Boston School Committee - Regular Meeting

There we go. Okay. So we have a special award for a BTU member, Taylor McCoy, who is a Shattuck award winner. This is a very prestigious award that's given by the city for public service. And Taylor is a teacher sorry.

Taylor is at the Matterhunt, has been there for ten years. You you can clap because this is a big thing for her. And and she supports inclusion, right, at the Matterhunt. And so we're going to Chair Robinson has a a thing she wants to read. But, Taylor, we're gonna, have you come up and we're gonna stand with you, after Chair reads it to be able to do a nice picture for you. Okay? And you guys can clap like crazy because she's awesome and deserves this award.

Me gavel us back in and go through the first protocol and then we're going to invite Taylor up. It says, Good evening everyone and welcome to this meeting of the Boston School Committee. I'm Chairperson Jerry Robinson. The committee just returned from an executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Boston Association of School Administrators and Supervisors basis. To have this discussion in an open meeting could have a detrimental effect on the committee's bargaining position.

I wanna 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.orgschoolcommittee under the December 13 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, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and American Sign 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. Okay. I would now like to invite my fellow members and the superintendent to please join me in celebrating one of our members of the BPS community. Can superintendent and committee members please join me?

I think

down here. Neil, is this better down here?

We'll have some people on the lower level and then some

up. K.

Cheer. I'm gonna hold this for you.

Each year, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau honors a handful of city employees with the Henry L. Shattuck Public Service Award. The award recognizes public servants who exemplify integrity, initiative, leadership and commitment to the public good. We're thrilled that one of this year's Shattuck recipients is an inclusion specialist at the Matterhunt Elementary School. Please join me in congratulating Taylor McCoy.

The citation reads, the Boston School Committee extends its congratulation to Taylor McCoy, inclusion specialist, Madahunt Elementary School, recipient of the did I say the Taylor School? I don't know. Recipient of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau twenty twenty five Henry L. Shattuck Public Service Award. An inclusion specialist at Madahunt Elementary, Taylor works tirelessly to help students with specialized learning and behavioral needs transition into inclusive classrooms.

The chairperson and members of the School Committee of the City of Boston joined with the Superintendent of Schools extending their appreciation to Ms. McCoy for her unwavering commitment to the students and families of the Boston Public Schools and wish her continued success in all future endeavors. Signed School Committee Chair Jerry Robinson and Superintendent Mary Skipper, 12/03/2025.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just wanna say we couldn't be more proud. Not every time the Shattuck is given is it given to a Boston Public School employee. So, this is actually a really big deal. It's also an award that's very prestigious, like in the city. And, Taylor has just really stood out for how much she loves and cares about her school, her kids, the work she does every day. She's also a new teacher developer. So, she's really committed to making sure that the next generation of teachers are cared for and trained. So, we couldn't be more proud about it. And, I think this is one we really want to just hear a lot of great great applause for her.

Yes.

Okay. We will begin with the approval of minutes. I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the November 19 meeting. 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 minutes unanimously? Hearing none, the minutes are approved. Before we move on to public comment, I want to remind the members that you received two memos over the past week. The first is on the cell phone policy and the second is on the analysis of bilingual programming and consideration for district wide access.

The memos address follow-up information requested by the committee. Both documents are available in your meeting folders and have been posted on the website under today's meeting materials. I want to acknowledge those who have come to public comment to share their experiences on the perspectives of both topics. We will have a more in-depth discussion on these topics at a later date. We will now move on to general public comment. Ms. Parvax?

Thank you, Chair. The public comment period is an opportunity for individuals to address the school committee on school related issues. Questions on specific school matters are referred to the superintendent. Questions on policy matters may be discussed by the committee later. The meeting would 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 60 speakers this evening. Each person will have two minutes to speak and I will remind you when you have thirty seconds remaining. Please feel free to email your comments for distribution to the committee. Speakers may not reassign their time 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 Committee. Please state your name, affiliation and where you live before you begin. Speaker If you're on Zoom, please sign in using the name you registered with for public comment and be ready to unmute and turn on your camera when it's your turn to speak.

Please raise your virtual hand when I call your name. To support interpretation, please speak slowly and clearly. We will start with our first group, Julia Mejia, Counselor Julia Mejia, Katie Lee, Sue Van Lui, Lin Yeh and Jasmine McGovern. Counselor Mejia? Counselor Mejia is not in the room, we will continue with Katie Lee.

My name is Katie Lee Lei Yusum. I'm a teacher at the Quincy School supporting our new bilingual Chinese enhancement program. I am also a former member of the ELL task force. You have two graphics. One clarifies the different programs for students whose home language is not English. English. The other shows how policy changes have shaped our school's programs over time. In the first graphic, programs on the left lead to English proficiency only. On the right are dual language programs where students learn grade level content in English and Chinese and become proficient in both. Most BPS programs are on the far left.

The problem is the term bilingual education is often used too loosely referring to who's in the classroom, the language of instruction or the language proficiency goals. For example, before 2002, the Quincy's transitional bilingual education program was called a bilingual program, but the goal was still English only. In 2002, after bilingual programs were limited statewide, teachers could use Chinese only occasionally for clarification in SEI classrooms. Yet the program was still commonly called a bilingual program in the community. Recently, with BPS again restricting home language use, our school acted and secured a DESE approved bilingual program.

This is the first time in the school's one hundred and seventy five year history that we have a program designed DESE to sustain Chinese, not subtract it. We are in ongoing discussions with the community about moving even closer to a program where students become fully bilingual. However, rising costs have forced many working class Chinese families

Thirty seconds.

Out of out of Chinatown, making the school designed for them out of reach. Our request is simple, citywide access is the one and only Chinese bilingual program in Boston, a request that was not recommended through a memo posted just before this meeting. Our ask is not unprecedented. The city's first Spanish dual language program, the Hernandez, has citywide access. We are asking for the same right. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Q1, we

Good evening. My name is Yuwon Lui. I'm a proud Boston Public School alumna. I'm currently a teacher at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School, my alma mater. I'm here tonight to ask you to expand the JQES bilingual program catchment to citywide.

I stand before you as living proof that bilingual education works. My story is one of perseverance, belonging and opportunity, which mirrors many bilingual education students. I was once a newcomer trying to navigate new school, culture and language. The Chinese bilingual program at JQES became my haven, a place where I found support to learn English and succeed academically. It was where I could communicate with my teachers and classmates, express my needs to my teachers and where my parents felt comfortable to reach out.

It was where I truly felt I belong and where my culture and language were valued. Those values have stayed with me. I still speak and write Chinese fluently because from very, very early age, I learned that who I am matters. One reason I chose to teach at JQES is because I want to give back to the community that shaped me. I strive to create the same space for my students, a place where they belong, where their families feel welcome to seek advice and share their hopes and where their language and culture are celebrated. I simply want to pay it forward. Many bilingual students and I have success stories because we had the opportunity and the support to thrive. There's no secret formula for student success.

Thirty seconds.

Provide children with resources, opportunity and a sense of belonging for the children and their families and you're already halfway there. Please give the same opportunity to more students. I urge you to make the JQES bilingual program catchment citywide. Access to bilingual program is equitable, vital and life changing. Let's create more success stories together. Thank you very much.

Hi. My name is Lian Ye. I'm in a fourth grader at Quincy Elementary School, and I live in Chinatown. My first language was Mandarin Chinese. We speak Mandarin at home.

I've been in a SEI classroom in my school since kindergarten. I am here today because I want you to know that while my English is improving a lot, I am starting to lose my Mandarin because I don't have my chance to use enough at school. Right now, I can understand what my parents say to me, but I have a hard time getting my words and sentence out out in Mandarin to respond. In school, my classmate mostly speak in English with me. I believe being bilingual is better for me and other kids like me.

Being able to understand and use both English and Mandarin is important to me because I'm proud of where I come from and who I am. I wish there was school where I could learn both Mandarin and English. I wish that bilingual program at our school can help kids like me to keep Mandarin while we learn more Mandarin English. It will help me talk with friends, neighbors, and relative. That this is how we build community.

So I just wanna say I want to grow up, be fully bilingual, and school is a place where I get started. So please make more Mandarin bilingual programs available in Boston. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much.

Next person is Jasmine McCubbin. Jasmine McCubbin.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Jasmine McGovern. I am a student at ACC. During my time at ACC, I have found my voice. I have always struggled with participation, presentations, and communication. But during my freshman year, I got introduced to this thing called BUILD. BUILD is more than just kids learning how to be an entrepreneur, but how to find your voice, which is what I'm doing today. When I was in eighth grade looking for high schools, I wanted to go to a small school, but I quickly learned that majority of the schools in Boston are huge. A big school wouldn't be a good fit for me because that would mean bigger classes, which would make it harder for teachers to support me and get to know me. This would especially be hard for me because I'm a quiet student.

At ACC, I don't have to worry about that. The staff know me. I'm comfortable with them, and I know that if I needed help or needed to talk to somebody, I could, which is I think is very important. Not to mention my fellow classmates. Growing up, I never really had friends. I have made so many new connections and have made bonds that will last forever. Many of these people have not only made memories but created a village. ACC is not just a a school but a family. Don't take away our education and prove it. Please take what I said into critic consideration. Thank you.

The next group is Isabella Guirve, Martina Gonzalez, Josh Butler, James C. Artila and Nech Auguste. Isabella Guirve?

Good evening. My name is Isabel Mancia, and I'm an ACC student, and this is my second year. If ACC shuts down, I feel like I won't fit anywhere else. I've gone to oh, sorry. I've gone to other schools and I didn't really have many friends and I didn't have good connections with the teachers. But in ACC, I know more names, I know more people. I get to fit in where I don't. ACC has its ups and downs, but at the end the day, it's my second home. ACC has taught me a lot. For example, in Mr.

Dominga's class, we're already about to finish our third chapter book experimenting with components that make make up dead organisms decompose and I cannot wait to have miss Yess's next miss Yess's class next year if ACC's still even open. At ACC, I have friends around every corner the teachers always have our best interests at heart. At other schools that I've gone to, I could not remember the names of my classmates, but this year I have enough names to fill Santa's list. Okay? When I was younger, I had massive stage fright, but in my freshman year of ACC, I've had enough confidence to go up in front of the class and present, and now look at where I sit today.

I hope they do not shut down ACC so I can graduate with my friends and my teachers. I hope that our teachers get the credit that they deserve for keeping us safe physically

and This

is our future and we will fight for it. Thank you.

Martina Gonzales. Martina Gonzales.

Good

evening. My name is Martina Gonzalez and I'm a tenth grader at ICC. One of my first thoughts when I heard about the threat of my school closing was, well, I have to find another small school to transfer to. But I quickly realized that it was the district's plan to close all the small high schools. The size of ACC is one of the things I love the most about my school. As someone who is very quiet and sometimes shy, it was really helpful to have small sized classes where I could get comfortable. When I

came to ACC from my

ninth grade year, I was new to the country, and I was afraid of making mistakes when speaking English, which made me even more quiet. But being close to my teachers helped me feel more confident since most of them knew where I came from. I think small schools

I'm sorry.

I think small size high schools are are a great option for English learners and immigrants because it helps them to adapt to the new culture and language without feeling overwhelmed by being surrounded by strangers. During my time at ACC, I've been able to build close relationships with my teachers and I know and I know that if I'm having a bad day, there will be at least 10 adults I can trust and that will care about me. Please think about this. Thank you.

Josh Butler.

Which which one? Where where do I speak?

Here? In the middle?

Yeah. The the big one right now. Okay.

Hola. My name is Joshua Butler, and I am a proud and bubbly cash charger. I started cash online during COVID. I am in the Azul program for students with autism. At cash, I have taken and passed Spanish and French, and I want to go to college. I also I also do a lot of job training at our cafe. I participate in Best Buddies as well. Cash is my home. Cash is my family. It is sad to hear that you want to break up my home.

My support, don't close cash. Thank you.

Gen c Archila. Gen Kilah? Jamesy? Jamesy. Jamesy. Good

evening. My name is Jamesy. I attend Cache High School. Small schools hold more importance than many kids and families because big schools don't don't always benefit everyone. Not everyone can adapt and thrive in large high schools.

Some students might have conditions and problems that can be cared for at schools like cash. We won't be cared for the same way for somewhere else. Teachers have better understandings of students can gauge when somebody if something is wrong, not only in schools, outside of schools. Our counselors understand us better, the students, because they have been with us for so long, and they see our potential. Our small schools like our small school is like family.

Cash makes it easy to join opportunities like Build On. We can get we can do community service. I have been I have the chance to go to synagogue last summer and help build a school. We have we have picked we have picked for jobs, training, GRTC cooking classes, many activities outside of school without too much stress. For these reasons, I would like to consider not closing Cache High School. Thank you very much.

Nech Agust

Hi, my name is Nesher Gist and I'm a junior at Cash High School. And I'm here today because Cash has been more than just a building for me. I remember when I first come to the school, I was really nervous because I didn't know anyone yet. I feel like I wasn't good enough, like maybe this school wasn't going to be the right place for me. But after just two months, everything changed. I started opening up, I started being shy, I started to feel like I could finally be myself. Cash isn't just a school. Cash helped me start building who I am right now. I've been to mother plus school where I never had the opportunity to take a free cooking class or to be part of a community that actually help people. At cash, that was the first thing I noticed.

This was also the first school where teachers truly cared about what was going on in my life. In my past school, no teacher ever pulled me aside to talk about my grades or I could improve my grade. But here, they did. They didn't they didn't let me find behind. They didn't treat me just like another student. They treated me like someone worth helping. Even that cash, my clothes hurt because without the school, I will never find my three sisters from another mother, my best friend. The school give me real connection, real people, real support. And today isn't about sadness. Today is about knowing and fixing what cash has done for me, for you, and for for our community.

I've never I've never been at a school that supports immigration the way Cash does. By that mean, I mean Cash to make sure students come from different countries feel like welcome, respected, and understood. Understood. Teacher here take time to help with language, paperwork, family struggle, and since other school in your catches and push you out, it pulls you in. Today is the time to tell the world, to give the school the respect it deserve, to show to show that what happened inside this world's matter. We matter. Take about the freshman and sophomore which started building their future, only to be told they have to transfer in two years.

Thank you. Your time is up. The the the next speakers This

is what community looks like.

The next speakers are Daisy Barbosa, Lily Fortado, Jada Thomas, Marika Allwood, and Brianna Lindsay. Daisy Barbosa?

Hi, my name is Daisy Barbosa and I'm a Henderson K through 12 inclusion alum. And I'd like to start off by saying thank you for the opportunity to speak about a issue that I find so vital for our students' academic growth and emotional well-being and their long term success. Co teaching is one of the most important classroom models and it is a commitment to equality and the belief that every child deserves individualized support. As a Henderson k through 12 inclusion alum, I have seen how powerful this approach can be. With the schools facing closure, it is critical that the practices that define the Henderson do not disappear with it.

Students enter our classrooms with diverse needs and no single teacher can meet all of them alone. Co teaching changes that. With two educators working together, instruction become flexible, engaging, and students who need support receive it. Advanced learners are challenged and no one is ever overlooked as it should be. The benefits go beyond academics.

Co taught classrooms model collaboration, community, and problem solving. They they build emotional intelligence helping students manage frustrations, express themselves, and form relationships that they will continue to have for the rest of their lives. And they grow in confidence, which is an essential life skill. It's not something you just pick up anywhere. For students with disabilities

Thirty seconds.

Co teaching provides the inclusive environment that they deserve for advanced and emerging learners. It offers the right balance of support and challenge, and every student is seen. I know this firsthand. The Henderson inclusion approach helped me, and it helped the others alongside me. Even if the Henderson does not survive, its values must. Co teaching, inclusion, and emotional support instructions should continue across the district. The shutdown should not erase the Henderson's success. It should strengthen our community and what it works for.

Thank you. Lily Fortado. Lily Fortado. Lily Lily Fortado. Jada Thomas. Thomas. Marika Allwood.

Hello. My name is Marika, and I'm 11 I'm I am an eleventh grader at Cache, and I'm here to read the statement written by my schoolmates in the Azul program, which is for students with autism. This one is from Nathan. He said, I like my friends because I know them a long time. I like my teachers because they're fantastic.

Kingsley said, I like my school because I like because I I am very I like my teachers because they are great. McKay said, the reason the reason why my friends at Kesh are important to me is because they're loyal, nice, selfless, helpless, and caring to me. The the first friends I made at Kesh were Josh, Nick, Xavier, and Vina. I met them in jink class on my first day, and my Joseph Lee school friend, Samir, came to cash a few days later, and it was and it was nice reuniting with with an old friend of mine from my old grade school. And this year, our other old friend, Ellie, came to this high school, and if losing this school means losing my friends, I would be sad and mad and upset.

So please don't close cash. Windy said, I wanted to keep I want to keep cash open. I feel happy at my school. I love my teachers. I don't want new teachers. I

like classes.

I like working with my teachers. Chichi said, I I like my school. I like my teachers. I like working in the cafe. I like my friends. I like my classes. Dashawn said, I like my classes because my friends because of my friends. I like my school because my teachers are nice. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker is Brianna Lindsey. Brianna Lindsey.

Good evening. My name is Brianna, and I attend Cash. I'm here today because the plan to close small schools doesn't just affect numbers on a spreadsheet. It affects real people, real families, and real futures. If the goal is to truly to bring together small communities, then what about the parents and students who prefer small schools? At Cash, it doesn't feel like a school. It feels like a community. We know our staff, and they know us. We have bonds that we cannot recreate in a crowded building. It feels like a place you want to be, a better a place to better yourself and further your education.

Has anyone truly considered the impact this plan has on the staff and students? If the goal is to eliminate empty seats, has anyone thought about moving students from overpopulated schools into smaller ones? This will give students more one on one support and more meaningful relationships with educators. Small, intimate learning environments help students perform better because teachers can actually teach and students can actually learn. High schools are supposed to have alumni programs, but what about us?

If our school closes, we lose the chance to ever go back to where we came from. That is a huge part of our identity. Shutting down my school hurts me, my classmate, and the generations that will come after us. You say kids are the future, but right now, your actions contradict that. Closing school should never be a part of a plan to better the city of Boston. You are only worried about fundings. To the committee, it may feel like we are just dollar signs and ID numbers, but we are students who want education in a place where we feel safe, welcome, and understood. Cash has always been the important, resilient kids who work hard. We represent this city with pride. If school get bigger, attendance won't magically improve.

Students who who struggled in large school were placed at my school for a reason. Boston needs a place for them, and Cash is the best place. Transition is hard for everyone, especially for students who need extra support. Taking away this their safe place makes it even harder. I'm asking you to see us as people, not numbers or price tag. Please don't take away our school.

Thank you. The next speakers are Solomon MacDonald, Armani Marshall, Kimani Marshall, Eric Berg, Roseanne Tang and John Mudd. Solomon MacDonald? We can continue with Armani Marshall.

I

am I am Kewanee Marshall, and I go to the Leia Academy pilot school. I think the school the Lee Academy pilot school should not close, and I think it should be merged because I want all kids to have a school that they they can go to so all kids can learn and be smart and feel like it's, like, to grow up and have a job. The job might be hard, but it's the only way to make money. And and and with money, you can get food. With food, you can live and learn, taste, and drink. And why lovely academy is that it's a school that's safe and

fun. Thank you. Solomon McDonald.

My name is Solomon McDonald, and I go to the Academy pilot school school committee. I do not want you to close the Academy pilot school, so think about not closing it. I've been going there for four years, and

you

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you, chair Robinson and members of school committee. I'm Eric Berg, president of the Boston Teachers Union. And I'm here tonight because for far too long, students in Boston have been denied equitable access to modern, sustainable, well ventilated, learning centered school buildings. School closures are always disruptive to students and communities.

District officials must ensure that school closures, regardless of their rationale, are paired with a more aggressive and detailed commitment to the construction and renovation of new modern learning environments for our students. You know, I adapted my testimony from January, actually, on the exact same issue, and I think I'm gonna leave it aside. But here's the deal. We have a 109 school buildings, and it's fantastic that we built three new schools in the last three years. It's great that we renovated a couple of others.

But we have now learned that that we won't be cutting a ribbon on a new school again until the next decade, the twenty thirties. It's just too long. We need to build more new school buildings, significantly renovate more school buildings faster. Because even if we do one a year, in a hundred and nine years or now a hundred and four years, we will have a new school system. And it's too long for our system to wait.

I'm also aware that we will need assistance for funding this from the state, from the city, but we've got to do it. And if we're going to close schools, we should not do it unless and until there is a new facility and an improved program for those students to go to. I hope that the city continues and speeds up building of new schools because our students and our city deserves it. We're one of the wealthiest cities and one of the wealthiest states. We have millionaires and billionaires throughout our city. We've got to be able to fund proper buildings for our kids and our schools. Thanks very much.

Rosanne Tang. Hi,

I'm Roseanne Tung and I'm a member of the Multilingual Learners Alliance. I have four points. In an effort to understand what MLL education looks like in classrooms, MLA members talked with educators at 11 schools spanning the range of program types, languages and neighborhoods. Educators felt district leaders make decisions and mandates without observing nor listening to their needs. The dominant mode of instruction is focused on equality rather than equity.

Besides dual language, the goal in other programs is uniformly English only. We found no discussion of biliteracy except in dual language. Our recommendations remain the same as when the MLA formed in 2023. Stop placing ELD one through three students in general education, expand bilingual programs with enrollment goals and timelines, engage families about the pros and cons of MLL options, recruit and retain teachers who are proficient to teach content in our major home languages, be transparent about how equitable Title I spending decisions are made and annually report Title I expenditures. Third, BPS's Department of Justice settlement agreement may be defunct, but I think we all agree BPS should still report.

The community

would still like to see multiple inputs and outcomes disaggregated in meaningful ways. I don't have time to list them all in my two minutes nor have I had time to review the report just posted, but I see only one slide with two graphs about MLLs. In September, the MLA requested a meeting with BPS leadership to discuss our shared goal of multilingualism and envision ways to collaborate. We would still welcome a response and a meeting. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. John Mudd.

Good evening. My name is John Mudd. I'm a resident of Cambridge and the grandfather of a student at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. It's wonderful to hear all the students tonight and I hope all of us can listen and learn from them. I'm here tonight to talk about the inclusive education report that you will hear later and just give some additional comments. Inclusive education is the wrong strategy for multilingual learners. Inclusion done right is good for students with disabilities. It is not good for multilingual learners. Student outcome data that you know demonstrates this dramatically.

Over ninety percent of multilingual learners continue to fail to reach state proficiency standards on MCAS. This has been true for years. The access test scores on the percent of students reaching their English learning learning targets shows a sharp decline in the higher grades when knowing academic English content is essential. Both of these issues seem to be ignored in the Inclusive Education Report. I hate to keep repeating the data, but you and I, the mayor and the community, cannot ignore it.

It should not continue to be accepted. Take your own rhetoric about the importance of culturally and linguistically sustaining practices seriously. Truly value the home language our students bring to our schools as an asset. Will continue

Good say.

Require a change of mindset of BPS from top to bottom. It means going beyond the offering dual language to a small minority of students or just supporting great programs like the Saint Stephen's parent mentors. It means helping parents and teachers and principals and parent liaisons and social workers understand that building on the foundation of the home language by offering instruction in the home language is a better way to learn academic English and become bi lingual for those who want it.

Thank you. Your time is

Thank you very much. Our

next speakers are Mehdi Raffi, Sherry Daly, Michael DeRose, Hilary Crainstern, and Rayshawn Miller. Mehdi Raofe.

My name is Mehdi Raofe. I'm a Rossendale resident and director of school programs at Open Door Arts, a nonprofit that has partnered with BPS for over forty years to provide in school arts programming for students with disabilities, including students in sub separate classrooms at three of the schools proposed for closure, Cash, Another Corsa College, and Henderson Upper School. These three schools serve a disproportionately high number of students with high IEPs legally required specialized or self contained settings with individualized instruction from highly trained educators. Many of these students are not on a diploma track. Many will be educated by BPS until age 22.

And their programs are specifically designed to help them build the social, emotional, academic, vocational, and community living skills they need to live and work independently after they leave the district. These students cannot simply choose another school or be absorbed into a new building the way their general education peers might. They must go to where services exist and right now those services exist in these three schools. The individuals with disabilities education act federally mandates BPS to provide them with a free and appropriate public education in a setting that meets the requirements outlined in their IEPs. Closing their schools without a clearly defined, fully resourced, and publicly communicated plan for how their specialized services will be replicated is disruptive, destabilizing their learning, damaging their mental health and well-being

Oh, just

seven and risk noncompliance with federal law. I work directly with classroom teachers, school leaders, and district partners. I see firsthand that these schools are among the most prepared and appropriately structured environments in Boston for these specific populations of students, working effectively, creatively, and compassionately often with dwindling funding and resources. I urge the school committee to include members the special education community in this decision making prop process. Pause the vote until there's a clear legally compliant thoughtful plan for our students. Thank you.

Sherry Daly.

Thank you. My name is Sherry Daly. I'm the secretary at ACC. I've been there for over twenty six years. I'm here to urge you to keep ACC open, the school that Bruce Bowling himself chose for his son, a graduate alumni of ACC. You say we're underenrolled. Our assignment limit is set by BPS. Our students come through open enrollment. Two thirty nine. That's your limit.

Our actual total today is two thirty nine. We currently have three more on the acceptance list and 15 on the wait list. That's not under enrolled. You say students need things like full size gym, arts to thrive, and that we don't have that in our building, that our building doesn't fit a high school. May I remind you, BPS moved us there from our home in Brighton to an elementary school with the promise of two phase construction, retrofit the elementary school for us, and then phase two, to give us a full size gym cafeteria, indoor track, and more classrooms.

We didn't get that. Students students can still thrive without those things. We have sent students to the NFL, other professional sports, to school schools like Georgetown University, Pace University, and LSU. Have never had a full size gym, but utilized other resources over fifty years. We have many alumni that are teachers, educators, artists, lawyers right here in the city, raising their families.

You see populations declining for children? Our alumni are raising their children here in the city. They did and are still thriving. We offer a variety of arts, piano, music, game design, engineer, aviation. We're given a chance for our children to fly.

Thank you, your time is up.

We offer 10 AP classes.

Thank you.

And we have a graduation

rate of ninety

five percent. Thank you. Our

next our next speaker is Michael DeRose. Michael DeRose. Hilary Crane Stern.

I'm gonna talk quickly. My name is Hillary, and I've been a teacher at ACC for sixteen years. While doctors take a Hippocratic oath and pledge to do no harm, teachers uphold a comparable promise, protect students. Administration isn't exempt from this ethical code. We work together to create safe, supportive spaces where students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

And in a time with so much political uncertainty, instead of offering a safe place for most of our vulnerable or for our most vulnerable students, you're shutting it down, increasing fear, and further destabilizing students. ACC has been relocated at least five times in its existence. This building was allocated to us ten years ago by the district with a $7,000,000 upgrade, but it is no longer deemed sufficient. Our permanent home is no longer a high quality student experience. Perhaps the phrase high quality student experience doesn't really mean what you think it means.

Consider the numbers. By definition, ACC has the most vulnerable students in the district in BPS. We serve 9797% students of color. We serve an emotional impairment strand at each grade level. Forty percent of our population has IEPs. Nineteen percent of our students are MLLs. And to graduate from ACC, every single student has to be accepted to college. At ACC, the high quality student experience is a success we have with all our students, not despite what they bring to the table, but because of what they bring to the table. We offer this high quality student experience to every student. We are the only open enrollment school in Hyde Park, Mattapan, Rossendale, and West Roxbury.

64% of our students live within two miles of the school. Living in the community where you go to school is a high quality student experience. This painful process of potential closure has become our fiercest lesson in resistance. Our students rose up, our staff stood united, and together we turned devastation into purpose because at ACC, that's what we do. We find the educational opportunity crisis to make a high student quality experience. Thank

you.

Rayshawn Rayshawn Miller Rayshawn Miller.

Introduce introduce myself at the end. When I need an excuse to justify myself to my girlfriend, my go to line is, sorry, I forgot to take out the trash. It's a throwaway line that really means any excuse will do. Right? And I've been thinking about that tonight because the beautiful and dangerous thing about language is how easily it becomes a for removing responsibility, enrollment, utilization, sustainability.

We have heard these reasons before and those that come after us will hear them again. But all roads still lead back to you delivering the same polished version of, sorry, we forgot to take out the trash. A neat excuse to cover untidy truths. You, the district, have systematically funneled the highest need students into cash. You, the district, have administratively assigned 39 of our students at cash, meaning they did not choose us, they were placed here by you.

You, the district, have created the very conditions you now describe as a failure. And now, you, the district, tell us we cannot compete with the deck that you have stacked. Let me be clear, in the words of the late rapper, played bad cards bad, can't be mad at whoever dealt them, but everyone who has stepped foot in the cash has seen and felt how well we play the cards we are dealt. We do not lose because of our efforts, we lose because you stacked the decks for us. Your decisions are not rooted in improvement, your decisions are scapegoating.

On December 7 on December 17, a choice to be or not to be, destroyers is yours. You may believe everything you have done has been in the service of a better Boston Public Schools for our kids. However, I question a lot about anyone who believes the plan benefits our students. I question your ability to think critically about the systems you have designed. I question your empathy for people living inside these systems. I question your willingness to stand up for the forgotten. But I hope you do not question the messenger. I am a graduate of Boston Public Schools, Boston Academy to be exact. I am a teacher in Boston Public Schools. I'm the very product you very product you say you want to replicate.

And I, Rayshawn Miller, I'm looking you directly On in your December 17, do not destroy what you misguidedly created. Do not scapegoat the community I promised to serve. Let the people who lived the story write the story.

The next speakers are The next speakers are Jetson Dimash, Patricia Thrash, Ruth Wong, and Erin Konarning. Jetson Dimash?

Before I start, I would like you guys to hear mister Simpson. I interviewed him in on May 29. So what what is your purpose as a, like, your purpose as as a head of school?

My purpose is to free as many minds as my oh oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. It's to create a space where minds can be free and pursue their passions.

Thank you.

This interview, I've been listening to it for the past years even though I'm not a cash student anymore. My name is Jetson Dimash, and I am a former cash student, the president of the class of 2024. Cash is not a school. Cash is a lifeline, is a home, a refuge, in a place where student who feel who often feel invisible finally feel seen. Choosing to attend Cache and choosing to stay at Cache was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

The compassion and the dedication of every staff member, it is what makes the Cash family strong. Cash doesn't only care about your intelligence. They care about the whole person. So I'm asking you tonight on the behalf of the Haitian community, all immigrants, and every student who goes to Cache, please reconsider this decision, not for me, but for the student who are there right now, hoping the same support and family that I received. Cache has saved lives, opened doors, and created leaders closing the school is not closing a building, is closing futures, breaking relationships, and destroying a legacy.

As I as I asked my former my classmates last year, don't ask what cash can do for you, but ask what you can do for cash. That's why right now, I'm sitting here to ask you what can you do for cash. Cash? Cash is cash is more than what your highs can see. It's not defined by enrollment numbers.

What define cash is compassion, love, and dedication. If it were only about members, I will not I will not be there I will not be the person I am today today. Cash made me who I am, and I am sitting here because the school refused to give up on me. And I'm asking, don't give up on on don't give up on it either. If I had to describe Cash with one word, I would say, Cash is super kind of fragileistic expedialidocious.

Patricia Patricia Thresh? Patricia Thrash. Is she in the room? No? Ruth Wong.

Good evening. My name is Ruth Wong and I'm a program director at Emmanuel Gospel Center, a faith based organization that has partnered closely with Cash since the pandemic. I have served personally as a volunteer tutor and strategically as a community partner. Tonight, I come before you to advocate not only for the district to keep CASH open but to be audacious enough to propose another idea. Would you keep CASH open and make it a new community hub school?

Cash is one of the best BPS schools I've ever seen and worked with in the last fourteen years. I had the honor since 2016 of serving as a member of the working group that helped shape the community hub school strategy and make it a reality in Boston. Whenever I get the chance to brag about cash, I often describe it as a hidden gem that embodies so many of the values and work of a community hub school without the support and resources of the hub school strategy. Three of Cash's many strings from this whole school approach to student success are integrated systems of support, culture of belonging, safety and care and powerful student and family engagement. These are areas that some BPS schools often struggle with.

But here's the key. It is this particular team of people in the cash community that has produced this level of transformative impact on students. If you close the school and disperse the individuals, it will likely be impossible to create to recreate the same community and impact that Cash has had. All the adults whom I've met all the adults whom I've met are fiercely passionate about their profession

Thirty seconds.

And love on their students with equal tenacity. Cash serves some of the city's most vulnerable students, yet no matter who enters their school doors, this community has been ready to embrace them all and to help each individual reach their fullest potential. Please see the success of Cash and empower it to make an even greater impact for years to come. Thank you.

Thank you.

Erin. Erin Conorney.

Good evening, school committee and superintendent Skipper. My name is Erin Kurnerney. I'm an ESL teacher at Cash. This is my twenty fourth year in the Boston Public Schools, which means I've been around long enough to remember initiatives that divided up the large high schools into smaller learning communities, small high schools designed to create community. And I've been through school closures before and restructuring.

Never have I seen such a rushed, thoughtless timeline, completely devoid of input from the school communities affected. Staff were informed the afternoon of November 17 and told the closing of cash was already a foregone conclusion. We don't serve a politically important constituency. 90% of our students are high needs, 40% English language learners, and more than a third students with special needs. Our community already faced with the stresses of economic hardship, draconian immigration enforcement, and uncertain snap benefits during the holiday season was giving nine working days to organize for our very existence.

And we're here to make sure our students and families voices are heard. Many of our students have attended other high schools, both in district and out. They've moved to cities or countries and have had to adjust to new learning environments. Our students with significant special needs stay with us until they turn 22, learning life skills to prepare for independence after high school. Where will they go?

What is the plan for these students and the families to have continuity? Superintendent Skipper herself said to the schoolyard news in twenty we twenty can't simply close or merge schools without first developing a way for students who are in them, who are the most fragile, our multilingual learners and students with disabilities to have seats in other places. But that's exactly what you're doing. I asked your assistant superintendents at our meeting and they said, we'll figure it out. That's not good enough for us. Our students matter. Their education matters.

Thank you. Your

Thank time you.

That concludes our first hour of testimony. The remaining speakers will have an opportunity to testify at the end of the meeting.

Back to you, chair. Thank you, Ms. Parvax. And thank you to those of you who spoke with us this evening and shared your perspectives. Your testimony is very important to us. Our only action item this evening is the grants for approval totaling $532,962.10. Now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments.

Thank you, chair. So there's three grants tonight for your consideration, totaling a little more than 300 530,000. The largest is in Massachusetts twenty first Century Community Learning Centers continuation summer enhancement Grant for slightly over $460,000 which serves 160 students and 67 staff at Holland Tech, the Elliott, Jisaya Quincy Elementary and Umana. This grant supports academically enriching out of school time programming, including high quality, hands on, project based learning activities that connect school day academics to real world topics. The second is a $45,000 new competitive Campus Without Walls planning grant serving 90 students and six staff members at Greater Egleston, New Mission, and Tech Boston High Schools.

This grant will support the design and testing of a statewide live virtual course sharing classroom. The last grant is an approximate $27,000 one, which is an increase to the school based bridge program at Boston Latin Academy for the school year 2526 serving 100 students. The funding will provide intensive clinical and academic support for students returning to school after an extended medical related absence. The majority of the students in the program are returning after a mental health related hospitalization. So we'd ask that the members vote affirmatively for these grants.

Thank you. I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee. Anyone? Alright. If there's no further discussion, I'll now entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent? Hearing none, the grants are approved. Now we'll transition to our reports beginning with the presentation on the tentative collective bargaining agreements with BASIS. I'll now invite Labor Relations Director Jeremiah Hassan to please step forward with the presentation. Let's aim to keep the presentation to eight minutes and I'd like to remind our presenter to please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. I'll invite the superintendent to give opening remarks.

Wonderful. Thank you, chair. On Thursday, November 6, we reached a tentative agreement with the Boston Association of School Administrators and Supervisors or what we call basis for their twenty twenty four, twenty twenty seven collective bargaining agreement. This is also known as a CBA. Last night, BASIS members ratified this agreement.

BASIS includes approximately 350 members, including vice principals, specialized service assistant directors and operational leaders. BASIS members are experienced, hardworking, dedicated professionals. They provide expertise and leadership in our schools and departments and steady guidance for their colleagues. I want to take a moment to thank the negotiating team for their dedication to this process and to the district. Earlier tonight in executive session, we discussed the CBA between the committee and basis, which became effective 09/01/2024 and extends through 08/31/2027.

We also considered an FY '26 supplemental appropriation request for $1,307,000.307901 dollars to support the CVA. Director of labor relations, Jeremiah Hasson, is here to discuss the other details of the CBA or to answer any questions you might have. So with that, chair, I'll turn it over to Jeremiah.

Thank you, superintendent. Thank you, chair Robinson. Thank you, committee members, having me. I'm happy to present to you tonight and to recommend your support for our recent tentative agreement with the BASIS Union. As superintendent mentioned, BASIS represents a wide variety of administrators and supervisors in the district.

Positions include assistant principals, directors of instruction and program directors, operational leaders, and other central office directors such as specialized services, student support and academics division. So it's a wide range of employees. We have tentatively agreed upon general wage increases of 2% for each year. We've also agreed to an additional salary which is a step nine of their salary scale which brings them more in line with the BTU salary scale. Additionally, we have agreed to language that makes their education differentials and salary placement step a little bit more consistent with our managerial employees and codify some of our practices already in place.

An additional benefit that we have tentatively agreed to is increasing the available paid parental leave to eighteen weeks provided employees have accrued unused sick and personal time. So this brings basis in line with our current management policy. In order to support the contract as tentatively agreed upon, we are also recommending and requesting a supplemental appropriation for FY 2026 in the amount of $1,307,901. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have, but before I do so, I just want to publicly thank the Basis Bargaining team and president Diane Houser, for her collaboration and cooperation in getting this deal to this to this point.

Thank you. Are are there any questions?

This is just a question for clarification around the additional funds for vote this year. It's just for FY '26. So this is a three year contract. So this is a last there was a retroactive payment that's covered through other means. And then can you speak to what next year's increase would be accounted for?

Yes. So the city will cover the assuming it's approved the retroactive piece of the agreement. The appropriation request is for FY '26. So we would have to go to city council and ask for additional funds to pay for this current year. And then next year's increase would be built into the budget that will be presented for your approval in the spring.

During the regular budget cycle?

Correct, as part of the regular budget cycle.

Thank you. Any other comments? Thank you all and the committee looks forward to taking action on this request at our December 17 meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, chair.

Our second report is an update on the Inclusive Education Plan. I'd like to remind our presenters to please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. Let's aim to keep this presentation to fifteen minutes. I'd like to remind our presenter to please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. Superintendent, I invite you to give introductory remarks.

Thank you, Chair. Three years ago, we announced the implementation of inclusive education across the BPS. Tonight, we are here to update you on our students and schools' progress and the impact of this foundational change. All Boston Boston public schools must be inclusive no matter what school they attend, what language they speak, what their needs are, or what neighborhood they call home. In October 2023, BPS submitted the inclusive education plan to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, fulfilling a requirement of the Systemic Improvement Plan, what we called the SIP.

The SIP concluded in June 2025, but our commitment to inclusive education continues. We are currently in the second year of a four year phased in plan following an initial planning year. As you may remember, inclusive education is built on four pillars that required BPS to shift its practice to meet the needs of all students as they learn alongside their peers. That meant ensuring all students have access to grade level content and high quality instructional materials, ensuring inclusive delivery of interventions, supports and services, engaging in team based planning and collaboration, and resetting district infrastructure with systems of support and accountability. The team assembled here tonight are leading that change.

Shortly, you'll hear from chief of specialized services, Kay Seal, Joelle Vermeer, who's the chief of the office of multilingual and multicultural education, and chief of teaching and learning, Angela Hedley Mitchell. They will explain how the district shifted its practice and update you on the implementation of equitable literacy so every student is able to access grade level learning alongside their peers. Our students increased access to grade level learning with the use of the high quality instructional materials in a 100% of the district's classrooms. The district's efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism so students are in school and able to learn every day, our efforts to ensure that student needs are met through our multi tiered systems of support, what we

call

MTSS, the strengthening of our college and career pathways, and the progress of our multilingual learners, our students with disabilities, and our multilingual learners with disabilities. We are also joined by Russell Elementary School leader, Nikki Wells, and Kenny Elementary School leader, Sharika King, who will help us understand inclusive education at the school level by sharing their firsthand experience and the connection to students in the classroom. At this time, I will turn it over to our team who's already seated to begin the presentation.

Good evening. Good evening, and welcome, school committee members and Chair Robinson, families and community collaborators. My name is Kay Seal, Chief of Specialized Services, and tonight I am honored to introduce my colleagues, Chief Joel Gamere and also Chief Doctor. Angela Hedley Mitchell and our school leaders, Nikki Wells of the Russell Elementary School and Sherika King of the Kenney Elementary School. As a special education administrator, you are uniquely positioned to ensure that every student has access to high quality evidence based instruction and that students with disabilities have the resources and services to succeed academically and socially with a sense of belonging.

Our district inclusive educational plan is our roadmap to equity and excellence for all BPS students. Our vision for inclusion is fully realized when every student learns in the least restrictive environment and has access to a comprehensive continuum of evidence based services that accelerate learning in every Boston Public Schools classroom. Inclusion is not defined by a place or a service or a program, but by specialized supports and strategies that empower students to thrive. To achieve this vision, our collaborative efforts will continue to evolve, developing systems that effectively address the diversity of our learners. We acknowledge the challenges in meeting both the academic and social emotional needs of our students, and tonight's presentation will affirm the district's unwavering commitment to their success.

Equally important, we must address and dismantle systems that contribute to the disproportionate identification of historically marginalized students, particularly our black and latinx boys, as students with disabilities. By doing so, we ensure equitable access, opportunities, and improve academic outcomes for all of our learners. Before we get started, I think it's important for us to dive into the data and dive into the work of our district inclusive education plan. We want to ground our discussion in who are we serving. Boston Public Schools educates 47,000 students, which includes our enrolled students at the Harrah Kaye and Charter Schools.

As you can look at the data, you can see that we've had an increase of students with disabilities by twenty three percent. And also, it's important to note that when we look at our students with disabilities, I look at them as our students with abilities. Our primary disability categories are specific learning disabilities, are also our students with autism, as well as our students with communication disabilities. It's also important to note that we have a thirty three percentage of our multilingual learners and also fifteen percent are former multilingual learners. Additionally, we have nine percent of our students who are duly identified as multilingual learners with disabilities.

And most importantly, forty seven percent are first language other than English. This diversity is central to our work and underscores the importance of an inclusive and responsive educational system. I'm sure we've seen this slide before in terms of the shifts. Please allow me to share some key points with you tonight. When we talk about our district inclusive education plan, we talk about the equitable access to grade level and also culturally, linguistically responsive instruction for all of our learners.

The core values ensure that every student, regardless of background, language, or ability, has access to high quality instruction and meaningful opportunities to succeed. Our schools are committed to providing full continuum services. I'm going say that again because it's important for us to hold on to this, that our schools and our leaders and our teachers and our staff within our schools are committed to providing a full continuum of services that appropriately support students' needs while actively disrupting historical patterns of over representation, particularly among our black students, multilingual learners, and students receiving special education services. As we review the key levers of the four district shifts, I want to emphasize why they're considered our non negotiables. The mindset shift begins and ends with the BPS opportunity and achievement gap policy, which serves as the North Star for Boston Public Schools, a shared framework for eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps and ensuring that every student can succeed.

This work is led by doctor Colin Rose in partnership with district leaders, our educators, our specialists, our community collaborators. For our students and IEPs, individual educational plans, their educational plans are their roadmaps tailored to their individual and unique needs. Our IEP teams must ensure that goals and objectives are aligned with curriculum standards and responsive to supporting each student's vision for learning and growth. We are addressing disproportionality by strengthening evaluation protocols across our district and are actively addressing the inconsistent instructional opportunities that are historically limited student progress and access. Our district infrastructure now includes cross functional teaming structures that align our professional learning, promoting coherence, equity, and consistent implementation of inclusive practices within our schools.

It's important for us to look at the landscape where we are right now, and as you look at our planning year, this is really our partnership year with our families, with our community, with our schools, and launching the coordination in the face of this work. And we have many collaborators within our schools, our inclusion coaches, our instructional leadership teams. Together, personalize and develop their inclusion planning team framework and that was our planning year. When we look at year one for implementation and we look at those rollout grades, you can see what the grades are that we started with for year one. It's important to note that our work initially centered on the district strengthening our collaborative practices by providing targeted professional development, which is a cross functional effort on our part across many divisions within our district, focusing on tier one interventions for equitable access for our learners.

When we look at the year two and the growth the grades that are also rolling out, our efforts while expanding on year one initiatives, we also focus on grade level access for students, particularly our multilingual learners and students with disabilities, aligned with rollout of our new English learner education programs. When we talk about our future state for our years three and four, we will continue expanding all of our rollout grades and support our emphasis around the acceleration of our multi tier systems of support and the implementation of our high quality instruction materials. This ongoing work will continue collaboratively with our schools, supported by the inclusion educational coaches who provide coaching to inclusion planning teams, facilitators, school leaders, and grade level teams, most importantly our teachers in partnership with our regional liaisons. Throughout this presentation, we will highlight evidence of collective efforts to dismantle silos and accelerate learning for all students here in BPS. We will show our instructional expectations of strengthening systems of support, enhancing accountability, and establishing universal practices that benefit every student.

I would like to now pass this presentation on to Chief of Teaching and Learning, Doctor. Angela Hedley Mitchell.

Thank you, Chief Seale. Good evening, Chair Robinson, committee members, and Superintendent Skipper. Our move toward inclusive education is generating meaningful progress that expands access and strengthens student learning. These milestones include ensuring all students engage with rigorous instruction supported by the right tools and instructional practices, providing services that meet students' needs while keeping them connected to their peers in core instruction, empowering school teams to design and monitor strategies that improve learning for every student, setting clear expectations and building educator capacity for the inclusion classroom, and establishing clear, consistent expectations aligned to school improvement plans, provide professional learning so all educators are equipped to implement inclusive high instruction. Our inclusive education strategy is ensuring equitable access to high quality learning for every student in our district.

By moving to fully inclusive learning environments, every student regardless of background, language or learning needs now has access to the same rigorous instructional We are already seeing results. Students who were previously in separate classrooms are showing stronger engagement and deeper social connections. Multilingual learners benefit from real time language practice with peers, accelerating both their academic and conversational English. And by eliminating isolation, we ensure all students can participate in grade level curriculum that prepares them for college and career. Overall, academic strategy centers on implementing equitable literacy practices and expanding access to inclusive learning environments.

This is shared work across the district. I will highlight the steps we have taken as an organization to strengthen access to high quality instructional materials, increase access to tier one instruction and enhance supports within our MTSS framework. Key milestones and progress include expanded access to HQIM. Across our nine school regions, we have built a network of instructional support that includes equitable literacy, inclusion and multilingual coaches. These roles work collaboratively to strengthen inclusive practice, promote access to grade level instruction and support educators in meeting diverse student needs.

We are in year two of our twelve hour inclusion professional learning series. Greater use of our EQL observation tool is helping schools and the district identify and support the instructional shifts that lead to improved student results. And our classroom observations show progress. More students are actively engaging in grade level thinking and problem solving. This is an important indicator that deeper learning is taking hold across our schools.

To continue accelerating improvements in student outcomes within our inclusion framework, the district remains firmly committed to strengthening student achievement through a robust multi tiered systems of supports. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's revised MTSS framework identifies five critical levers: universal high quality instruction, data driven decision making, team driven leadership, evidence based tiered supports and strategic resource allocation. Our BPS strategy is aligned with and operationalizes these levers through the following actions: increased the number of centrally funded district reading specialists, continued MTS implementation in every school, over 12,000 intervention plans were developed this year showing stronger MTSS systems and responsiveness to student needs and trackable supports for students. To further strengthen inclusive practices and equitable literacy across the district, we continued inclusive education professional learning, launched professional learning communities designed to deepen equitable literacy implementation, ensure coaches across our regions are working closely with educators to strengthen their knowledge of key equitable literacy practices and build instructional coherence across classrooms and we are developing a family engagement plan focused on helping families understand the EQL framework and how equitable literacy extends into home and broader community. These efforts collectively strengthen our inclusion framework, deepen MTS implementation and support our core commitment to ensuring every student in the Boston Public Schools has access to high quality, equitable and inclusive learning experiences.

I will now pass the presentation to Chief Gimmer.

Thank you Chief Headley Mitchell. Good evening Chair Robinson, members of the school committee and Superintendent Skipper. Thank you for the opportunity to share an update on the multilingual and multicultural education of Boston Public Schools. Where are we? First, we successfully implemented inclusive SEI in every Boston Public School ensuring that multilingual learners can carefully participate in rigorous grade level instruction with supports.

We have expanded DESE approved program models including newcomer programs, dual language bilingual education, SLIFE programming, helping us to meet the students' linguistic and academic needs with greater precision. This past October, we completed the DESE Continuous Improvement Monitoring Plan demonstrating our commitment to elevating the quality of services across the district. We're expanding professional development opportunities for educators with a focus of high leverage inclusive approaches for teaching language through content. Through our partnership with the Telescope Network, we will strengthen teacher practice and deepen knowledge of multilingual learner pedagogy across schools. We are implementing ongoing progress monitoring of the ESL curriculum, ensuring consistent, high quality instruction aligned to state standards.

We will continue to expand native language access including addition additional DESE approved program pathways to meet the linguistic diversity of our Boston Public School students. OMME will continue to provide direct school based support including instructional coaching, technical assistance, and facilitation of the service delivery determination process ensuring every school is equipped to meet the needs of our multilingual learners. And importantly, our multilingual learners are making increased progress towards language proficiency targets with growth reflected on the 2025 access results, the state's assessment towards English language proficiency. The percentage of multilingual learners making progress notably from 2024 to 2025, rising from thirty six point seven percent to forty one point two percent. Growth was observed across nearly all program types with the exception of BPS SCI, which saw a decline of 3.3.

Students who are enrolled in our inclusive SEI classrooms make progress on the state's access assessment at better rates than students who are enrolled in any program offered in our district. These improvements align with the district's continued expansion of inclusive SEI practices and strengthened bilingual programming. Our team remains deeply committed to ensuring that every multilingual learner in Boston Public Schools has equitable access to high quality culturally and linguistically affirming instruction. I will now pass it back to Chief Seale.

Thank you Chief Gamere. Our specialized programs, please allow me to share the Office of Specialized Services strategic planning to expand inclusive practices within our schools. We have launched and scaled the inclusive planning team process by empowering schools to design more inclusive schedules, staffing models, and instructional supports that provide meaningful access and least restrictive environment opportunities for students with disabilities. We strengthened also our literacy supports through targeted evidence based initiatives in partnership with some of our evidence based staff like through Mass General Hospital and also the SAIL Lab, through the implementation of language based instructional pilots rooted in science of reading, delivering individualized targeted support for our students with families and also dyslexia and language based learning disabilities. We've also expanded inclusive placements for our youngest learners by increasing our inclusive placement for children ages three to five by 15%, supported by the early childhood cross functioning work groups and also emphasis on developmental appropriateness, instructional access and strong family partnerships.

Our enhanced district wide support for inclusion implementation refined the district's approach to supporting schools and inclusive practices and also promoting transitional planning to enhance students' experiences academically, college career and pre vocational learning through our partnership with MICAP, leading to more consistent guidance, coaching and monitoring across all of our grade levels. Where we are, an analysis of our inclusion and partial inclusion data. Please allow me to spotlight our key accomplishments. As you look at the data for K zero to K one, our students, you see that we have made the largest improvement over the past five years by 15.5%. This is a testimony of where the groundwork of our inclusive plan really has taken off, reflecting our early childhood teams and expanding inclusive opportunities, also aligning practices with our IDA and DESE expectations and regulations for the least restrictive environment.

When we look at our grade two and also K-two, seven, nine, we show steady progress in growth and partial inclusion, and also gains when we look at also indicating broader improvements in school level practices, staffing models, and instructional supports. Also, looking at our secondary schools for our middle and high schools, our inclusion rates increased by 109.4% points, respectively, reflecting progress in our secondary schools. We designed and also expanding access to core instruction, as well as our enhanced supports and services through our IEP process as well. Where are we going for next year? Our advancing three years in terms of the inclusive education plan will continue.

Our acceleration of professional learning as a cross functional team, our staffing, our curriculum will also be deepened with specially designed instruction, methodologies and evidence based practices to ensure equitable access for all of our students. We're strengthening evidence based reading interventions. We will expand district wide training in reading and math interventions with a focus on executive functioning, written expression, and amplify our student voice. We are excited to spotlight tonight two of our elementary schools. This evening, they are showing that they're doing the work and our students are making progress.

You will hear from school leaders about the incredible work happening in their school community to expand inclusive opportunities that accelerate learning for all students. Please join me in welcoming school leaders Nikki Wells from the Russell Elementary School and Sherika King from the Kenny Elementary School. Good

evening chair, members of the school committee, superintendent, and distinguished colleagues. Thank you for the opportunity to share the Russell School's progress on our inclusive education plan. It is an honor to report on the work our community has undertaken to ensure that every student, especially our multilingual learners and students with disabilities, has access to rigorous, inclusive, and affirming learning environments. Just one year ago, our school operated BPS SCI strand classrooms from K one through grade three. These classrooms served newcomer multilingual learners exclusively, separating them from their English fluent and grade level peers, including multilingual learners of different language levels for the entire day.

Students were not accessing strong language models, and their learning lived mostly in language mixed language spaces without intentional academic use of native language. None of the BPS SEI strand educators held dual language certification and students were often placed in BPS SEI solely because of their language level, even when they were not newcomers at all. While our Literacy and Math curriculum materials were aligned across classrooms, our climate, culture and accountability data made it clear. The BPS SEI strand model was limiting students' academic opportunities, diverse connections, and English proficiency growth. Our families whose top priority was their children's English development expressed this openly.

And importantly, 100% of Russell educators wanted to move away from the BPS SEI strand model. That is not to say we are an English only program. Rather, it's an acknowledgment that all language is power and that intentionality of system design is key. We began listening. We conducted empathy interviews with every teacher and found powerful alignment between their vision for the Russell and the data, showing that BPS SEI strands were hindering access to rigorous and social learning.

We brought this dialogue to our school site council and families, building a shared understanding of why inclusion mattered. In one year, we redesigned our school wide schedule around multilingual learners and service delivery, allowing

us

to integrate BPS SEI strand students into inclusive classrooms immediately because we know that multilingual learners and students with disabilities contribute wisdom and rich value within every classroom community. We strengthened student engagement practices aligned to our QSP priority area one, ensuring all students make meaning of their learning through conversation with diverse peers. We've began to blend, push in, co teaching, and resource room services to the fullest extent possible. And throughout, we have maintained ongoing transparent conversations with families about English proficiency and the shift to inclusion. Our journey has not been without challenges.

We are transforming a system built on compliance, particularly around ESL minutes into one built on true inclusion. While compliance encourages pullout structures, our vision centers on co taught in class services. We're still working to close the gap between the ideal state and what current staffing makes possible. Yet, the early successes are powerful. In our classrooms today, visitors cannot distinguish who's a multilingual learner or a student with disability because instruction is so well integrated that every student has access and opportunity.

Students are making meaning of their learning across all four language domains and ESL and classroom teachers are truly partnering around language and content development. Every student is accessing high quality instructional materials within an inclusive environment. Inclusion is not just a structure. It is a mindset and a way of being. The work ahead is adaptive work, continuing to collaborate deeply with staff and families, honoring every student's strengths as assets, and building a school community where inclusion is woven into our schedule, staffing model, and teacher teams.

We aspire to be a learning organization for both adults and children, and we remain fully committed to making inclusion our number one priority. I'm proud to share that our staff is 100% invested in this vision and together we will continue moving towards a school that reflects and celebrates every member of our community for their wisdom, identities, and stories. Thank you for your time, your partnership, and your commitment to inclusive learning for all students. I will now turn it over to my colleague, Sherika King, school leader of Kenny Elementary School.

Thank you. Thank you, Principal Wells. Good evening chair, members of the school committee, superintendent, and distinguished colleagues. My name is Sherika King. I'm the proud principal at the Kenny Elementary School of Region six.

Thank you for the opportunity to share our school's journey towards a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. Over the past year, we have been intentional about shifting our core mindset from situating students to learning to situating students for learning. This shift has required us to rethink not only our instructional practices, but also the student experience itself. Instead of expecting students to fit into our systems, we are designing systems that meet students where they are to help them thrive. To support this work, we've strengthened our teaming structures.

Our instructional leadership team has narrowed our focus on clear instructional success criteria for tier one. And in parallel, our inclusion planning team is building staff capacity for tier two and tier three supports through structured protocols and shared data systems in our win block or our what I need block. This ensures that intervention planning is consistent, equitable, and rooted in real time student need. We've seen meaningful success, particularly in our school culture and climate. Student, teacher, family, and staff surveys all show increased favorable responses, reflecting stronger relationships and more positive sense of belonging in our school community.

Our work is also affirmed in our challenges. Our students show surveys showed a decline in perceptions of rigor and classroom engagement. This tells us that while students feel cared for and connected, we must continue improving how they experience learning every day and how we maintain the bar. To address this, we've been doubling down on progress monitoring and tightening our planning for individual focused students. Our guiding belief is really this simple.

If we're serving students here and there, then we're serving all students in between. This disciplined approach has helped ensure that inclusive education isn't something that students experience only sometimes, it's something they experience consistently in every classroom. So thank you for your time, your partnership, and your commitment to inclusive learning for all of our students.

I think that statement was definitely our closing statement. Once again, I just would like to share that we really truly appreciate the opportunity to share our collective work, which reflects our deep commitment to our schools, our students, and our families. And we look forward to continuing the dialogue and working together to accelerate learning for every student here in the Boston Public Schools. So, thank you for giving us this opportunity tonight.

Thank you all. And I'll now open it up to questions and comments from members. Mr. Cardetta Veniz.

Okay. Thank you so much for the presentation and for both of the school leaders to be here at 8PM on a school night. We appreciate it. Just to sort of ground us in some optimism, I think this is a really clear system, a clearer system strategy. Moving kids from special inclusive teaching as the norm.

And then obviously with MTSS and equitable literacy as the spine of that. And we've seen some real gains in students moving to least restrictive environments and then obviously the access gains that you shared today. At the same time, we still place students in substantially separate settings at more than two times the state and national rate with black boys and multilingual learners overrepresented. And I'm also focused on student outcomes. So placement has moved faster than academic outcomes.

So MCAS results for students with disabilities and inclusion in sub separate settings are mostly flat or they're declining. So those are gonna be the sort of base of my questions just to ground us. I'm really sort of holding a curiosity, obviously understanding the, we're still placing students in substantially separate classrooms at more than twice the state and national rates, black boys again and multilingual learners disproportionately affected. What are the sort protections that are in place this year to prevent new over identification and over placement, especially at the earlier grades where trajectories become set?

Thank you so much for raising that question because that is also a critical question that we are addressing in every aspect of the work that we are doing. I did say earlier that part of what we're doing, it starts with the evaluation process and making sure that our evaluations are used with integrity but also meeting the cultural needs of our students in terms of making sure that we're making determinations for students based on their needs, as well as making sure that we're providing the resources and the services that they need. We recognize that we've also had an increased number of students here moving in and identified in BPS of having a disability. And we're factoring in also the fact that we've also had several students that have needed services that have autism disabilities. We're finding that we have provided more of a continuum of services and especially for early childhood students to have more access into general education classrooms.

However, we do recognize that are substantially separate numbers, Although we're seeing that it is still remains a concerns, we have seen a decrease when we look at the fact that we're now at 30.7%. That is not acceptable. We recognize the fact that we are also working with our school based teams and also with our school leaders to provide access for our students. We have seen many gains in terms of our students that are in our ABA classrooms as well as our students that are in our low incidence classrooms having mainstreaming opportunities into general education classrooms. And when you look at the data, we are not changing those IEPs.

So although we do see students still have substantially separate as their placement, We have students now that have inclusion IEPs but they do not reflect that because they have access to opportunities in general education classroom or in our inclusion classrooms. So oftentimes those IEPs remain as still a substantially separate. However, that is still a huge area of priority for us that we're working on collectively through evaluations, through identification, through professional development for our teaching staff. And also, that's part of the reason why this year we launched a regional team model where we didn't want to provide professional learning in isolation where we have members of all team from our speech pathologists, our behavioral health, our special educators and also our coordinators of special education are working strategically. We're also doing root cause analysis as well as case reviews to see what are some of the trends, what are some of the risk factors that we need to address to really change and address the data that you're seeing tonight as well.

I guess just to ground a little further in that, and it's a bigger issue than just in this setting and mostly because we don't know the targets that you're operating with. So I am sort of curious for families to know, for students with disabilities and multilingual learners on MCAS or access or course pass rates or graduation, like what are the concrete outcomes we're aiming for? Do we have year over year targets that we're working towards? And can we share them?

So, mean, we go by so, as you know, we have targets in these areas from the state. And I think that's one of the things that we're reviewing is to see whether or not, now that we're moving through inclusion and that implementation is taking root, whether or not those are too slow for us or which we hope they are, and that we're actually gonna see us our ability to meet those benchmarks faster. I did wanna say on your your question about early ed

Yeah.

I think this is a really good one because this is an area that Kay's been working and Lauren's been working really hard. We have a a standing working group with UPK. And with UPK, we have a lot of classrooms outside of the BPS. So what we were also seeing was, I would say, many more substantially IEP's written for substantially separate settings coming from outside of the BPS that then when the student entered us was a more restrictive environment than what the student needed. So there's been a tremendous amount of effort to ensure that the IEP and the service grid matches what the actual what the student actually needs.

And so I think we're starting to see those numbers come down in particular. The other thing I just wanna echo, Kaye, is that post pandemic, we saw a lot of students moving around the state and moving into us. And those students were coming with some pretty heavy IEPs, and particularly heavy in the sense of recalling for a more restrictive environment than what we would hope to see eventually in their ability to be included.

Thank you, Superintendent Skipper. I also want

to add and I'm going

to have my colleague join me, Doctor. Lauren Viviani. When we talked about our top three disability number one was specific language based disabilities, right? So when we talk about the needs of those students, we recognize that there's a challenge for the district to have that as our top number one disability. What are we doing in terms of services, also in terms of access and also in terms of reading intervention?

So we have a strategic plan that we're working with Mass General Hospital. I'm going have Lauren also come up and look at that. We're also focusing on how we're providing that transition services from elementary for those students into middle school. So I'm gonna pass it to Lauren to kind of give you some more information around how we're closing that gap for our students with language based disabilities and also communication. And those are the two top two two of the three top disability categories.

And the model strand components.

Hi. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for the question. It's so great to be here in front of you all. As my colleagues and superintendent expressed, number one, especially with early ed, we've worked really, really hard with our assessment teams and our early intervention partners across the city to make sure that we're getting the kids, number one on time and then really front loading a lot of the assessments and the strategies that they need to get ahead of what all of the things that we can do.

So as they're coming in, they're ready for an inclusive environment. We work really, really carefully with their families and with any childcare providers to make sure that we're really on board with what they're doing, how it's working in the home, how it's working in all of the natural environments that we see young kids in to make sure that kids on the spectrum or kids with whatever needs they're having. I will note that the last couple of years we've seen a huge increase in kind of I want to say like behavioral situations that young kids have because I think the pandemic and that's starting to decrease a little bit over time. So there's improvement there. And I think we will have some good data in the next couple of months.

We're figuring out different ways to collect that so we'll be able to share that with you. In terms of the language based classrooms we have some pilot programs starting at a couple of the high schools and one elementary school in particular we just started with today to really look at what's happening in for our kids who have language based disabilities, dyslexia, things like that. And we're working with our partners at Mass General and MGH to and she's actually at the SAIL lab of MGH to come and really think about what is executive functioning looking like in all of these programs? How do we make sure that the whole environment is really language based? So when kids have these partial inclusive opportunities, the general ed teachers in the English class, in the science class, in the social studies class understand the executive functioning strategies, the language based strategies for the kids to access that core content area.

Helpful. I have two more questions, but I will say on the targets piece, it will be helpful for us to get clarity on that. I know there's the state target, but are we breaking that down into shorter sort of more bite sized goals the same way we ask schools to do? You know, I like being in parallel process with what we ask educators.

Can I just share one thing about that? We have early childhood outcomes that we measure and it's called indicator seven. And actually our indicator seven data has increased in the last couple of years. So we'll make sure we get that data that we're reporting to the state for you.

And so the clearest data we see tonight obviously is in those early grades. So, I am just curious to get a little bit more on like the strategy for high schools and students with the most complex needs. So, I'm thinking about autism, I'm thinking about behavioral supports, life students with disabilities. So, that we're not just like dismantling these programs as we heard from some of the students who were here tonight, but we're building sort of robust inclusive alternatives in different settings.

Okay, yeah, so in the autism programs in the high schools particular, there's a next program which I'm sure you guys heard about and I'm sure the superintendent, you know, she's championed that. It's a great program. And for kids with more significant disabilities, we are doing more and more vocational opportunities with them. One thing that we're launching today with this year with some of our kind of more complex, what we call autism strands in the high schools is an MCAS Alt. We're really digging in this year to the MCAS Alt and building authentic portfolios so we can make sure exactly what you're talking about, that the Alt measures what the kids are learning and that we're building portfolios that are aligned to what they need as they grow up and then enter an adulthood and are poised for independence.

So that's something that we're really starting with this year and I think we have a great opportunity ahead of us which will produce some really great outcome data that you're looking for.

Right and I would just also say that this team, the office of specialized services has been at the table with long term facilities since the inception to talk specifically about every student. But particularly those students who we know are going to need to be situated and have options relative to special education, multilingual learners, multilingual learners with disabilities. So that's been part of that process. And in fact, I believe that that is they're developing that seedage and that will be shared out as early as next week.

Awesome. That's great. Last one and then a final comment. I am curious how we're bringing in families into this conversation. So particularly students. I hate this word, but like in the most highly specialized programs, particularly in our high schools. I'm thinking about two things like both to protect against like abrupt and harmful changes which we know can often happen for those young people. But also to like co design what the model looks like given that they know the complexity of their kids the most. And I'm really thinking about our most complex young people.

No, I was just gonna say that that's also very important in what we are doing working with long term facilities is having a lot of community forums. We are meeting with our families, we're engaging in conversations, we're having listening sessions, we're also meeting with our students. We are reviewing IEPs and we wanna make sure that our students have access but they have a continuation of services. And we're listening to what families are saying and some of the concerns. We heard that tonight loud and clear and we heard from also the teachers, the educators, but also our students.

We're also going to be partnering and having our SPEDPAC also as another resource. If parents feel like they need someone independent to talk to or just to get some information, I've reached out to our SPEDPAC chair. So we are very cognizant as to how our families and our students are feeling and we're trying to also embrace that through the IEP process. So for each, for this year and as we plan for next year, we want to make sure and I've emphasized the vision of our students because that's where it starts. No matter the complex needs of our students, we really want to capitalize on the vision of our students and make sure that we are including them as part of the process and part of this transition and meeting their needs.

Lauren, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the work with our ABA?

Yeah, sure. So one example comes to mind in particular. We have a student who is in the eleventh grade right now on the spectrum. A lot of complex things are happening for this young man and he really wants to do a particular job. And so we are engaging in something, this is gonna date me a little bit, but something called person centered planning with these really high needs kids where it's really looking at bringing in all of the folks around the students' lives and looking at all the transition planning that's happening for this kid and really thinking about what do the friends say, what do the teachers say, what do the grandparents say, neighbors, all of the things around person centered planning.

And I think it's a really beautiful aspect that we're starting to think about how do we kind of more make this broader so it doesn't have to be like that old fashioned kind of person centered planning, but how do we really make it authentic for each kid.

That's really good. I'll end here a comment and I'm just thinking about this as we go into budget season. I have struggled at times and the superintendent knows this with the way that we have modeled this plan particularly for young folks with disabilities. But I'm happy to see some progress, right, in the way that it's moving and the speed that it's moving. I do think like inclusive education will continue to fail if it's an unfunded mandate.

And so, I am curious when we move into budget season to really look at the concrete investments in how we're thinking about this co teaching positions, professional development, assistive technology. And how that compares to what we spent on sub separate settings in the past. And I, we have not, I've asked for that in previous years. We have not been able to deliver on that. So like if we are making this investment, it is a more complicated model to move through. Part of why we created sub separate classrooms. Sometimes kids need them but most of the time it was just an easier solution for adults. And so I am curious to see even as we constrain the budget if this is truly our priority and it's a third of our district Like where does it live in the current district?

Yeah. I mean, I think part of what I think we see is we have to hold the duality of the systems. Because as we're gaining an inclusion, it's not at an even enough rate to take an equivalent amount of substantially separate offline, particularly post pandemic when we have kids moving in. But that said, I think we're starting to see the needle move enough where that will be more of an opportunity and reinvestment, right, of dollars into a, you know, fundamentally what is more complex. So I I do think you'll start to see that. It's just you have to hold dual systems for a while before you can collapse completely enough of them.

I have forty three seconds left. Thank you.

Let me take a picture

of that. Very

good.

Thank you very much.

Doctor. Alkins?

Thank you very much for the presentation.

But we're not quite done yet. We go through members, so you guys can still stay. They won't bite.

Actually, like some of my questions have already been asked. But I wanted to I was curious about one this particular year. I know last year there were some interesting challenges and feedback that we heard from school leaders around the planning team process. And I'm just wondering how that has been going this year and what we've learned from last year that we're carrying over into this year. Second, I'm also I'm just interested to hear your perspective on what challenges within the implementation that you are still seeing that we should be aware of as we enter into budget season?

And then my last question is really around last year's presentation we heard about the use of service mapping as a strategy for delivery of services. And I'm just wondering what has been the result of that and sort of the impact that we've seen.

So I can start in terms of looking through the lens of students with disabilities in terms of the service mapping and also we have 10 service mapping is a process that we talked about last year that is done within our schools and it's led by our school leaders. And why that is so important is because it provides assurances to make sure that we're taking into consideration what those IEP services are and that we have identified staff to provide the services. So, and also what we're doing is we're looking at the inefficiencies of our systems because we're finding that when we start looking at the IEPs, the services, and who we have for staffing in the schools, how best can we maximize utilize the staffing to meet the needs of our students, right? So, we're working closely with our school leaders and those are some that, when you talk about challenges, those are some of the challenges that we're having because we also have the parameters of our contracts and also the parameters in terms of class size, maximum, as well as also looking at student enrollment, as well as looking at the amount of services that our students needs have based on those IEPs.

So we continue to look at that as a challenge, but we're working closely with our assistant directors of special ed. We're working closely with our COS, and we're using our responsive teams to also look at how we're identifying what the services are that's needed for the students. We're finding that we're also making sure that as we measure and look at the IEP goals and objectives that we're looking at the progress and we're putting systems in place to really monitor our students' progress because for our students with IEPs is the goals and objectives. That really warrants how we look at making sure that they are prepared and ready to have access to least restrictive environment placements. So we're looking at some of the trends that we're seeing in certain schools in terms of disproportionality, also looking at the trends that we're seeing in certain schools that have students moving into more replacement placement, more restrictive placements and we're looking at the why.

We're also doing folder reviews and also analysis of our data, not just the timeline data, the compliance data, but also the service data. So that is ongoing within all of our schools with the service mapping. Can you repeat the other part of your first part of your question?

So the well, I was talking more generally about just the other challenges that you might be seeing in the process and that we should be paying attention to as we enter into budget season.

I think part of what you heard today was really our sense of agency and making sure that we have worked strategically to provide cross functional professional learning. And I think this is the going into our second year, we find that that's really been important because it involves collectively all of us from academics' own and multilingual learners and students with disabilities that we are reaching and teaching those teachers. And it's through that cross functional work that we are looking at and providing our walk through tools to really provide and look at evidence and also feedback to school leaders to help them in terms of their instructional practices. You've also received a copy of our instructional expectation memo and part of that is also the indicators for us to look at what's happening in classrooms but also to give our teachers some critical feedback and also the resources and the supports that they need. In terms of special education, some of the challenges and you had talked about substantially separate classrooms is that our students have access to the core when the gap in their learning is so wide is making sure that we are using beyond teacher made materials but supplemental curriculum materials that are aligned to content standards.

So that is an area that we're working on because we want to make sure that the instruction is rigorous but it's also meaningful. So that's something that we're looking at across our schools especially for our students that are in specialized programs to make sure that they too have access points to content standards because if we want to move them into least restrictive environment placements, we have to prepare them. We have to educate them. And our focus, and I think my colleague had talked about literacy and reading, and that's why we're focusing so much in the domains of reading and providing professional development to our teachers because we need to close that opportunity gap for our students in the area of reading and literacy. So those are some of the challenges and some of the work that we're doing across the district. And I'll open it up to my colleagues if they'd like to maybe some of the work in academics.

I would say like to reiterate what Chief Seale said, our department is working across OSS and OMME to continue our twelve hour professional learning. I think that's a real grounding for our teachers. We have 1,600 teachers participating this year. We have classes that are not only beginner level but advanced work. And that's work that is content agnostic but also content embedded.

So we have professional learning that happens in regards to twelve hour learning for EL, for I'm for study sync. And now for this year we have social studies for Savits, for democratic knowledge projects. So we have that professional learning ongoing. And when we saw a need to happen across the district is for teachers not to just be in these isolated places but to talk across the district. So we formed the PLCs.

Our first PLC for expeditionary learning was this past two weeks ago. So we're trying to bring teachers across the district to have these conversations of their experiences which I think is really important. And then for our coaches as we look at our EQL tool, equitable literacy observation tool data, that informs how we move forward with our professional learning. So if we're seeing certain places where writing is still a place where we're having challenges, that our next move, our whole ELA team got Writing Revolution trained last year. So like how we start to embed that into our learning for our teacher because we're seeing, if we're seeing the observations are telling us that this is a place where we need to move, how are we starting to like take that data and move our teacher learning and then the coaching that comes after that.

And my last question and it's a naive question at that. But I'm thinking particularly in the context of what we've heard around the Henderson and particularly that it's a secondary school. And I'm just looking at the implementation timeline. So being able to have a full rollout by fiscal year like '28, I'm thinking of those, the grades grades eleven and twelve for those special education eight, classes. If the consideration is to close a program and to maneuver or ship those students into a different educational setting when a rollout has not been completed for those upper grades?

I'm just trying to understand that

a little bit.

So there's I think there's two sets of population at the Henderson Right. That we're aware of, right? One is the transition program. And those are 18 to 22 year old. And so we'll really be working closely with the families around different options there. There are pro like, plenty of programs within the BPS, that are established, both transition programs. Then there's also our next program is the Carter. So it really depends on the IEP needs. The eleventh and twelfth graders would finish at Henderson Upper. And so your current ninth and tenth, it would be, like, the following year.

So we would work with the families in schools that are already at the eleventh grade inclusion rollout. Some of our high schools already have inclusion. It's just the ones that didn't, this is the schedule that they followed. But there are high schools that already have inclusion up through the twelfth grade. So we'll work very carefully with the families around the choice for the student.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah. I think that was my concern about potentially moving to

I brought back up the timeline and I brought it thank you for doing I'm sorry. I think it's important when you look at our rollout grades and how we've built capacity and when you look at the timeline, so by the time we get to 2028, we will be building capacity through the IPT process. We're also looking at, in my presentation I said that inclusion is not necessarily a place. So we're really once again going back and looking at those IEPs to making sure that we're building capacity so that we can provide assurances for those students to make sure that they get the IEP services that they need. We're also going to be doing what we do for every single school that we're going through this process is we do an in-depth review and audit of the IEPs and making sure that we're looking at the IEPs, to making sure that we're meeting with the families, talking with our families, talking to our students because these are students that are secondary age students to make sure that we're also honoring their vision and what they need in order for them to be successful.

So we'll be having ongoing community meetings but also meetings through the IEP process to provide the supports that our students need through this transition.

Thank you, Malachi. Thank you, Russell School and Kennedy for the presentation. In the slide number 10, if you go to the slide number 10, I have a in the for the SEI, the BPS, in October 2020 have 29%. In October 2025, I see decrease 8%. It's it's like when I see that percentile, I say, oh my god.

It's bad. Can you please tell me a little bit more about it? Sure.

So when we look at the first chart, it tells us the story or the numbers or percentage of students who in October 2020 were enrolled in our the number of multilingual learners that were enrolled in that type of program. So when you looked at all of Boston Public Schools multilingual learners in 2020, 29% of the students who were identified as multilingual learners were enrolled in a BPS SEI course. And as we've rolled out inclusive SEI, we've had a decrease of students in the BPS SEI. And so, you'll also see because of the decrease of students who were in the BPS SEI, you'll also see if you look at inclusive SEI, we were at 53%. And so, we've increased the number of students who are participating in inclusive SEI.

And we've also increased the number of students who are in dual language by 2%. So, it's just really an enrollment number that is there. If you're concerned about the making progress number, then we would look at the chart to the right. And that says where the students were in terms of making progress. So, it's really an enrollment. So, we had X amount of students who were in BPSSEI and as we're rolling out the inclusive ed program and increasing more programs for students across the district, less students are in BPSSCI.

Okay.

Too many school in the district need especially the a b ABA program. Right? Yesterday, I see some mother. She talked to me, and she say specifically in Blackstone School. She have the key special need key.

And then she have her son have IP, right? And then the school say you need a ABI program, but the school don't have provide especially for that. She she asked me, what can I do about it? Because my son need ABI especially. In my mind, putting is for inclusion model in the school.

If you don't have ABA especially, how can create, what is the process? What is the plan for too many school is the same situation? Provide a specialist a specialist in that. And then, you know, for me, it's like a more I say, I talk to you need to talk to the principal and the teacher too about the new situation. But I'm putting the inclusion model needed is inclusion done right the students, for the family?

So, as my colleague I'll pass it on to my colleague, Chief Seale, but as my colleague says, there's an expectation that there's a continuum of services for students. And so I guess we'd have to look individually the student, the student's IEP needs. You're saying that the student is ABA? Is that what you're yeah. So looking to see the availability of programming at the Blackstone. But Chief Seale can talk a little bit more about that.

I just want to just to say that I'm pausing because I don't like to identify my students by a label. So this is not a student that has or is ABA. ABA is a methodology and a program of services that we provide to our students who have an autism disability. We do have some schools across the district and many schools across the district. Autism was our second highest disability category and we recognize that.

And Boston, when we talk about being one of the urban districts that have led the work for students with autism, and that's part of the reason too why we have so many families that move to Boston who their child have an autism disability because they know that we have the services to provide for their child. So, for example, the parent that you're referring to, the coordinator of special education would have a team meeting for that child and with the parent and we can talk offline so I can get more information and then work with that parent if in fact there's not a program at the school where the child is because that is a specialized program where we have trained staff to deliver those types of services. Then what we do try to do is to work with our families and parents and make sure that we can find a school close to that child's home as part of the transition. We also provide opportunities for the parent and the family or the caretaker to go and visit first and meet with the school leader to talk about the program, to see the classroom so that they have an understanding what's the difference between where my child is now and where my child is going.

So we will work with that family to make sure that they get the support and the services that they need.

Yeah, because sometimes the parent lost, the parent not understand, the parent need information about it. What is the process? What are you doing? What is my part? You know? My last question is about the coordinator, the MTSS. And the slide say one fifty four coordinator, right,

for health

and the process, the inclusion model. Who is this 154?

So our MTSS coordinators are members of the school community who decide that they want to sign up to become the MTSS of the school. So it could be a instructional teacher. It could be any member of the community who decides that they were going to become the MTSS coordinator. It is a stipended position that we provide our schools.

Sorry. Provide a

A stipend.

For the people

Who who are the MTSS coordinator.

Do the parent include parents?

No. BPS staff members. Oh. Teachers.

How you involve the parent in that process?

Well, it's a teacher because the programming in which regards to like the tiered instruction. So, this is a person who starts to make the development of plans through a portal called Panorama. They develop plans, academic plans, attendance plans for students. So, are the central place of where students are going to get either they're tiered, looking at what supports they need in regards to academics or attendance and then the plan is developed and they convene a team in order for that plan to be executed for that student. So right now, for instance, we have 5,802 ELA plans.

So we have plans for students in regards to English language arts. We have students that teams have seen, educators in the school have seen that we need to make moves in regards to the student's achievement. We develop a plan in Panorama and that MTS coordinator is the person who is making sure that that plan is executed for that student. So, it's a work that a teacher and educator does beyond their actual work in the school.

Thank you so much for this valuable information, and thank you to the school leaders as well for painting the picture. Just starting with slide 10, I want to pick up on where member Polanco Garcia left off. It might be helpful if you could just explain the difference in the service delivery model and the classroom experience for a BPS classroom and an inclusive SEI classroom. And I know you have that in writing in the materials, but it would be helpful to just hear because what I think you were saying is that this you view this as a positive development that students are moving out of BPS SEI classrooms and into inclusive? And so what how is that different for students one to the other?

Sure. So in a BPS SEI classroom which as member Polanco noted that in 2020 we had 29% students enrolled in that setting. Students in that setting, the narrative is or was that students were all together in a classroom and they spoke the same language and that their teacher helped support give them native language supports classroom. And the thought was that teachers spoke the language of the students. That wasn't always the case.

Students were cohorted together

By language.

By language. Or we also had multilingual SEI programs as well. But most of the students were cohorted by language. And the teacher, like I said, didn't always necessarily speak the language of the student. And students were together all day.

And there weren't many opportunities for inclusion either through other classrooms, either through math. If a student was really strong in math, there wasn't really an opportunity, lots of opportunities for engagement outside of the classroom as a cohort. As we have moved on to more inclusive practices and if you walk into an inclusive ed classroom, you'll see many times you'll have a teacher. We are really trying hard working with Office of Human Resources and working to hire more teachers that speak the languages and represent more of the languages of our students. And so 40% of the staff that we're hiring are speaking more of the languages of the students.

We will have, if you walk into a classroom, we'll have more libraries that are more culturally rich, linguistically diverse for students with native language supports. We try to have more teachers who do speak the language. But a lot of times also you'll see more collaboration with an ESL teacher and the classroom teacher as well. So, there'll be a lot more co teaching. If it's a classroom that is of an age where there's a para in the classroom like a K-one or K-two classroom or if the class has over 20 students, then there may be a para.

And many times, you'll also see a para that speaks the language of the students as well. But, it's just there's just more co teaching and teaming together and really thoughtful instruction. So, especially with working with the Office of Teaching and Learning and Office of Specialized Services for Students in working with them and providing professional development. As Chief Headley Mitchell has said, we're in year two of the twelve hour PD. We're ensuring that we have more inclusive practices for teachers.

We're calibrating more with teachers to ensure that there's stronger instruction. There's more opportunities for teachers to collaborate, like I said, between co teaching. Sometimes you'll see that both teachers, there's less pullout too. You'll see more collaborative teaching in the classroom.

That's helpful. Is there a philosophical difference on the role of the home language in instruction in BPS SEI versus inclusive SEI understanding that that use of home language would be limited if the teacher themselves did not speak the language of the students in their class?

A home language should always be looked at as an asset. However, whenever we have opportunities to infuse native language supports for students, that's always we want students to really feel welcomed in classrooms and really bring their language as an asset. We are working with our university partners to create more bilingual endorsement for our educators so that even teachers who are outside of a dual language classroom who may be a TBE teacher or a teacher who wants to have that endorsement would have it so that teachers have more ability, more credentials to be able to infuse native language instruction and literacy in the classroom.

Thank you. My other question is also on slide 10 regarding the percent of students making progress on access by program type. A couple of things related to this. This graph by program type would also be helpful to have for MCAS student growth percentile and MCAS proficiency which I think was requested in earlier meeting kind of similar to the data on slide 12 for students with IEPs. But for access specifically can you clarify what making progress on access means?

Does it mean an increase in score from one administration to the other or does it mean that you actually need to move to a new level in order for it to like what is making progress on access?

Making progress, depending on when a student comes in, they may be level one or STD one which is service delivery determination one and still be a one and had made progress.

It's just a score increase.

It's a score increase in seeing so. I also want to highlight that we focus on access for our ones and twos mainly because access is really the main indicator of students achieving or acquiring language through content. And so when our students start to become ELD three, then we start to utilize MCAS more and then we start to see our FELs start to outperform our monolingual peers. It's

how

we look at the data, but traditionally, our ones and twos do well because they have not acquired So

very early in the language.

Exactly. They have not acquired enough language to really be able to perform well on the MCAS.

That might be useful to disaggregate then by those categories to look at the assessment that you feel like carries the most meaning and relevance for that group. Kind of going back to Mr. Cardette Hernandez's question about kind of the target or the goal related to this, it would be useful to have a sense of what would be considered a success on students making progress knowing that making progress is just an increase in score from one to the other. All of these are fewer than 50% of our students making progress. So just kind of having a sense of from year to year what would the success indicator be?

Where are trying to get to 50% by next year? What do we feel like is a reasonable expectation for students making progress on the assessment? And especially our level ones and twos.

Absolutely. I mean the state sets the target at forty four percent for multilingual learners. And we would like to outpace that. That's helpful. Just setting really goals to outperform the state. But first, I would say first and foremost to do better than we have done, right, to progress year by year within BPS, but then also outperform the state with that 44% marker. But then also really looking at other urban districts, our 10 core urban districts that are in the state to really outperform them as well too.

So the 44% is what they've set for Boston specifically specifically as as a a target? Target?

Is where the state DESE states that students should be? Student general. That's a statewide target.

That's helpful. Thank you so much. Shifting to special education inclusion, it says 139 additional student facing positions have been allocated. Kind of also extending on my colleagues questions specifically around high school programming and hearing public comment from community members at the Henderson who speak about the existence of co teaching at the high school. Is again kind of speaking toward like ideal goal setting, etcetera.

What's the kind of vision or plan for the presence of co teaching at the high school for inclusion? Knowing that resources do play a factor of course in that.

I wanna say that it's a work in progress and that doesn't answer the question but I think that when we look at the high school, we recognize that our students are departmentalized subjects and content, right? So some of our schools have worked really, really hard to make sure that they have hired teachers with dual license. So we know that that's been how some of our high schools, especially our secondary schools have been structured. And some of our secondary schools have some of our teachers that have also ESL license. So we're finding that we've also provided additional support as well as professional support but also paraeducator support.

And oftentimes a paraeducator may also be able to speak the native language of the student to help with the access. So when we talk about looking at additional student facing positions, it's a combination of all the above. We do recognize that as we transition to the high school especially to build capacity for inclusion that we have to look at the service delivery model. But most importantly when we look at our data we need to focus on literacy and reading and how we're providing access points to provide specialized instruction to really close that opportunity gap for the students. And that's why a lot of our work is really focusing on the language based disabilities.

Each school through our service mapping and also through the budget collab process will design the model of programming and staffing needs that they have based on the students that are coming in. It's really at the discretion of that school leader And also once they've identified the type of learning environment that they want for their students and we work with them either to build capacity by providing professional development cross functionally and or through my department to really build the capacity of the staff that they do have. I think that we need to keep in mind that there is really no evidence that shows that co teaching is highly successful. It's really making sure that we're building capacity to really meet the needs of our students where they're at and we've provided targeted evidence based strategy and professional development to close for just not just special ed but for our general educators. And that's the course of action that we're really working at and through the budget co lab process our school leaders and also through that process will make determination as to how they want to really move forward with providing those services.

And we do have the commitment to our IPT rollout grades to make sure that they have the appropriate allocations to meet the needs of the kids that they will be receiving.

Sorry, I'm almost done.

Just wanted to close with just hearing more about the family plan that's in development in terms of involving families and what that might look like.

That's very much in its infancy. But we're looking at how we engage our not only family but community in regards to our equitable literacy framework. Understanding how we're building our literacy through content and across all grade levels. So our department is trying to strategize about how we bring those strategies to families. So if we're working on fluency, what does that mean in the home?

How we're building libraries in the home? How we're talking about literacy instruction at the home? So we're trying to take what we're doing in teaching and learning and put it in like for accessibility to families because I know as a family of the district that a lot of times questions happen and some open houses about families saying how can I support? What can I do? So we're trying to make sure that we are providing that to our families And that's where we're starting with our equitable literacy model.

Yeah. It might be worth also because I think members Garrett brought this up the last time. For instance, the map and what role the map plays. We're actually sending information on it. Think it's actually already gone out to families. That's very different than how we've done it in the past

That's exciting.

With lots of explanation. But also what they can do in terms of helping students be ready to be able to take it. That came directly from conversation in here. So we're always listening for both what's coming from community but also what's coming from our school committee members.

Now I appreciate that Superintendent Skipper. That was I was heading was a recommendation to incorporate having families just gain a clear understanding of students current levels that in access, MCAS, MAP and I know the school leaders too talked about progress monitoring process and just if we had more time be interested in hearing about how those inputs around student outcomes inform that progress monitoring. We'll hear more on it in future presentations. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Noah, anything? No, okay.

Thank you.

Mr. Tran. Well, I know we've been speaking to you for delay. As a matter of fact, I do have a number of questions, but I'll make it short. The first question is in graph on page 10. What is substantially separate here?

So if we look at our students who are multilingual learners with disabilities, We have some students who are in classrooms that are considered substantially separate. So if it could be like a classroom that is a classroom with students who are in an ABA program. And so a class like that would have 10 students in there, approximately 10 students and have a teacher and paraprofessional. So usually they're smaller settings that are really there to meet the needs of students based off of their IEPs.

Based on their IEP. So that correlate with the graph on page 12. And that shows that it doesn't work because the state average they're way below. Category with the exception of the full inclusion, even the full inclusion is not up to the state average.

Please allow

Cultural inclusion is substantially separate for the last three, four years have always been underachieving.

So when we talk about students that are in substantially separate classrooms, we're talking about students who all have a disability in a specialized classroom.

Right.

Right? So when we break it down the data and we look at of those students in a substantially separate classroom, yeah, we've seen a decline for substantially separate. However, going back to what chair member Hernandez mentioned in the fact that we have disproportionality of our students, our multilingual learners, our black students that are placed in substantially separate classrooms. So my colleague's slide does show that as well. However, it does show that there is a change basically that it has been an increase.

So we're mindful of monitoring that very closely. And that's why we're making sure that through the team process and evaluation process and through our professional learning for our teaching staff that we're identifying what are the key factors as to why students who are multilingual learners and what can we do proactively to make sure that we provide least restrictive environment services for them first before moving them into a more restrictive placement like a substantially separate classroom.

I see, okay. Looking at, not your presentation, but looking at maybe this question should be directed to you. Teaching SEI, a teacher in the SEI, be it state SEI or Boston SEI, does not require language proficiency in the other students, in the multilingual students language. But it does require a teacher who teach the dual language program to be not only conversant, but also well prepared for the second language. Is that true, right?

That is true. A dual language classroom the students are acquiring. The goal is to acquire language and have language proficiency in two languages. One is the target language, which could be Mandarin, it could be Haitian Creole, Cabo Verdean Creole, Spanish. So, the teacher needs the bilingual endorsement to have that and have, obviously, the language proficiency to do that. And then, the teacher would have the regular teacher certification as well. So, because the students in the course or in the program, the goal is to be proficient in two languages, that's why that certification or that endorsement is required.

So, the second certification would be in the language that, you know, for the purpose of teaching a dual language program. The second required certification would be the language that the students speak.

Yes. So the, sorry, the endorsement. I misspoke when I said certification. So the endorsement the teacher needs is to endorse that they are proficient in the target language of the program.

Right. Since the implementation of the inclusion program into these specific educational programs here. I don't see it, but what I'm trying to ask is the inclusion program, does it really add to any success in the bilingual program, the SEI program? It boils down to this. We have an SEI program.

And we have been implementing inclusion SEI program for the last three years, right?

Yes. And even before.

Even before.

Many schools and that's why the number was 29% because not every school was able to provide a specific BPS SEI program. So majority of our students were in which majority of our students were in an inclusive setting. And so I know that there's been a lot of concern about inclusive SEI, but we've been doing it for a while. Even the school that I came from, the Matterhunt that has a dual language program, the remaining students who are not in the building I mean, are not in the program are an inclusive SEI. And so, we have multiple students who may speak multiple languages in an inclusive setting.

And teachers are working to help the students acquire English language and the teachers who do have the language do provide native language supports for the students as well. But for the, as we have pushed more for inclusive SEI and part of the push is because DESE made a mandate that we can no longer have BPS SEI. It's not a program that is approved by the state. And so that we were in violation of that. And so as we are transitioning to creating more inclusive classrooms for our students across, we do see that 73% of our students who are multilingual learners are enrolled in what is called an inclusive SEI setting.

An inclusive setting. They're in a classroom that has their students of their peers who may speak their language, students who speak all different languages, students who speak English. So 73% of our multilingual learners across the district are in an inclusive setting.

Are now in an inclusive setting?

Yes. And when we look at that, if you look at the right, for our students who are in the inclusive SEI, our students, the 73%, they, 47% of those students are making progress.

Okay.

And so when we look at the numbers from last year to this year, the students made a 5.1 percentage increase in that setting. The inclusive SEI setting.

Right, so in that graph there that we were talking about. So the BPS SEI has been somewhat detrimentally affected by this, by the implementation of the SEI, I mean of the inclusion. Am I correct?

I would have to go back to look at the data to see whether our students who were in BPS SEI were ever outperforming students in the inclusive SEI. I don't want to sit here without looking at that data to say that was the case. But we do see the trend is that our students who are in inclusive setting are outperforming in other programs that we have.

That's good. How many students are there in this life program?

How many students do we have in this life program? We have, I will say we have less than 300 students enrolled in this life program.

And they are making progress. Okay, that's good. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Tran. Miss Noor, did you have a I was unclear if you had a question. Oh, did. Oh, okay. I apologize. Okay. Thank Great. You. We've had a very robust conversation. We all had questions but my questions were all asked by fellow members the beauty of going last. I do want to particularly say thank you to our school leaders, the Head of Schools, Wells and King.

Thank you.

Thank you for attending and presenting tonight. I want to say particularly appreciated in both of your presentations how you talk not only about what's going well and the work that you've done but the challenges that you faced. Because moving to inclusive education we knew was going to be challenging across the board which is why the superintendent built in the full planning year, why we've had working groups, you've tried to get input from across the board. So your comments in particular about the challenges that you face, I found extremely helpful and I want to thank you for that. So and I thank the entire team that worked on this and for the presentation for this evening and for the work that you're doing.

Everyone. Thank

you all.

I can

go home and sleep.

We'll now return to public comment. Ms. Pawelks?

Thank you, Vice Chair. Our next speakers are Alexis Perdomo, Nicole Gonzales, Amanda Roberto, Noreen Kelly, and Shaquira Reid. And Nicole Gonzales will need a Spanish interpreter. But first, Alexis Perdomo.

Okay.

Do you need interpretation?

My English is is not what I speak, but I feel more comfortable in Spanish, but if I have to speak in English, I will.

We can we have an interpreter for you to Yes. Support You can go first if you would like to.

First of all, good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Nicole Gonzales. Gonzales. I am a mother of four childs, which three of them, they went to Lee Academy. And my oldest today, he's who attend Lee Academy, he's 11. And I would like to start off that education starts first from home.

But I feel that schools, the one that you start from, is the one who's going to lead you in your life. And Lee Academy has been one of the best schools that three out of my four children's have been. And I will choose Lee Academy once again and again. And I just had a baby who is premature and he has a speech limit. And I have seen a very much improvement in this first year that he just started in September, and he he has advanced.

And he has been saying his first words. And he has been saying mommy just a couple of weeks. And the school support and all the teachers, they are very amazing people. They are great support to the community, to friends, myself, and other childs also. And I just would like

Thirty seconds.

To please take into consideration all the community service that Lee Academy and activities they do and the teachers, the peers, the secretaries, everybody, even the people who feed them, they take their time to make sure they are alright and they are well taken care of. Please, I appreciate it if you take in consideration this. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you for time. Thank you.

You much being.

Is Alexis Perdomo in the no? Okay. Well, we can continue, then we can Amanda Roberto.

I'm Amanda Roberto from High Park. I came here to fight for my son's future. My son CJ is a student at ACC in a special needs and suffers from muscular dystrophy and autism. I can list a dozen reasons why you shouldn't close ACC. I listened to the end of your last meeting stating that just because a school is small doesn't mean you get more attention and face time from a teacher. I respectfully disagree. ACC has been amazing for my son. He thrives in a small school setting as well as many other students that attend ACC. We picked this school because of its size as well as many other families. The staff is incredible and works tirelessly to make sure the students are successful.

A member of BPS approached me after the last meeting trying to find a solution to help my son, stating busing would be an option. Well, for my son, it would not. He also suffers from car sickness and wanna last five minutes in a bus without throwing up. If you close ACC, my son will have no option for school along with his younger brother in the near future. I'm not sending my kids to school sick to the stomach every day. You are taking yet another neighborhood school away and leaving children stranded no matter how you want to rebrand this closing. There are zero options for kids in High Park, West Roxby, Rossendale for neighborhood schools. The district has closed every inclusion high school in this part of the city. Our only option would be that Boston would have to pay to have my son and others sent to neighboring districts spending a fortune for their education. You are saying that you want schooling to be enjoyable for kids?

Well, then listen to us and work with us. ACC has a higher amount of students with special needs and IEPs than any other high school in Boston, and now you wanna close it down, which isn't only life changing

just a second.

But could also border on ableism and discrimination. You can't say school should be accessible for everyone and preach about inclusion while simultaneously shutting down a neighborhood inclusion high school with a high IEP student body. Inhering tonight that there is no future pan, how everything is in its infancy and now you're willing to close down a school without any plan at all is beyond disturbing. You guys need to come up with a plan and make sure our kids are safe in school. Instead of closing it down, these schools should remain open for every student to be able to go to school and learn in comfort. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Noreen Noreen Kelly? No? Shaquira Reid? Is that Noreen Kelly? Okay. So we continue. The next speakers are Matthew Lee.

Wait. Wait.

Tina. Miss Barback's.

I'm Maureen Kelly.

Oh, sorry. Sorry.

I was going too

fast. Good evening. My name is Maureen Kelly and I am a teacher at the Lee Academy Pilot School. I have been teaching in Boston Public Schools for twenty seven years. I can tell you about schools where students get a high quality student experience. Believe me when I tell you, the Lee Academy most definitely is one that offers its students quality experience. We have a well established inclusion model, children and families are happy and engaged with our community. We have partnerships with over 20 community organizations. We might not have a state of the art art room or an updated HVAC system, system, but those are not the things that kids care about. We would love to invite you all to come see what they do care about.

Feeling happy and safe, having friends, and having teachers who love them and push them to reach their full potential. Superintendent Skipper, at the last school committee meeting, you stated that the district had a good plan at the elementary level. You would typically do some work at a bigger building and move a smaller building in. I would agree this seems like a good plan given your desire to close a certain number of schools. Sorry.

It'll it allows school communities to plan for and execute a smooth transition. It allows families to eliminate the anxiety and chaos brought on by changing their child's school. And most importantly, it allows children to stay within their beloved school community where they feel safe and are able to thrive. My question is, why is the Lee Academy not deserving of this good plan? Why should our families be thrown into a chaotic and anxiety provoking process?

Thirty seconds.

Why should our children be taken from where they are most comfortable? Where is the equity in this? What makes some communities deserving of this good plan, and why aren't we? What we request is some sort of planned transition that eliminates this enormous stress and anxiety that this closure would cause for our community, family and most importantly our children. Thank you.

Shaqlabra Reed.

Good evening. My name is Shaq Reed, and I'm a special education teacher at Lee Academy. First, I'd like to say telling several communities week before a vote to close their school without any real input from the community is not well planned or equitable. Second, closing the Lee Academy with a student population of forty percent MLLs, thirty four percent students with disability, and majority of black and brown students population historically underserved deserves a process that doesn't feel like an ambush being masked as well planned and equitable. Tonight, I wanna speak on behalf of our immigrant families who do not feel safe testifying tonight, for our black and brown families without access to resources to make it here, and to our BPS staff who don't get paid enough, let alone enough to afford childcare to be here tonight.

Lee Academy, despite the nature of our building and building limitations, we beat the odds and managed to build a thriving community. Lee Academy has high enrollment numbers, over ten years of successful full inclusion, and provide students with unique learning opportunities and a safe and loving environment our families love. That doesn't sound like a school that should be closed. Vote no on Closingley Academy. Our community deserves a merger and a chance to continue to thrive. Thank you.

Our next speakers are Matthew Lee, Genesis Moreta, Anna Strange Golden, Sumayya Shik, and Lauren Machado. Matthew Lee?

Good

evening. My name is Matthew Lee. I'm a para at Lee Academy Pilot School. I live in Dorchester and have worked at Lee Academy for four years. At Lee Academy, we have been implementing the principles of inclusion and equity for over a decade. The closure of a fully inclusive school while the district moves towards inclusion inclusion makes zero sense. This is exasperated by the school closure process that has taken place. The school committee proposal was sprung upon us in a manner lacking any transparency and with complete disregard towards inclusion or equity. The district claims to focus on equity for all students. However, this is lacking in the proposed plan.

The plan to close three schools whose population is almost all black and brown students with high numbers of multi language learners and students with disabilities is not equitable. This is juxtaposed with the fact that the Philbrick and Sumner just merged and were given a multimillion dollar renovated building. It is claimed that our schools should be closed because of the size and the capacity for surrounding schools to absorb our students. The Philbrick was a smaller school than ours and there are at least four other schools in Roslindale that could have absorbed them. However, Roslindale has a high number of middle income and white families.

It's interesting that they were given the option to merge and get a new building with the Sumner where the mayor's kids go to school. Our community wasn't given an option and instead a decision is being railroaded through. When was the last time the superintendent or any of the school committee members stepped into our building, met with our families, talked to our staff, or heard our stories? Work with us on an equitable plan that involves our staff and families. We ask that you vote no on the proposal and come to our school closure meeting on Tuesday to work with us on a collaborative plan to merge our school and to grow it to k through six. Thank you.

I think Alexis Perdomo is back.

Hi. I'm Alexis per I am Alexis Gazal, and I'm in the sixth grade. I'm currently attending Roxbury prep, although but although Lee Academy from k one through third grade is my favorite school, I went to I went to when I attend Lee oh

my god. It's okay.

When I attended Lee when I attended Lee, I found real I found real joyful, safe, supported environment. When I struggled with the classwork, my teachers helped me and took every step all the way to ensure I understood. I have taken with me from the Lee Academy, my support. And until this day, I have not forgotten any all any all the positive and good activities such as karate and yoga. Please don't close the school that bring me joy and that the my two younger siblings are attending today and also for the future children. Thank you.

Genesis Moreta. Genesis Moreta. No? Anna Stranger Golden. Sumaya Chic.

Lauren Machado.

Hello, I'm Rita on behalf of a parent. My son is a living testament to the transformative power of cash. When he first joined Cash, he was struggling to advocate for himself, struggling in all the academic subjects, and he was only expected to receive a certificate of attendance. However, thanks to Cash's dedication and detailed attention to each student's needs, he now thrives. Cash's commitment to individual individualized education plans and genuine support has turned my son's academic journey around.

Today, he has successfully successfully passed the MCAT and he is on the cusp of learning his high school diploma. For families like mine, CASH represents more than a school. It is a beacon of hope and a pathway to success. The recent proposal's BPS to close CASH as a part of their school year '25, 26 long term facility plans recommendations is devastating not just to my family but to but for countless others who rely on cash's unique student centered approach with small classes and incredible supportive staff. Cash has shown undeniable results not just in my son's life but in many others.

According to a report by the Boston Globe, such specialized schools have been increased graduation rates up to fifteen percent compared to trans traditional, excuse me, traditional institutions. The personalized attention and customized curriculum at Cash enables

Second.

Students from challenging backgrounds to overcome obstacles, build resilience, and reach their potential. A vital opportunity that should not be discarded in favor of generic solutions that tend to leave the underserved community of children with or without developmental issues behind that thrive in a smaller, more focused learning environment. Moreover, diverse

Thank you.

Can I take Patricia Thrash's two minutes?

Okay.

Could we get a copy of that though please? Yes. Could we get a copy of that?

If you can send that.

If we could get a copy of that please to Ms. Parvax. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speakers are Elena Dietz, Olwens George, Rachel McDonald, Andrew McDonald, Matthew Lee and Ross man. Matthew Lee no. What is this? Sorry. Elaine Reed.

Hello. I'm reading on behalf of one of my colleagues, miss Bauer. Dear school commit or sorry. Dear school council members, I've been an educator at this oh, sorry. At Cash for sixteen years now. I've mainly taught students with disabilities and students whose first language is not English. I often hear that we under serve these students, but my question is, who is not serving them well? As a teacher, I have spent years learning about strategies to improve student outcomes. I've received feedback from colleagues in administration that has been helpful and sometimes uplifting whenever I needed it the most. And I believe that our school is indeed serving the neediest.

The underserving seems to come from the top down. From the beginning of my time at Cash, we have heard the same message. Our test scores are low. We need to improve. And each time, we put in the hard work and make the improvements happen. We have been measured and judged without taking into consideration the tremendous odds and our student population that our student population faces every day to show up here. Cash has given these students stability in their life, the very stability that they are lacking due to the circumstances beyond their control. So to them, the decision to close cash is incomprehensible. Why close this school? Why not close a charter school?

After all, charter schools send students to cash that will negatively affect their test scores. I have been at Cash for sixteen years. Like clockwork, students arrive in January and March from other BPS schools every year. Other schools who have failed to serve them, at Cash, we serve, anybody and everybody. No matter who you are, we will make room for you and support you. Let me say one more thing. Schools are an important place where we form long lasting relationships student to student, student to teacher, student to admin. When a school is closed, students have to start over. Frankly, many students in my room already had to start three or four times already in a different country. I urge you to consider these students as your own children who had to start school in Haiti, then Brazil

Thank you.

Then Mexico, and now at Cash, and next year, another school. Would you want this instability for your own child?

Thank you. Thank you. Olwyn George.

Hello, everybody. My name is Aldwins Georges. I'm from CASH. Tonight, I stand here proudly as a graduate of Cash. Cash helped me where I am now.

Long ago, I was brought to America knowing very little English. And when my father and I were looking for a high school, he wanted me to go to Brighton High. Personally, I didn't want to go there because it was too many people. I didn't feel like it felt right to me even though it was close to my house. But when I visit Cash, I felt welcome, and it was the best decision I made because those four years in Cash turned to a family.

It was one of those places that me and my friend could feel very safe because it was our home by day. We always stay there until the last teacher left the building. It was the people inside that building made us made us feel special. The different circumstances in our home weren't great. I would go home to mentally and physically abuse, but Cash's family were very supportive and patient and helpful. They taught us so much more than just education. They cared for us like nobody else was. They were they want to see us win. They want to help us visualize our future. They want us to go beyond

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The way they go beyond for us making sure we have food, clothes, backpack, winter jacket, and shoes because some of us couldn't afford those things. They tell us to work hard and shape our own future. They want to embody our true self. The name of the school start with community for a reason. That's why we call it Community Academy of Health and Science. Please vote no.

Thank you. Rachel, Rachel McDonald.

Hello. My name is Rachel McDonald. I'm the parent of a second grader at Lee Academy pilot school who says it makes his heart ache to see that his school is closing. The school might not have a gym, but it has dedicated and caring teachers and staff that know all of their students and that work as a team to figure out what each student needs to be successful and to make sure that all the kids there feel like they belong. This is part of why the school has consistently high enrollment.

Parents know that their youngest children will be supported by a safe and caring community. This is the kind of school community we need more of if Boston really wants to be a family friendly community. Rather than closing schools like Lee Academy, we should be figuring out how to make these schools have the physical space they need to provide the amenities that kids are looking for. Parents at Lee Academy have been advocating for many years to address issues with the HVAC system, to address issues with the building, to find a better feeder school. And rather than actually acting on any of these concerns, the district has decided it's easier to close a vibrant school community than to fix issues with physical spaces.

Now we're told it doesn't make sense to address these issues with the building because other schools have open seats. But Lee Academy parents don't want any open seat. We want the nurturing and inclusive environment that that this school provides for our children. I urge you to consider other ways to align Lee Academy with the district's long term vision for facilities without sacrificing this amazing community. Thank you.

Thank you. And Andrew McDonald.

Hello. My name is Andrew McDonnell. I live in Dorchester. I'm the parent of a second grader at the Academy pilot school and I wanna send my daughter there in two years. We've all seen capital planning's report. They note the building doesn't meet facilities guidelines and recommend closing the school. What they don't say is there are two dimensions they evaluate schools on, facilities and community. By community standards, Lee Academy is a huge success. Enrollment is consistently around 100%. This is a school families choose to attend and it's a school people choose to work at.

We've also heard concerns about falling enrollment and school underutilization. This is a real issue, but instead of working to preserve school communities that are in demand and fully utilized, the district proposes to break up the Lee Academy community and destroy everything that makes it stand out. This area of Dorchester already suffers from inequitable support from BPS with problematic schools and low quality facilities compared to other neighborhoods. The district has not considered if the student population will be well served by being scattered among remaining schools and this will lead to more students leaving BPS entirely. The educational community we have is successful and in high demand in spite of poor facilities and underinvestment by the district.

We recognize the facilities Lee Academy has been given are inadequate. We as an educational community deserve better. That's for sure. But the district's proposal to throw away the community because of the facility is foolish and shortsighted. People know how to build buildings. We don't know how to build strong communities. Is a school community Go seconds. Has been built on over a decade of hard work and human and human connections that VPS doesn't know how to replicate. It needs to be given a space to continue and grow, and I hope the district can take lessons from it that uplifts students across the district. I urge the committee to vote no on the closure of Lee Academy pilot school and instead demand the district to find creative solutions that meet long term system goals while also preserving the Lee Academy community and other school committees, not demolishing them.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our last group or last speakers and in person speakers are Ross Cochman, Keogh MacLay, Jason Lambert, Jabara Harley, Jess Butler, Michele Jones and Jovana Tovar. Ross Cochman? Keo Maclay Jason Lambrite

Okay. Hello. So, my name is Jason Lambreit. I'm a parent of a second grader at Lee Academy pilot school, a fifth grader at the Murphy, and a seventh grader at Boston Latin School. We have consistently, of all three kids, chosen Academy as the first school for kids to get involved with.

It has been a lovely and great environment every time, and we would never change make that change. Closing the Academy will harm one of Boston's highest need student communities. As you already know, 91% of the Academy students are black or Latinx, 46% are multilingual learners, 81% are economically disadvantaged. Closing the school while BPS invests in improving others is systemic inequity. Josiah Quincy Upper School, PJ Kennedy Elementary, the newly created Sarah Roberts which was formed by merging Philbrook and Sumner into a fully renovated building which was able to give those students the building upgraded space.

Those students, those schools were not closed, they were invested in yet Lee Academy is asked to close. Our building does have a low facility score but the district has had options other than closure for buildings with similar or worse scores. What Lee Academy needs is the same things those schools received, investment not elimination And the cost of closure is not just physical. My son is thriving because Lee Academy is small, nurturing, and personal. Every adult in the building knows about his strengths, his fears, how to support him, and for that, I am always grateful.

That is not something you can merge or relocate. That is what you want your teachers and staff and students to understand, community. The master facilities plan says BPS should minimize disruption, prioritize vulnerable student groups, and ensure outcomes. Closing Lee Academy violates all three principles, deportionsably harming some of the most vulnerable children populations. I implore you to think further of more creative options. If my kid threw a temper tantrum, any all three of them, I can't just start yelling at them. I have to find other ways to resolve this issue. You cannot just close a school and say, oh, well, it'll work itself out. It will not. Kids need more answers than just saying that your school isn't working for our reasons.

Thank you. Jabara Harley, Jabara Harley.

Hello. My name is Jabara Harley and I have been a speech therapist at the Lee Academy Pilot School for eight years. Lee Academy is a unique, loving, supportive, beautiful, small school community that caters to early elementary. You're not just closing a building, you are scattering a high needs community. One third of our students have disabilities and almost half of our students are multilingual learners. It's hard to believe that you are doing what's best for the students when you did not come into our community to get our input. You should really think about that. I haven't seen any of you in my school building. Why are the community meetings happening after we have already been recommended for closure? Why does money for bike lanes and other projects come before fixing our school buildings?

Why is BPS closing down a school with a decades long full inclusion program when they claim to be pushing for inclusion for all. We literally just heard a presentation on the benefits of inclusion. We heard a committee member express concerns about black and brown boys being overrepresented in sub separate classes. In our school, most of our black and brown boys are in inclusion classrooms, which you want to close it down. How can parents feel confident about sending their kid to another school if they don't know which schools are closing next? Deep down inside, you know what you're doing to these communities is wrong. Listen to the angel on your shoulder. Please vote no on closing the Lehigh Academy Pilot School, and please consider a merger or giving us a new skill building. Thank you for listening.

Jess Butler.

Hi. My name is Jess Butler. I'm a parent of a first grader at The Henderson. So I'm here to speak on behalf of all the parents that can't be here, all the guardians that aren't able to speak tonight. We're here everyone that's still lingering here, we're all here because we care about the students of BPS. We all believe that every student deserves a seat at the table. Without inclusion done right, that will not happen. For those of us who who don't know, the Henderson is an innovation school known for its specialization in inclusive education. It was world renowned. International experts traveled to Henderson to learn how to offer real inclusion to their students and now because for whatever reason I think lack of district support we're seeing where the Henderson is now.

Removing the high school will create more harm for an already vulnerable population. We need to do better to support the school with creative solutions that do not involve closing. Let the high school evolve into the best educational experience it can be for all students. Maybe that looks like a different building, a different state, a merger. The building and the facility that are on Croftland, have been the same building since it started.

So what is different about that building now? What shortcomings have been found that everyone else was okay with when it first opened up? And the implementation of the timeline, which you had asked about when it would be fully ready, it seems like the ninth graders, the first year that they enter in 2028, that will be the first year of inclusive senior which doesn't seem like a good plan. And I'm really tired of being on this side of the table advocating for our children. I think that voting no and asking for a really specific plan is the only way to go.

Yesterday at the off record meeting that BPS held, there were no specific plans. There are people who have children that can't, they have no other options and the district couldn't even come up with a specific outline. That's incredibly disrespectful. These are children and we need to do better.

Thank you. Michele Jones.

Hello. My name is Mikhail Jones. I'm the parent of a second grader at Lee Academy School, Academy Pilot School. My child was homeschooled. Thank you because I'm nervous. Love you, Kyle. My child was homeschooled his whole life up until this year. There is no better school he could have been at than Lee Academy Pilot School. They just embraced him so well. He knows everybody's name now.

He he loves it there. He thrives so well. My child went from an anxious anxious start to public school to knowing everyone's name, including the teachers that aren't even his. Small inclusive schools matter. If if keeping Lee Academy pilot school, small is not an option.

Merging, we would we would love if you all could consider that and vote no. I originally came here in support of only Lee Academy pilot school, but now I am in here in support of all the students, teachers, and school communities that all attended here. You will not find this kind of passion and camaraderie in bigger schools where so many children go overlooked. Don't close the schools, find another solution, and let the students know that their voice voices matter and can make a difference. Thank you.

Our our last in person speaker is Giovanna Tovar.

Sir? Yep. All right. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to talk. My name is Jovana Tovar but my Lee Academy family knows me as Ms. Jovie. We often hear the phrase one shoe fits all but we know that in education one shoe does not fail. This is why the district pushed to go fully inclusion. The Lee Academy model has been doing inclusion before inclusion was inclusion. If a student cannot learn the way we teach, then we teach them the they learn.

Our most vulnerable students, those who need stability, relationships and individualized attention thrive in smaller school communities like ours. They do not get lost here. They are seen, supported, challenged, and known by name. That is not something you can replicate simply by dismantling us. We speak about the pipeline to prison as well.

What do you think happens to individuals that with emotional impairments that do not get addressed in the right setting, or when an autistic child's routine gets disrupted. What about RMLs who are learning math and literacy in a language foreign to them? What about my black and brown community who deserve a school like ours? What I am saying is that our schools should not be considered for closure. We, the Lee Academy pilot school, deserves the respect to be considered to extend.

And since our building isn't capable of that, then we deserve the opportunity to troubleshoot and find a solution. While the district's enrollment is trending downwards, ours is trending up. Families are not leaving us, they're choosing us. They're asking for more seats, more grade levels, and more opportunities to keep their children in a community where they feel safe and connected. Closing a school like ours is disruptive to students in the district to most that most that the district most aims for. You tried equality you I'm sorry. You tried equality, distributed tools assist and assistance equally. You're trying equity and customized tools that address inequity in inequality. But the problem is systematic. So, we want justice.

Fix the system to offer both tools and opportunities. For the sake of our school our families our

For the sake of

equity and actual actually, let's scratch that for the sake of justice.

Thank you. We will now transition to public testimonies on Zoom. Please raise your hand when I call your name. And also, please remember that you need to be signed in on Zoom with the name you sign up for for public testimony. Our first person is a counselor Mejia.

Counselor Ulya Mejia.

Good evening. Am I here? Can you see me?

Yes. We can see you. You can start.

Good evening, chair and members of the school committee. The record, my name is Julia Mejia, Boston city councilor at large and no stranger to this committee. I know that school closures are not technically on tonight's agenda, but for me, I also know that when BPS identifies schools for potential closure, communities feel the impact right away through uncertainty, fear, and a loss of trust in the process. BPS has named four schools, AACC, Cache, Henderson nine to twelve, and Lee Academy Pilot as candidates for future closure. These schools are not failing.

We are failing these schools. They are small, high needs, high love communities. What they lack is updated buildings, not the relationships and not programming, and not the supports that most of our vulnerable students rely on every day. This is just another form of gentrification in the school district space. These schools deserve students with complex IEPs, and they who have emotional and behavioral needs, multilingual learners, and young people who have struggled to feel safe in larger settings.

Closing or destabilizing these communities even on a long timeline would come at a real cost that cannot be measured by enrollment numbers alone. I want to be clear. We understand that BPS must plan for the future, address declining enrollment, and motorized facilities. But what we should not do is move forward with any plan that disrupts the school that already is doing the work, especially when the community driven alternatives are on the table. So tonight, I'm urging the commune the committee to do two things.

Reject the current list of recommended closures for these four schools even as a long term placeholder, to commit to transparent and a collaborative planning process that centers families, educators, and students, including intentional merger options that preserve the supportive relationships these schools offers. You know, I I think I believe my time is up, and you were trying to tell me that. But I'll I'll just end with, you know, as a BPS graduate and as a BPS mom and as someone who has worked in the education space, I believe this is an opportunity for us to repair the harm and do what is right by our families. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor Mihir. Our our next speakers are Theo Kushmarek, Did Rahmani, Henesis Moreta, Mike Heischman, Michelle White, and Rakia Gardner. Theo Kashmerek. You can start.

Oh, do I am I starting?

Yeah. You can start. Thank you.

Okay. Hello. My name is Theo Chastika Schmarek. I a lot of other associates here. I'm from ACC. I'm a student from ACC. I'm here to talk, about a per more so a personal experience because, other people here have already gone to the specifics. A lot of people, I think, are kind of, going around the issue here, which is mental health. A lot of students, for example, myself, I went to a larger school, BLS, to be exact, an exam school. I was not forming academically as much as I'd like to because of the large class size and the, like, you know, dispersal of staff having to do multiple things at once.

I've I've at ACC, I've been much better, you know, with, you know, staff members being able to be there immediately for me. I'm I've gone from a literal straight f student to a straight a student, which I am very proud of, and my family is very proud of me for that. But the fact of the matter is it's a bit more negative. The reason why I had to leave was because I was fending myself suicide. I was going to commit suicide if I did not leave.

My mental health was incredibly low. My kind of belief in myself was incredibly low. When you're in an environment where you are devalued naturally and, like, you know, by being seen as another, you you you feel like you're gonna have to do something to yourself. And I think a lot of students having to randomly just immediately up and go out of their school, you know, that might increase few people's thoughts, you know, depressive thoughts

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Suicide because I've seen students, and I've had I've been friends of students who have had issues like this and have committed suicide. And I have lost a few friends. And I would like that to happen again.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker, Deidra Manning.

Good evening. My name is Deirdre Manning. I'm a Dorchester resident and the parent of two former students at the Henderson Inclusion School. Organizations should be judged on how they treat their most vulnerable members. It's been four years since the beginning of the demise of the Henderson Inclusion Program when the principal was assaulted and knocked unconscious by a 16 year old girl.

It's simply a tragedy what happened at the Henderson that BPS did not step up, did not provide a team for a school in crisis. BPS essentially deprived resources and then acts surprised when enrollment drops. The Henderson is an innovation school. That means a strong leader could have refused students who are not a good fit for the culture. It took three years to find a permanent leader of the Henderson.

At one point, the district actually put the search for a leader on pause. Families and Henderson staff worked so hard to create the amazing place that the Henderson was, and the district should be deeply ashamed of starving the school of the resources it needed to flourish. Those students do not have other choices and desperately need stability and routines. What happened at the Henderson is similar to a rancher driving cattle to the marketplace. And when the herd reaches its destination and the rancher discovers that some of the cattle are unable to continue, and the rancher puts lame cattle out of their misery.

What the district is doing here is simply culling the herd. Please do not allow the district to treat students like cattle. Give the Henderson back the resources and support it deserves, and force the district to bring the Henderson back to the amazing school it once was. Be the district that does not allow its most vulnerable students to be deprived of the school they need to be the best they can be. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next three speakers are not in the meeting, so we will continue with Rakia Gardner. Rakia Gardner followed by Matthew Ruggero and Cheryl Buckman. Rakia Gardner. Hello?