Nov 16 2022 · Last Night @ School Committee Recap · Ep. 74
What happens at each Boston School Committee meeting has big implications for our students and our city. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making.
Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, the majority of which focused on transportation. The Superintendent reported that on-time arrivals for morning buses increased to 89% in November, up from 88% the previous month. School Committee members asked questions about how many students are actually impacted by these delays and how students are being tracked, and district leaders were unable to provide this information.
There were two reports presented to the School Committee. The first was a report on special education in the district, which was given by the Council of Great City Schools in response to a requirement in the State-mandated improvement plan. The report echoed prior reports on this issue and underlined significant gaps in the success of special education students in BPS. School Committee members highlighted the need to address these issues immediately and discussed moving toward fully-inclusive schools, but the report did not include goals, targets, or timelines for addressing these much-needed reforms. The last report of the evening was an update on the collective bargaining agreements with the cafeteria workers and bus monitors unions, which featured increased pay and other clauses aimed at driving interest in these key positions that still face hundreds of vacancies.
The next School Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 7 at 5pm on Zoom.
We want to hear from you! If you have concerns about how BPS is serving your child or your family, please send us an email at podcast@shahfoundation.org. And if you’d like to share a thought that we may use in a future episode, you can leave us a voicemail at 508-261-5904.
Ways to Engage and Resources:
The terms of two school committee members, Chair Jeri Robinson and Quoc Tran, expire at the end of this year. This week, the Mayor’s Office began soliciting applications for anyone who would like to be appointed to those two seats. If you are interested in applying, click here.
Continue to demand accountability from our school system by emailing the Mayor and School Committee members:
Mayor Michelle Wu: mayor@boston.gov
Chair Jeri Robinson: grobinson@bostonpublicschools.org
Vice Chair Michael O’Neill: moneill2@bostonpublicschools.org
Quoc Tran: qtran2@bostonpublicschools.org
Lorena Lopera: llopera@bostonpublicschools.org
Rafaela Polanco Garcia: rpolancogarcia@bostonpublicschools.org
Dr. Stephen Alkins: salkins@bostonpublicschools.org
Brandon Cardet-Hernandez: bcardethernandez@bostonpublicschools.org
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