Ep. 41, Last Night @ School Committee: 10/27 recap

Last Night At School Committee

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which featured an unannounced update on the exam school policy and its implementation. The report left many of the key questions unanswered, and numerous public commenters expressed confusion and frustration on this topic. The meeting continued with two reports. The first was an update on BuildBPS and included plans to close three schools: the Irving Middle School, Timilty Middle School, and Jackson-Mann School. This announcement elicited a large outcry during public comment from parents impacted by these closures, including a group of commenters from the Sumner Elementary School in Roslindale who were informed just this week that theirs would be the only elementary school in the neighborhood not getting a 6th grade. The last report of the night was a presentation on the Superintendent’s Strategic Plan, which was presented by Charles Grandson and lacked necessary data and measurable outcomes.

After a long and complicated meeting, we are still left with the following questions:

• What is the long term plan for BPS school buildings? What is the quality guarantee and when will it be implemented?
• When will the school system respond to the concrete data requests from school committee members?
• It is important to note that both Lorena and Rafaela’s terms expire after the next meeting following the election of a new mayor. Given their insightful and meaningful questions and contributions, these should be considered when the new mayor and her team review their applications for a full term. Will they be reappointed to full terms?
• What is happening with the ESSR funds? The application date for the new and largest round of funding has come and gone. What is BPS doing with the funding? We’d love to hear an update.

The School Committee will meet again next week on November 3 tentatively at 5pm.

Ways to Engage and Resources:

• Vote for a new Mayor in November. Education should be a core issue for all elected officials and your vote matters. You can read their policy proposals regarding education below:
• Michelle Wu
• Annissa Essaibi-George
• Advocate to the School Committee members to increase their accountability of the Superintendent and her team.
• Chair Jeri Robinson: [e-mail]
• Vice Chair Michael O’Neill: [e-mail]
• Dr. Hardin Coleman: [e-mail]
• Ernani DeAraujo: [e-mail]
• Quoc Tran: [e-mail]
• Meeting Presentations and Materials
• BuildBPS Update PowerPoint
• Update of Strategic Plan Implementation Powerpoint
• Exam School Updated Website

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