Boston School Committee - Regular Meeting

Yes. We're ready.

Good evening, and welcome to this special meeting of the Boston School Committee. I'm chairperson Jerry Robinson. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Because this is a remote meeting, I will ask Ms. Parvick to please call the roll.

Thank you, chair. Doctor. Hawkins?

Present.

Mr. Cadet Hernandez?

Present.

Miss Lima Barbosa?

Present.

Miss Polanco Garcia? Present. Mister Tran? Mister O'Neill?

Present.

Miss Robinson?

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Thank you. Tonight's session is shared being shared live on Zoom. It will be posted on the school committee's web page and on YouTube. Tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's web page, bostonpublicschools.org/schoolcommittee under the July 9 meeting link.

The meeting documents have been translated into all of the major BPS languages. Any translations that are not ready prior to the start of the meeting will be posted as soon as they are finalized. The committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and American sign language. Zoom interpretation feature has been activated. Zoom participants should click the globe icon at the bottom of your screen to select your language preference.

I'd like to remind everyone to speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. Before we begin, I want to note that this is a special meeting called specifically to vote on the superintendent's 24, twenty twenty five summative evaluation. However, a few time sensitive items have come up that we needed to add to the agenda. Before we move into these items, I wanna pause and remind everyone that as miss Barbosa shared at our last meeting, today is her last day with us. Thank you, miss Nima Barbosa, your commitment, your thoughtful leadership, and always uplifting studio voices.

This work is not easy, and your presence and voice will be missed. And we wish you all the best. For those who weren't with us last time, I wanna make sure you also have the opportunity to join us in recognizing miss Lina Barbosa. I'll open it up for members to share their thoughts. Mr. Cardet Hernandez?

Just wanna say thank you for your service and your commitment, and it's been a pleasure, obviously, to to work together. And good luck on this next chapter.

Right. Thank you. Doctor. Alkins?

Yes. Just echoing, the sentiments of, my fellow school committee member, you know, miss Lima Barbosa, a brief time, but a, still impactful. And I know that your the spirit that you have around, making sure that communities are properly engaged and are included in all aspects of the decision making is something that we shall remember you for and and take forward, and, you know, we we we will do you proud. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister Tran?

I'm also echoing, other members who have spoken. Thank you for your valuable, contribution even though it was a short time that I know you, but I but I do real really enjoy having you as a member, as a friend, and good luck in your new endeavor.

Thank you. Superintendent?

Yeah. I just too wanted to say, you know, thank you, first of all, for coming back, right, and serving in BPS, having been a student. You know, I think it just you know, your passion, your your your talent, you could do so many other things, and you chose to do school committee, and and that that really says a lot. You also were just so good at always keeping student voice at the center of whatever we talked about, and we'll just always appreciate the schools that we visited, your input on the welcome center, and how we could make it a better and more special place for our families. Just thank you and just wish you the best of luck. And, again, hope this is not goodbye, but just see you at a different time.

Oops. I'm doing school committee. Sorry about that. Superintendent oh, sorry. Miss Polanco Garcia.

Thank you, madam chair. I wanna say, Chantal, thank you for you involved. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for everything. Your voice is very, very, very important in the in the commute committee. Good luck, and you and you work. Thank you. Thank you.

And mister O'Neil.

Thank you, miss Lima Barbozo. I said a lot last time, so I will strictly say, good luck. We're gonna miss you. And thank you for, as the superintendent said, how you always kept student voice centered and bringing the perspective of a more recent graduate than the chair and myself, and particularly our conversations around your alma mater, the Jeremiah E. Burak Nalli Albert Harlan School of Technology and making sure the district continues to live up to the second part of that name, school of technology, and how how you raise that issue for all of us. But good luck in your next step. We're gonna miss working with you.

And as and as I've said to you many times, thank you so much, and look forward to hearing what comes next for you. Take care. Thank you. K. We'll now begin with the we will start with report, which will be presented now and brought forward for a vote later during the action item portion of the meeting. This report pertains to the land deregistration. First, I want to invite the superintendent to give introductory remarks.

Certainly, chair. And, chair, I did have a few things I just wanted to, kind of quickly update on. And so Okay. I I didn't know if you wanted me to do that.

Yes. Yes. You can. Thank you.

Great. Okay. Great. So, first of all, you know, this is the the end of the school year and, the summer. It's the usual time for us to see some transitions in district staff.

Fortunately, we have an incredibly stable principal core and central core, but there are a few key staff, who are gonna be transitioning, and I just thought it would be good to update you tonight, on those staff members. As you know, Rochelle Woso, who was, our chief of staff for the last several years, she's leaving PPS or has actually left at this point, in order to relocate out of state with her family. This is a key position in our organization, and I'm excited to introduce Yousafy Valli, who is on the school committee call tonight as our new chief of staff to help ensure that all the critical work day to day happens and happens successfully. Yousafy joined BPS back in December when he came in as our deputy chief of staff. And most recently, he served also as mayor Wu's deputy chief of staff, and before that, as the director of the mayor's office of immigrant advancement.

So welcoming to Youssefi in this new role and every confidence that he's gonna be very successful for us as an organization. I also recently announced that doctor Linda Chen has made the difficult decision to leave her current role as the senior deputy superintendent of academics in mid August to be able to relocate and better support her family on the West Coast. Linda's a brilliant colleague and, more importantly, a dear friend. She's worked in urban ed for, over thirty years, and she really believes firmly in everything she does, the power of education to change a child's life. She has an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of our students, one that I've seen very rarely, among colleagues.

Linda and I are currently working on a transition plan. We have the position posted. It's definitely getting a lot of attention as you would imagine it would, both locally and nationally. I will certainly keep our committee, posted on this. We hope to have someone in place for the start of the school year, but most importantly, we wanna have the right person in place.

And then I'd also like to mention that after three years of service in her current role, and twenty three years in total in BPS, Leslie Ryan Miller will step down from her position as chief of teaching and learning and move to a new role as the chief of staff for the Girl Scouts of America eastern region. Leslie's led such important work on the teaching and learning team, really ensuring that we have nearly a 100% of schools using high quality instructional materials and a deep focus on equitable literacy and numeracy, and that it's happening in every school and every classroom across BPS. In consultation with Leslie, doctor Angela Headley Mitchell, who has been in the district for many, many years, she'll assume the role of interim chief serving as our executive director of human well, she has served as the executive director of humanities for the past three years. Doctor Hedley Mitchell is deeply familiar with the work that is happening across teaching and learning. And I know, and Leslie knows that she will ensure all of our work in curriculum and instruction carries forward seamlessly.

We also kicked off our summer programming earlier this week, always one of my favorite times of the year. Just wanna briefly mention a couple things. Our 2025 summer programming includes our fifth quarter programming, our extended school year, what we call ESY, our student support programming, our twenty first century summer learning programs, and our exam school initiative just for a few examples. Our extended school year began on Monday, July 7, and our fifth quarter began yesterday, which was July 8, a a day later than we normally do. And and this was very deliberate so that we could have Monday to be able to have our staff in, provide some critical PD and information to all sites before students arrived, on Tuesday.

To date, we have 2,913 students who are confirmed to attend the ESY, and 6,783 students have accepted a seat in our fifth quarter program. In total, BPS' summer programming portfolio has the capacity to serve nearly 12,500 students, and this will happen across 81 of our school buildings this summer. As of right now, the high school credit recovery and the middle school course recovery programs have a combined enrollment of almost 35 thou of almost 3,500 students. There's a big push for us this year with our high school students as has been the case to make credit up, to make sure that they can, you know, graduate on time, and especially those juniors and seniors who are just a few credits away from graduating so that we can have a a one of the most robust summer graduations, which will happen in August. We're also excited to offer free summer meals, breakfast and lunch to all children and teens 18 at more than a 100 locations across our neighborhoods.

There's no identification or preregistration required. This is really in an effort to care for our whole community. I'm also happy to report that from a transportation lens, we achieved 7676% morning bus on time performance on the first day of ESY, and that was 27% points higher than last year and 18 percentage points higher than two years ago. These, again, continue to be important milestones as our transportation system gets stronger and stronger for that on time performance. Again, on day two, which was the start of our full fifth quarter, we had 84% of the morning buses arriving on time, and this was 20 percentage points higher than last year and 15 percentage points higher than two years ago.

And we'll keep making that until we get higher and higher to a 100%. For any more information to the public about our summer, our summer programming, they can go to bostonpublicschools.org forward slash all lowercase summer resources. Chair, as you mentioned tonight, we're asking the school committee to approve the deregistration of land that's located at 315 Mount Vernon Street in Dorchester. This is the site of the planned boys and girls Martin Richard Foundation Fieldhouse project. We're asking the committee to take this vote later in this meeting.

School committee members are in receipt of a memo regarding this request, which is publicly available along with tonight's meeting materials at bostonpublicschools.org forward /lowercaseschoolcommittee. The 75,000 square foot Field House will include indoor athletic fields in courts, walking track, fitness and training rooms, classrooms, and other amenities in the community. In 2020, this body voted to sublease the BPS owned land, and the district entered into a thirty year lease agreement with the Boys and Girls Club that started in March 2021, just as a reminder. The Boys and Girls Club needs permits to continue the construction, and the land needs to be subdivided for them to receive the permits. In order to subdivide the land, the Massachusetts Land Court requires a certificate of authority to deregister the land, And this is an administrative act that will allow the construction to continue.

And, chair, at this time, I have some other mentions around grants, but I think at this time, we have with us Lorenzo DeSilvio, who's our legal adviser, and he'll be here to answer any questions when we get to the report. Just finally, relative to the grants, there's four grants for your consideration tonight, and they're totaling more than $934,000. The largest is a $375,000 comprehensive school health services grant, and this will serve more than 46,000 students district wide. The grant will be used to reduce chronic absenteeism for students affected by chronic diseases by supporting nurse case management. There's also a $360,000 comprehensive behavioral health model research and data grant that will serve forty forty five thousand students across a 121 schools.

The grant provides a continuum of prevention and promotion, at risk services, and intensive services to meet the behavioral needs of our students. More than 800 students district wide will have access to comprehensive eye exams through a $195,230 f y '26 pilot BPS vision program grant. And finally, there's a $4,000 twenty first century community learning center grant, which will increase access to high quality academically enriching summer program for students on IEPs at the Umana Academy. We have with us Marcella Makaya, who is our director of federal and state grants, programs, and compliance. And when we get to the grant side, were there to be any questions, we would be able to take that up then.

Finally, just on grants, I know that there's been a lot in the press and the media around this. We are we will be providing a memo for school committee to just be able to further delineate and explain, you know, what the potential impact is for us. Right now, the funding is indicating from the federal government a delay. I wanna emphasize a couple things. One is that we don't we do not believe that there'll be an impact to any BPS employees for the coming school year, '25, '26, or for any of the current BPS summer programming.

In terms of the types of funding, it is our title dollars, particularly our title two a. This is a supporting effective instruction side of the house, and this is what we use around student achievement, principal development, things like that. Title three, which directly impacts our language instruction for our English learners and immigrant students. Title four a, which is a title grant that does student support and academic enrichment. And title four b, which is our twenty first century learning centers grant.

Again, we are actively looking within our own budget for temporary funding to be able to offset. We do not, right now, foresee any impact to staffing who are on these grants for the 2526 school year. And, again, this will not impact our summer. But this is certainly something that we need to keep you informed about. We need to keep our community informed about, and, you know, we're gonna be doing a lot of deep planning as we've already begun for how we might be able to support and offset some of these critical need services. I think that's it, chair, for right now.

Okay. We can do one quick round of questions, and then we need to go back to the land deregulation report. Does anybody have any questions at this point? Mister Hernandez?

Yeah. I have a few questions just because it's our final meeting. I can ask them all at once if that's easier. I can break them down. What would you prefer, superintendent?

I'm fine if you wanna just ask.

Okay. Great. So first one, I'm just wondering if you have an update for us on the White Stadium cost just because there's been a lot of news about it exceeding the figure due to rising material cost. So is there an update on our the anticipated cost as well as the impact on the budget, particularly given some of the other issues? The first one.

I think it's I think it's something that the city is monitoring. I think it's a bit of a moving target as a lot of construction projects are. We can get I can give you that in writing, once we have came in conference with the city and sort of see what the latest figures are.

Awesome. It's like what I have just as we're ending the school year is the work that we're doing to develop a a system wide AI policy. Is there any further progress in this, and what can we anticipate? Yes. When can we anticipate that we'll have something to review as a committee?

Yes. So there's an actual work group that's working out of, teaching and learning. Doctor Chen and several of the staff have been involved in that. Once again, we can update, and we'll provide something as we get closer to school. But we see AI as something that we want to be able to embrace and figure out how it can help us, particularly on the teaching and learning side. So our staff has been actively involved in several conferences. Happy again at the start of school to give some update.

Great. And and are we anticipating that there'll be a policy for the fall or something later?

I think that this is something that we will the first piece is to update how we're thinking about using it. Part of that branch would be policy, but the other is gonna be the practice. So we'll give some update in the September meetings about next steps there, and if there is policy implication, when we might bring forward language.

Okay. And then just to for further clarity on the federal funding conversation, is it fair as we're thinking about the sort of thesis here? No major impacts for the summer or the fall, possibly some delayed impact based on the way that we're budgeting if the money doesn't come in, or is there a chance that there is an impact to the fall and the student experience in the fall? And then the sort of second part of that question is when can we anticipate a memo that will help us understand that?

So the the memo will be imminent, relative to what the impacts could be. In terms of the offsets, that's something that we're actively looking for, that temporary funding. Again, right now, all we know is this is delay. So we'll be doing some planning, but at the same time, we hope not to have to actually use that planning. And we hope that this is money that gets released because it I can't underscore enough. You know, this is $8,000,000 for us, and it funds some really critical needs areas of the organization. So

Sounds good.

Yeah. So but the call will be forthcoming in in in the next day.

Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. We're You're welcome. And then two more questions. Do we have an enrollment update for the fall since this is our last meeting as well as a graduation rate update based on, the recent graduation?

So the enrollment will be we're calculating round three now, so that would not be ready yet, but we will give a memo to that. What we do know is, we are seeing impact to our multilingual learners. I think that's something I've updated committee on. And so we do we do anticipate some impact there at each of the grade levels. I think the other thing is last year's high school data also included several closures of charters.

So we actually saw, like, an artificial inflation that happened because we took students in. And so it'll remain to see if we see that kind of go back to normal level or whether that stays increased. But, again, once we finish the calculations with round three and the analysis, that's something we'll be happy to share for the start of school. Your other question was?

On graduation rate. So we've wrapped up the chunk of graduation season, obviously, knowing that they're summer graduates. But do you have an update on our current graduation?

Yeah. So we don't we don't calculate the graduation rate off cycle like that. We wait until we do the summer graduations because it's actually pretty extensive. In fact, we're hoping, and I I would hope that school committee will attend the the district graduation. We'll get you the invites for that. But we're hoping that this is one of our largest, because we had many students who are close. But because of pandemic loss, they were dragging credit here or there. We're merely making an effort, literally going door to door to make sure that students know what they can take advantage of in order to cross that crash graduation threshold. So once again, we'll let the summer graduation happen, and then we can get some updated figures.

Great. It would be helpful when we get the figure two just for our own understanding, the students who finish on track cycle and then students who are off track and the relationship between the final number.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I can have further conversation with you. Off track is slightly hard to define because it's a multilingual learner that takes extra time to complete their coursework off track, or is that a multilingual learner that just needs extra time because they're learning English in the process and need that additional year to be able to get graduation rate? But happy to have that conversation.

Yeah. No. I think, like, a traditional four year number and then a five year and a six year number, I think that type sort of trends nationally. It's how I understand the reporting structure, but I agree with you. Obviously, every student is different. Every student is complex. I don't think it's a negative or a positive, but it's interesting for us to understand who is finishing in the typical four year time cycle versus who is taking the summer programs that we that we offer, the the the credit recovery that we are able to fund and then and then create like, then what does that actually turnkey in terms of the whole network?

Okay. Yeah. We we'll get you, as I said, after the August graduation, where we're hoping as many students as possible are able to get across that graduation line and on to the next level. We'll give you updated

figure. Thanks. You're welcome.

Are there any other questions before we move on to the report? No? We can move on to the land deregistration.

So I think if there's any questions, consulate de Silvio can answer them specifically. But I think, chair, the comments that I made are are were pertinent for this vote. And we would just encourage a positive vote so that construction can move forward.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. We will now then move on to general public comment. Ms. Parviz?

Thank you, chair. The public comment period is an opportunity for individuals to address the school committee on school related issues. Questions on specific school matters are referred to the superintendent. Questions on policy matter will be discussed by the committee later. We have 10 speakers this evening. Each person will have three minutes to speak, and I would remind you when you have thirty seconds remaining. Please feel free to email your comments for distribution to the committee. Speakers may not reassign the time to others. The time that an that an interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from the speaker's allotted time. Please direct your comments to the chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members or district staff.

Please note the comments of any public speaker do not represent the Boston Public Schools or the Boston School Committee. Please state your name, affiliation, and where you live before you begin. Please sign in using the name you registered with for public comment, and be ready to unmute and turn on your camera when it's your turn to speak. Please raise your hand virtual hand when I call your name. To support interpretation, please speak slowly and clearly.

We will start with our first group. It's Vernee Wilkson Wilkinson, John Mudd, Cheryl Buckman, and Mike Heischmann. Please raise your hands. You cannot thank you. Okay. You

can start. Hello. Good evening. Thank you to the committee. My name is Brene Wilkinson, and I'm with Schoolfax Boston.

In the, I believe, most recent, school committee meeting, updates were shared about possible changes in the exam school policy. And as it relates to previous work, have members of the exam school policy committee that approved the most recent iteration of the work, have they been updated and informed? It would be important to ensure that they are looped in for any possible lessons learned and to avoid any redundancy of efforts. As it relates to community input, which is our foremost concern at this time, In the last school committee meeting, it was shared that there will be upcoming community engagement on this topic. When and where will those meetings be?

It will be important for there to be robust community engagement this summer and into the fall to ensure that potential impacted communities and families will be heard from in a thoughtful way. And as it relates to data, we are looking for transparency in data. We agree with the superintendent that this the issue of there being less access potentially for black students around a number of 7% that that will need to be drilled into more deeply. So we're looking for the data as the the district does indeed drill into this issue more deeply, that it needs to be shared so that the community can give thoughtful and relevant feedback as it might relate to any possible changes. So data will need to be presented at school committee as well as shared out widely with the compute community.

So in closing, transparency and thoughtful community engagement will be essential in moving forward in this work, especially with this kind of summer timeline. We really wanna advocate for this conversation not to get lost in in the season, and that will ideally be able to work towards an equitable outcome that won't have to be returned to year after year so that this topic won't continue to pull time and attention and seconds. Away from other school and district matters that that need urgent attention. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Jan Man.

My name is John Mudd. I'm a resident of Cambridge and a longtime education advocate in Boston and grandfather of a student at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. With the three school committee and BPS staff working groups over the summer and with the resignation of key b key BPS staff leaders as the superintendent noted and a new state commissioner of education, there's an important opportunity to rethink BPS approaches to the education of multilingual learners and multilingual learners with disabilities, as well as the equitable literacy strategy. Please take advantage of this opportunity.

The committee and BPS say that they are data driven and student outcome focused. The data is clear that English immersion through SEI and inclusive education is failing to prepare more than ninety percent of multilingual learner students to meet state MCAS standards. The data also shows that equitable literacy is not accelerating improvement of ELA reading scores in the early grades or reducing achievement gaps. Something needs to change in adult behavior if we are to expect student outcomes to improve significantly as we all hope they will. For multilingual learners, the research evidence is clear that building on the foundation of home language is a better way to learn academic English and lay the groundwork for dual language inherited language learning for those who want it.

There are many ways that BPS could promote the value of home language. For example, by encouraging parents to speak and read to their children in their home language, by providing professional development to monolingual English speaking teachers on how to support home language with their home mild to mild students, by expanding bilingual education programs, and by stopping the implementation of inclusive education for multilingual students. Think through these alternatives this summer and then come up with recommendations for changes from the working groups, and then let's have a serious open give and take discussion with experts and stakeholders on new ways forward in the fall. As I've said earlier, I think you're missing an opportunity to invoke out the voices of the working in the working groups. Without this, maybe you could brainstorm on how to have a fuller discussion of these issues with open hearings or town halls in this coming fall and winter.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you, mister Mann. Our next speaker is Sheryl Buckman.

Good evening. My name is Sheryl Buckman. I'm a Deborah alumni, parent, and lead spokesperson. I live in South Boston, and I'm here to speak about the legacy of the Paula Deborah School. Since 1958, the Deborah has been more than a school.

It's been a home, a place where students begin their journey, where educators find purpose, and where families build community. Even during tough times like the 2013 receivership and frequent leadership changes, the heart of the endeavor never faltered. Parents, students, and teachers stood united holding on to the school's core values, family and community. In 2020, the turned a corner. New leadership brought growth, inclusion, and celebration of the 14 languages spoken within its walls.

The school became a model of what's possible when equity and diversity are truly embraced. Then this January, the Deborah was placed on a closure list. At that moment, decades of progress and care were threatened. But the community rose up through rallies, meetings, and the Deborah Strong movement. We spoke loudly and clearly.

And while the final decision to close had been made, I want to be clear. You can close a school building, but you cannot close its legacy. The Paulette Dever School leaves behind something very powerful, and we will carry it forward, always Dever strong. And I want to give a deep thank you to the capital planning team for this dedication to the Dever community. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Mike Heisman.

Mike Heisman, Dorchester. Assessment evaluation is is an essential part of any learning organization. The purpose of my brief evaluation this evening is to assess the leadership team. May I rule the superintendent and the appointed board. There has never been enough resources to provide a quality education for all of our children.

This tradition unfortunately has continued. Family and community engagement. If you believed in this, you would have actively encouraged the community to participate in this annual evaluation process. Boss Wu refuses to allow the creation of elected school committee despite the will of the people expressed in an election and a vote by the city council. Instead, we have an appointed board selected and accountable to the mayor.

Many members of the multilingual task force publicly resigned because the system embraced poor policies. Mayor Wu and miss Kipper would not have violated their would not have violated the system's own process and instead bushwhacked the O'Brien school in their attempt to move these exams school from the heart of the black community to White West Roxbury. The failure to come up with another plan smells of political retribution. The system would have developed a comprehensive facilities plan. Instead, plans are made in secret including school closings and publicly announced before school communities are consulted.

Shock and awe. Too often the system practice community manipulation and disengagement. The system continues to act in ways that increase inequities and racism. Schools are always closed where low income black and brown children are the overwhelming majority. Under the previous leadership of doctor Kasilias and her chief assistant, doctor Charles Cransson, equity had been a major priority.

The ratio equity tool was created and used. Community equity roundtable discussions were held on a regular basis. While black and brown children were admitted to our exam schools. Under the misleadership of superintendent Skipper, this progress has been erased and the system is energetically marched in the opposite direction. Immediately after miss Skipper had been hired, black and brown central office leaders were Yes.

Doctor Branson and many other black and brown school leaders were fired. Despite significant programs that diversify the staff, more black and brown teachers have left the system than have been recruited. The racial equity tool became invisible. Community equity round table discussions died. Inequities have increased, and racism has grown stronger. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next group of speakers is Abdulrahman, Sadi Jasmine, Did Rahmani, and Courtney Phillippe. Please raise your hand. Abdulrahman.

Is can you hear me?

Yes. We can hear you. You can start.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Deal members of BPS committee, my name is Havar Abdul Rahman. I'm a proud parent of two students at Devar Elementary School in fifth grade and third grade. I'm also a longtime resident of Harbor Point in Dorchester for twenty one years and a vice president of a Harbor Point community task force committee.

Today, I stand before you to discuss what is the next step after closing Dever School. Since January to the March, Dever commit community, including parents, teachers, students, and educator staff, fought and defended to reject the BPS proposal for the school closure. But, unfortunately and sadly, BPS decided to vote for the school closure. BPS tried to help and improve Devil's School many years ago, including frequently changing the leadership. Therefore, even if I don't agree with BPS decision, but at the end of the day, I am respecting BPS decision because I'm assuming that BPS is working towards the best future to our community.

Dear BPS committee, after closing the school, I hope BPS consider the following demands, please. I hope BPS commit that they don't give the Devon Building to any private developer or to a charter school. I hope capital planning team do their best to find a fund to renovate or modify the building structure to meet BPS criteria. I hope the building remains in the community and look at an option to make a community run school or a model that fits the building. My last message and statement to you all, with my respectful to you all, you may close our school, but you will not close the Devil School spirit.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I sincerely hope that you will listen to the concerns of our families and work towards the best future to our community. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Sadie Jasmine. Please unmute and stop the video. Miss Jasmine? Okay.

So I I'm not sure if there's an issue going on with Sadie Jasmine. So I would go to Deidra Manning, and then we will come back to Sadie Jasmine. Deidra Manning? Didrah Manning accept the prompt? Okay.

We will continue. Courtney. You can start.

Hello. Can everyone see me and hear me?

Yes. We can hear you.

Hi. Thank you. I come before the committee and the superintendent tonight, as a general concern about yet again how the district continues to lack transparent, clear, concrete policies for communication with families, particularly families with children with IEPs. I use my own recent example of my child as sort of a case study, in point. We had our IEP meeting on June 9.

At that IEP meeting, the team made the decision that it would be in the best sense of our child to have a different school location for her upcoming grade. We were told by our COs that the we needed to go to the welcome center for that. I repeatedly pointed to the appropriate sections of the state regulations, six zero three CMR 28 o six that says it is the decision of the team to determine which location services are to be provided, and that is up to the team to figure out the specific classroom or school to implement the placement decision. BPS' own website notes that a transfer request policy does not apply to students who need a different school or program as determined by the IEP team. Despite this clear understanding of the law, which I have heard the superintendent reflect agreement with in various public settings, the COSN continue to insist we needed to go to the welcome center.

We did not receive a draft placement until the last day of school in our backpack. We did make the decision to go to the welcome center bowling since we received no additional communication from our school. We went yesterday. We arrived. I would note that the notices on the website are very confusing about the locations being closed except for bowling. I would suggest you add a note for each thing saying, please note, close until August 4 because if you just go to the location, it has the hours listed. And then I would say that when we arrived there, no one introduced themselves to us. No one asked our name. We were simply a number. We were given a piece of paper on a clipboard, asked to fill it out.

And when I asked to speak to someone from OSS, I was told they are off for the summer. I was frankly shocked and horrified, that that was the case. I was told there was no one available. I subsequently emailed deputy superintendent Seal requesting assistance on this front since at this point, I basically had no idea who else to turn to. So we were told to go to the welcome center even though that is totally inappropriate and in contrary to what the law is, which is the the placement decision is a product of the team.

It should be implemented as such in the precept form. And even when we arrived at the welcome center, we were not welcomed, quite frankly. And the I received a very, suddenly arrogant email from someone in OSS telling me I was you know, that all these things happened that didn't happen, that I was told how to fill out the form, I was not, and all sorts of things. So I come here to say that I am not alone in this. I know dozens of parents who have experienced the same frustration of being told to do things and then arrive and get told something separate. Time is separate. I would like the school committee to establish a clear policy.

Our next speaker is Sadie Jasmine. We're going to try again.

Can you hear me?

Yes. Could you please turn on your camera?

I'm it won't turn on. It says, host has used started your video. Yes. I I need Okay. I'm right now. Very good. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Sadie Jasmine. I live in Dorchester.

I am the president of the bus monitors local twenty nine thirty six. I am here tonight to speak on the behalf of my monitors, many of whom have dedicated their lives to this work. Some started as far back as 1989. For the first time all these years, our monitors have been spoken to in ways that are completely unacceptable over that past month. They have been referred as to lazy, troublemakers, thieves, unqualified, and undeserving of their position as special education bus monitors by the district.

On 11/07/2024, I attended a city council meeting with Ed Flynn and his team. They spoke directly to transportation department. They explained to them that the bus monitors deserve to be treated with respect. We deserve fair wages that allow us to support our families with dignity while we transport Boston's most unvulnerable students. Thank you on the behalf of all the bus monitors for listening this evening.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you, miss Jasmine. We're going to try again with Deidra Manning. Well, this doesn't seem to work, so we will go we will continue our two final speakers, Sequoia Craig and Ed Edith Basile. Sequoia Craig.

Hi. Good evening.

Hi. Could you please start your video?

I am in the hospital with my son. So for his privacy, I will not be able to turn on my video.

Okay. You can you can start.

Okay. So, you know, I thank you to the school committee and Mary Skipper for listening to what I have to say. I'm an advocate for my son who has sickle cell disease and acute depression. I've really been trying to be patient and understanding and get a gist of how the support systems are gonna be effective. But I've been met with extreme racism.

I've been met with legal threats. My son has been held back three times because he has sickle cell disease, and they're supposed to be home hospital care, which none of that was implemented while he's been in the hospital. And sickle cell disease is an incurable disease. And due to the high stressors and the discrimination towards my child, he is extremely he's experiencing major health issues where he has kidney failure, and he has been constantly in the hospital suffering. No home and hospital care.

No assignments. He passes the MCAS with flying colors. But the McKinley School has been robbed of major financial funding to extend the Josiah Quincy. The school does not have a cafeteria. But when you think about it, even in a prison system, you know, they have access to food and cafeteria.

There's a lack of enrollment. There's extreme racism, and all we're asking for is fairness. You can't say that everyone is equal, but then you wanna crush the spirits and hearts and souls of children. And there's a lack of enrollment, more staff than students, and, you know, very condescending behavior, legal threats, and, you know, more so opposition. They're working together with the parents we can see these students flourish.

Even as the school committee flourishes in their positions and their roles, these students suffer immensely. And, you know, I just think it would be fair for children to be treated equal and funding to be allocated back to the Melbourne King and the children to be treated fairly because the school's safety hazard, not just for the children, but for the staff. And I'm very concerned about this loud tone of racism and the lack of support that they say is available that has not been available to my son. My son is a number one target at the Melbourne King, and, you know, it's just very disappointing and discouraging. But, you know, I just hope for the best.

The school committee can really come to get come together and be realistic with how they're treating the students and the staff. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Ida Bazille.

Good evening. I wanna echo everything that was said by miss Craig. Chair Robinson, Melbourne X King Academy, formerly McKinley, serves mostly black boys with emotional impairments. It's supposed to be a therapeutic school, but they are warehoused in crumbling facilities with no therapeutic infrastructure. You have the report.

Minimal academic support and rotting bars on the windows. When the school was still McKinley, BPS tried to kick the students out, tear down the building, and build a new school for Quincy Upper with no plans for McKinley students. One group was deemed worthy. Black students were discarded. BPS renamed McKinley, but mayor Wu refused to fulfill the promise to rebuild it.

Placed in the honorable Melvin H. King's name, a man who dedicated his life to justice into the center of an educational crisis is not an honor. The consequences have been educational apartheid playing out in real time. The numbers speak for themselves. Mel King has eighty one point five percent chronic absenteeism rate, flat academic outcomes, and dismal graduation rates.

Meanwhile, the district poured $223,600,000 into Josiah Quincy Upper School while leaving Mel King students in neglected decaying buildings and installing more cameras for surveillance. I filed multiple complaints, including one on behalf of miss Craig who just spoke For students, one student had his arm broken in an illegal restraint. Another student was violently dragged off the bus by out of control staff. When I asked for accountability, Skipper responded with lawyers, not solutions. When I sought urgent support for a medically fragile student, miss miss Craig's son, who was hospitalized in crisis, Skipper didn't send help.

She sent a lawyer who threatened legal action against the parent and the student. Let that sink in. A child struggling to survive and the district's response is to sicken attorney on them. BPS would rather lawyer up than show up for black students. Let me be clear. We will not be intimidated. We demand full scale transformation of Mel King Academy, a new building, trauma informed services.

Thirty seconds.

Esser funds transparency and Esser funds and a real sustained commitment to black student success now. You have the emails. You have the request. I'm waiting for a meeting. Let's discuss. Thank you.

Thank you very much, miss Brazil. We will try one last time for for miss.

Thank you. My name is. I am a resident of Dorchester, a BPS parent, and a charter school parent for two public school children. I just want to connect with the school committee to reiterate some things that I've said before. It appears that the district has not provided data to the school committee about the impact of the exam school policy on residents of the city.

Based on the summary presented last month, the families of possibly 1,000 students over the last five years, probably each year, likely analyzed the very little data presented publicly and decided their children would not be treated equitably and did not apply. When will there be an opportunity for community engagement, and when will changes be made to ensure equitable access to all eligible applicants across the city? I hope that school committee members will engage on this issue to ensure timely district action on rectifying areas of the policy that have prevented high achieving students from receiving invitation so that a sixth year of denying access to certain students does not happen. I also would like to note that the student outcome data has not yet been presented to the public, though public data available from DESE, MCAS scores seems to indicate that the policy has had a negative impact. Please, school committee members, please get the district to get moving on this issue.

As you could tell from the first public speaker, there are lots of people who want to engage on this issue to ensure that the policy going forward will treat all eligible applicants equitably. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Sharon, that concludes public comment. You're muted. Thank

you, miss Parvitz. And thank you to those of you who spoke this evening and shared your perspectives. Your testimony is very important to us. Our first action item this evening is the grants for approval totaling $934,230. I wanna turn it back over to the superintendent for any further comments.

No, chair. I think, as I included in my initial ones Right. We just really encourage the committee to permanently approve all of these. Marcella is here where there would be any deeper questions about the grants.

Alrighty. Thank you. I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee. All right. If there are no questions, I'll now entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Praves, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Doctor. Hawkins?

Yes.

Mister Cadet Hernandez?

Yes.

Miss Lima Barbosa?

Yes.

Miss Polanco Garcia? Yes. Mister Tran? Yes. Mister O'Neil?

Yes.

And miss Robinson? Yes. The grants are approved.

Thank you. Our next action item is a vote on the land deregistration that was presented earlier in the meeting. I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee. Okay. Hearing none, I'll now entertain a motion to approve the land deregistration as presented. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Praves, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, chair doctor Alkins?

Yes.

Miss Hernandez.

Yes.

Miss Lima Barbosa.

Yes.

Miss Polanco Garcia. Yes. Mister Tran.

Yes.

Mister O'Neil.

Yes.

Miss Robinson? Yes. The motion is approved unanimously.

Great. Thank you. Our third action item is a vote on the superintendent's school year 2425 summative evaluation that was presented at the June 17 meeting. Doctor. Alkins, thank you for your leadership in conducting this year's evaluation. I invite the superintendent to share remarks.

Great. Thank you, Karen. I just wanna also say thank you to doctor Alkins and and just all members of the committee for the support throughout the evaluation process. You know, each year, I appreciate having the opportunity to share our progress as a district, which is also my progress with the committee and the public. Over the past three years, I think we have steadily created the foundation for change, and we continue to build on those successes year upon year.

All of us agree, myself at the the forefront, that there's a lot more work to do, but I'm confident that we've really taken the time to lay the groundwork and the foundation to create the real lasting systemic change that we know we need, to really be serious about, achievement growth in our district and closing achievement and opportunity gaps, once and for all. During my 2024 evaluation, I indicated that we had several foci. One was centering the identities of our students to cultivate the sense of belonging in our schools. Another was shifting our practices so that children could learn in the least restrictive environment, which is expressed in our inclusive education practice, expanding native language supports and access to native language instruction in the form of bilingual, dual language, and access to language specific, and providing the tools and professional development for our teachers and staff to do their very best work. I believe we've made significant strides over the past year in demonstrating how we're meeting those goals through the operational changes we've made, the academic shifts, the changes we've made within family and community advancement.

As we move deeper into our summer, our work continues with full speed, not only through the summer programming that I mentioned earlier tonight, but also in our ongoing planning for the school year 2526 and preparing for our large, what we call our August leadership institute or ALI. This week, in fact, right now, I, along with, some of my members of my leadership team, were attending PELP at Harvard, which is the public education leadership project. This is an experience that we did several years back that helped with formation for our capital planning initiatives, and what that plan and execution look like. And we're hoping that this experience in particular that we're going through this week, that that will really set the stage for renewing the district's strategic plan for the upcoming year. And as I've said before, and I will say each time, you know, every day I wake up, I love doing what I do.

I love our district very much. It's a part of who I am as an educator. It's formed me. And I just look forward to many more years of being able to serve our community here in our city, certainly our district and our staff, in our schools, and, you as the committee members.

Thank you. I'll now open it up to the floor to questions and comments from the committee. Mister Cardet Hernandez?

Thank you so much. I I'll start just by thanking Doctor. Alkins as well for his work in this process. I know it was a heavy lift, and it's a lot during, as any parent knows, going for the one of our busiest times of the year. So thank you for that, and, of course, thank you, to the superintendent.

I think I appreciate I deeply appreciate the superintendent's commitment and the and the progress we've made in certain areas. And I remain, deeply concerned, I guess, by just the lack of quantitative data in both self evaluation and then our broader team's assessment. I think for our community confidence in our direction, we just need to set clear, measurable outcomes and then transparent reporting. And I urge us for the future to align our evaluation process more closely, possibly with the state standards, and to ensure that future evaluations are grounded and robust quantitative evidence, especially as we address persistent achievement gaps and, of course, major operational challenges. For me, one of the things that has stood out in the process, you know, surround the student achievement gaps, recent MCAS data.

It shows that only 17% of black and Latino students in grades three to eight met expectations in English compared to 59% white students and, like, half of Asian students. In math, the gap is even wider with only 15% of black and Latino students expectations for 60% of Asian white students. So the evaluation acknowledges these gaps, but doesn't provide a clear data driven plan for closing them on measuring progress year over year. Equally, I've shared my concern, obviously, around long term facilities plan and and our declining enrollment. I more strategy there would be helpful for us.

And then if if we committee members of the were well intentioned, I think similar to the superintendents, we just weren't consistently grounded in specific measurable data. So the ratings often reference general progress or intentions rather than saying clear evidence or outcomes. So it's not just the superintendent's evaluation that needs more data to experience the HRM process, as a committee that needs to improve. So I think we owe it to students and to families and to the public to ensure that both our assessments and our decisions are moving clear evidence and, you know, clear metrics too. So I hope we can do more of that in the future. And, of course, thank you, superintendent, for for your service, and thank you, doctor Alpentz, for going all of this together.

Thank you. There any other comments?

No? Okay. Mister

O'Neill.

Thank you, madam chair. I wanted to echo, your comments and member cadet Hernandez comments about thanks to doctor Elkins. I saw my comments reflected in the summative and read other members as well and saw their comments reflected. So I know doctor Elkins worked hard to make sure our viewpoints were represented. And, as member cadet Hernandez says, it's a lot of hard work to make that happen. We actually all read and say, oh, I saw something of mine in there. So it is truly a summative. And, so thank you, doctor Alkins, for that. And, superintendent, thank you for your work in the past year. There were a lot of, positive things happened, all of which have continued to be building blocks.

But, you know, from all of our collective bargain agreements being done to the SIP being stopped to, a number of other things, There were improvements in transportation. There are some challenges there as well as we talked about, and I think it is laid out in the summative, you know, movement that we're taking. Now the building blocks that were done to set up for long term facilities plans, etcetera. I just think it was a a very positive year, and I deeply appreciate. When you said you wake up every morning excited to go to work, it shows when all of us deal with it.

And for the amount of things that hit your desk every single day, I deeply appreciate the commitment and the positive energy that you bring, and the work that you're doing to build your team. So I'm excited about the future under your leadership. Thank you, superintendent. Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you. K. If there's nothing further, I'll now entertain a motion to approve the superintendent's school year 2425 summative evaluation as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Praves, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, chair. Doctor. Alkins?

Yes.

Mister Creta Hernandez? Yes. Sorry?

Yes.

Miss Lima Barbosa?

Yes.

Miss Polanco Garcia? Yes. Mister Tran?

Yes.

Mister O'Neill? Yes. Miss Robinson? Yes. The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. We are confident as a body that superintendent Skipper is the leader to continue moving the district forward towards transformational change. As per the provision in the superintendent's contract, which outlines the potential for contract renewal discussions after 07/01/2025, if the superintendent has reached a rating of proficient or above in the past year, the school committee recommends entering into contract negotiations with the superintendent. With the approval of the superintendent's school year 2425 summative evaluation, the superintendent has reached such a rating. Our last action item is a vote authorizing the chair to represent this Boston School Committee in contract negotiations with the superintendent.

I'll now open the floor to questions and comments from the committee. Mister Tran?

Yes. Before we vote before we take a vote on on this important, vote, I as I understand, the vote is to allow the chair to enter into an individual negotiation with the superintendent. Is that right?

Yes and no. I I will represent, but before any decision will be made, it will come back to the commute it will come back to the, board to the group.

Okay.

So it just starts the conversation. So any be any any recommendations will could be coming back to the committee for a final vote. So it's not that I'm negotiating this and it's a done deal. No.

Okay. Yeah. During the negotiation process between the chair and the superintendent, Is there any windows for members of the the the committee to, you know, to introduce items and provisions. The reason I'm I'm raising this is I like to see the the framework of the negotiation. Yes.

The, you know, the the the items that are going to be negotiated upon, the terms and benefits and all that to be negotiated upon. And I I like to to to have at least some kind of a Mhmm. Clear view on that before before we Yes. Forward. Okay.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think we all everyone has access to the current proposal that she is working under her her current contract. So that will be a starting place. So I mean and if I mean, I think the first thing you should do is to go back and review the current contract. So if there are any new questions or issues, we can certainly bring those forward in discussion. So, yes, there there is, you know, plenty of an opportunity if you feel that there is need of something that should be brought forward to be part of the conversation or the discussion.

So those kind of recommendation will go directly to you in in person, or is it Yes. Happening? Okay. That's good. Yeah. Thank you.

Yes. But it was but but I said it will certainly include all voices. It will not be a personal one on one Right. Decision. Yes.

I understand.

Mhmm. Okay. Are there other questions?

Okay.

There's nothing further. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the authorization of the chair to represent the Boston School Committee in contract negotiations with the superintendent. Is there a motion?

I move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Pavix, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, chair. Doctor. Alkins?

Yes.

Mister Cadet Hernandez? Yes. Miss Lima Barbosa?

Yes.

Miss Polanco Garcia? Yes. Mister Tran?

Yes.

Mister O'Neill?

Yes. Excuse me. Yes.

Miss Robinson? Yes. The motion is approved.

Thank you. And, again, I wanna thank superintendent Skipper for her strong leadership and unwavering tenacity in bringing us to this point. She has dug deep at the core challenges facing our district. And with much of the foundational work now in place, it is time to move forward with urgency and with everyone on board. We are fully committed to doing what's best for our students and ensuring our efforts and resources are aligned to achieving high student outcomes.

Thank you. Is there any new business? Alright. That concludes our business for this evening. The sec the next school committee meeting will take place in person on Wednesday, September 10 at 6PM at the Bowling Building in Nubian Square. There's nothing further. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a motion?

I moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Pravitz, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Doctor. Alkins?

Yes.

Mister Cadet Hernandez?

Yes.

Miss Lima Barbosa? Yes. Miss Polanco Garcia? Yes. Mister Tran? Yes. Mister O'Neil?

Yes.

Miss Robinson? Yes. The meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all. Have a good night and a great summer.

Thank you. Good night, everyone.

Good night, everyone.

Thank you.