Just before the meeting began, the public was made aware of a bombshell story, broken by the Boston Globe, that Superintendent Cassellius’ license had expired. We also learned that state officials had notified the Superintendent multiple times in the six months prior about the pending expiration, and yet the Superintendent did not take the assessment necessary for renewal.

The bulk of the meeting focused on the Superintendent’s proposal for a new Exam School entrance policy, which was different from the previous proposal presented to the School Committee at the last meeting.

The six-hour meeting began with the Superintendent preemptively framing the evening’s conversation around the recommendation from the Exam School Task Force for a new admissions policy to the three exam schools. The Superintendent also provided updates on summer learning, saying, with just a week before summer programs begin, 75% of seats are filled.

The first meeting since the resignation of two committee members, Lorna Rivera and Alexandra Oliver-Dávila, the meeting began with the election of the new chair, Jerri Robinson, with Michael O’Neill remaining as vice chair. The Superintendent provided an update on the end of the school year and summer programming, which starts in a few weeks and currently has 73% of its seats filled and a need for staffing.

Overall, the plans presented last night outlined a positive vision for BPS grounded in equity and student achievement but lacking important detail around implementation.

As the School Committee voted in a new graduation policy and shared a vision for new buildings, there were many things that were not addressed in the meeting, including attendance numbers in schools, updates on the return to full in-person learning for high school students, and detailed plans for summer learning.

Last night’s meeting also included a vote on the revised attendance policy and on an agreement between the Boston Teachers’ Union and the Boston School Committee regarding Family Liaison Classification. The meeting ended with a report on equitable policy.

There were two votes removed from the agenda on the day of the meeting; school committee goals and guardrails, and using masscore for the district’s graduation policy. Public comment featured 16 speakers, nearly all of whom advocated for suspending this year’s MCAS exam. The  Biden administration has already granted one waiver to a school district to postpone their standardized testing.

The meeting began with the Superintendent's report on returning to school including the plan to return students in K-8 to 5 days a week of in person learning beginning April 26th.

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting was preceded by the last budget hearing before the School Committee vote next week.

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting was a long one, about 6.5 hours. There were 62 residents providing public comment, who included students, parents, and community organizations, and they all had one unified message: we do not trust the district. There was a fierce vibration as students advocated for a stronger voice in decision making.

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston Public Schools’ School Committee meeting. During this 3-hour meeting, the Superintendent and her team unveiled a preliminary budget to the School Committee for FY2022, in addition to a report on attendance and a supportive vote on allowing the district flexibilities for graduation requirements, advanced work class admission, promotion and grading. As a group of high in-person priority students were welcomed back today, there was little discussion on re-opening efforts across the district.

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston Public Schools’ School Committee meeting. During this 3-hour meeting, the School Committee discussed newly announced school building reopening updates, heard from families and community members in public comment, and reviewed a proposal from the Superintendent about the readjustment of certain policies for this school year, including changes to testing and placement for the Advanced Work Class program.

In our first episode of 2021, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston Public School Committee Meeting. During this 5-hour meeting, the School Committee discussed reopening updates, heard from families and community members in public comment, and heard updates on the Superintendent’s goals as well as updates from the Exam School task force and the Office of Equity. This was the first meeting since Mayor Walsh has accepted the nomination to be Labor Secretary for President-elect Joe Biden as well as hearing from Governor Baker about a plan for pooled testing for schools.

As we heard updates regarding reopening 28 schools as well as financial updates and discussion about the Superintendent’s performance goals for 2020-21, public comment featured frustration, anger and a lack of confidence from different community members about reopening schools. This lack of confidence has become more present this week, as the Boston Teachers Union gave a vote of no confidence towards the Superintendent.

While the last meeting touched on a variety of topics, the School Committee mostly focused on updates surrounding the BuildBPS plan that deals with the construction of school buildings, reimagining of school pathways and more. While there are multiple projects ongoing, the meeting focused on the closing of the Edwards Middle School, the merging of the McCormack Middle School and Boston Community Leadership Academy, 7-12 grade pathway expansions at Charlestown High School and East Boston High School, and the Horace Mann/Jackson Mann.

The first meeting since the resignation of former Chairperson Michael Loconto and the release of text exchanges between School Committee members, the School Committee voted on new leadership, heard updates from Superintendent Cassellius and from Human Capital, and heard concerns from families and community members during public comment.

On October 21st, 2020, the Boston School Committee unanimously approved a change to the admissions policy for the three exam schools: Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. The policy, recommended to the Superintendent by a working group formed over the summer, scraps the use of an admissions test and distributes seats to eligible students through a combination of GPAs from the 2019-2020 fall and winter semesters and zip code. The School Committee voted for this one year policy, and the working group will continue to look at revising the exam school admissions policy for the following years.

The meeting was centered around the proposed exam school admissions policy, presented by the Exam School Admissions Working Group. Lasting almost 9 hours, we heard from students, families, teachers, city councilors, and even Mayor Walsh regarding the new recommended policy.

On October 8, 2020 during the most recent Boston School Committee meeting, a task force focused on looking at exam school admissions proposed a policy that would suspend the current admissions policy, and replace it for one year with a new policy due to the challenges and inequalities presented by COVID. BPS has historically used a combination of 5th and 6th grade Grade Point Average (GPA) and a student’s ISEE test score for invitations to exam schools, but, instead, this year, students will be invited to exam schools through a combination of GPA and/or MCAS score and resident zip code.