Boston School Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Boston School Committee. I'm Chairperson Jerry Robinson. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I 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. I want to welcome everyone who is joining us tonight in person on Boston City TV and on Zoom. I'm going to ask everyone here in the chamber to please turn off the volume on your laptops or other devices so it does not interfere with the audio for tonight's meeting. Thank you for your cooperation. Tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's webpage bostonpublicschools.org slash schoolcommittee under the September 16th meeting link. For those joining us in person, you can access the meeting documents by scanning the QR code that's posted by the doors. 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 meeting will be rebroadcast on Boston City TV and posted on the school committee's webpage and on YouTube. The committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and American Sang language. The 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. We'll begin the meeting with the approval of minutes. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the July 8th, 2026 meeting and the August 5th, 2026 special grants meeting. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the minutes are approved. We'll now move on to the superintendent's report. I present to you our superintendent, Mary Skipper.

Wonderful and welcome back everyone for the new school year and welcome to those in the audience as well. Um so before I start tonight's report, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge members of the bps community that have passed away over the summer. Beloved colleague and long-term staff member Frank Hill was an administrative assistant in BPS teaching and learning. He also worked in food and nutrition services, transportation, family and community engagement, and the former curriculum and instruction department over his 21 years in the BPS. He also worked with the Boston Plan for Excellence previously. We also mourn the loss of Tanya Scarlett, who was a first grade teacher at the Ellis Elementary School, who worked for the district for 25 years. Jody Hall, a beloved theater teacher at the Frederick Pilot Middle School, who was appreciated and loved by students and staff alike. and bps educator for nearly 30 years meg goodwin a long time teacher at the edison k-8 school who also served as a union representative and was a fierce advocate for her fellow educators around issues that impacted students frank tanya jody and meg brought incredible talent dedication and compassion to the district they will be missed by the bps community if we could all join in a moment of silence Thank you. So as we transition to talk about the school year, I'm happy to report that the school year 2026-27 is off to a great start. And I'd like to share a few updates and highlights from our first few days. I know that as you entered the room tonight, there was a slideshow that was running. I want to thank the BPS Communications Office, the Mayor's Office, Tech Boston Academy, and School Committee Executive Secretary, Lena Parvex, for sharing these photos here from around the district, the first day for students in grades 1 to 12, which was Tuesday, September 8th, and the first day for our littlest learners, Thursday, September 10th. These images really capture the excitement and the spirit of the day as we kicked off the new school year. I also want to thank Chair Robinson, Vice Chair Skerritt, school committee members Torres and Tran for greeting our students in the first days of school. I spent my first day of school in Dorchester where I greeted students from grades 1 through 12 and their families. first at the Holland Elementary, then at the Lila Frederick Elementary, where it was coming back to life as a new pre-K-6 school, the Dr. Albert Holland School of Technology, where I also got to see Dr. Albert Holland, and Tech Boston Academy. We started our day at the Holland Elementary. There were quite a few visitors and guests there. Chair Robinson, Mayor Wu was there, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Dr. Zreich, Commissioner of Education Pedro Martinez, BTU Union President Eric Berg, President of the American Federation of Teachers Jessica Tang, and State Rep Chris Worrell, and State Senator Liz Miranda. So everyone turned out to greet our students at the Holland Elementary. and that was the first time Holland Elementary was being reintroduced to the community as Holland Elementary. It had previously been in state receivership with UP Holland, so it was lots to celebrate. It certainly was a festive and fun first day. Across the district, there were hugs and smiles as students reunited with their teachers and their friends, while parents and caregivers captured these special moments in back-to-school photos. Our new students found supportive school communities ready to help them find their way. Teachers and staff welcomed our students back into schools by greeting them with cheers and banners and balloons and music, pom-poms, I had pom-poms, visits from costume characters including Elmo, Mickey Mouse, and Holland Tiger. Volunteers from the mayor's office handed out water bottle stickers that read, it's a good day to learn, which was a positive message, setting the right tone for the entire school year. On the first day of kindergarten, I visited Lyon Elementary School in Brighton, where we greeted students K-0, K-1, and K-2. students received a joyful welcome there were certainly a few tears mostly from parents and caregivers as they said goodbye students went right in but the line this was especially an important star for the lion elementary as they actually relocated buildings as part of the long-term facilities plan and so there was quite a bit of effort to go into that facility at the high school to get that ready for our youngest learners I really want to thank all of our students, our teachers, school leaders, volunteers, everyone who just made the launch of 2627 a real success. On the first day of school, BPS buses transported more than 18,000 students on 609 routes. They were supported by 730 drivers, 650 bus monitors, and 750 buses. BPS transportation achieved a 61% on-time performance rate, or what we call OTP, which was the second highest first day on record, with 81% of the buses arriving within 15 minutes of the bell and 92% arriving within 30 minutes, while also reducing the number of uncovered routes from the start of last school year. We certainly will continue to monitor the average OTP in the coming days, weeks, and months as we anticipate continued improvement similar to last year. In the afternoon, to give perspective, we were at 73% of our buses on time, 88% arrived within 15 minutes, and 95% within 30 minutes. So it was certainly a very strong start. That said, I think there's challenges that happen every school year as bus drivers are new to routes or new to the city, as buses for the first time are rolling. So sometimes we get a mechanical failure on a bus that has to get repaired and we have to send a coverage bus. Sometimes we have a driver who is still learning the route, and they can get lost and have to get redirected and supported. Sometimes we can have the GPS because all the buses haven't been used all summer. Sometimes that can malfunction, and then we have to walk the bus driver through that. And so there are those occasions, even though we're having very strong OTPs, where there's a particular family or student that is delayed, and sometimes delayed longer than we would ever want. And so we always do our best to apologize to the families, make communication, and work as hard as we can to ensure that's the rare exception and not practice. I also want to share that at the end of last year, it was a big celebration for the transportation team in the district as we reached 95% morning OTP in June. That was the highest monthly performance for BPS. And I think it really underscores the system level of improvements we've made, the commitment to continuously improving, and to try to get all of the issues worked out so that our students very safely and on time, get to school and get picked up and brought home. We're also encouraging our parents and caregivers to use the Zoom app, which tracks the students in real time. Drivers have successfully used the Zoom app to track more than 97% of trips so far this school year, and more than 95% of families are currently using the app to track their bus. So this has been a tremendous effort to get that information out. We want families to continue to register. If you are currently a parent and your student is using our school buses and you don't have the Zoom app, you can download it from our website at thebostonpublicschools.org, and it's under the Family Resource tab. We also have BPS Executive Director Dan Rosengard, who's here with us tonight to answer any questions. But again, just really want to pledge our continued improvement and also just applaud a lot of the great work that that transportation team has done to get the results that we are getting. As we do every year, we're also monitoring our attendance very closely. This is a big message that we want to continue to push out to our parents and caregivers. On our first day of school, school attendance was 81.4%. This was up 2.6 percentage points over last year's first day. Big improvement. So far the attendance has increased every day over the same day last year and steadily increased to 92% today. That's again a 2.8% overall performance increase. Can't stress it enough to our caregivers, parents, and our students, high school students. There's a direct correlation with achievement and performance and being in school. And so we need you here every single day unless there's a reason such like you're sick or something like that. We also know that at the start of every school year there are students who last year were chronically absent or who might have been disengaged from school. So every year we start the school year with our re-engagement door knock event. It's actually one of the most impactful events that I think we do. As a district, we have certainly, with chronic absenteeism, driven down chronic absenteeism. There's 38% in the 22-23 school year, and we saw 30% last year. And this is just a continuous effort of reminding our students and helping remove barriers for students coming to school regularly. At the start of school, we go out and we door knock. So the mayor and I and a group of volunteers across the district, led by the re-engagement center, go out and we greet students that we know last year struggled to get to school. We welcome them back. We tell them how much we want to see them back. We ask what we can do better or what we can do to help support them. And it's just always really eye-opening being able to sit. It's like a grace being able to sit with students and their parents in their homes and have that conversation. It always amazes me how honest our kids are and our parents about what they need. So on September 4th, we held that event. There were 36 volunteers. We knocked on 197 doors, and we focused on the Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester neighborhoods. We met and made contact with 37 students, and that's 37 more students by doing that than we would have been invited back into school. I think that what we got a sense from students is how important a sense of belonging is to them. And so this is another big piece of what we're emphasizing with our schools is having a welcoming environment where students see themselves and have a sense of belonging. They articulated they want to be part and need to be part of the school community. And so that focus on culture and climate continues to be a big effort on the part of our school leaders and our educators to make environments that are that welcoming. As far as staffing goes, our classrooms are fully staffed across the 104 schools in the district. Thanks to our dedicated hiring efforts, Chief Canty and OHR, we've already reached 96% fill rate for our teachers and counselors, and the team is actively working to fill the last few final seats. Last month, we also welcomed more than 150 new teachers at our annual New Educator Institute, the events hosted by our New Teacher Development Program, which is designed for educators who are new to teaching or new to the BPS. IGO, the union has a strong presence at it. We do it jointly, and it's always wonderful to welcome that group of new educators into our school system as part of that family. For permanent BTU educators whose positions were eliminated, this was a big part of the conversation at school committee last year, especially at the end. Just as a reaffirmation, BPS is required to place or reassign them into comparable positions, and that work was well underway and continued all through the summer on a normal timeframe. For members of the BTU's teachers unit, there were 374 permanent or tenured BTU educators who are without permanent positions at the start of the hiring season. As of today, they have all been hired or assigned into a permanent position within the BPS. Another concern had been, like as we reported in July, there were 205 paraprofessionals with seniority who are members of the BTU paraprofessional unit who are without positions for the start of the hiring season. All 205 were hired or assigned to positions for the 26-27 with a small number either resigning or retiring, which is very typical. Chief of Human Resource Francis Canty is also here tonight were there to be any questions for anything relative to OHR. On August 26th, the Office of Inspector General released a report detailing concerns about procurement and payments at BPS from years 2019 to 2024. The report included a series of recommendations for how we can make as the BPS improvements going forward. As recommended by the IGO, Mike Firestone, Corporation Counsel, and Anu Jayanth, who is my senior advisor in the superintendent's office, they've been appointed to lead the city and BPS in the building on the momentum to review the findings and operationalize the recommendations contained in the report. together with the working group of BPS and city leaders, they're gonna be helping to drive and ensure that essential reforms are happening. As a first step, we instituted a 10-day pause on non-essential payments to review and ensure proper compliance. And I will continue to update the committee as we go through the review process and go through the timeline with the IG's office of providing updates at the 30, 60, and 90-day marks. Our city, just in recap, we always do kind of bright spots, and I know not only do I have bright spots, but I know that Member Torres has bright spots. Our city experienced a memorable summer. We joined the nationwide celebration of America 250. The 2026 World Cup brought visitors from around the world to our city, giving our young people the opportunity to learn about the different countries and traditions at special events across the neighborhoods. Earlier this week, I joined Mayor Wu at New Mission High School to celebrate the success of this year's summer job program and transition into the school year jobs program. There was approximately 10,500 young people who were connected to summer jobs, and we look forward to continuing that momentum throughout the school year. At BPS, there were approximately 9,000 students who took part in the district's annual fifth quarter programming, the exam school initiative, and the extended school year. Approximately 2,550 students participated in the extended school year, and then there were another 2,500 students who participated in the BPS fifth quarter credit recovery, and that was primarily high school students. Certainly to help our students and families start the school year off strong, the Office of Family and Community Advancement hosted our annual back to school webinar on Tuesday, September, which was located earlier in September. It was attended, Mayor Wu came to it, as did 700 families. All of our BPS departments were there to be able to answer questions, provide information. And what I've appreciated about this event is that every year we get more families, we get great questions, we build off of those questions in a way that provides a real strong packet of information for our families. Last week we also welcomed more than 750 attendees at Harambee Park, which was, they represented 50 of our schools. We gave away a total of 205 backpacks, 20 raffle prizes, tons of food. There was a police ice cream truck there that visited the park as well. There were mascots. So it was a wonderful family event. There were also free health screenings that happened. There was a lot of BPS resources and information given away, as well as free books and games from more than 22 partners in BPS departments. And tonight we have a short video to share with you that highlights some of the fun activities that happened during the summer. We will definitely return to school committee, as we always do in October, to give a more comprehensive presentation on summer 2026. But I think, Chair, we want to show the video. So thank you to the comms team and to Ofka. It's just so great seeing our kids doing so many different activities, lots of academics embedded, but lots of enrichment and fun and the kinds of things that our students say they would like to learn about and do and get active. So great summer. So with that, Chair, I will turn it back to you.

Thank you superintendent I'll now open up the floor for questions and discussion I'd like to remind my colleagues about our agreed-upon norm that we each have five minutes per member per round not including district response Ms. Parvex will remind us when one minute remains and when your time is up please make sure your questions are on topics related to the items in the superintendent's report Other topics not related to the superintendent's report can be raised during new business later in the meeting. BPS staff, please keep responses brief and sleek slowly to support our interpreters. Thank you.

And I think Ms. Torres has, Member Torres has some bright spots.

So I visit July, August, and September. I visit schools in many places. Summer schools, it was very important to see how the kids are working so hard. So I want to thank you, Chair, Superintendent, and all my school committee members and the public I had the privilege of visiting five sites and see the work that was happening across all summer schools this year. Site after site, educators, site coordinators, and program leaders poured their hearts into keeping our students happy, learning, growing, and connected to Summer Long. And to all our students who showed up, doing the work, pushing themselves to grow academically even in July and August, we see you and we are proud of you. in august i visit the summer institute for teacher residency btr network alongside 10 bps teachers coming together to share the best practice with the new teachers in each other great community building activities A day of AI. Our incredible 25 educators ambassador from 24 schools who stepped up to lead the charge in changing the future of teaching and learning. Together they are spearheading the launch of the BPS AI Literacy Initiative. Now in September, my first day of school at the Samuel Mason and the first day of kindergarten at the Sarah Robert Wilena, a huge shout out to all the educators, leaders, and co-leaders for the energy you brought to the first day of school. It was such a joy to be part of a dual language kinder two classroom where our students proudly introduce themselves and share their favorite color all in Spanish. Naranja was the main color. A shout out to the Welcome Center here at Bowling. They were on top of their game with explaining the registration process and making sure families felt welcome and heard. And my last shout out goes, I visit a school with Dr. Wright today, to the office personnel, administration, educators, and all the students, from kinder to fifth grade, sharing what makes their school great, the best, and what will need to happen next to get better. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Comments?

Thank you, Superintendent, for your report. I want to refer in particular to the Inspector General report. When I told one of my best friends, who happens to be a BPS teacher, that I was appointed to the school committee, his reaction wasn't congratulation, was, great, see if you can do something about the vendors of our school getting paid on time because they don't want to work with us anymore. And he was referring in particular to a very interesting project that he does with his students where they publish a book at the end of the school year. And the vendor was saying, it's taking forever for BPS to pay me for producing those books. That's one stream. The other stream is what happening that we are wasting money in, sounds like trying to solve that problem. It sounds to me that we have a systemic problem. So I would like you to comment on what systemic actions and steps are you and the district taking to address this situation?

Thank you. So I welcome that question. First of all, because we have a report that we need to give to the Inspector General and intend to, that is where we'll first discuss as we continue the review and the team that is both city and district comes up with what those action steps are going to be. And so when that report comes to, when we're gonna produce that for the Inspector General, I will report out to school committee the contents of that. But we're still in the process of identifying those steps. I do think that some of what was identified, and remember the report was looking from a period of 2019 to 2024, There were a number of things that had been identified that we've been actively working on and correcting. And for the field, it has been a lot of adjustment as we've put controls and measures into place of how contracts are done versus how they had been done. That often does delay to ensure we have the appropriate paperwork to be able to both initiate a contract and to pay it. And so there's been a lot of, for the field, I think a lot of adjustment. We've done a number of meetings with partners, a number of meetings with schools and school leaders to be able to explain over the course of the last several years why those changes were necessary. So a lot of this work has been underway. I think what the report allowed us to see was where that is taking hold and where it is not yet. And so that is really the areas that we'll be drilling down more. And I do think we have some good suggestions already from the team in terms of even things like consolidating the way procurement and payment is done under one branch as opposed to transportation and food service. in facilities all having different processes where it's more likely that this fracture. So I do think we are certainly taking the recommendations with the strongest consideration. We've adopted many of them already. And I do look forward with school committee to being able to give a broader report as we start to update the IG.

Thank you for, Madam Chair, thank you for the report. Thank you very much all.

I would like to start appreciating the entire team that worked over the summer.

Thank you very much for working and creating beautiful memories for all our students. Y también quiero felicitar a Ana y a su equipo porque es la primera vez que tuvimos en el desfile dominicano una carroza y tuvimos VPS y estuvimos representados y nos sentimos muy orgullosos de que ustedes sean parte.

I'd like to appreciate the job that Ana did because it was the first time that we had a carriage in the Dominican Festival, actually, and we felt that we were represented as well. Thank you very much to Ana and her team for that. It was very powerful seeing Annie sharing everything there, and I felt very sorry I was not able to lift my Dominican flag there. I felt sorry I was not present at that time.

Gracias. Con relación al reporte, lo que he escuchado en algunas escuelas, el transporte ha sido fantástico, han llegado a tiempo. Puedo dar el testimonio de mi sobrino.

Some other fact that I can in regards to transportation report, it's been on time and it's a very rewarding report. I can actually provide testimony regarding my own nephew as it pertains to transportation.

He says every day, Titi, I am very happy because the bus is arriving on time every single day, very happy. Pero como todas las familias sabemos que no todo está perfecto, ¿verdad? Y también tenemos quejas de algunos padres que están diciendo que los buses están llegando retrasados, que no están llegando a tiempo. Y esto ha provocado que algunas familias estén llegando tarde a su trabajo, que le estén dando warning en su trabajo. Entonces, mi pregunta es que aquellos buses que no están llegando o So. No, no, no.

So as we say, transportation, it is not perfect. It is not perfect. It's been arriving on time. But I do know that there is some dissatisfaction from some of the families. So the question that I do have for you, it is, what is it that we are doing for those families where transportation is not arriving on time? Systems are not perfect, and we are aware of that. But there's been some complaints regarding transportation as well. Moreover, some of the families are getting warnings because they are not being able to arrive on time to their works, to their jobs. As a matter of fact, the point that I would like to make is that they are being reported as being tardy without any justification. That is the point that I would like to make, how the families are being impacted by transportation.

you.

Yeah, and I know that our executive director, Rosengard, will want to comment on this, but what I will say is we strive to have every student be able to get to school and get picked up and driven home safely and on time. I think 18,000 students with so many different routes and buses, there will be situations like there are for all of us when we're getting across the city that impacts it. I think in each of the cases when something's reported, Dan and his team do an excellent job reaching out to the family, looking at repeat situations, right? And that was when we left last year, we definitely had a group of routes where they were uncovered. And so that's been a big focus with Dan and the vendor to really assure enough drivers and that the buses mechanically are safe. running fine and sound as a way to be able to address the uncovered because that's really when there isn't a bus to pick the student up, that's when parents really have to figure that out or the bus isn't coming and a replacement bus has to be issued and that's where longer delays happen. So Dan and the team are certainly working on that. They've been on top of it this year, many, like much, much less when it comes to the uncovered routes. And any of the routes that are really longer, that's what Dan and his team start right away to identify and look at the data to be able to figure out, is it a reroute? Is it splitting the route? You know, what is it? But in each case, they really do strive to contact the family, be in contact with the family so that they know if a student's going to get home late or is going to get picked up late so that the parent has as much notice as possible. Dan, I don't know if there's anything...

Yeah, thanks, Superintendent, and thanks, Member Garcia, for the question. I think the only other thing that I would add on top of what the superintendent said is each year now with Zoom and with some of the reforms and improvements that we've made is a big focus for us is trying to get to steady state and stability faster. There's always going to be some adjustment at the start of the year. both for drivers and monitors and students and staff coming back to work but also just there are still students who are transferring schools we'll have the the dnr process i think tomorrow students families who are submitting requests for drop off at after school program and so there's a lot of route adjustments that get made throughout the first few weeks and I think a big focus for us this year and over the last few years is how do we get to that steady state faster to reduce that period where families and students are experiencing you know delays at the start of the year and I think along with the reduction in the uncovered routes which is about half what it was last year this time so far we want it to be at zero The other big focus for us and where we've seen improvement is in just kind of ramping up faster and getting to that steady state faster.

Right. And Dan, maybe just explain also like when you have like an unattended student and you get an undeliverable student, like how that can impact.

Yeah.

Yeah. So... Most buses will complete, I think as you know, multiple trips in succession each afternoon at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock school. And especially at the start of the year as everyone, drivers, monitors, families are adjusting to new routines, we will often see higher instances of what we call undeliverable students. where that connection to make sure there's a safe adult-to-adult handoff, particularly for door-to-door students or our youngest students, doesn't happen exactly as scheduled. And then depending on the specifics of the situation, our team and the vendor safety desk will work with the family and school to coordinate you know that safe drop-off but that can lead to You know sometimes a bus that maybe has to loop back and can't make it to its next school on time And so then we'll you know, either send a covering bus or communicate the delay and try to work through it as best we can My second question is about the teachers

So my second question is regarding the teachers. According to the report, I do believe that the superintendent then mentioned that 104 teachers were reappointed, is that what the report says?

So at the beginning of the hiring season, we had approximately, I think it was 374, 84 teachers who are permanent, so they are owed a position, but their position was either eliminated or they chose to come out of their position and look for a new position, different reasons. we were able in all of those cases to find them a position to teach. Similarly with paraprofessionals, there were 205 who have what we call seniority, so they are entitled to a position, and we once again were able to go through and find those 205 a position to be able to be a para.

Entonces, tengo curiosidad por saber de los, porque tengo entendido que se perdieron más de 500 posiciones de maestro.

So I do believe, I wanted to clarify something, I do believe that about more than 500 positions belonging to teachers were lost. 500 approximately, was that the right number?

As part of every budget.

Regarding closures, I just needed to know exactly what is the right number? Was it 500 teachers that lost their positions?

Chief Chianti, do you remember what the overall number was? I think it was roughly 550. 512, I knew you would know that exactly. So 512, that was a combination of the permanent and other teachers who were provisional. That could have been because a school was closing, a classroom was closing, a teacher chose to exit out of a school, or they didn't have licensure, they couldn't be rehired. So there's a whole range of reasons why it started off with 512. But the important thing to know is all of the teachers who were owed a position were given a position. There were lots of other teachers who also secured positions who might have been provisional, and we'll report that out in October, what the total numbers were. But the main thing was the 384 that were guaranteed a position. We were able to find that. Otherwise, we would have been in a layoff situation for those teachers. Chief Canty, anything else to add on that? Thank you, Chief Canty.

Thank you.

Just to follow up on the concerns raised by Member Peralta and Member Garcia, I will focus pretty much specifically in the area of diversity involving layoffs, especially through that last round of budget problems that we have. Before I do this, I'll premise my questions with the fact that I appreciate you having been the leader in ensuring that diversity in hiring, retention, promotion, are within the criteria that I think it should be commendable. However, it could be even better. The reason I'm saying this is because even within the retention of teachers, the retention of professionals who are affected by the last round, I have received, I'm not going to say the number, but I can tell you that numerous professionals had reached out to me with concerns that, and I do think you also are aware of it, a number of these are in the hand or at the office of the union at this point dealing with the administration. I hate to see that. But there are a number of professionals who are affected by this, are moved or given positions that are not comparable to their experience. And they were not given the choice or they were not given the chance to apply for something that are comparable to their experience because the job posting new jobs that are posted listed only certain number of languages despite the fact that that office or those offices deal with all languages, but there are only a number of languages that are listed as one of the preferred requirements. So that pretty much preclude a number of professionals who are who are, I believe, more than qualified, absent that preferred language, even though the person has other language that could not apply. And the other language is also part of the office service. So that is something I think

human services should look into.

And if you want to, I can give you the number because they are ready in the back of me to appear. to talk about them, rather than to talk to you directly, rather than through the union. And I think, you know, in the spirit of upholding diversity, equity, even within the multi-languages community, it should also be apply fairly and equally and evenly. So these are the kind of issues that I'm hearing for the last two months or so. Hiring, retention, promotion are not really Like I prefaced before I put this question out, that I have no suspicion that your office under the superintendent's aegis is doing a heckler job. dealing with this. But often time, small, minute issues create tensions among them. My time's out, thank you.

That's great. What I would suggest, two suggestions, or a comment and suggestion, Member Trent. One is I think it's a great idea to suggest to educators to reach out directly to Chief Canty, because if they have a concern, it's on us to be able to talk to them about it and explain it. I do think there's a handful of positions where language is specific. Interpretation services, for instance, might be one. Testing for our English language learners as they come into the district might be another that I can think of. And then where there's bilingual education with a specific language, that would be another case. But I think it's best solved if we can get the educators with Chief Canty so that we can figure out how we can strengthen our process and make it clearer. So thank you for raising it.

Thank you for the update. Wonderful to hear that all permanent BTU members and paras have been considering the consolidations and closures. Appreciate that update. Also appreciate the uptick in daily attendance over first day last year and the increase there. I know that we are still in the middle of the state before students are dropped from the roles after a certain number of days of not reporting. So would the next meeting be the appropriate time to ask about Enrollment trends as they're looking this year compared to last year and as projected But would that be a clearer view by the next meeting?

We can give some loose observations at the next meeting It's generally we wait until the October 1st report that we with Sims that we give that we can then start to crunch the numbers officially it was still in a transfer period with with students as well coming into the district and Tomorrow is the last day of official report, which we call it DNR. It's did not report. That's how we should refer to it. But there's still an extensive shuffle going on, kids coming in, some kids moving between schools, wait lists being called. So I think by the next school committee meeting in mid-October, we should be able to give you a pretty good... idea of the enrollment pattern.

Thank you.

Or even the trends, as you did today, compared to last year at that time around... Yeah, I mean, one of the trends that we've been tracking all along, and I just think it's continuing, unfortunately, is that we're just not seeing newcomers. We're not seeing our MLE students coming into the district. Yeah.

So... On that related piece in terms of the 37 students, I think every student counts and we want every student to be able to take advantage of the education available to them. The 37 students with whom the staff made contact for the door knocking, is there tracking related to those 37 in terms of who followed up with re-enrollment, whether they're placed and settled, and is there another circle back for some of the students who may not have

Yeah, so I really appreciate this question because this is actually a passion for me. But we actually, the team knows sort of from day one with the did not reports and or students that last year were chronically absent. We have had, like our schools have engaged very intently on contacting homes, contacting families, visiting in an effort to be able to account for every student. The ones that we may contact through the re-engagement door knocking event, we follow or the re-engagement center follows up with those students if they're engaged with the re-engagement center. If they are on a school's roles, we would alert the school that we door knock. had conversation. If the student, young person expressed, I don't intend to go back to the school I'm at for these reasons, we will redirect that student to the re-engagement center. We'll make an appointment. In fact, one of the young people that I happened to visit with the mayor had an appointment that afternoon with the re-engagement center. So the goal is every student accounted for. And even after the did not report timeframe goes on, we then are also tracking students who are starting to compile absences. Because chronic absenteeism starts, honestly, after day one when they don't report. That student is now accumulating absences. So if they don't report for eight days, or they report on the eighth day, they've already been absent seven days. 18 days is chronic absenteeism. They're already moving in that direction. So this is a the reason that we've been able to be successful Lowering chronic absenteeism is because we're accounting for every kid Similarly, the other group that sometimes is more susceptible to dropping out, and you know this well from the high school lens, those students that did not graduate their class, did not graduate in the summer, we actually have that list. We've been reaching out and engaging them to either allow them to finish the credits that they need to graduate for the fall, which would count in this graduation cycle, or to be able to get into a placement that would allow them to graduate during this year. Mm-hmm.

Thank you for that update. My last two hopefully fast questions the first is some additional bus follow-up appreciate the illustrative examples of some of the Occasions where on time does not happen. I think that's helpful for folks to have an understanding also wondering about the available levers at the district's disposal to remedy issues that fall more on the bus company namely fines or other

levers that could be used to make sure that they're running as efficiently as possible and just wondering if we're using all of those available levers This is a topic Dan and I have spoken about much No, thanks for that question members Garrett Yes, so we have a number of both incentives for improved performance and liquidated damages for non-performance available to us through the contract I think we've you know Those are not the only levers available to us. They're not always the most effective or most appropriate for any given situation, but we have found in certain situations they are very important and effective. For instance, last school year when we were seeing issues with uncovered routes compared to prior years, we first, Put them on written notice and then when we did not see the improvement that we expected to see began to issue liquidated damages for uncovered trips That I think had the intended effect and by the end of last year We were seeing significant improvement there that has continued this year Transdev knows that they will continue to receive liquidated damages for uncovered trips And so far this year we've seen significant improvement on that compared to prior years. We also saw last spring was the when they hit 95% in June and 92% for the last three months of the year. That was the first time that transdev had hit one of the performance incentives.

the contract so that was you know great to see as well and so I think that we've we've seen that those are effective levers and you know we will continue to use those to make sure we're you know driving improved performance and does thank you for that does performance incentive mean that they would be gaining some additional financial benefit from the on-time arrival exactly yes and is that budgeted are we budgeting assuming that they make those

milestones? We're budgeting, assuming that they're making some percentage of those. And we've been within the budget there. Thank you.

And kind of moving into budget following up on some of the members questions and interests around the report around contracts Understanding that you have some formal reporting to do that needs to take place before our full update just also thinking how this connects to some of of our interests last budget season to start discussing budgets and having a clearer lens into financial processes and systems earlier in the school year so that we're not just thinking about the next fiscal budget in real time, but more around how these processes work. So just wondering if in partnership with Chief Bloom, in addition to these 30, 60, 90 day reports that we can think about a budget presentation cycle that would begin earlier than the typical, I believe we usually have our first one in December.

So I think Chief Bloom can hear the request and we'll look to see if there's a time in November to be able to give some of that update. Thank you.

So I have just two quick questions. I'm wanting to circle back around the door knocking. Is the door knocking focusing on students of a particular age group? Is it more high school or is it across the board?

Yeah, it's more, it's a great question. It's a great question. And I would say it's more 9 to 12. Occasionally we will have a 16- or 15-year-old 8th grader that we will want to engage or reengage, but for the most part it's going to be high school age that we go out and visit.

What do we do about students at the lower ages that are chronically abstinent?

So we started implementing attendance plans for the kids three years ago. We use Panorama, which is our student platform for any kind of intervention planning. And when a student reaches a certain threshold with attendance, there's been calls home already. Those could be happening from the family liaison to the school counselor to the social worker or to the, frankly, administration of a building. we log those, make notes, and also start to try to do some appropriate intervention to get at what's causing the student to either be late all the time or to be absent. And when a student reaches near thresholds for chronic absenteeism, the plan then goes into more of like a tier two, tier three, where it could be home visitations that we're doing. It could be looking at the overall picture of the student and seeing if like, A re-evaluation is needed. We start to ratchet up what the different kinds of student interventions are for them. It's also brought through the student success team for each school, the student support team for each school. You know, they're meeting as the professionals. They'll engage the parents. And the key piece of it is engaging the parents. At the high school level, it's engaging the parents and the students together. I would say even middle school, it's the students as well because they're old enough to vote with their feet.

Thank you. My last question is about teachers. The question is about the provisional teachers. How many provisional teachers were either let go or still waiting to be placed?

Chief Canty, do you have some of that information? You can come on up.

I ask that because you also said that we have 150 new teachers. So my question is, yeah.

Good evening. So out of the 512 non-renewed educators, we've hired about 200 of them. We have some that are currently in the process that are still being hired. What we are doing is people who have not been hired, about 200 of that 500, about 291 of that 512 were because of licensure issues. So when we talk about this number, we have to parse out what is it that we're looking at. It's not as clean like everyone was non-renewed because of positions or there is a variety of the reason as I stated because of licensure reasons But we have hired about 200 of those people back and people are as positions become available there are people who are that we've we've taken a few of them who are now long-term subs or that are still within the confines of BPS and are still around so that when the opportunity in fact presents itself, if we can hire these people in other capacity, we are doing that.

And one of the things that I think Chief Canty and her team do well is as new positions open, people have life circumstances change or they take another job, they move out of state, whatever it may be. Chief Canty and her team are really good at reaching back to provisionals who it was clear they were looking for a position and encouraging them to apply and look at the board all the time with what's open. And that's just going to be an ongoing process. Thank you.

You're welcome. are there any other questions okay thank you all i will now entertain a motion to receive the superintendent's report is there a motion so moved thank you is there a second i think i heard a second there too is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the superintendent's report is approved We will begin with one report before moving to public comment. Our first report this evening is the Massachusetts School Building Authority for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School Chapter 74 Programming. Let's aim to keep the presentation within 10 minutes. Superintendent Skipper will share introductory remarks.

Wonderful. Thank you, Chair. So as we remember, this body approved submitting Madison Park Technical Vocational High School for the MSBA core program in March of 2025. In December of 2025, Madison Park was invited into the MSBA eligibility phase. As part of the eligibility period that concluded this summer, the MSBA requires a proposed Chapter 74 program list as well as the approval of the school committee as part of the eligibility period, which is the first phase of the core program. The approved Chapter 74 programs will be formally studied and evaluated during the feasibility period. This is the second phase of the core program. The final programs for the future Madison Park are determined during feasibility and design. Chief of Capital Planning Del Stanislaus is here tonight and will provide more detail about the proposed list of 22 programs and the next steps in the process. Brett Dickens, our Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools and College Career and Life Readiness, is also here with us to answer any questions that you may have. I also see Brian McLaughlin, who's Senior Project Manager at the Facilities Department in the city, is also here. I have approved this list, which has also been reviewed by Madison Park School Leader Paul Neal, BPS Capital Planning Department, the BPS Schools Division, the Mayor's Office, and the City's Public Facilities Department. Later on in the meeting, we will ask this committee to vote to approve this list. So at this point, I will turn it over to Chief Stanislaus and Brett Dickens.

Thank you, Superintendent. Good evening to members of the school committee. Tonight, I am providing an update on the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School project and requesting confirmation of the Chapter 74 programs that the district will formally study during the Massachusetts School Building Authority feasibility study. This represents an important step in the MSBA process and in our broader commitment to creating a modern, high-quality technical and vocational high school for Boston's students. Tonight's action does not finalize Madison Park's future programming. It established a portfolio of programs that the district, the MSBA, and DESE will evaluate in greater detail during the feasibility study. I will begin with a brief overview of where the MSBA project stands in the MSBA process. In April of 2025, the district submitted a statement of interest to the MSBA for the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School project. That submission followed school committee approval on March 20th, 2025, and city council approval on April 2nd, 2025. On September 30th, 2025, the MSBA conducted a senior study at Madison Park. This visit helped the MSBA better understand the school's existing building conditions, educational programs, enrollment, and facility needs. In December of 2025, the MSBA board formally invited Madison Park into the eligibility period. The district began the eligibility period on July 1st, 2026. This is the first formal phase of the MSBA grant approval process. On August 26th, 2026, the MSBA board of directors voted to invite us into feasibility study stage. This is a major step in the MSBA process as it allowed the city to complete the 270-day eligibility period in approximately 60 days, resulting in the project moving forward roughly eight months sooner than previous projects in the MSBA process. The next step in the process is to select an owner's project manager and designer. The OPM oversees the entire project lifecycle from planning and design to construction. The OPM ensures the project is completed on time within budget and according to budget specification. The next slide provides more details around the requirement that are the requirements that are completed during the eligibility period. The MSBA's eligibility period is typically a 270-day process that establishes the foundation for the project. During this period, BPS and the city must demonstrate that we have the governance, planning, funding, and educational information necessary to move into the feasibility study stage. We have completed the initial compliance certification and established a school building committee. We must also submit the chapter 74 program viability form, which is the focus of tonight's presentation. In partnership with the MSBA, we have conducted a comprehensive enrollment analysis and reached an agreement on the enrollment capacity that the project should study. The district also secured the needed approval for funding from the city for the feasibility study and schematic design phases. Because we completed these requirements early, the MSBA moved us into feasibility phase this past summer. The feasibility study will allow us to evaluate educational programming, enrollment space needs, potential design options, project costs, and overall approach to the Madison Park campus. One of the key eligibility requirements is confirming the Chapter 74 programs that will be evaluated through the study. The chapter 74 viability form allows the MSPA and DESE to understand the district's current vocational programs and the programs we may want to offer in the future. The form identifies which programs the district proposes to continue, expand, merge, sunset, and add. Our recommendations consider several factors, including current student interests, current enrollment, workforce demand, projected enrollment growth, wage potential, and opportunities for students to continue their education after graduation. The process also requires us to demonstrate alignment with regional workforce priorities and to document support from partners such as MassHire, local employers, and post-secondary institutions. The MSBA uses this information to ensure that the building options developed during the feasibility study can support the appropriate Chapter 74 educational spaces. School committee approval is required before the district submits the proposed portfolio to the MSBA. Most importantly, approval for this form does not represent a final or permanent decision about any Madison Park program. It confirms which programs will receive further educational operational workforce enrollment and facilities analysis during the feasibility study. Any final programming recommendations will return for consideration and approval through the appropriate public and school committee process. The column on the left shows Madison Park's Chapter 74 portfolio for fall of 2026, so this school year. The column on the right shows the programs we are proposing for further study. The proposed portfolio preserves a broad range of established pathways, including automotive technology, carpentry, cosmetology, dental assisting, facilities management, health assisting, HVAC, medical assisting, metal fabrication, plumbing, robotics, and other technical programs. We are proposing a second cohort in culinary arts and a second cohort in electricity. These potential expansions respond to both students' interests and workforce demand. The proposed portfolio also reflects program transitions already underway or under consideration, including mergers and programs that are sunsetting. For example, culinary arts, where you see on screen hospitality management merging with culinary arts. We are proposing three new programs for formal study, biotechnology, early education and care, and veterinary science. The proposed changes are intended to strengthen the connection between Madison Park's educational offerings and Boston's current and emerging workforce needs. Tonight's vote will authorize us to study this portfolio. It would not automatically open, expand, merge, or close any program. During the feasibility study, we will evaluate student demand, staffing, licensure requirements, equipment needs, partnerships, space requirements, and long-term program sustainability. We will also continue engaging Madison Park students, families, educators, industry partners, labor representatives, post-secondary institution, and the broader community before any final recommendations. Biotechnology has been identified as a priority industry by MassHire, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Boston. The Boston region has a significant concentration of life sciences and healthcare employers, creating potential career and post-secondary opportunities for Madison Park students. Labor market analysis indicates strong demand, job growth, and competitive wages in this sector. Early education and care. Expanding the early education workforce is a priority for both the City of Boston and Boston Public Schools. Boston continues to need qualified early educators and this pathway could allow students to enter the workforce while also pursuing additional credentials or college degrees. The program could create a strong connection between Madison Park and BPS's own workforce needs. Through the feasibility study, we will assess student interests, work-based learning opportunities, certification requirements, and partnerships. Veterinary science has been recommended for consideration by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. The field offers opportunities in animal care, veterinary assistance, laboratory settings, and related scientific careers. In closing, These proposed programs reflect our goal of preparing Madison Park students for strong careers in Boston's current and emerging industries. We are asking the school committee to approve the proposed Chapter 74 program portfolio for submission to the MSBA. This approval will allow the district to meet the requirements of the eligibility period and conduct the detailed analysis needed during the feasibility study. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll now open it up to committee for questions.

Thank you, Chief Stanislaus. Just a logistical question around the list of programs. Robotics is listed as a new program in both columns. Is it that it's new this year and it will continue in the proposed list next year?

Yes, so robotics started last year as an elective. It's new this year, and we are also studying it just as a long-term potential for Madison Park. Okay, thank you.

Can you... give an example, and I know that this is not the final list, this is an approval for further study, but as you all balanced kind of industry demand with student interest, community interest, et cetera, can you give an example of a pathway or a program of study that may have had interest but was determined not to be feasible for any reason? to give a more holistic sense of some of the decision making that was involved.

I can't think specifically of a program that was suggested that was not included in the portfolio.

Can you speak into the microphone? Sure, sorry.

I can't think of a specific example of a program that was not included in the portfolio at this moment. I would add to what Chief Stanislaus said is one of the considerations for programs that remain is considering all of the factors, the student interest, the labor market demand, sorry about that, but also programs that allow students that might not be authorized to work in the United States good post-secondary options. That's certainly a consideration at Madison Park, but I'll go back and get back to you if there were programs that were raised and proposed that were not put forward.

Yeah, I think one that comes to mind would be aviation, right, and aviation technology, right, tech. So I think that was, I think that's one of the ones.

That's a great example, thank you. Yeah, aviation for pilots, for preparation for pilots is not a Chapter 74 thing. Program in the Department of Education The only option is aviation tech which is the same as auto tech and there isn't physical space for that program It needs the space of literally like a hangar. Thank you. I forgot about aviation.

Okay.

Thank you So that program is as an it is operating as an elective at Madison but to prepare students for the pilot license is not a chapter 74 option and

And how comparable is this list to some of the more successful career technical education campuses in Massachusetts?

I think we've all visited several of the very successful programs. It's very comparable. You know, the one program that seems to be emerging in some of the other centers is advanced manufacturing, which also has a pretty high capital cost and a space requirement. But I would say the portfolio is very comparable to the regional vocational schools. Thank you.

My last, oh, sorry. My second to last question. Chief Stanislaus, you said there is an agreed upon enrollment capacity that also drove the number of programs that you're thinking about. What is the agreed upon enrollment capacity?

So the enrollment one of the things that we studied that Madison Park does not have currently is a seventh and eighth grade so this is like wrapped up in like the the total number for consideration with the MSBA so it's 1800 students and

And again, understanding that this is not a set and committed program list, but if we were to assume that a similar list were moving forward after these study periods, et cetera, can you just name the school year that if everything were on track, this new column would be in operation for students at Madison Park?

What school year would that be? I would need to look at the MSBA timeline to give you an answer. Can I get back to you on that one? Sure.

Maybe just for the public, is it like two years from now, four, five? I think trying to give folks an understanding of the timeline and the length out that we're really talking about.

So the new programs that are being proposed, like Madison Park, et cetera, sorry, not Madison Park, but Veterinary Science, currently at Madison Park, there's no space for these new programs that are being proposed, so it will be a part of the new build or major renovation through the MSVA process. And that process can take anywhere from like for the next like six years. Brian, if you want to add anything to that.

I think the high level schedule right now, we're looking to start construction sometime in 2030.

Can you say that again in the microphone? Thank you. Sorry.

I think right now a high level schedule based upon where we're at with the MSBA process is looking to start construction sometime in 2030 with completion sometime in 2033.

Thank you.

i don't have a question i just have like a reminder not a reminder but uh just to continue to keep in mind uh the engagement part of students and families in uh the board of madison park community through the facility period so they can be part of the bigger picture and then know what's going on and how is this progressing for them

Thank you so much for that. I think we're entering the feasibility phase, which is the exciting part for a lot of community engagement. The community gets to influence the design and stuff like that, like what the future of Madison Park is gonna look like. So a lot of engagement during this phase.

i have a question is there a comprehensive list of all of the potential programs that chapter 74 would have irregardless of the ones that we've chosen but is there a comprehensive list my question being is that the size of our district all of our programs don't just happen at madison park other high schools have some programming as well how do we begin to look at that as a complete district in terms of where the opportunity so if a student couldn't get a specific program at madison park are there other places in the district because of logistics etc that they could get it and are there things that we don't take advantage of i just have a question we are a seaport city and do we have any programs that deal with the seaport or you know those kinds of things

Great questions.

There is a list of all potential Chapter 74 programs on the DESE website. They are sorted by industry cluster. I think we have a very broad portfolio. We have 32 Chapter 74 CTE programs across five schools. um so we you know beyond the 21 at madison there are another 11 that are spread out in the other four schools which are english high school baa bga and emk the answer to your second question i think one one industry that we don't cover there is a state norfolk aggie school that covers agriculture it's simply an issue of land and space, so I think that is a program that some students look for, and we don't offer that, but I would say if you look across the industry cluster, industry clusters on the DESE website, we are in all of the industry clusters, but not necessarily every potential program. I think what will be interesting to watch, given the timeline, is how the state will put forward new standards in the IT information technology industry cluster and how we will respond. So that's an area that we will obviously be watching over the next several years. Will there be a program in AI or new technologies that the state will develop standards for and allow us to open up a Chapter 74 program?

Thank you very much.

Oh, and you asked about the seaport. And I just want to share that you're going to hear about the Bloomberg grant later. But we are looking at programming within the programs at Madison to address issues of clean energy, to address issues of climate resilience. So it might not be a new program. But we are looking to trends that are happening in our climate and new energy technologies and carbon neutral buildings. So we're modernizing the programs that we have so that students have transferable skills as the needs of industry change.

Thank you. Okay, we've got three different questions going here. One, two, three.

So I just wanna, I talked about keeping the engagement part, but also thinking about the kids that already have, they are part of the program, and some of the programs that are being sub-setting, and are we letting those kids know what is going on and they'll be okay?

Yes so when a program is sunset the students that are currently in the program continue in the program and they are allowed to graduate there just aren't new ninth graders coming in in the two examples that the chief presented around merging programs students that are put in those programs for example culinary and hospitality will be learning the standards in both of those clusters and the same with design and visual and graphic communications So whichever program they came from, they're actually gonna get a more expansive introduction to those two fields through the MERGE program. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. This is why I should go first, because Vice Chair Kerry stole my questions and suggestions. But anyway, just to confirm for the benefit of the public, because the first time I saw this list, of new proposed programs, my reaction was, with technology changing by the minute, and AI and everything, how can we know what is gonna be needed? What technology do we have to be preparing our students in eight or 10 years from now? So just to clarify, we're talking about a provisional approval of this list, correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Great. And then in terms of enrollment capacity, I understood that the new school will be able to serve 1,800 students. Is that correct?

Yes, that's the number that we're studying with DESE.

How many are we serving now?

Not DESE, the MSBA, sorry.

Madison Park has between around 1,200. It goes between 1,100 and 1,200.

Great.

But it does not have a seventh and eighth grade. So I think that's, it's both the expansion of the nine to 12, right? I think the other thing, Member Peralta, is that on the Chapter 74 side, we are bound, even when technology changes, we are bound to what the state is adopting and considering Chapter 74. And sometimes there isn't as fast of a process there to change the actual Chapter 74 programming as we want to. So like robotics is a good example where it took a while for that to become a chapter 74.

Thank you.

All right, thank you. And we will be taking action on this later in the meeting.

Thank you. Thank you.

Great. We will now move on to general public comment. Ms. Parvitz.

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 matters may be discussed by the committee later. The meeting will feature two public comment periods with the first comment period limited to one hour. After one hour, anyone who hasn't testified will have the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting. We have 14 speakers this evening. Each person will have three minutes to speak, and I will remind you when you have 30 seconds remaining. Please feel free to email your comments for distribution to the committee. Speakers may not reassign their times to others. The time that an interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from a 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. For speakers on Zoom, please be ready to unmute and turn on your camera when called. To support interpretation, please speak slowly and clearly. Our first group of speakers is Peter Papadopoulos, Gerasimo Papadopoulos, Thomas Fan, Christina Nicolaides, and Rosanne Tang. Peter Papadopoulos, please come.

Hello.

My name is Charles Papadopoulos. I'm currently an 11th grader in Boston Latin School, and I'd like to begin my presentation. Abizi. Abizi is the official designation for someone who entered BLS in ninth grade. I am Abizi. That means my math tracking should be behind. I should be slower. If you enter in ninth grade, you enter into algebra. But thankfully, the math department recognized that I should accelerate and move me to algebra too. That is where the rest of my ninth grade peers were two years ago. They were not BZs, most of those people in Algebra II, I might note. Now I'm trying to skip up to calculus. I self-studied it in the summer and am preparing to give CLEP examinations to prove my readiness for that in pre-calculus. Unfortunately, the math department has stopped granting requests to accelerate, leaving students on unequal footing throughout the grade. There's a student in my grade whom they granted permission to skip to calculus in 10th grade, but in 11th grade, they are no longer letting anyone skip. I feel like the policy prevents equity within the grade because of that. Some people are in a higher math class than others, whilst at the same time, there are people in the lower math class who have the ability for a higher one. I also observed that there are very few BZs, those who entered ninth grade, within the multivariate calculus course. because it's not official, but the way I feel it, the school tracking system is slightly set up to leave BZs a little further behind, unfortunately. So I'm registering for the AP Calculus exam at the end of the school year, and I will study and try to get a good score, but I think it would be really kind of the school to place me in that class to help me get that score because of their excellent support system and teaching. You may be wondering, why am I addressing a school board for this? It's because I have repeatedly inquired into this matter internally. Discussions have reached the principal, but unfortunately, I feel like they have not fell on the most receptive ears. This is why I'm here to address what I feel is a core inequality at the school. Our school provides a Zoom course for pre-calculus. This is an online course, so there are no space constraints. It's not a physical classroom. That's not the problem.

30 seconds.

The course is supposed to catch up who wish to take calculus. The prerequisites are only algebra 2 and geometry, classes which I have already taken by last year. Asking to enter this course, I was denied despite meeting the prerequisites simply because I was not in the 11th grade at the time. The way I understand it, they're only interested in having this catch-up to bring you to their baseline, but not to follow your further ambitions. And I feel like... Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Was that Peter Papadopoulos who came out? Yeah. Okay, so Gerasimus Papadopoulos.

Oh, that was me.

Okay, that's what I thought. So Peter Papadopoulos then.

Good afternoon. My name is Peter Papadopoulos, and I also come from Boston Latin School. I finished a mathematics course on art of problem solving, an internationally renowned platform where students go even to the International Mathematic Olympiad. I'm seeking to enter geometry. I studied algebra and believe I have the necessary skills to pass this assessment. I accelerated in eighth grade, before even high school, and my request was nonetheless denied. I asked this year again, prepared and more qualified, but despite this, my request was not heard. The math department didn't even allow me to take an exam to prove my readiness. They simply denied my requests. My mother sent a formal request as a school required through the official channels, and my mom was not notified that I wasn't allowed to take the exam. I'm passionate about math because I want to be a mathematics major or an engineering major. And I most appreciate how math stems from a small collection of axioms to build an infinitely beautiful language. I wish I explore this deeper and reach multivariable calculus in the 12th grade, but by denying me to accelerate to geometry prevents that. There are people in my grade who have already taken geometry. The math department permits this. However, they were allowed last year. Suddenly, the math department has stopped allowing people to accelerate to the level that they should be at. I believe this is harmful since it creates an inequality in the math tracking, where some people are above others in my own grade. But we are not allowed to catch up to them because the decisions have long been crystallized. The reason I am speaking here is because I feel it is the only place where my voice... The reason I'm speaking here is because I feel it is the only place where my voice has been heard. Boston Latin School already had issues with equity within their exam process. But I think these concerns and equity go further than just the exam. I believe they are also within the structure of the school itself. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next speaker is Thomas Phan.

CLEP Calculus is an exam accepted by 2,900 colleges within the United States of America. It measures completion of Calculus I, and I passed it with a 78 out of 80. I'm currently taking Calculus III at Bunker Hill Community College.

I am curr- Just continue, just keep talking. Yeah, just keep talking.

I'm currently taking Calculus III at Bunker Hill Community College, an institution that is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. They also accredited Harvard and Yale. Yet, when I asked to accelerate within the math department, I am denied. Based on this, I feel like I am not being denied based on merit, but by an institutional wall. There already is someone in our grade taking multivariable calculus within Boston Latin School. I'm a BZ, meaning I entered in ninth grade, not seventh like the rest of the people. I believe this disadvantages me because it meant that I was automatically set to be placed in algebra one in ninth grade by default. Thankfully, back then they allowed me to accelerate to the baseline of which all 6Cs start as. I am asking to accelerate in 11th grade from pre-calculus to calculus. but they are not allowing me. The department let people of my grade accelerate in the math track in the past, but they are no longer allowing that, which makes me feel unequally treated since I believe I have the same abilities for math, yet am not given the same opportunities in terms of what classes I take. Boston Latin School has already faced other concerns over equity. And we believe that they are not over. But I hope that the school considers moving past that era and makes more progress in helping everyone, regardless of if they came to BLS in ninth grade or seventh grade. Despite of all this, I will take the AP Calculus exam at the end of the school year. And I simply hope that the school will provide me support and allow me to formally take the class so I have less trouble over passing that exam, since it is a difficult one. BLS is known for its rigorous approach, and I may need some help with it, which I feel that BLS will adequately provide. PZs, by default, have less AP slots because they have to take other requirements. So I feel that allowing me to take calculus would be a fair compensation and would level the footing in terms of GPA.

Thank you. Thank you. Christina Nicolaides. Christina Nicolaides. Roseanne Tang.

I served on the Exam School Admissions Task Force in 2021. We all saw the recent Boston Globe article sharing the good news that black enrollment at BLS has increased each year and approached the district's black enrollment in the school year 26. However, a closer look at exam school invitation rates for school year 27 by race tells a different story. Last fall, BPS leadership stated that they don't want exam schools to take up valuable airtime that should be devoted to improving other schools. So they enacted a policy which simulations showed would be regressive and pledged to leave that policy alone for three years. I want to acknowledge that two of you voted against this harmful policy. In line with this intention, BPS has quietly posted the school year 27 invitation rates. I don't know when. Did you see and discuss them? They show retrograde admission policy changes led to Boston Latin School black and Latina invitation rates declining an amount equal to the amount that white invitation rates increased. For this year, students with disabilities were invited to exam schools at one-third and multilingual learners at one-half the rate of school year 23. despite constituting 23 and 35% of district enrollment, respectively. According to simulations, the most concerning policy change last year was the addition of a citywide top 20% round of invitations. Yet, the BPS report does not provide disaggregation of who the top 20% of invitees are by race, neighborhood, et cetera. It does report that almost half of them live in the highest of four socioeconomic tiers. The mere existence of exam schools structures inequity throughout all of BPS. So we should be talking about the equity impact of changed admissions policies. Invitation rates likely foreshadow enrollment rates, so we should be concerned about a widening opportunity gap in the near future. Questions that I hope you all ask. Who was invited in the citywide top 20% round? For example, what was the breakdown of this year's citywide round by race, socioeconomic status, et cetera? How do changes in invitation rates affect changes in enrollment rates? Why continue implementing an emissions policy that simulations and now evidence prove unjust? Thank you.

Thank you. Our next group of speakers are Travis Marshall, John Mudd, Audrey Martinez-Odapacan, Jacqueline Santos, and Robert Jenkins.

good evening my name is Travis Marshall I live in Roslindale I'm the proud parent of students at the English high school and new mission high school I'm also a member of quality schools for every student quest a grassroots group of parents in the district it's the start of a new school year but in the coming weeks you will already begin to tackle the budget for next year One facet of school finance that Quest hopes you consider is the role of private fundraising in the Boston Public Schools. Quest parents reported on the 2018 Ernst & Young audit of individual school accounts, the first and only time there has been a district-wide snapshot of the role that philanthropy plays in the schools. We updated this data from IRS 990 forms annually, and last year we were able to recreate a wider picture using BEDF's accounting of the schools for which it provides fiscal sponsorship. This is important data. However, it should not be for a group of working parents to cobble together. The superintendent circular FIN21 on BPS recognized 501c3 organizations states that all tax exempt school organizations need a strong rationale for the need of a separate independent 501c3 and must update BPS on current details including board structure, status, and operating revenue each year. To our knowledge, this is not happening. despite the recent reimagining school funding project recommendation to collect and make available all revenue information by school, inclusive of philanthropy, fundraising, and other private sources. Quest continues to recommend that BPS create a dashboard that is updated annually for all funding sources so that the funding of our public schools remains transparent to stakeholders and to taxpayers. We invite BPS staff and families to join us on September 22nd at 2 p.m. for a city council hearing on this matter. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker is John Mudd.

Good evening. Welcome back to the new school year. For those who don't know it, my name is John Mudd. I'm a resident of Cambridge and a long time education advocate in Boston. An urgent priority for BPS and the school committee is determining when the strategic implementation plan will be presented. I hope you agree. It was promised for this fall at the time when the committee passed the new opportunity and achievement gap policy. Such a strategic implementation plan should include annual SMART goals and a statement of the changes in education programs explaining how BPS plans to reach these goals. If there is any hope of seeing real improvement for students, SMART goals for disaggregated groups must be set by BPS for student outcomes and the reduction of proficiency and achievement gaps, on MCAS, for teacher diversity, for the expansion of bilingual education programs and bilingual teachers and for equitable literacy. Will such a full strategic plan be presented to the school committee at its October 14th meeting or at its November 18th meeting? The school needs to set a date. There must be a plan by then for BPS to incorporate new strategies in planning for the next school year 2027-28 budget, and for BPS to submit necessary proposals to the state in time for implementation in the fall of 2027. The school committee will need to decide whether it will insist on real change. Simply setting smart goals without spelling out the so-called logic of action about how BPS will reach these goals will likely be empty rhetoric, the proverbial lipstick on the pig. Current approaches are failing. More of the same will not accelerate needed improvement. I want to be respectful, but a roadmap is not an implementation plan. Even my car roadmap gives me the mileage and the routes I need to get to my destination. The roadmap that was posted online has no SMART goals and no explanation of the program changes to reach these goals. Please ask the superintendent to produce such a strategic implementation plan before you proceed further. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Audrey Martinez .

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your time and listening. I am here tonight because I am extremely concerned about the system for IEPs and that it's too complicated even for myself, a former teacher, a a parent and someone that has been a researcher in education for over 20 years and also my colleagues with doctoral degrees have had many challenges trying to navigate the individualized education plan. Last week I was trying to help my friend complete a consent form. for additional evaluations. But we were really confused because it didn't include any of the assessments that we knew her child needed because they are bilingual. And I know as a multilingual person that if I am assessed in the wrong language you will not know as much as you won't be able to know what I actually know and so we were trying to figure out how to how to put this into the form because there is very very little space and all of the things listed had nothing to do with what we were concerned about so we almost rejected it and I later thanks to my dog, learned that we would have been in jeopardy. And let me explain my dog. My dog is an angel. And last Sunday, I took him for his regular walk, but he refused to walk where I wanted to take him. And so instead, we went to the park. And thanks to me going to the park with him, I ran into a neighbour who shared with me that her daughter was finally going to go to a school that was going to help her because she won a lawsuit against BPS because her daughter had went undiagnosed for several years with autism. And because of that, she connected me with an advocate, who then I finally talked to yesterday, and it saved us from jeopardizing the whole IEP process. I you know we've been working on this for about three months and I don't think it's fair that you know even if I have high levels of education and I was a teacher before that I don't understand these things and so I really want to advocate that our city should be offering free, just like they offer free legal immigration clinics, we should also have free legal clinics for families that have IEPs. Thank you. Your time is up.

Please send your written testimony. Jacqueline Santos. Jacqueline Santos.

Robert Jenkins.

Good evening, Chairperson Robinson. Good evening, Superintendent Skipper. My name is Robert Jenkins, President of the Madison Park Alumni Association Incorporated. So I picked a good night to come. I'll be very brief. A year ago, I was diagnosed with stage three prostate cancer. As of today, I am cancer free. After going through the MRI, biopsy pet scan and i just two weeks ago uh spent four months of radiation five days a week so uh i am fully healthy and back you know as i always been I want to thank everyone. It was a team effort from all of my doctors. But one of the reasons why I'm here tonight is please vote for Madison Park moving on. It's been a long process. The Madison Park Alumni Association has been involved ever since when we started this entire process. And then there was a roadblock. I should say a bump in the road. where we had to file for the MSBA, which the mayor's office did. Some people didn't like it, but like I said, I'm class of 1978, and I came into that building in 77. So there's a lot at stake for the Alumni Association. We have space in the building. We're there every day. We were there for the Freshman Orientation Week. Got to teach history of Madison. We turned 50 last year. As you see my commemorative shirt there. Also on top of that, we were there for the first day of school, which we have been. I've been associated with my alma mater ever since 2013. I've been a school site, school parent council member. uh as well uh we we started in 2013 but we were sanctioned in 2016 when i became president under the secretary of state's office bedf is our fiscal uh sponsor so we have a lot of ties into the school but we definitely need to move forward one of the main goals i am also involved in the shaw taylor msba process working very closely with dell and her team we have a community meeting coming up on the 24th at the Mattapan Library. We did a presentation a few weeks ago, which I'm working on the aspect of it. But another most important thing is our athletics, oh, wait a minute, I gotta make a quick shout out to the community engagement. community advancement team they put on one heck of a show last friday in which i volunteer people see me around the building but also too we have to get more partners involved and help chief corey mccarthy out on regarding uh athletics and student supports thank you thank you

We will now transition to Zoom public comment. Please raise your virtual hand when I call your name. Our next group of speakers are Judith Baker, Asia Jackson, Rebecca Ostapak, and Christina Norris. Judith Baker. Please unmute and turn on your camera.

Thank you very much. My name is Judith Baker. I'm a long-time BPS teacher, now retired. I spent most of my years at Madison Park. I've been involved as a Madison Park advocate since... We can't hear you. My name is Judith Baker. I taught for many, many years at Madison Park. And then in 2012 with Mel King and Dennis Wilson, we started the Friends of Madison Park and have been very active as advocates since then. We have submitted a written testimony to all of the members So I won't read it here since you all have it. The written testimony states some of our really very, very important needs this year and our needs going forward if we're going to be successful. Obviously, technical education, high skills education is a huge benefit to the students who enroll in Chapter 74 programs. And Boston has been very, very slow to build a really state of the art set of programs since the original Humphrey Center was first built. We desperately need your help. We have the possibility of creating life changing skill programs and enrolling actually 1,800 students in them, but only if the state comes through. If the state doesn't come through, we still have to do it. So these next seven years are incredibly important. And in our testimony, we have listed some of the needs that have gone unmet. We have certainly worked very hard with Superintendent, with Adele Stanislaus, with Brett Thickens. We are very serious about getting these skills for kids. You have to understand that there are needs going unmet that are very important needs and we just can't do our job without your attention. So I'm only here to draw your attention to that written testimony. I hope all the members of school committee will read it very carefully and then come back and help us with these matters. Of course, we're very excited if the state does help us build a new building. But you've got to understand that seven, eight, nine years down the road, we had thought we were going to start shovels in the ground in 2025. That didn't happen. Our kids can't wait till 2034 for programs. We have to have those programs now. We have to have seventh and eighth grade now. And I hope that you will respond very seriously to the points that we raised. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the chance to speak to you tonight.

Thank you very much. Our next speaker is not in the meeting. Aisha Jackson is not in the meeting, so we will continue with Rebecca Ostapchuk. Ostapchuk.

Good evening. I'm here today talking about the Boston Public School Transportation Department. I thought this being a new school year, it would be a new leaf. For three years, we have had issues on the school buses. Yesterday, my five-year-old and my seven-year-old got on the bus at 8.26 a.m. Their school opened at 8.10 a.m. My daughter called me on her smartwatch at 9.14 a.m. that they were scared and they didn't know where their bus was. I called the bus company. They said that they were dropped off at school at 845. I called the school who told me that they were not there and they didn't know where the bus was. I tracked my daughter from her watch and we stayed on the phone with her and two brave girls on that bus held up signs asking for help from the outside community that they were in danger with this bus driver. I have not heard a single response from transportation. I've asked for two days for supervisors to call me back. While on the phone with my daughter, the bus was pulled over by Boston Police, C11 District in Dorchester. The cop had to redirect the bus driver on how to get to school. I want some accountability held for the bus drivers. Last year, my daughter was lost. She got hurt on the bus and ended up in the emergency room, and I heard nothing. There's no change, and there's gotta be some kind of change. I've reached out to TransDAF, I've reached out to the superintendent's office, I've reached out to the helpline, to 311, and I have gone unheard. I've even reached out to the news. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Our last speaker is Christina Norris. Christina Norris.

I'm just trying to get my camera on. Hi. Good evening. My name is Christina Norris. I am a Boston parent of four and three of my children are BPS students. Given the history of BPS transportation and my family's experience since we moved here, I imagine this probably won't be the last time we meet like this. On the first day of school, BPS reported that 61% of morning buses were on time. But what about the other 39%? Let me tell you what that looks like. It looks like my daughter standing on a sidewalk waiting for a bus that never showed up. It looks like parents refreshing an app, watching ETAs change, sitting on hold with transportation and having no idea where the bus is or when their child will arrive. Yesterday, my children were part of that 39%. 13 children on a bus where the system marked them as dropped off at 8.44 a.m. They were still on the bus. We didn't even know there was a problem until our children contacted us. Once a child is marked dropped off, the app no longer provides live tracking. Thankfully, another parent and I had GPS on our children's phones. We were able to locate them and give the school their actual location. The school couldn't locate them through its own system because the system said they were already there. They were picked up at 824 and didn't arrive until 1012. The bus hit a sign with children on board. The children signaled other drivers for help. The police responded, and when I called afterwards, I was told that no police report had been filed. That is what the other 39% can look like, and I know that we are not the only family. Parents have been telling you about these problems for years. I have filed multiple complaints myself. You have the complaints, you have the data. You had an independent investigation in 2025 after a five-year-old child was killed by a BPS bus. And that investigation identified serious problems. Yet here we are in 2026. I want to recognize Ms. Carey and Mr. Rockoff at Mason because they have done more to advocate for these children than I have personally seen transportation do. They should not have to do transportation's job and neither should we. Parents should not have to help track the buses, refresh apps, sit on hold, or use their children's phones to figure out where they are. That is your job. You have the complaints. You have the data. You have the investigation. You know. So I want to ask you, what are you going to do after you know? not eventually not after another complaint not after another investigation and god forbid another tragedy what do you do now because i'm going to keep asking i'm going to keep documenting and given the history i feel like we will be having this conversation again i would much rather be wrong about that these are our children we should not have to do your job to get them safely to school you know there's a problem now show us what you do after you know thank you thank you very much chair that concludes public comments

Thank you, Ms. Parvex, and thank you to those of you who spoke this evening and shared your perspectives. Your testimony is extremely important to us. Our first two action items this evening are the grants for approval, totaling $5,027,984, and the in-kind donations with a total estimated value of $750. Now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments. Great.

Thank you, Chair. So as Chair just said, we're asking committee's approval for 10 grants totaling a little over $5 million. The largest of these is a $3.5 million grant from Bloomberg Career Grant that serves 600 students in workforce development programs. The purpose of this grant is to provide a skilled trades workforce development and apprenticeship readiness program at Madison Park Vocational High School during a three-year period. This amount represents year one of a $12 million grant received by the City of Boston that will provide opportunities for Madison Park students as well as students throughout BPS in an after-school vocation by Madison program. This will also include career exploration, pre-apprenticeship training, industry partnerships, and student support services. The remaining nearly 1.5 million is in different buckets. The Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative. This is a new competitive grant totaling 465,000 intended to serve 175 students and 20 teachers in early childhood programs. The grant will support local coordination and investment in access to high quality preschool for three and four year olds. The FY27, Massachusetts offers rebates for electric vehicles or more EV truck rebate increase. This is a continuing rebate that's totaling nearly $420,000, intending to serve 46,000 students district-wide. This grant is a rebate for the purchase of electric school buses. The Commonwealth Corporation Round 11 Career Technical Initiatives Grant is a new competitive grant. totaling $300,000 to the 26-20-28 school years, and this is intended to serve 30 students in adult education programs and will address the persistent need for skilled labor in construction, trades, and manufacturing. There's also one, the Boston Foundation, which is early college consortium with Roxbury Community College, year two funding. This is continuing competitive grant, totaling $100,000 for this school year, serving 200 students in early college programs. This grant will strengthen the development of BPS's first consortium-based early college program in partnership with RCC, or Roxbury Community College, and position the model for designation with DESE. There's also the Mass Cultural Council Creative Experiences Grant, which is a continuing competitive grant also for $100,000 this school year intended to serve more than 600 students at 20 BPS schools and will support creative experiences for students district-wide, such as woodworking classes, music classes, dance classes, et cetera. There's a $45,000 mass life science center, elementary and secondary education grant, biotechnology, micro bits grant, which is intended to serve 2,500 students and 22 teachers at East Boston High School and 11 elementary schools in the East Boston and Charlestown neighborhoods. The purpose of this grant is to support the expansion of STEM education and biotechnology and life sciences and data science. The Qatar Foundation International Arabic Language Bridge Grant is a continuing competitive grant, totaling just over $33,000, intended to serve 102 students at Brighton High School. is a thirty thousand dollar english for new bostonians grant which is a continuing competitive grant that will serve 25 students in adult education programs this school year and last the massachusetts 21st century community learning centers program continuation grant from desi this is an increase it's a continuing competitive grant totaling an additional thousand dollars this school year intended to serve 1500 students and 29 teachers at the Al Holland Technical High School, Josiah Quincy Elementary, and Umana Academy. There are also several in-kind donations before you. Again, this is first school committee meeting, so there's just lots of these grants, fortunately, and in-kind donations. There's one in-kind donation for three-ring binders, the Department of Early Childhood from the Boston Children's Hospital, valued at $750. And we have Chief Bloom, who is here. I don't see Marcella, but Chief Bloom, oh, Marcella's here. Masala Mahesha is here, who's the Director of Federal and State Grants Programs and Compliance. So if there's any questions from the committee, both are here. We would ask for full consideration and acceptance with a favorable vote for these resources for our students in schools.

Thank you, Superintendent. I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee. I think we're all good. All right, so thank you all. We have a member with a conflict of interest for one of the grants this evening, so we will separate the grants into two votes. If there's no further discussion, I will now entertain a motion to approve the English for New Bostonians grant, totaling $30,000 as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Ms. Parvix, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Dr. Atkins? Mr. Peralta?

Abstain.

Ms. Polanco-Garcia? Yes. Ms. Torres? Yes. Mr. Tran? Yes. Ms. Gerrit? Yes. Ms. Robinson? Yes. The grants are approved.

Thank you. If there's no further discussion, I will now entertain a motion to approve the remaining grants totaling $4,997,984 as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the grant by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the grants are approved. We will continue with the in-kind donation. If there's no further discussion, I will now entertain a motion to approve the in-kind donation as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the grant by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the in-kind donation is approved. Our third action item this evening is the payment of membership dues to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, also known as MASK, for the school year 26-27 in the amount of $8,795. MASK provides a wide range of programs and services, including professional development workshops and educational advocacy support. I will now open it up to the committee for any questions or comments.

Just a note, I had a question originally looking at this payment around how fast the rate was increasing of annual payments. I'm seeing that the rate is actually level to the previous year, so I just wanted to make a note of that.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

If there are no further questions, I'll now entertain a motion to approve the payment of annual membership dues to mask in the amount of $8,795 as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you. And a second. Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the motion is approved. Our last vote is the MSBA Madison Park Technical Vocational High School Chapter 74 programming that was presented earlier tonight. If there are no further questions, I will entertain a motion as presented. Is there a motion? Second. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Ms. Parvix, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Dr. Alkins? Mr. Peralta?

Yes.

Ms. Polanco-Garcia? Yes. Ms. Torres? Yes. Mr. Tran? Yes. Ms. Garrett? Yes. Ms. Robinson? Yes. The motion is approved unanimously.

Great, thank you. We're gonna transition to reports. If you need to take a break, you can, okay. all right go ahead our first report is the horace man charter governing update for the dudley street neighborhood charter schools memorandum of understanding a let's aim to keep the presentation within five minutes now i'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for introductory comments

Wonderful. In a few minutes, Assistant Superintendent of Autonomous Schools, new Assistant Superintendent of Autonomous Schools, Dr. Hervé Henault, will present the MOU for the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School. I think you'll recognize Hervé as the longtime leader of the Lyons Elementary and High School, and we're very happy that he has joined us in this new capacity. So as a reminder, the Horace Mann in-district charter schools are independent public schools that operate under five-year charters granted by the Commonwealth's Board of Education and Secondary Education. Each of the Horace Mann charter schools must operate under a Memorandum of Understanding with BPS, or what we say an MOUA. This MOU-A aligns with Horace Mann schools that have come before the school committee with some provisions that are specific to the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School. Dr. Ngo is here to walk you through those provisions. In June, this body voted to approve the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School renewal application. However, this document was not ready at the time that that was presented. So we are asking the school committee to vote in favor of the MOUA at a future school committee meeting. I will now turn it over. I will now turn the meeting over to Dr. Inouye.

Thank you, Superintendent Skipper. Good evening, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the school community. My name is Herve Arnault, and I am the Assistant Superintendent of Autonomous Schools. As Superintendent Skipper mentioned, I support our Horace Main Schools, Innovation Schools, and Pilot School in leveraging their unique autonomies to drive innovation and improve student outcome. And as such, I look forward to partnering with this committee as we renew our first main MOUs and advanced strategic planning for our innovation schools. So tonight I am presenting one governance document for your consideration, which is the MOUA for Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School. As a reminder, the MOUA serves as the primary governing agreement between BPS and the Horace Mann Charter. It defines operational responsibilities, budgets allocations, staffing protocols, facilities academic support for students with disabilities and english language learners what you have here on the left side all of the agreements that we have with the charter schools And on the left side, the part that is bolded are the areas where the revision has had substantial improvement. And on the right side, it is the implication of these revisions. And so, first, there will be three substantive update to this MOU-A. Number one is that it aligns with previous MOUs for EFT and BDEA that were voted by this body. And it aligns by transitioning specific operational services such as BPS legal and compliance from a non-discretionary to a discretionary purpose. Secondly, in doing so, or as a result of this shift.

Revae, could you try using the other mic? It's just, I don't know what is going on. See if that one is better.

Hello? And so in doing so. There you go.

No, it's still doing it.

In doing so, as a result of these shifts, there will be an increased indemnification provision that will protect BPS when Dudley will assume additional responsibilities, those who were put in board. Thirdly, and that is really specific to Dudley Street, this agreement is reiterating the district commitment to collaborate with the school to establish a pathway K-12 to the Dearborn STEM Academy. And so tonight, we request your review of the Dudley Street MOU and your consideration for approval at the later school committee. Thank you.

I'll now open it up to any questions from the committee. Ms. Garrett?

Thank you, Dr. Ono.

I just had a question about the K-12 pathway and just clarifying the definition of K-12 pathway, that it's not implying that the school would become a K-12. You're saying that there's a commitment to have a defined pathway from Dudley Street through K-12. That is correct.

That will be a defined pathway from Dudley Street to the Dearborn Academy. making it a continuum K-12.

And right now there is a gap between the end of Dudley Street and the beginning of Dearborn with Dudley Street terminating or ending its in fifth grade and Dearborn beginning in seventh. So as part of the commitment figuring out the right series of schools or some advised pathway in the interim before Dearborn starts?

Yes, that is what the intent is.

This is a historical partnership with Boston Plan for Excellence that oversaw Dudley and for a period of time was the receiver for the Dearborn. Dearborn has exited receivership, and so the partnership with Dearborn is no longer the same, although they still work to support, but the Dudley is very much intact. And the spirit of this was always that students would continue in early college preparation along the pathway, as well as CT or any other kind of career-connected activities. The Dearborn stopped taking a sixth grade class two years ago as part of a grade change. Dudley right now physically doesn't have the space to expand beyond fifth. One of the things we can look at are options around are there other feeders that they could feed to for the sixth grade for either the sixth, the sixth, seventh, and eighth with the intent to then transfer it into the Dearborn at either the seventh grade or the ninth, right? So I think that will be something we'll continue in spirit to work with Dudley on. And when they're working with their kids, that is always with the intent that they'd love to see them continue on with Dearborn. But if not Dearborn, there are other schools for sure at the high school level that they can continue to work on some of the career and early college preparation and continue. but there isn't an obligation here at this point for us to find and solve that problem. In spirit, we agree and want to solve that problem because we think Dudley is a very good school.

Thank you. Any more questions? Nothing else. Thank you, and we will take a vote on this at a later meeting. Thank you very much. Okay, our last report tonight is Forward Together, the 2026 to 2031 Strategic Roadmap for Boston Public Schools. Let's aim to keep the presentation within 20 minutes, and I'd like to remind our presenters to please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. Superintendent, I invite you to give introductory remarks.

Wonderful. Thank you, Chair. So this evening, we're presenting the next step in laying the groundwork for the next five years. Forward Together, the 2026-31 Strategic Roadmap for Boston Public Schools is the latest update to our planning to build on the foundation we have created in the BPS. Shortly, you will hear from Dr. Colin Rose, Senior Advisor for Strategy and Opportunity Gaps. Monica Hogan, Chief of Data Information and Systems Improvement. They will be headlining the presentation tonight. Also, our deputies, Dr. Simone Wright, Deputy Superintendent of Academics. Dr. Ana Tavares, Deputy Superintendent of Family and Community Advancement. and Dr. Samuel DePina, Senior Deputy Superintendent of Operations, are also here to support and answer questions relative to their particular areas, if there were any. With the Opportunity and Achievement Gap Policy as our North Star, we have developed the strategic roadmap to guide our mission into the next decade. The strategic roadmap is our blueprint, our outline of the actions we will prioritize to ensure student success. We have developed clear, actionable steps that were informed by our vision for every student, creating rigorous and culturally affirming learning experiences with a supportive network of caring adults and providing wellness and enrichment opportunities in physical spaces that support learning. In tonight's presentation, you will hear more about the intersection of the OAG policy, the strategic plan, and the district success measures we have put in place to progress monitor and hold ourselves accountable. I want to thank the school committee for your thoughtful input, frankly, as well as so many in the district and community, as this has been a pretty extensive process. I also want to thank Dr. Rose very much, one, for coming back, and two, for leading charge on this work. To Chief Hogan, same thing, the members of the OAG Task Force, the BPS academics team under the leadership of Dr. Wright, and thank you for coming from Denver, Dr. Wright, and the members of the school committee for getting us to this point. So at this point, I will turn this over to Dr. Rose.

Good evening, school committee members. We are here to update our final version of the focus areas, objectives, and key actions for Forward Together, the 2026 through 31 strategic roadmap for the Boston public schools. This is a culmination of many months of engagement. I was before you last April where I outlined our engagement and presented a draft roadmap. In the interim, I along with my colleague Tamika Esswig-Buckmeyer worked with chiefs and deputy superintendents to refine the roadmap, and I now bring it before this body for your consideration. Dr. DePina, Dr. Taveras, and Dr. Wright will be available for questions tonight as ultimately the work of implementation falls under their leadership. In addition, after much collaboration between school committee, and the district, especially Dr. Wright and Monica Hogan, we are presenting a list of district success measures. These measures will help monitor the progress of the district over the five years of the roadmap. As discussed in April, our opportunity achievement gap policy is the North Star for the district. And as you're well aware, our community came together during many engagements through the long-term facilities planning process to outline the tangible components to ensure that vision. This is called the high-quality student experience, and it includes rigorous and culturally affirming learning experiences, wellness and enrichment opportunities, a supportive network of caring adults, and physical spaces that foster learning. As stated in the OAG vision, we believe that all students, no matter their background, can attain excellence and that their outcomes are a direct result of the opportunities that they are afforded. Delivering on our mission means that we must directly and systematically address the opportunity gaps in the high-quality student experience that lead to gaps in student proficiency, especially for those groups who have been historically underserved or misserved by our district. These are our focus areas for the strategic roadmap, which include high quality instruction and student supports, positive school climate, and high quality programming and facilities. We will also focus on enabling conditions, which are those organizational dispositions, mindsets, structures needed to execute, including equity centered culture and practice, systems alignment and partnership, and resource alignment and improvement. In the next few slides, I will discuss these areas and conditions. A detailed outline of these focus areas with objectives and key actions have been provided to the committee. As a reminder from last April's presentation, these focus areas and enabling conditions are meant to crosswalk with the major objectives in the OAG policy. So ultimately implementing this plan and implementing the policy are one and the same. We took great care to provide that crosswalk as foundational framing when creating this roadmap with our stakeholders. Our first focus area is high quality instruction and student supports. This is aimed at improving the core classroom experience for all of our students, and especially those who have been historically marginalized to improve academic performance. There are two core objectives. One, scale good teaching. A few key actions under this would be to outline a professional development plan that emphasizes strong teaching practices for the diverse learners that we have in Boston, as well as ensuring that the teachers have the curriculum to do that. Second, there's an objective to provide strong student supports to keep students on track and intervene and accelerate when they do fall behind. An example of an action under this, we will need to continue to better equip teachers and staff with impactful interventions that actually meet our students' needs. Our second focus area deals with the general environment in our schools. We want to make sure that students are both attending and feel connected to school. Intuition tells us and evidence shows that students who are in school and feel connected achieve at significantly higher levels. Objective here include one, ensuring students generally have a strong sense of belonging and safety in our schools. And an example action would be to ensure strong structures for relationship building and utilizing student feedback. Second, surrounds attendance as a whole. We know that having an environment that fosters a sense of belonging creates the conditions where students and families want to come to school. But there's still often other barriers that keep them from coming, and we must attend to those. An example of a key action would be to better coordinate our attendance supports at the district level to streamline resources for staff on the ground and families so that we can anticipate and address those barriers quicker. The last focus area is high quality programming and facilities. We need to continue to build the educational spaces and programming that respects student and family aspirations and supports the goal of high achievement in the district. Here we have three objectives. One, to ensure we are moving towards 21st century education spaces. This is all that work that surrounds both new buildings and renovations. Second is to expand access to programming that will set students up for career, college, and life. That includes making sure students have access to things like mass core, bilingual education, career and technical education, advanced placement, dual enrollment, and other experiences that one would need to progress towards their chosen life path. Third and finally, given the move to move towards more modern facilities, it is unavoidable that there will continue to be some disruption for families. We must ensure that when a school community is uprooted, that families and students are well cared for and end up in schools that better support the high quality student experience, which is the reason for the long term facilities planning process in the first place. In order to be best positioned to achieve those objectives I outlined, WE ALSO MUST ATTEND TO GENERAL DISPOSITIONS, MINDSETS AND STRUCTURES THAT ALLOW US TO WORK EFFICIENTLY, EFFECTIVELY AND EQUITABLY. WE CALL THESE ENABLING CONDITIONS. MANY OF THESE ARE EXPLICITLY IDENTIFIED IN THE OEG POLICY AS KEY SYSTEMIC INPUTS IN ORDER TO MOVE OUR SYSTEM FORWARD WITHOUT LEAVING CERTAIN STUDENT GROUPS BEHIND. The first enabling condition is ensuring an equity centered district culture. This focuses on the ability of staff to work across difference with a special focus on what is needed to serve those who have historically been underserved in our system. Part of this work is to ensure our staff, especially our teaching staff, continues to better reflect our students and their families. The second condition is to continuously focus on strengthening our collaboration with families and communities. Families and communities come with a great amount of cultural wealth that when leveraged can have great impacts on student learning. On the flip side, students are at home and in the community more than they are actually in our schools. So being better able to share our practices with families and communities will strengthen our work as a district. Finally, we will need to ensure that our resources are aligned to execute the strategic roadmap, including our budget, person power, time, and attention. We also need to have the data and the data systems to be able to continuously improve, helping us do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Finally, to monitor the impact of the strategic roadmap, we will use key measures informed by the OEG policy, including the district success measures that are being presented tonight. District success measures reflect many of the outcome measures identified by the OEG policy and will be used by school committee to hold us accountable. These will eventually be rounded out by some internal and external measures that help us track implementation of our strategies, For example, although not a district success measure, teacher diversity will be a key input measure that will be publicly presented and monitored. And in line with the language of the OEG policy, measures will be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and for multilingual learners and students with disability. I WANT TO LEAVE MY PORTION OF THE PRESENTATION WITH A QUICK HISTORY LESSON. I'M GETTING OLD ENOUGH TO DO SOME DISTRICT HISTORY. THE OFFICIAL FRAMING OF OPPORTUNITY ACHIEVEMENT GAPS CAME INTO THE DISTRICT AROUND 2016 VERSION OF THE OEG POLICY. I WAS PART OF THAT. PRIOR TO IT WAS FRAMED AS THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP AND JUSTIFIABLY SO. Ultimately, if what we do does not close proficiency gaps for students, then we haven't done our job. But the addition of the word opportunity was intentional, and the intention was very clear. We are responsible for the conditions that foster achievement. The onus is on the adults. We believe in the brilliance of all of our kids, but we must create the conditions for that brilliance to take root. The implementation of the strategic roadmap really is about providing those equitable opportunities for students to achieve. I'm gonna drive that connection home as we move towards a discussion of the achievement measures and other outcomes, which again, and rightfully so, is how we will judge our success. Before that, I turn it over to Monica Hogan, Chief of Data, Information, and Systems Improvement.

Thanks, Dr. Rose. So as we considered what data to identify as our district success measures, we followed three guiding principles. First, that any measures we chose as a district success measure would have ways for us to progress monitor internally throughout the year. Second, alignment and external validity. It was important to us to not create a brand new framework that would conflict with existing measures and instead ensure alignment with things like the quality school framework and the state accountability system. And third, we only considered data points that would be able to be disaggregated by the major student groups that Dr. Rose listed. So this slide outlines the proposed success measures. They are divided into two categories, student achievement and culture and climate. The student achievement measures are organized to reflect a child's journey through BPS, from early literacy through to graduation. The culture and climate measures include chronic absenteeism, student perspective on sense of belonging and safety, as well as family climate survey indicators. You'll notice a few measures have two asterisks after them. These are currently under development and we'll have more information at a later meeting. The next slide outlines the cadence that these district success measures will be made available. Based on timing throughout the year of when data is available to us, you'll see this is sort of the timing that is when we are able to present some of these things publicly, some of which you will hear about at our next meeting in October. And in terms of next steps from here, there will be a vote at a future meeting. The district is currently in the process of creating five-year targets for these district success measures that we just talked about, and we will share those later this fall as well. I will turn it back to you, Madam Chair, for questions.

Thank you. And I'll open it up to the committee for questions.

If you guys don't want to take a crack, I'll take a crack at it first.

Go ahead. Mr. Tran, you want to begin? Do you want to begin? Go ahead.

Yes. Hi, how are you? Thank you for a very thorough roadmap for OAG. So there are four times according to your roadmap. There are four times throughout the academic year that you're going to report to us on the progress. October, December, April, and August with disaggregated data. And that would include the percentage of achievement per group.

Yeah, so in the October category, that's where the main achievement measures are. So that is when we get MCAS data. So the MCAS achievement measure is the percentage of students in grades three through eight meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA and math. There's also the access measure for our multilingual learners related to making progress in learning English. And then there's a high school achievement measure that we have listed as under development as the state graduation council makes final determinations about what the future of end of course assessments will be for our high school students. So we are awaiting further information about what that measure will look like in the future, but wanted to include it here.

Okay. The proposed success measures, whatever that page is, there are two columns.

Yes.

One is student achievement, the other is culture and climate.

Yes.

Describe to me how specific are the benchmarks or are the actual steps that you are implementing to define culture and climate success?

How? Are you asking about the actions we are taking or how we are measuring progress?

Measuring progress. To me, culture, okay, I'm Vietnamese, I'm from a culture. How do you define culture success in a student body? Do you think? Chronic absenteeism, student sense of belonging, school safety, family survey, participation, family survey, staff, family relationship.

Yeah, I think the category here referring to culture and climate is about the culture of the school environment that the students are in. So chronic absenteeism is looking at the percentage of students who are absent more than 10% of the school year. Student sense of belonging and school safety are both domains on the student climate survey. And so we hear from our students twice a year in the middle of the year and the end of the year about how they are feeling within their school building, their sense of belonging, as well as how safe they are feeling. Family survey participation, this is an annual climate survey that we give at the end of the year. And so we are looking at increasing the participation of our families who respond to that survey. And then the last measure, staff family relationships, is one of the ones that's under development. We are currently looking at the questions on the family climate survey to determine if the questions we are currently asking measure what we truly want to understand about the family perspective on culture and climate at their child's school. And so we'll have more information as we further refine what that measure looks like. Does that answer your question?

To a certain extent, yes. So in a way, Whenever we receive your report, you know, the quarterly report, we would expect to see some positive outcome for each of these success measures, I hope.

Ideally, yes.

Okay. I will come back with other questions, but I think I understand the... the semantic behind culture and climate.

Go ahead.

I have a question. Thank you for the presentation. I have a question on accountability. I know that we say we, but that's a lot of people. And how do we all connect to the schools to be able to know what school is making progress? And how are we measuring that?

Yeah, so I think these measures are all available to be able to be broken down by school. Our schools are also held accountable through the state accountability system, which you'll hear a more detailed report about in October after that data is made publicly available.

Right, the schools also have CUSIP plans, and so on those CUSIP plans, for instance, chronic absenteeism, the sense of belonging, some of these are coming from the CUSIP, right? We have asked schools to focus on kind of three core things, and we want the consistency of that. So while we'll be reporting up the disaggregated aggregate, disaggregated roll-up of that, We also will be looking at how individual schools are doing, right, as part of what we do like each fall in the cycle. And that's something actually all three deputies will be looking at where the particular measure falls.

Because that was one of my questions, have we chosen some of the focus and say to the school, these are the focus that we are working on, and how do you measure that in your school so we can have data within the Q-CEPS?

That's right. So for the QSIP, the sense of belonging, which is the climate, the school climate that we're trying to establish, because it drives students coming to school and is linked to academics, the academic measures that we have as part of the accountability framework, that is part of it, and chronic absenteeism. So those have been the three. We also have spoken with our school leaders about family engagement, the importance of the participation on the survey, and what the outcome is of that performance. So are we getting a good sampling of families responding to the survey, and is it favorable for how families feel about that school?

Thank you.

So I have to say that many of us that are here, we are very pleased and very happy with the proposed plan that you have, and I congratulate you for all the work you put in that. Y yo creo que una de las principales preocupaciones que al menos nosotros mostrábamos era la implementación del plan, cómo vamos a implementar el plan, cómo vamos a hacer que este plan maravilloso pueda llevarse y pueda tener buenos resultados.

So one of the questions that we have, most of us, is how is the implementation of this plan lead to wonderful results, the implementation itself? How are we going to achieve those proposed goals?

Y me veo aquí que ustedes en la medida de éxito propuesta, las medidas de éxito, ustedes lo dividieron en dos partes. El logro de los estudiantes y la cultura y el ambiente.

You talk about the climate culture and the student achievement and the metrics of success that you have here were divided in those two particular groups.

Me parece bien que lo hayan dividido así porque están dividiendo muy bien. Ahora me preocupa

I do agree with the way you divided that information in both groups, just as I just mentioned. However, my concern is... Exactamente.

¿Qué mecanismo ustedes van a utilizar? Porque yo veo que la cultura y el ambiente, ustedes dicen, en cuanto a las familias, que realizarán una encuesta.

So you're talking about the cultural environment, and we are talking about the families as well. And you mentioned as well that a survey was in place for this purpose.

And I think it's important that families can monitor more closely. I know the survey is important, but many times the survey doesn't reach all families.

I do believe that our surveys are very important, but it is very important to make sure that the families have the ability to monitor these success metrics, because not every family gets a survey or is surveyed.

¿Han pensado en algún plan aparte de la encuesta para que la familia monitore el avance y progreso?

Is there any plan or something you have in mind for the families to be able to monitor the progress of this success metrics that you're suggesting? How can they monitor success if they don't have access to a survey?

I would suggest maybe, Dr. Tavares, you could just speak to the work you're doing with the family liaisons, the family councils and the school site councils to make sure that we're engaging our families and that they do, in fact, will have access to the surveys.

Thank you for your question, School Committee Member Polanco-Garcia. We have many touch points, as the superintendent has mentioned. One of them is the cadre of staff members that we have that are family liaisons, as you know, that are positioned at almost every single one of our schools that receive professional development very specific and aligned with the strategic plan. Once it is approved by this body, We already have set up a calendar for the school year where the family liaisons will be, not only will they receive professional development from key team members from the different departments that are supporting this work, But also it is aligning with every single QSIP at the school level which the superintendent also mentioned the quality school plan is really important to this work as is the training of the family liaisons as is also the support of. the family councils at every single school as is the school site council which I know you know comes from the voted members from the family council and that imperative need of having the connectivity not only with these you know we're speaking at this level here And we want to make sure we invite families in so that they are with us and that we have dialogue with them around what does this mean and how will this impact the learning of their children at the school level. So you're right to ask us, okay, this is all well and good, and Dr. Rose has worked really hard with his team to get this work in front of you, but what is that going to look like when it's implemented at the school level? And that's the work that we are excited about and ready to implement once this body decides that we can move forward.

Muchas, muchas gracias. Me alegra escuchar que sobre los I-Consuls, los Parent Consuls, porque es importante que los enlaces familiares tengan la destreza para conocer el plan y para enseñar a las familias también cuando vayan a las reuniones del concilio de padres.

It is very important that you're mentioning that there are the site council and the families that are able to act as liaisons as well for the purpose of communicating the strategic plans or success measures to the parents themselves at the school level.

And the other question I do have is regarding the publishing of data and the calendar that is attached to it. ¿Ustedes van a venir aquí al Comité Escolar a informar por los meses que han puesto? ¿Me puede hablar un poquito más de cómo va a ser esta información para nosotros, el Comité Escolar, saber el progreso?

Will you guys be present here as established in the calendar? Are you guys going to come here? How are we going to, as members of this committee, know about the progress that this has happened? Tell me a little bit about this.

I know the team will, and I'm going to invite my colleague, Monica, to come and respond.

Thanks, Dr. Tavares. Some of this is up for conversation of how you would best like to be updated, if that is a formal presentation each of these months, if that is a memo, if that is a dashboard. I think that's something that we are interested in hearing what you would prefer and then working with the chair and vice chair to make sure that that gets sort of put on the agenda as needed. So to be determined.

And I also don't want to ignore your original question around implementation. Clearly, this isn't a detailed implementation plan. This is our high-level roadmap. We'll continue to have to think about how we present data so that folks can digest it, and also refine Codify internally. what those action steps are, similar to when we're creating targets and how we communicate that best to the public and you all to understand deeply kind of what our strategies are. Like Ana just helped you understand her thoughts around strategy with families, but there's gotta be a way to kind of communicate that out, what our key actions will be beyond like the things that you see at the top level in this plan.

I would just add about implementation good evening everyone that all of our respective departments have provided feedback on this roadmap and this is work that we know that we're going to align to rally around continue and go deeper into in some areas So the implementation's already started, is what I would say, where our teams are aligned, the schools have the CRISPR plans identified and mapped out, and our work now is basically to work with all the teams to make sure there's continuity between central offices and departments, making sure day to day we're working with schools to make sure that these strategies and goals and issues that we laid out are being implemented supported from central where we need to lean in and provide more support to schools we will we need to do more work with the community and families we will where we need to rally around partners to help us move the work we will so a lot of it's already started but to the point how we present it to you we're open for feedback and how we do that

Right, and I think what I really appreciate about the leadership with Colin and Monica and the team, as well as the deputies, is you can have a really nice-looking strategic plan and have it do nothing. And we've had that in the past in BPS, and I think we're all committed at every level to wanting to change to the positive the experience of our kids and our families. That is really the outcome we're looking by establishing the measures and the roadmap, and then setting smart targets to those, but drilling down throughout the organization so that this becomes the language that everyone's using.

Thank you very much. The last question I have is related to how the current budget cuts are going to be aligned with these ambitious goals that the strategic plan has, especially in special education areas and multilingual students.

So the other question that I do have, it has to do with the two vulnerable populations that we do have, English language learners and special education. Considering the ambitious plans that you have as part of this road of success map that we have that strategic plan in the future, how is that going to align to the current budgetary restrictions that are in place, providing these ambitious plans that you have at the same time?

Yeah, I think that's part of the enabling conditions. We have to take a look at what we wanna focus in on, our strategies, and make sure that our budget, our people power, our attention, our time is on that. And I'm gonna hand it off to Simone.

Thank you, Member Palanca-Garcia. I think it's worth acknowledging we're on the journey of hyper-focusing on the performance of our students with disabilities and our multilingual learners. I think this predates me. I think a lot of the resources and the structures are in place. I think for the work of academics and the support of schools, it's really getting more fine-tuned around how we use various data inputs to support our students. I mean, that's really gonna be the work, I think, to accelerate learning for those particular student groups. I think many of you got the opportunity to engage with the superintendent around the presentation she did for our school leaders, and she made it clear. she was like, we're closing gaps, right? And she laid it out. Our school leaders have all developed goals that are hyper-focused on some of the student groups that you just named. And our central support teams are already, I hate to say it, in the streets, really working alongside our school leaders to ensure that those particular student groups have an excellent year.

Absolutely. And the other thing I would say is that this is like an example where when we look at, just say on the pure academic side, when we look at the benchmarks that are given in state accountability, they're incremental at best for particularly our students with disabilities and our multilingual learners with and without disability. And so we cannot be satisfied with that. we have to move this achievement because these are our kids. And they represent a large portion of our kids. So I think that is what we spent a lot of ALI talking about. It's what our OSS, our Office of Specialized Services, and our OMME are very focused on. And we see it in different sets of strategies like expanding bilingual education and access, the hiring of our staff, right? Special education, inclusion, and giving access to students. So we've already begun many of the strategies, but I think this really is making it very public and accountable what our expectations are going to be. and they need to be as aggressive as possible with the gaps. Because the gap isn't between groups, the gap is to proficiency. That is the goal. Every student, doesn't matter what category a student falls under, it's every student has to be proficient.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Thank you Monica and Colin for the presentation. I see that you brought the Top Guns, and that sent me two messages. One is, this is important. Yeah, that you are good looking, you are all good. So this is important. This is where you want to focus your energy this school year and the upcoming school years until at least 2031. And the other thing that this is telling me is that this is not a one-person job. We need everybody involved. in getting this. We need the families to understand that they are an important part of the success of their students. And we need good schools. And we need the best materials and the best strategies in our classrooms for our teachers and paraprofessionals. I feel we are getting closer and closer, and it's clear that we all are on the same thing. I love what you said of we just need to do more of what works and less than the things that are not working. Sounds all great. I need you to come back with a baseline and a target measure of success. I'll give you an example. Part of the work that I do for English for New Bostonians is to convince local companies to open English classes for their workers, what we call workplace ESOL. My target for this fiscal year is opening 15 new of these classes. You know, when June 30 of 2027 comes, I'll have to show, did we open 15 new classes for workers? And there is, obviously, there is a dollar amount attached to that that is supposed to come into English for new Bostonians. Or did we open more classes or less? So that's what I need. I need that to know, like, how close are we getting? I'll give you, for example, right here. Bear with me. Focus area three, high quality programming and facilities. Expand equitable access to high quality programming and facilities. Goal 3.2, expand equitable access to rigorous and culturally affirming learning, wellness, and enrichment opportunities. Key action 3.2, to fully implement the existing expansion plans for dual language and bilingual education programs. The way I read this is there is a baseline. There is a plan that is going to be expanded. How many do we have now? And what does expansion mean? When we get to 2031, I want to know, yes, we hit that mark of success because we opened this number of new classes. That's what I need from you.

Yeah, no, absolutely, and that's the intent. So at the next presentation, the next piece will be the metrics, and that will start with baseline as well as the five-year look ahead so that you can all see where we're trying to get to, the rationale of why we're trying to get there, how it positions us, and then the conversation about what are the strategies and initiatives that we'll be employing to do that. So we're all on the same page.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. I want to pick up on Member Peralta's great example in terms of the specificity of a measure for progress. I do appreciate that there are proposed success measures here that at a future meeting would have specific 2031 numeric targets. as compared to current baselines with annual reporting on each of those indicators and a reflection on whether we're red, yellow, or green on those indicators. I think I'm hearing you all say that these are the top line success measures that if the plan is successful, these will be met. But I think Member Peralta's example is really important because he's pointing out a key action that also needs a measure. These are the success measures for the plan, and then there are necessary implementation measures to measure the effectiveness of the action along the way, which, if they all are all on track, will increase the odds that these big measures, i.e., like the district's report card, will be successful. So I think my first question is just what's coming next in terms of the level of detail that we don't have today but is in progress? Because this plan is 2026 to 31, you know, and as Dr. Tapina said, it's underway already. So what don't we have today? that will fill in some of the blanks of what my colleagues are describing that can kind of connect some of the dots. I think we have great agreement that there is nothing in this document that is not important that we cannot get behind, that we do not support. But I think a greater understanding of what is underneath it and when we have access to that would allow us to help support that question that you all had of what the right reporting mechanism is on it. So just a greater understanding of what's still to come.

Yeah, I think you're talking about the implementation metrics and specific strategies that go underneath these focus areas. So I think that is the next set of work that we need to codify internally. and decide how we're going to report that out to you all. We've already had great discussions. There's been other metrics that have been decided. Obviously, teacher diversity isn't one of your success measures in this, but it certainly will be something that's reported out and tracked. So I think there's that background OAG measures that we need to decide what are those things that are gonna show progress towards these key actions and have agreement what things we will communicate, what things will be internal. But I agree, this is not a full-on implementation plan with very detailed strategies. It wasn't meant to be. But I think that is the next document that we need to produce.

I think there may have been some expectation of that being more developed at this point than where we are. I just want to say that. And so I guess my question, trying to decide if I have a question or if I just want to make a couple of recommendations, maybe that might be helpful. I think a potential way to help clarify the next steps of work would be to isolate the roadmap by year to better understand what kind of the subsets of these large key actions are by year. I think it's totally unrealistic to expect an implementation plan for four years from now. taking the example of instructional key action of redefining the district-wide professional learning strategy, including job-embedded coaching. I can imagine year one might be around something specifically related to school-based PD, but year two might be around what does job-embedded coaching mean? Are we getting new instructional coaches? Are we doing more informal feedback? So I think maybe if it were sequenced by year in terms of where the actions lived by year, and then for the ones that were for the current year maybe had like the leads listed and like a few key milestones, then we could align kind of our calendar and things to that. And I think it could help sort out, there's so much work here, so much important work. And I think there are also some key streams of work that live in here but don't appear explicitly, like the continued improvement of inclusion around the district or what we heard from Madison Park today, like this increasing career pathways. It's here, but that's a whole big piece of work. So I'm just trying to figure out how to drill down and also how that connection between the enabling conditions and the focus areas could be a little easier to digest that maybe, I don't know, maybe it could be organized in a different way. I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, I think there's some recommendations we're reviewing about how to streamline a bit more the focus areas and enabling conditions. I think all of this has been done by team. And so I think the next part of that process is to go back to the team and talk through what makes sense with that. So I think that is underway. I think the time sequencing is really important. Because if you take the inclusion plan just as an example, we couldn't roll out all grades in the inclusion plan in the first year. It took us five years, right? It's taking us five years. And that is the truth in much of BPS work. because of the size and the volume we have. So I think part of what the team's charge is, is to go back and start to look at this five years and say, what's the starting points? Some things could be started in the first year with a step. There are others that may need to build and have some other things take place in the first two years before they would begin. And so I think being able to put it with some time sequencing, which also is priority, Will be important.

Yeah, or even the work already in Prague maybe everything that's happening in the first year is work already in flight and just sharing what's happening with that for year one, and obviously other things need to be designed and mapped out. Correct, absolutely.

And I think even with the baselines, you know, like chronic absenteeism is a great example, but like baseline-wise, we have made our projected... measure every single year, right? Like we have made our metric every year and exceeded it. So that's an example where we could actually be more bold and not necessarily go with the state's flow and be more bold with that if that's looking at the data what makes sense. Whereas there may be others that are moving slightly slower that we need to figure out how do we change the strategy and the approach and what will we be able to do in year one, in year two, in year three. So I think once we can show that, I think graduation rate, dropout rate, there are some of these that we are well ahead of where we want to be, but where we want to be is much more progressive. than where we're being called to be. So I think there's that conversation that the team is having and digging into, which is why Colin and Monica's partnership in this work is just so important.

Yeah, and I don't want to leave the impression that those conversations haven't been going on. It's just, how do we present? We have to come to agreement on how that gets presented forward. And that wasn't going to be part of this piece.

I promise just one last request on the success measures because I do want to acknowledge how much more specific these are than, for instance, in the previous plan, which did not ever articulate the actual targets, but just kind of left it as the way they're listed here, which I know is not what we're doing this time. Would just request that when we're looking at the 2031 targets for each of these, that obviously we have the most recent baseline data, but Chief Hogan talked about how there are a couple of data points that need to be designed to create a new baseline for those. I think it would be helpful to have some baseline data on a related data point. In the meantime, the Panorama Survey being a great example, as Dr. Tavares talked about, we have year over year data on a lot of things that families tell us, and I also understand that we're not necessarily asking the right question yet that gets at what we're looking for here, but we can certainly share some data on, I'm looking at Member Peralta, because I know we fill out these, panorama surveys as parents every year, and there are a lot of questions on it. So if we can kind of get a snapshot of that. I know 10th grade achievement is another challenge as MCAS is likely temporary at this point with end of course exams coming in, but it would be helpful in the meantime to think about where are our 10th graders right now, understanding that the instrument might change. The same with early literacy. I know that that's in progress, but is there something in the meantime to give us an indication of where we are? Just to help the public's understanding, to Member Polanco-Garcia's point of really just using this as an opportunity to build some collective understanding around where we're starting as a district and then where we're moving forward together.

I'll just note on the survey results, those are all posted publicly on our website and we can make sure that Ms. Parvex has the link so you can get it in your next set of materials to peruse at your leisure the climate survey data that is public.

And the MCAS will be part of the October presentation. So we'll be back in a month. And we actually disaggregate quite a bit of this on a normal basis, but with extra attention now because of the commitment. But yeah, there is a lot publicly available in this. But I think being able to underscore in the presentations, I think this requires us all to look at it with new eyes.

So just a quick summary just for my understanding. I've heard a lot. And what I hear from you is pretty much a promise that if I look at this as just an overview, because to me, whatever before me lacks specificity and And to me, it is just a preamble of a book. So you are going to provide us with specificity, plans, outlining, benchmarks, steps to take for each and every measures here, right? And that would be forthcoming. I don't know when. I hope sooner rather than later. But this is not, to me, a working implementable map. It's just a preamble. I like to see things that are specific. Okay, you are saying that, okay, bye. September, 2031, all students will be culturally, all students will be, you know, exposed to a culturally affirming student environment. Okay, then I'll take that. But right now, whatever is in front of me lacks specificity, and I need to see that to make sure that I can measure it. I can see that actually, opportunity gap are closing, and you're coming up with that. That's what you mentioned, something about codifying something. So I'm hoping that is coming forth.

Yeah, we're in the process of determining what the five-year overall targets for the success measures are, and I think some of what I'm hearing in the comments and questions is that more detailed sort of logic model of how these key actions that we've laid out will interact with and hopefully result in improvement in the success measures so I think dr. Rose and I can take that feedback back and think about what are sort of the detailed actions the inputs and outputs that go along with those actions and then the sort of alignment with the success measures that we believe that those actions will result in movement on so

Yeah, I also, I just want to level set that we are working with the timeline we had committed to, which was the OAG policy rework, which we did, which was an incredible foundation for the strategic plan. working with our internal teams and school committee to be able to create the success measures, which are the buckets that we believe are going to help move all students to the kind of education we want to provide in the BPS. The next step with teams, because this is all being driven so it is happening throughout our district, is to now set metrics baseline and metrics for the five year along with the through line of for the next five years what will be happening each year in terms of the core actions that will help us to lead and commit to making those metrics happen. So the specificity comes in the next piece. But again, I just want to underscore, we could get in the room, the six of us, and give you that tomorrow. That is not going to translate to change in the BPS. What has been missing and is key is making sure this is done through teams. And so Colin has worked endlessly with teams since in the community and then in the district for the last, like, good eight months. The deputies, too, have now been moving their teams all the way down into the schools division along with principals around these measures. So what we're doing for the strategy to operationalize and do action, we have to make sure that those are through the BPS. And that's the reason we've been rolling this out step by step by step to you with the idea that come October, you are now going to see the total direction of where we're going, where we believe we can get in the five years, and then how we're going to get there, which is what I think you're asking for, Member Trenton.

Well, in a way, yes, thank you. My concern is that OAG has been an issue with us, you know, for a time in memorial. That's right. Even before I came on the board, it has always been there. That's right. I came on, it's there. That's right, yeah. I hope...

Well, yeah, no, and the good news is that the OAG Task Force, when it reconstituted and put so much work into the rework of the OAG policy, I think you guys all remember, the room was full with people from the OAG Task Force saying, this is our work, we believe in this work. That is what is integrated into the strategic plan. So it is a village. It has to be the community, the OEG task force, us, all the way down to the schools beyond us, down into the schools for this to work.

So that's my biggest issue is that as I look at the list, there's nothing new here in terms of things that we have not talked about over many years. We have maybe set them out differently and focused. But the issue for me has been, I want to know what's going to be different this go-round. I'll give you an example. We get the MCAS data. usually it's at the end of the year for the group that just went on to the next grade we see that things have not changed so what's different what's different for those third graders that went to the fourth grade and didn't get something in the third grade because they didn't make proficiency what's happening different for me the third grade teacher is I get a new group of kids we need to hear that piece of it not just the reporting of the data because how do we know What's our evidence that we're actually closing gaps? What is the gap now? What is the specific gap? If I'm a third grade teacher and I take a look at the issues of my kids, who's helping me to understand specifically what I need to do to make sure when these kids take the third grade MCAS that they've actually got the skills and I have closed gaps between the first and second grade or whatever so that we are coming to a place that we can actually say, yes, we have closed these gaps and we're going on to proficiency and excellence, but we haven't heard that yet.

Thank you, Chair. I will just quickly respond. You know, I've had the opportunity to really get to learn BPS and learn Boston over the last eight months. And, you know, Soup, if you don't mind me saying this, I think the one thing Superintendent shared with me at the onset was, Simone, like, I've had to lead a lot of change. And I think at times we minimize what that change means for our teachers who are engaging with our kids. And I just, I think doing my own listening and learning, really starting to dig into some of our data, um i would offer that the system is at a place like when soup talks about the foundations like we've given the teachers the curriculum right and i think we're we're finally at this place where we can like build efficacy and confidence about around pedagogical practice that is culturally and linguistically affirming, and I believe that we will start to see the impact of that with tightening up some of our resources and how we work together.

Our speaker at ALI, I can't remember her name now.

Dr. Browning.

Dr. Browning said a critical thing to us in that meeting. She says, as a district, you've got all of the the foundations everything is there but the number one thing when schools have closed gaps is the issue of do the educators believe that they can educate the kids that they have in front of them do they believe these kids can learn and are they giving them the level of in the types of activity that is grade level. You can have wonderful materials, but if I'm not using them appropriately, just having the materials is not gonna make that child be proficient. But if I don't believe these kids can learn, or if I don't believe I have the skills to teach them in the way that they could learn, then kids are being impacted by all of the adult behaviors.

And just quickly responding, and I'm gonna draw the through line to member Tran's question around culture and climate, right? We're two weeks into the school year, And as we're walking schools, right, we're talking to students and we're essentially sussing out like, are you building relationships? Do you have a champion in this building, right? You know, for our schools, they have three priorities as superintendent said, high quality instruction, culture and climate and attendance. And I think it's easy to think about those things as three different things, but they are very highly interconnected. And I think what Dr. Browning was really putting out there is you have to start with the conditions for the relationship building so that students are like they learn. Right. I would agree with you. I think while curricula is definitely one of the most impactful ways to streamline educator practice, I think doing that divorce from knowing your students well, we won't get where we wanna go. And I think Supe and I feel very confident about how our educators think about our students. We got to spend time together on the first day. And one thing I will offer that's been true across many schools is that our educators do care.

Yeah, I also think we can do a better job underscoring because we are agreeing to a group of measures to really focus on that we can actually show in some of these where we have already really worked on gap closing. Graduation rate is a great example. For the first time in over, I think in ever, our black students reached the graduation rate, the average rate as a group. I think our Latinx students made huge progress but were slightly below. That was not true five years ago. That was not, even though the graduation rates were good, The gap was there. And so I think we can show that. I think when we talk about advanced coursework, you know, we had historic 4,300 APs and what drove that was the access of our black and brown students taking APs and scoring a seven, the equivalent, like 70% of them scoring a college credit. So there are examples today in the data. K2 literacy is another one. However, We know there's gaps. We know where the gaps are. This is what we spent all of ALI focusing on, as I know you sat through it. We talked about this because we don't want any more on... We don't want to say, well... our multilingual learners or our special education students should strive to meet the level of our white students for proficiency. No, they should strive for proficiency. And that is like a different way that we are trying to measure ourselves that's very different than historically in the BPS, where we set ceilings for our kids that we should never have set. And so that, I think, is a huge shift in the field. And I think as you go to the schools, because I know you guys all visit the schools, ask the principals, what's the gaps you're trying to close? And they should be able to tell you specifically in their data, here's the two or three gaps that we have spotlighted that we believe need to be moved in our school. That's a great exercise for you guys, right? That's going to be the focus the next three to four years is the gap because the aggregate and moving the aggregate is great, but it doesn't move it for all children. So that is why this team is so committed to the OAG policy and so committed to a strategic plan that supports it.

Thank you. Thank you all. We look forward to continuing this conversation. Always, always. Ms. Farbix will now return to public comment.

John Munn.

Thank you.

That's it? Okay, thank you. Any new business?

Yes. I want to get an update on an idea that we took at the end of last school year when I suggested that it will be in the benefit of everybody if our high schoolers receive once a year communication about how many credit they have already achieved and how many more they needed in their journey to graduate from high school under the new mask or graduation requirements.

And that is coming. And so Simone, do you have the date?

I do. For seniors, the deadline is October 9th. And for our juniors and our sophomores, we've asked that that is communicated before Thanksgiving. Um, I just want to acknowledge our career college life readiness team. They put together really, really great resources. Um, that's really going to help you understand like student has accrued three English credits. Right. Um, and like what that means in terms of their trajectory.

That's great.

I actually think the tracking that we're, the way that we're dashboarding and tracking the Mass Corps, I think now that the state is adopting it as a model, right, for all districts, I think we're actually going to be a leader in that area. The team's done really thoughtful work.

Wonderful. Thank you.

That concludes our business for this evening and our next school committee meeting will take place again here in person on Wednesday, October 14th at 6 p.m. right here at the Bowling Building in Nubian Square. If there's nothing further, I will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent? Hearing none, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.