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.@jgoodeHN I think you're just repeating the framing that the city is giving you here, but I think we should clear up a misconception.
School transportation doesn't count towards net school spending in Massachusetts for ANY district. #MAEdu
heraldnews.com/story/news/edu…
School transportation doesn't count towards net school spending in Massachusetts for ANY district. #MAEdu
heraldnews.com/story/news/edu…
The reason for that is pretty straightforward: Chelsea is three square miles; Franklin County Regional Tech is 500 square miles. Both are Massachusetts school districts. As you might imagine, they spend WILDLY differing amounts on transportation.
What is different between Fall River--and, indeed, any municipal district in Massachusetts--and their neighboring regionals, is, that while BOTH have mandated state reimbursed transportation, only one of those reimbursements gets funded.
finally watching last week's Joint Ways & Means hearing, and appreciate @Jo_Comerford's question on the balance of one time versus sustained funding #MAEdu
she also did a lovely, polite refocus of her question; good chairing!
Cheers also to Sen @AnneGobi for opening her Q to @MassEducation a pointed: "on behalf of the entire Worcester delegation for your thoughtful and spot-on comments regarding the charter school in Worcester. It was extremely appreciated."
ok, good morning, I have a question (just getting to #MAEdu news from yesterday):
This MEEP claim that gaps have widened over the pandemic is based on...what exactly?
We don't yet have the last year's MCAS data. We don't yet have MA NAEP data.
This MEEP claim that gaps have widened over the pandemic is based on...what exactly?
We don't yet have the last year's MCAS data. We don't yet have MA NAEP data.
The report cites 2019 to 2021 third grade reading scores, and then percentage of low income 9th graders passing their classes compared to wealthier peers.
Then enrollment in college, which we know dropped...everywhere?
#mapoli #maedu Very important Pittsfield School Committee meeting happening in about 15 minutes!
You can watch it only on PCTV Channel 1302 as it will not be broadcast anywhere else.
You can watch it only on PCTV Channel 1302 as it will not be broadcast anywhere else.
Tonight they will (hopefully) be voting to approve new contracts for 4 bargaining units under the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees: paras, bus drivers and assistants, cafeteria workers, and secretaries.
Background on the contracts before then
Background on the contracts before then
All four bargaining units should have finished up their votes to ratify the contracts by now. If they ratified them, then the school committee will be able to approve them tonight and they will go into effect immediately!
#mapoli #maedu So got some school committee stuff to catch up on...
First, policy subcommittee will be meeting tomorrow at 5pm at the Mercer Administration Building. (1/4)
First, policy subcommittee will be meeting tomorrow at 5pm at the Mercer Administration Building. (1/4)
I will be presenting at the beginning portion of the meeting on all of the polices highlighted in yellow, as those are my policy proposals to change how student representatives work!
Policy proposals + presentation will be on my sometime tomorrow! (2/4)
Policy proposals + presentation will be on my sometime tomorrow! (2/4)
Then the school committee is having a rare special meeting this Thursday at 6:30PM remotely to hopefully approve new contracts with the bargaining units under the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees, which I have discussed here in great detail (3/4)
#mapoli #maedu Big News: 4 Bargaining units of the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees will be voting to ratify new contracts this week! The 4 units are paras, secretaries, cafeteria, and bus operations! The custodial unit isn't listed on the site (1/26)
Contract negotiations between the Federation and the School Committee have been a long time coming, with a lot of negotiations spilling over into anger and public outcry by the Federation. It has been very tense for sure.
iberkshires.com/story/67923/Ad…
(2/26)
iberkshires.com/story/67923/Ad…
(2/26)
The Federation and the School Committee ended up going to mediation with the state's Department of Labor Relations, which ended back in June.
iberkshires.com/story/67823/Pi…
(3/26)
iberkshires.com/story/67823/Pi…
(3/26)
A series of what will probably be unpopular statements about yesterday's #MAEdu Board vote on the MCAS, but gosh, I hate seeing bad info circulating:
1. This was supposed to happen years ago. The change in competency determination is tied to the new MCAS. What has been used for literally YEARS now was an interim step as we switched from one to the other. It was delayed by the pandemic.
2. The creation and maintenance of a "competency determination" based on the tenth grade evaluation is a power of the Board per MGL Ch. 69, sec. 1 (d).
malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLa…
malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLa…
The agenda for today's #MAEdu Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting is online here: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
The livestream will show up over here: livestream.com/accounts/22459…
and we're jumping in mid-public testimony, which looks like legislators
I know most of the attention is on the competency determination for tomorrow's #MAedu Board of Ed meeting; note a proposed shift in the state accountability system is also on the agenda: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
(all those in favor of the Department being banned from using the word "lite" as if we're talking about cream cheese?)
ok, seriously, though, it's--going to say this publicly--it's a thoughtful phase-in (and even responses to public comment, for those who wondered if that ever happened).
Going to create this thread for 9:30 start
Board of Ed agenda: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
livestream: livestream.com/accounts/22459…
Board of Ed agenda: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
livestream: livestream.com/accounts/22459…
line to get in:
and we have livestream.
They're in a ridiculously tiny room.
Chair Craven said that the town asked that the meeting be relocated.
They're in a ridiculously tiny room.
Chair Craven said that the town asked that the meeting be relocated.
it's disorienting reading the headlines this morning...#MAEdu
I'm seeing words like "scathing" and "rips" and...it isn't.
Cute that the Globe editorial board was all ready with a piece, though.
Cute that the Globe editorial board was all ready with a piece, though.
Maybe it would help to note: while BPS getting an "update" a year later, the review itself is a regular thing for districts.
You can find them here: doe.mass.edu/accountability…
#MAEdu
You can find them here: doe.mass.edu/accountability…
#MAEdu
"As noted in the 2020 District Review Report, the BPS-DESE MOU, and now in this District Review FollowUp Report, the problems facing BPS are abundantly clear.
This moment requires bold, student-centered
decision-making and strong execution to ensure the district delivers the quality education its students
deserve. BPS needs immediate improvement."
That's the conclusion. Make of that what you will.
decision-making and strong execution to ensure the district delivers the quality education its students
deserve. BPS needs immediate improvement."
That's the conclusion. Make of that what you will.
Ok, #MAEdu, account by account FY23 spreadsheet for the K-12 #mabudget accounts now updated here: dropbox.com/s/15lknvv3lgbf…
I'm going to pull together a blog post, and then I'll tweet them out if you like. #mapoli
I'm going to pull together a blog post, and then I'll tweet them out if you like. #mapoli
Two years ago today, the calling system for family contacts for schools was so overwhelmed by EVERY SINGLE DISTRICT IN MASSACHUSETTS cancelling that it took several hours for the system to catch up. #MAEdu
And since then:
23,751 deaths. That’s approximately as if we lost the whole town of Mansfield.
#MAEdu, it's a Board of Ed morning. Livetweeting/blogging to come (mute me for the next couple of hours if you're not interested)
The agenda is here: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
Livestream will show up here: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
The agenda is here: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
Livestream will show up here: doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy20…
first round of liveblogging will go up here: who-cester.blogspot.com/2022/01/livebl… #MAEdu
hey, we're in for the call to order!
I was asked yesterday by a teacher who lingered after one of my superintendent search input sessions:
"You're in a lot of districts. Is everyone this exhausted?"
"You're in a lot of districts. Is everyone this exhausted?"
"Yes," I said. "And the thing is: it's ALL PARTS of school districts."
(this may have been more than the teacher was asking for!)
It's the students, who have been making that known through walkouts and presentations and press.
It's the families, for whom each part of this has been a balancing act of pieces without enough outside support.
It's the students, who have been making that known through walkouts and presentations and press.
It's the families, for whom each part of this has been a balancing act of pieces without enough outside support.
Governor Baker* proposes his FY23 budget to the House on Wednesday!
*for the last time
“The core premise of restorative justice is that it is OK to make mistakes. We learn from mistakes. But if our mistakes render harm, then it is also our responsibility to acknowledge the harm we’ve caused, and to make it right.”
And to read with that; if you’re involved in #MAEdu, use one of your Globe articles here:
bostonglobe.com/2022/01/07/met…
bostonglobe.com/2022/01/07/met…
"We received an update from MEMA today that some of the masks in the distribution, masks marked 'non-medical,' had not been tested at MIT as previously thought."
--@MASchoolsK12 via email at 2:26 am this morning #MAEdu
--@MASchoolsK12 via email at 2:26 am this morning #MAEdu
@MASchoolsK12 full text
This does not read like "We provided safety supplies during a pandemic that are not as safe as we argued they were" to me.
reading the national school-related headlines this morning will give you whiplash: a thread:
and here's the more #MAEdu angle bostonglobe.com/2022/01/03/met…
and this: wgbh.org/news/local-new…
Rather telling point in the decision to keep the Curley remote: lack of access to testing #MAEdu bostonglobe.com/2021/11/13/met…
“They said BPS contacted multiple COVID-19 testing vendors with the hope to begin testing students early this coming week but could not find a provider who could meet the capacity the school requires.”
For all that DESE has praised its own test and stay program, who gets tested in that is very limited, and BPS wants to test beyond that.
1. Both MA and VT target 80% vaccination rate in schools to remove mask mandates. Let’s be clear that this isn’t about herd immunity. For one, 80% doesn’t get you there - if R0 = 6 for delta and vaccine efficacy is 90% (both generous assumptions), it would be 92.5%.
2. Also, a school isn’t a “herd” (though it sometimes feels like one). Students and staff go home and interact with people outside of school.
3. Pure speculation, but I would guess that 80% just felt like a reasonable target consistent with overall vaccination rates. And therefore unmasking is a “prize” for schools that hit the target.
So @MassGovernor vetoed $2.9M in charter reimbursement in signing the #FY22 budget. Once I’ve got my laptop open, I’ll check #’s but I am assuming that was an increase over his January recommendation. #MAEdu
ahhh, okay. It's a Boston cut.
Conference committee: not less than $2,900,000 shall be expended to ensure that any municipality with a school district which has its total tuition capped by the net school spending provisions of said section 89 of said chapter 71,
OKAY, #MAEdu, we've got the House FY22 Ways and Means budget coming out tomorrow, so it is a time for a thread (with some help from the Muppets):
AS ALWAYS, the first order of business here is to look at Chapter 70 funding:
We should OF COURSE first recall that we are a year into implementation of the first year of the Student Opportunity Act...except we aren't:
