several parents and students testified in favor of amending the current exam school policy by changing the allocation of bonus points, adjusting the number of invitations in proportion to the number of applicants per socioeconomic tier, and adding more overall exam school seats, in order to solve for the many qualified students denied a seat under the new admissions protocol.

This was the focus of the remainder of the meeting, beginning with a presentation from BPS on data from the recent exam school admissions cycle. The report recapped the reasons for the adoption of the new policy and demonstrated that the policy did succeed in expanding exam school access to a broader array of BPS schools and neighborhoods. At the same time, the data showed that exam school admission was determined primarily by the socioeconomic tier in which a student was placed, with all students in lower tiers accepted compared to less than half of students in higher tiers. Similarly, students in lower tiers were accepted with a composite score as low as 64.8/100, while students in higher tiers were rejected with near-perfect (or, in one case, perfect) scores. Parents have repeatedly testified at School Committee about flaws in the setup of these tiers, with same streets divided into two tiers and vast income disparities within single tiers. Last night, members pressed for reconsidering certain elements of this policy – including awarding bonus points on an individual rather than a schoolwide basis – and for expanding seats to that every eligible student can be awarded an exam school seat, but BPS leaders held firm that they would not consider any changes to this policy for at least five years.

Last Night at School Committee: May 24th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which started with a moment of silence for the recent loss of two students. The Superintendent then discussed a recent Boston Globe article on chronic absenteeism, noting that BPS has seen a 7% improvement in its chronic absenteeism rate but still has a long way to go (chronic absenteeism is currently around 40%). School Committee members pressed the Superintendent for answers on two other issues that have been in the news recently. First, members asked about a recent controversy surrounding improper payment of a plumbing contract, to which the Superintendent noted that an external auditor will be reviewing procurement practices. She also noted that the district has hired a director to lead its internal auditing office but is still working to grow that capacity. Second, members asked for data on exam school admissions, seeking the number of students who applied and did not get a seat. The Superintendent was unable to answer this question but said she would provide this data at the next meeting. (For more information about the exam school admissions process, including an eleventh-hour change in the policy that was ultimately adopted, listen to our recap from that July 2021 vote).

The meeting moved on to public comment, where parents raised concerns about discrepancies in exam school admissions, overdue back-pay for educators, and the impending mergers of the Shaw/Taylor and Sumner/Philbrick Schools – a topic that would be brought to a vote later in the meeting.

After public comment, the School Committee voted on withdrawal from the Massachusetts School Choice Program. This annual vote is typically perfunctory, with School Committee members quickly adopting the Superintendent's recommendation not to participate in school choice, but last night there was a lively discussion and a close vote. Members questioned the district’s logic in opting out of participation, highlighting how this program could help create more pathways for students and increase enrollment in under-enrolled schools. The motion to continue opting out of participation in school choice ultimately passed 3-2, with one abstention.

After the school choice vote, the School Committee held two votes on merging the Shaw/Taylor and Sumner/Philbrick Schools. Again, members pushed for details about both the merger process – including a calendar for public engagement over the next year – and the specifics for each school – including who will lead the merged communities, what services will be provided to students, and how much funding the combined entities will be given. The Superintendent and her team said the work to answer these questions will happen after the vote and advocated for the Committee to move forward. The Committee approved both mergers unanimously.

The meeting ended with a report on a recommended admissions policy for the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. In response to a state mandate that all vocational schools have an admissions policy, BPS presented a new policy by which students would apply and submit teacher recommendations, rather than being assigned to the school without applying (which currently happens for 30% of students). According to the new policy, students who apply beyond the current capacity will be selected by lottery. Members were receptive to this policy that gives students more agency in the schools they choose.

Last Night at School Committee: May 10th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night was a short School Committee meeting beginning with the Superintendent’s Report, which focused on summer program enrollment. School Committee members pressed for details on exam school admissions, a topic notably absent from the Superintendent’s Report despite students having just received invitations last Friday, and multiple parents joined public comment to express frustrations with errors that led to their students being incorrectly rejected from their top choice schools.

The Superintendent and her team then presented on the Massachusetts School Choice Program – a discussion and vote required annually – and argued for the School Committee to reject School Choice at their next meeting. More than half of the districts in Massachusetts allow School Choice, meaning students from other districts can enroll in their schools and vice versa, while Boston and its surrounding communities do not (this map from 2017 shows interesting geographic trends across the state on school choice). BPS leaders cited increasing enrollment as a reason to vote against School Choice, while in reality the district has acknowledged that enrollment is declining. They also expressed concern that students from surrounding districts would flood into Boston schools but did not acknowledge that Boston would likely lose students to neighboring communities as well. The vote on this program will be held at the next meeting.

The last report of the evening was an update of the district’s Systemic Improvement Plan (SIP), which was intended to highlight the district’s progress in meeting key state mandates around transportation, student safety, special education, multilingual education, and data and accountability. The long presentation provided only a high-level overview of actions the district is taking but did not address metrics or outcomes, and Committee members pushed for answers about how BPS leaders are implementing plans and evaluating success. Members of the Superintendent’s team responded to these performance-oriented questions with process-oriented answers, and Superintendent Skipper stepped in on multiple occasions to provide further detail.

Last Night at School Committee: April 26th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which focused on acceleration academies and summer programming. The Superintendent discussed the district’s expansion of summer learning seats, announcing that BPS now has the capacity to serve 17,000 students this summer, with about 4,500 students already enrolled. There was no discussion of the process for choosing and enrolling in specific programs, which is a frequent concern among parents.

There were over a dozen public comments at last night’s meeting. Half of the commenters testified about systemic shortcomings affecting their child’s education, from a lack of special education services to buses that don’t show up. The other half of comments were from parents troubled by the district’s engagement process for school mergers, raising issues with efforts from BPS leaders to move ahead with these projects despite incomplete information and insufficient community input.

These comments directly related to the main presentation of last night’s meeting: a report on capital planning and school mergers. The Superintendent and her team discussed the need to consolidate given declining enrollment paired with expiring federal relief dollars – a notable tone shift from previous budget discussions – and also highlighted their desire to ensure every school is fully-inclusive through the merger process. The lack of clarity around the vision guiding the merger process was complemented by a lack of clarity about the process itself. The Mayor’s Office presented a process involving six planning steps to happen over eight weeks each in a repeating cycle over the next year as the district makes decisions about which schools should close and merge. School Committee members questioned the abstract nature of this outline, advocating for the district to instead provide parents with concrete dates and deadlines, but were left with more unanswered questions. The meeting ended with a comment from School Committee member Dr. Stephen Alkins calling on the Committee to improve how it communicates with – and reflects the desires of – the families it serves.

Last Night at School Committee: April 12th, 2023 Meeting Recap

What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.

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Last night was a short School Committee meeting, with only one report on transformation schools. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s report, in which she touched on two issues. First, Superintendent Skipper discussed an error in the exam schools admissions process that led to the miscalculation of student GPAs, affecting eligibility for dozens of students. The exam schools admissions process has been a major focus area for the Committee over the past three years, despite representing just a small minority of BPS students, and the Superintendent noted last night that both the district and its external auditor did not catch this critical error until it was ultimately flagged by an impacted parent. Second, Superintendent Skipper discussed ongoing issues with the Henderson School including errors in recent school job postings – a topic that was also brought up during public comment.

Following votes to approve several new union contracts, the only report of the night was an update on transformation schools. Transformation schools – a label given to the lowest-performing schools in the district based on state rankings – include about a quarter of BPS schools. The report highlighted several areas of concern at these schools, including chronic absenteeism rates of over 40% and high numbers of staff vacancies (Madison Park alone has 60 vacant positions). District-wide, BPS high school students last year missed an average of 31.5 days – more than six weeks – leading to concerns from Committee members about what’s driving increases in absenteeism and what steps district leaders are taking to address it.