good evening and welcome to this meeting of Boston school committee I'm chairperson Jerry Robinson we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance iance to the FL of the United States of America Amica to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all I want to welcome everyone who is joining us tonight in person on Boston City TV and on Zoom I'm going to ask everyone here in the chamber to please turn off the volume on your laptops or other devices so it does not interfere with the audio for tonight's meeting thank you for your cooperation tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's web page Boston publicschools.org school committee under the June 17th 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 web page and on YouTube the recording will be available in all BPS languages the committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish hati Creole Cape Verdian Cantonese Mandarin Vietnamese and American Sign Language the zoom inter 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 AOW lower Pace to assist our interpreters we will begin tonight with a special recognition for talented group of graduating seniors who are ending their term with the Boston student advisory Council also known as BAC these students have proven to be true leaders and Powerful advocates for their peers we are so proud of them and while they'll be greatly missed we know that they will go on to do great things for the Boston community so I'm not sure if we're going to go down or what we're going to do but you can go why don't we all go down yes t I'm going to do my very best to in so please if I say anything please I'm going to read what it says on all of them but the first one is going to UGI AA is that correct right it says so the Boston school committee extends his deepest appreciation to Lui Aela Mental Health subcomm committee Boston student advisory Council and new mission High School class of 2024 for providing a strong consistent voice for her fellow students in the Boston Public Schools the chairperson and members of the school committee of the city of Boston join with the superintendent of schools in extending their appreciation to miss Gila for influencing and assisting students to effectively form evaluate and understand the district policies that impact their daily lives and wish her continued success in all future endeavors okay all right okay the next one is Shahed anaz is that close right so you are on the anti-racism subcommittee member of the Boston student advisory Council and graduate Boston International newcomers Academy class of 2024 congratulations our next is our very own Diego MAA who is our Boston school committee representative and the education Equity subcommittee member and also a graduate 20 class of 2024 Boston arts academy and we have is jerai Barry here all right so Jeri Barry was the be was BAC writer um of the Boston student advisory Council and a graduate of the Boston Latin Academy class of 2024 Zena James who is also on the anti-racism subcommittee member and graduate Tech Boston Academy and lastly Kaylee ranoso who is on the Adultism subcommittee member and Boston Latin Academy class of 2024 let's give them all round of yeah you want talk okay thank you all we'll begin the meeting with the approval of minutes I'll now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the June 5th 2024 school committee 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 motion by unanimous consent hearing none the minutes are approved we now move on to the superintendent report I present to you our superintendent Mary Skipper thank you chair so this being our last school committee meeting before the end of the year uh my report will be a little bit longer but full of some some really wonderful things so um good evening to everyone to our to our audience as well uh tonight I would like to begin with exciting news from the BPS Athletics because yesterday was a historic afternoon the English High School Eagles won the MIAA division 5 State baseball tournament 7 to1 over Georgetown at Polar Park in Worcester this is the first time that the city League Championship sorry the city League champions in baseball also won a State title since 1971 so we just congratulations to the team it's been an amazing year of Athletics with lots of championships for us with our BPS teams but this was a particular historic one as the school year for 2023 24 comes to a close on Friday June 21st I'd like to take the opportunity to talk a bit about our progress this year and review some of our accomplishments and highlights We are continuing to build the academic Foundation that will support the district's major shifts into this next year our districtwide implementation of inclusive education an increase in bilingual education programming growing our Early College and Career Pathways and continuing the expansion of the Hub schools model we're making our vision for inclusive education a reality by implementing inclusive classrooms across our schools for students in k0 K1 K2 and grade s and n9ine and our schools will continue to engage in our inclusive planning process next year BPS will add five new Desi approved programs dedicated to serving multilingual students these include three newcomer programs at Brighton East Boston high school and trown high school we will continue to make investments to ensure that all students have access to native language instruction in the classroom BPS continues expanding or will continue to expand our Early College and Career Pathways programming to help students earn the college credits they need to GR graduate and pursue their dreams Bunker Hill Community College is expanding its partnership with Charlestown High School Roxbury Community College is establishing a new partnership with Boston International newcomers Academy or binka the margarito minis Academy and English High School to expand access to college coursework for our multilingual Learners and Mass General Brigham is expanding its partnership with the Edward M Kennedy Academy to help create more Pathways for our students to join the healthcare profession currently we have 14 Hub schools and we're expanding next year we will add an additional six I'm proud of the progress we've made on expanding our model including our transformative work at the newly renamed Ruth Batson Academy which is our first University assisted Community Hub School in partnership with UMass Boston Ruth Batson students will have unprecedented access to UMass Boston coursework and opportunities and will partner with talented Educators from both institutions and help develop UMass Boston graduate students into future teachers and counselors this partnership accompanies Ruth Batson Academy's plann renovations to create a state-of-the-art high school campus embedded in the Columbia Point Community students who are interested in becoming teachers will also be eligible for a new scholarship to UMass Boston Senior Johanna paa received the Ina inaugural Robert and Ruth endowed scholarship this past year this current year which will ensure she receives ongoing support and graduates debt-free in our Equity Equitable literacy initiative more than 80% of our schools are using highquality instructional materials in at least one subject as you heard in our June 5th presentation we begun to see an increase in our reading and writing outcomes for students we using those materials in transportation we've made continued progress with our yellow bus transp transportation services for Boston students we started the year fully staffed with bus drivers with nearly 200 more bus monitors than the previous year we have continued hiring and will end this school year fully staffed with both drivers and monitors with a strong hiring and training pipeline to maintain full Staffing going forward forward we've made consistent progress in improving ontime performance reducing the number of uncovered trips and reducing missing data for the FY 2324 school year 90% of scheduled morning buses have arrived on time and 98% have arrived within 15 minutes of the scheduled time before accounting for any of the missing trip data in our food service division we served more than 8 million males this year cooking and offering daily salad bars at 101 schools we have launched Halal and kosher meals at all 47 sites where the community requested them and we focused on local procurement for example the first time all 975,000 apples served to our students came from New England in our office of emergency management we established this office which consists of five members the team is led by director Christian Trey Woodson and responds to critical and emergency events in the BPS and works to keep our schools safe and welcoming on the community engagement front our community engagement advisory Collective or what we call cak saw its biggest growth in membership since since its Inception with more than 60 organizations represented and attending bimonthly meetings led by our community engagement team I also met with dozens of community groups groups through my community engagement tour this past year I was able to connect with leaders and representatives of the district's diverse communities to discuss how we can work together to better support our students Community engagement also includes our internal engagement tour we want to make sure we listen to the many leaders within our organization leading critical work to support our schools and our students we will continue the community engagement tours next year as well and I look forward to listening and learning from community members students and our teams chronic absenteeism overall we have seen a decrease in chronic absenteeism somewhere around the 8 to 10% but we know that there's a lot more to do that's why earlier this spring we launched the new win the day campaign pilot which was aimed at significantly improving student attendance rates across 10 schools in Region 8 the team reached more than 800 students in Region 8 through the campaign and drew them back to school using creative strategies like home visits Transportation support and Credit Recovery before school in mural Sports including basketball volleyball and indoor soccer which promotes exercise and friendship and Community incentives like visits to the nail and hair salon and local pizza shops we chose Region 8 due to its high rate of chronic absenteeism and the diversity of the schools and will expand the campaign across other regions next year year this campaign helps our schools think creatively about how to make students feel welcomed and supported and hope to learn from the pilot to scale out that support for 2425 for Teacher hiring we've hosted 13 recruitment fairs specifically engaging diverse professionals with over 1100 candidates attending expressing interest in the BPS the bilingual educator accelerated communityto teer program graduated 24 diverse community members were provisionally licensed and SEI endorsed to be hired into rbps there are 67 applicants for that same program for 2425 the BPS teaching fellowship graduated 36 first year Educators who are now initially licensed in moderate disabilities Andor ESL so that they may be retained in the district there are 55 applicants for the sy425 program in over 50 free mtel prep courses were held enrolling a thousand or more employees with a 74% pass rate and provided over 300 exam vouchers these are all of the ways that we will continue to work with our staff support our staff uh in terms of their passing the teacher exams and becoming a BPS employee we continue to also see strong graduation rates for the four-year cohort at 80.5% especially since the state reinstituted the mcast requirement this year BPS had a record number 350 students who attended at least one historically black college or university tour as we continue to engage with students um our extended rate went up to over two points for the students who didn't drop out they stayed with us uh and this is all really important post pandemic as a way when in other districts you start to see the Dropout go up graduation rate go goes down we're at historic highs in a positive way in addition to all of these there were so many moments of joy for our students we were visited by grank by Jason Tatum by Wally and Tessie at the annual Red Sox hack giveaway our students won five state championships in athletics played at the Boston Garden through the first pitch at Fenway Park and were recognized with a celebration parade to City Hall they displayed their incredible incredible artwork and talents around the city and through Visual Arts and musical performance es including a showstopping homage to Icon Tina Turner they visited several countries including Costa Rica Montreal France Italy Spain Portugal Japan Dominican Republic as well as other states such as DC and so forth they organized and spoke out about issues facing our world and our city while supporting one another they explored stem and steam and competed in Citywide Championship uh competitions this school year we welcomed 2587 students from our migrant families to our city and to our schools and one of our Burke High School students even flew an airplane for the first time proving the sky really is the limit for BPS as we look back toward next school year as we look toward next school year and continue to plan I personally am excited for the work ahead our mission is grounded in our vision of ensuring that every student in every school has access to high quality education I want to thank mayor woo and her team the members of the Boston city council and the school committee for working with us as partners this year I also want to thank our teachers and school and District staff family students and numerous Community Partners for their support this year and their ongoing generosity to our BPS students we will need everyone's ongoing collaboration to do the work that lies ahead I hope that everyone finds time this summer to relax to rest to charge met with school leaders this morning for the last um all leader PD and just reminded them to make sure they're doing some selfcare and taking some time this summer to refuel I know there's a an eagerness to hear about our summer update and so I'm going to provide you um a brief update about all of the planning that's gone on for the summer programming as you know we'll begin our summer programming on Monday July 8th we're offering more than 125 summer learning acmis for completion and High School credit recovery programs across 67 BPS facilities as of June 11th we've enrolled more than 3,000 students for summer learning acmy and more than 1,800 students in Credit Recovery courses I want to thank Chief Sanchez for leading the charge we are focusing our Outreach to families in multiple languages and using multiple media Outlets through multiple modal modalities to reach everyone uh and in almost every one of the programs we are in excess of what we've done in the past um so folks I think our our parents and Community are really responding to what we're offering regarding the hiring we have 730 Fifth Quarter positions across our summer learning acmy and high school credit recovery programs we've submitted more than or close to 80% of Summer Fifth Quarter Staffing these of course include teachers site coordinators par par professionals um Community Field coordinators nurses operations leaders it's really all positions and we've had uh more than 10,000 youth apply to jobs with City departments and nonprofit organizations about half of them are BPS students uh so just a lot of really great work in the summer uh delac conference these are just a few bright spots the district English Learners advisory uh committee held its connect conference 2024 last week here at the bowling building the BPS office of multilingual and Multicultural education or what we call M was honored to welcome keynote speaker monserat go gbre US Department of Education assistant deputy secretary and director of The Office of language acquisition um the assistant deputy secretary delivered an inspiring message to our multilingual learner families who gathered in person for the first time post pandemic she spoke about the critical importance of establishing meaningful relationships between our schools and our families something that we try every day to do here she also learned about our work to support our multilingual Learners and dual language while visiting the Otis and the yanana schools in East Boston where she saw some of the incredible work our school leaders teachers students and families are doing to nurture and Elevate The Learning Experience of our multilingual Learners many thanks to the Yana and to the yotas communities for hosting the dep Deputy secretary's visit I also want to thank member palanco for serving as a panelist at the event on June 6th BPS hosted its annual Spring Fling a special inclusive prom hosted by the office of specialized Services students spent the evening dancing listening to music having fun together at Florian Hall in Dorchester it was a joyful night for all students at the Ellis Elementary school this week marked the final session of the youth cycling program students received certificates of completion and showed off their bicycle skills um it was pretty amazing to watch the students zipping around on the balance bikes uh the youth cycling program actually brings everything the bikes the helmets the instructors uh an actual curriculum that we use across the district the instructors spend two weeks helping students from grades K2 through 8 learn bicycle safety through lessons practice and having fun and it's such an important life skill for our students to have to be able to learn the city uh students from Boston Arts Academy participated in the Boston's 2024 Pride Parade on Sunday June 9th the students constructed the float during the school's intermission period learning both technical skills in teamwork and created tie-dye shirts uh I'd also like to note that uh Karina balanti from our Performance Management and evaluation team and the co-leader of lgbtq affinity group also volunteered with the Boston Pride for the people thank you for representing BPS at this year's Pride this is certainly graduation season um as you know um every single night there's been one or more graduations and days I've had the honor of attending several of them particularly Boston Arts Boston green Academy Excel High School it's really always a thrill for me to see the teachers the staff the families and the students celebrating the hard work of our students and all of their achievements as they make that final walk across the stage this year I had the pleasure of of watching School Committee Member Diego Mana Mena crossed the stage himself um congratulations to you for your accomplishments uh we know you're going to do some pretty amazing things at nor Easter as you go on to this next step and um one of the things that we sort of stress at the graduations is when you move the tassel which is a tradition you're actually stepping from being a BPS student and you're Crossing that bridge to becoming a BPS alumni and representing the PS in a different way and so I was very proud of Diego and all of his peers as they took that big step uh this year's graduates were freshman just as a reminder when covid-19 disrupted their education and as they made their way through high school they learned resilience tenacity and they learned to expect the unexpected we're celebrating that perseverance and determination as each student takes their time to cross that stage and moves that tassel um and I know I speak the entire District when I say I'm proud of every single one of them uh in preparation of the merger of the suar and philbrick schools the family of the aison pictured here Deana foron rynal Jean and Erin O'Brien are leading some creative and fun engagement activities students in grades 1 through six from each of the schools began writing monthly letters to each other since January the leison planned two pen pal meetups last week at nearby Hy Park which included games and blowing bubbles this Innovative kind of relationship building effort will continue throughout next year uh there's so many more things I could include chair but um I will I will stop there and uh certainly take questions thank you so much so I'll now open it up to questions and discussion from the committee thank you so I have a just a couple quick question superintendent first you mentioned about food service and you said I think you said 101 schools now have fresh food including um salad bars and that's fantastic and we see it when we're out visiting the schools right I'm wondering how do we know and and you don't have to have the answer now but how many are still doing kind of the prepackage they're just not at the point and I know because we had some restrictions on some on kitchens and how they plans next year to be able to finish that off I believe I think it's 14 Schools at this point that um there's four that we're not able to put a kitchen into uh and then there's another group that we can work to do a modified kitchen uh but one of the things that um food service is doing is they're going to do a pilot next year of centrally cooking food to then distribute hot food to those School sites and so they'll do it regionally so um you know Madison Park may be one of the sites from that food is prepared and then to the schools closest to them distributed so the idea is to really get that hot food um across the district to every school right yeah because it makes such a difference when in schools and if Madison can Park Madison Park can also distribute those truck sh cookies that the students make there they're the best in the city they the best in the city um you mentioned about summer and and I was interested to hear the numbers going up and I'm intrigued about capacity you know are we at capacity in a bunch of programs and if so what are we going to do about them we heard last week or last meet in public comment about the exam School initiative in the p and I know in the past couple years it has not been filled right and now all of a sudden we're actually filled so what are we doing that's right so the ESI which is the the exam School initiative um it has a capacity of 300 and it has uh in the past uh past few years not filled this year we actually have 500 that have put in for it so that's a good problem to have so we're working right now to be able to expand at least probably a 100 seats to start uh and you know my preference would be to be able to clean the weight list um but we are going to at least be able to get into that weight list pretty deep um that means additional staff and space and so forth but the minute we saw that capacity issue we started acting on it so Chief Sanchez is on it and is the issue funding or teachers or space or accommod yeah so it's it's everything right the more programming you offer it's it's money uh we still do have aser dollars so we are in a situation where we are able to be able from the dollar perspective to support it is finding the staff kind of late in the season um but we do feel confident that we can at least expand that capacity probably at least a 100 more students okay I just I'm sensitive to the fact that we didn't say it was going to be space limited because we've had the openings the past couple years and now as was pointed out you know to us last time right yeah I think we see it also with Fifth Quarter there are some programs that fill very rapidly um and we're not really able to expand those programs because we work with uh Community Based a uh organizations and they kind of set the capacity but ESI is one of ours that we work with internally it's much like Credit Recovery where we to see there to be an extra demand in Credit Recovery we would want to respond to that positively to make sure that our high school students are able to make their credits up thank you and you mentioned graduation season I love to see the pictures we collectively honed six students a couple weeks ago with green Garner scholarships and we were able to Fe all of their graduations I know you were at BGA for them and and chair Robinson was at Boston Latin Academy and Miss uh Lima Bosa and I were at Burke where she was the commencement speaker and um by the way valedictorian for class A lot of valid experience mentioned and we honored the student who was um from the Burke as well as the other schools as well so that was a highlight of the graduation season as well yeah Mr TR thank you for your report I I appreciate a very uh thorough report I have two particular questions uh one relating to to the report the the other is beyond the scope of the report itself the first one is uh you mentioned there are schools that are within 15 minutes of uh of the determined arrival so and also there may be a small number of school buses that are late um those routes are are pretty clear to us right and and and we are doing something we are yes so um next year there were first of all uh Dan and his team and and Jackie um they've been they've let the data drive this so they're constantly looking at which routes are late uh we put forward some tier changes sometimes it's a five minute change or 10-minute change of the school start time uh and we've put those forward for next year they represent a core percent of those late routes and Dan if there's anything else you can certainly come up and uh contribute to that yeah um I think uh the superintendent uh covered it well member Tron I think the other thing I would say is uh relatedly where we see the biggest challenges every day is the the schools that start during what we call the second tier so this is schools that are an 8:30 start time or thereabouts and that's because the greatest proportion of schools start at that time and so when we look at our overall capacity that's where we're trying to kind of squeeze the greatest number of routs into you know frankly not enough capacity and so some of these Bell time tier changes that we've talked about for next year will help um kind of even things out and distribute things across the tiers a little bit but uh that's where our efforts are really focused is looking at those those runs and those trips that are day after day running late and what can we do about that both shortterm you know to make sure that the students this year um are not consistently being impacted and also thinking longterm what do we need to do thank you well the the the second question I um we've been briefed on um the uh contract negotiation with the the student with the teachers union I'm I'm just in interested in to know what is the likelihood of success in in reaching something soon we are we are about 80 80 items uh out of uh um disagreement so I'm so um so thank you for the question uh so as I said at the the last meeting we were we have been trying by working with our Union partner to at the table much earlier than we typically would so we've been there for about 6 months and I think that has really enabled us to uh do some deeper work that doesn't normally happen like in the beginning sessions and I think both parties feel really good about that um I there is a bunch that still needs to be worked through um so we'll we'll still continue to work hard and be optimistic about that and and work uh with BTU uh I'm not I couldn't give you a calculation as to the likelihood by June 30th but I think we've indicated our interest to continue during the summer as a way to keep the conversation going and try to continue to make progress in those negotiations uh and we will continue to do that so even if we would not um be able to get an actual uh final deal for August 31st which is when the contract expires we will be so much further ahead than where we normally are at this point of time and then we will continue to work throughout next year on it is there any concession from from from them regarding the ad items that that we had yeah so I I think both sides are doing their best to understand deeply understand each other and what um you know and find that kind of Common Ground uh anytime you do negotiations uh both sides will often put many things out on the table and then you have to kind of par back and figure out what's really at the core and I think that's the space they're at and that's the space we're at thank you welcome um thank you for the report um and congratulations to all the graduates um for sure um an incredible first step in life um so congratulations to all them and we look forward to what the future holds um my question is actually going back to uh what Vice chair O'Neal was talking about in terms of capacity are we seeing any particular Trends in increases in enrollment around High School Credit Recovery and from a capacity issue that's something that we as a committee would have to consider as we're thinking about resources towards that so we have about 1,800 students who are enrolled over uh across roughly 34 course 3,400 courses so it's somewhere between two and three courses right um for each of the students uh last year I think we served around 2100 but that was was height of kind of the pandemic coming off um this is probably high for where we would normally be uh we'll we'll watch that um not all the kids that register sometimes show up we're also doing a couple of um newer programming uh one uh would succeed Boston to really create kind of like a wraparound for students uh it's going to be our first year doing it for students um who we want to get who we know need uh kind of a 360 and that is I get a mentor job resume building uh academic supports credit um mental health supports like really that 360 so we're really also trying to differentiate the type not just credit recovery but actually like what kinds of um deeper work we can do with young people if we have them over the summer um and I think we're also trying to accommodate High School sites being able to do that on their site because we know high school students don't always travel to another site so um we're trying a couple different things that we're hoping the yield of who registers is higher um because last year was like 2100 but you know I think we ended up only serving about maybe 17 so we we want to keep all of the students so I think it's both the capacity and the yield um so but this is like one of those that if we see um we see more students registering than we have seats for we'll expand that capacity I think that's also it's it's a it's a good question because it's also what I believe is deeply linked so as you know with our graduation rate and uh our graduation rate is at the 80.5 which is kind of historic High even from the pandemic um pre- pandemic but what was more telling was that our fifth year engagement was up by 1 point uh3 and our extended engagement meaning students who are still in the system despite not graduating which 2.3% which on our high school population is significant so that's what tells me that the amount of credit recovery we were doing worked because it gave the kids the credits enough to stay in the system to try to get that diploma I have an additional follow-up question about summer planning um so the question is what is the percentage of students who are families are signing them up versus is there a number of students who thus far have not signed up with that you would recommend that they do and I know the time is short what are we doing about reaching out to those kids for whom this could be a significant so um so this it's it's an interesting question I think at the school level we work hand inand with family liaison um the school counselors and the school leaders to identify students that we believe would most benefit from the programming um so there's usually each school has lists of students that they then reach out to um we don't always have access to those lists to then be able to see what percent actually responded or not uh we we work with the school for them to continue to follow uh in terms of the parent piece um you know that is you know we can tell who registered the student right or who who uh approached to register the student but we wouldn't necessarily be able to tell where the Genesis of that came from whether that was the school encouraging the parent to do it or whether the parents saw our information and then you know chose to act on it we wouldn't necessarily have that it you know it would be good we can add questions in the future uh to the registration which would say sort of like when you um often on you know when you're filling out like a web form it'll say I heard about this because and I think we could maybe collect the data that way like they saw something with media or their friend told them or uh you know their principal recommended and then try to parse the data back that way I know the district took in a number of Migrant students over the past year um not quite sure where people are living for the summer but are those families also able to participate and do we have any sense of how that engagement is going yes so this in particular I was really proud of the team um most of the students who were living in shelter uh our teams went and registered for the February in the April camps and then very similarly they're working at the shelter level with the families to make sure that the students have those opportunities outside of the shelter that's great yeah thank all right thank you all for your comments um I'll now entertain a motion to receive the superintendent's report 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 motion by unanimous consent hearing none the superintendent's report is approved we'll move on to action items our first action item this evening is grants for approval totaling 25 Millions three 38,840 now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments uh thank you chair so there's multiple areas of the grants uh there's one specific to The Chronic absenteeism and it references uh in our notes this is kind of the win the day that we focused on with Region 8 again we're getting some pretty good data on this uh there's also one on the food cart this has this is coming from bpda uh and this is um it's a it's a cash grant for 30,000 uh and this has to do with supporting the retail carts uh at two of our high schools there is a um EPA which is our the big one and that is for the this is a grand program for the electric buses uh with zero admissions that's the $20 million Grant um there is a the Sip Grant um and this is the renewal for the Sip grant for the third year uh and this really does support um the work that we've been trying to do um you know on sip I think in particular this year it covers um those that are working on sip outcomes it covers our PRS our problem resolution system um and then there's an FTE that's attached to specialed transportation uh and an analyst and then there's other dollars that are in there around uh long-term facility engagement bilingual programming um the a program a pilot program for tablets on the school buses to be able to U be more efficient with the routes uh you know things like that um the let's see what else is there there is an early college incubator Grant uh this is for startup of uh Early College programming in schools that are um just beginning there's also another Early College support Grant so that's for just continued implementation at those sites that have Early College there's a CTE Grant which is a Perkins Grant uh and that there is um particular to our CTE programs at sites like Madison Park at uh Boston Arts Academy has fashion design binka BGA Burke I think we list the high schools that are covered in there so I would just encourage the committee these are all grants that support critical work uh good work and so I would just encourage the committee for a favorable vote thank you I'll now open it up the committee for questions and comments no particular um question um around this but curious around the the the seven new electric buses that uh we're getting has there any been any forethought at this point around uh the routes that might uh that we might get um I think we have the team coming up for this one alins uh thank you so just to clarify the question was about the the buses that we'll get yeah just if you have any if at this stage have you been thinking any about like the particular routes for for for those new buses essentially gotcha um yeah I'll hand it to our assistant director of our contract Ops and Fleet here Alex who's really been leading this work thanks Dan uh good evening everyone um yes um as part of the Grant application we actually looked at environmental justice factors so that is a piece of it in terms of how we deploy these buses to make sure that we're covering every component of the city and all the neighborhoods so obviously we will not be deploying these for a little while we still have to purchase them we still have to deploy the charging equipment install everything at our bus yards um so we don't anticipate rolling those out until um you know not next school year but the following school year um and as we learn more from the current EVS that we're operating as well as the 19 additional EVS we're bringing on board this summer we'll be able to further analyze and determine how to best address the routing issues thank you y thank you are there any other question comments thank you if there's no further discussion I'll now entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented is there a motion so moved thank you is there a second second is there any discussion objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent hearing none the grants are approved we'll now move on to General Public comment Miss parvex thank you chair the public comment period is an opportunity for parents caregivers students and other concerned parties to make brief presentations to the school committee on pertinent School issues questions on specific School matters are not answered this time but are referred to the superintendent for a later response question on specific policy matters are not answered this time but may be the subject of a later discussion by the committee the meeting will feature two public comment periods with the first comment period limited to 1 hour priority will be given to those testifying in person time permitting the committee will then open it up for virtual testimony after 1 hour anyone who hasn't testify will have the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting we have 47 speakers this evening each person will have two minutes to speak and I will remind you when you have 30 seconds remaining if your remarks are longer than 2 minutes please email your comments for distribution to the committee the time that an interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from a speaker's allotted time speakers may not reassign their times to others speakers May um large group addressing the same topics are encouraged to consolidate their remarks and choose a spokesperson to provide testimony please direct your comments to the chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members or District staff please state your name affiliation and what neighborhood you are from before you begin we will begin this evening with our inperson speakers our first group of speakers are counselor Weber Craig lanor Maria Jesus Fernandez Diaz Adam Rudolph and deed ranning councelor Weber okay okay uh can you hear me um thank you very much for allowing me to to speak my name is Benjamin Weber I'm the city councelor from district 6 I represent Jamaica plane and and West Roxbury um I'm here to talk about uh the plan closure of the West Zone Early Learning Center you know I've received over a hundred emails expressing concerns about the plan um you know while uh some of those emails are are from constituents some are from outside the district I think it just speaks to the confusion and concern about about the plan and the process that's been followed um I've spoken with the administration and I've been told that the closure will save administrative costs and increase the amount of funds being spent directly on our students which I support um but uh and I hope that uh in reviewing the plan you ensure that as promised uh the closure will result in an increase in Early Education classrooms families will be given preference if they seek to transfer out of the ELC and that uh the henan is made a hub school which has been uh a success at the mun but I am concerned about the process here uh we have heard about the need to close schools across the district as a parent of two BPS kids one at the Boston arts academy uh and another at the curly I went through the closure of the Mission Hill school and what has been encouraging to me is hearing from the uh from BPS that families will be given a Year's notice before closures are made second but what I didn't realize was that in this case and uh families are while that is supposedly going to happen they're going to be given a Year's notice the the decision to close the school is be made in in less than a about five weeks families were given notice that the school might close in five weeks or or the school might close in that only a couple days notice before this vote uh and so if we're going to be transparent and have a process about closures we need to think about a predictable timeline where where uh people in the community actually understand what's going on I'm not sure that's happened here and that they're given a chance to weigh in before the decision to close their schools uh is made thank you very much thank you thank you next speaker is Craig lanor [Music] good evening I'd like to thank the chair and members of the school committee and the superintendent for this opportunity my name is Craig lankhorst I've worked in the Boston public schools for the past 50 years including as a school leader and cluster leader was also chair of the ward 10 Democratic committee uh proudly serving Mission Hill and Jamaica plane for 25 years presently I live in West Roxberry I have known Al Holland for most of that time in short he is my hero and I don't say that gratuitously I fully support the name of the Burke being changed to the Albert D Holland High School of Technology as manager of a Dropout prevention program at Dorchester High School I saw Dr har harand doing wonderful work at the Burke I sought advice from him and leaned on him I often stole his ideas and I tried to steal a staff it is important to note also that prior to being at the Burke Dr Holland served heroically at South Boston high school at the Burk Dr har Dr Holland Blended safety and a academics making sure that all all students were supported he did everything including roaming roaming the corridors and attending most school he made sure the Burke worked Al and I also work as coaches for the male educators of color in fact he coached the coaches in all his Endeavors Dr Holland put the kids first no one deserves to have a school named after him more than Al Holland thank you sincerely for this opportunity thank you very much next speaker is Maria Jesus Fernandez Diaz good evening my name is Maria Fernandez I have been given the gift of being a full-time school psychologist at the Rafael Hernandez a dual language Spanish English school I am grateful that the school sees the value of having a full-time school psychologist and pays approximately half of my salary from their budget unfortunately it is difficult for small schools to cover this cost this year I have tested 50 students for each evaluation I interview the families test the student and gather information from the teacher and the and school records students rely on us to find what works what kind of special Iz instruction works for them I also have 23 counseling cases that I see individually or in a small groups despite how impossible it is to manage this amount of work even with a full-time position I am emotionally available for my students if they need a break are going through a crisis or need support the escalating students depend on us to make it through the school day additionally as a BPS employee I provide services to all our students since we serve the whole Community I help any student who needs a safety assessment because of suicidal thoughts or a threat assessment and I also communicate with outside providers to coordinate support School psychologists are are experts in learning Behavior systems and mental health seven school psychologist positions have been cut for next year the number of professionals should increase not decrease thank you for listening thank you very much our next speaker is Adam brudo Adam rudov is not here next speaker is did remaining good evening my name is deardra Manning I'm a Dorchester resident my great-grandmother came to this country alone at age 17 at a time when signs hung in storefront saying no Irish need apply she married an immigrant from Canada and started a family in 1911 her husband left her abandoning his 5-year-old daughter my grandmother the previous death of her son however allowed my great grandmother to be hired as a servant as you could not be employed as a domestic if you had more than one encumbrance that's a fancy term used by wealthy bostonians to describe a child discrimination based on religion and Country of birth meant there were no other options for work for an Irish immigrant with no family to help support her and raise her daughter her granddaughter my mother encountered discrimination in the late 1950s when she taught at the Hyde elementary school in Roxbury my mother had an exceptional student named Jane Dietrich an eighth grader who got straight A's and always asked for additional work Jane really wanted to go to girls Latin but at the time you needed a recommendation from the principal and the principal despite Jane's record of academic achievement would not provide one most likely because of the color of Jane's skin no BPS administrator should be allowed to exclude High achieving students from educational opportunities BPS has used the exam school policy to depress enrollment from neighborhoods in tiers six seven and8 and deprive children even children of color English language Learners and families with Section 8 vouchers of the chance to attend one of the very few quality schools in the district every exam School applicant should have the same chance of receiving a seat in an exam school no matter where that child lives this can be done by allocating the number of seats in each tier based on the number of applicants by refusing to make the policy Equitable despite three years of data BPS administrators are sending a strong message to families who live in tier six seven and8 that message is no families in these neighborhoods need apply the number of applicants in these tiers is lower than it's been in the past pass because families understand that BPS administrators have put a construct in place that prevents their children from receiving a high quality public education thank you Miss Manning you could please send me your your testimony next group of speakers is Jordan Clark Deborah fzo Teresa P priser Nathan priser and Erica Herman Jordan Clark good evening uh my name is Jordan e Clark he am is pronouns um this is my service dog Rio I normally do not introduce him uh as inclusive action usually means you just ignore him and act like he isn't there yet as you know superintendent Skipper ableist microaggressions are a consequence of ignorance so I figured I'd try and Enlighten Enlighten in an effort to create a more inclusive space I'm a longtime Dorchester resident um and a former Boston Public School emplo uh teacher and employee James baldman poly stated I cannot believe what you say because I see what you do I understand that we are all bound by a universal struggle to free our minds from socialized bias as a disabled gay black cisman and former BPS employee and teacher of students with disabilities and equity and accountability program manager in central office I have the privilege to testify at the Boston city council Committee hearing my testimony was a deeply personal narrative of facing bias retaliation and systemic Injustice Within These storyed Halls walls despite my dedication and passion for improving our students outcomes I've encountered significant challenges including facing Force administrative leave denial of access because of my service dog and ultimately termination ad miss an ADA interactive process these experiences highlight the pressing need for clearer policies and accountability when persons in positions of leadership lack skills yet the problem is not the solution I don't expect anyone here to do anything to make me feel whole I'm already working on that 30 seconds we must speak and continue to speak our uncomfortable truths and produce the data to disrupt the prevailing narrative that is this broken cyle of Boston Public Schools as the prodical son of the 17th House of alpha F Alpha Fraternity Incorporated I follow in the footsteps of my brother Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Junior by working at MIT to learning to leverage AI to help me prioritize my well-being as a radical Act of Civil Disobedience thank you your time is up thank you thank you very much oh also I have your laptop you never sent me the stuff so I just want to record I can return it right now but I also would like my personal belongings back please thank you next speaker is Debra FY good evening my name is Deb FY and I'm testifying on behalf of the Coalition for accountability and Justice I am a co-founder of end workplace abuse and the co-author of the workplace psychological safety act and I am entering into public record a report that summarizes findings from conversations with more than 100 current and former central office managers principls and co-leaders this 117 page report describes a racist sexist and hostile work environment within the Boston Public Schools central office the report exposes that the system is working exactly as it is intended for white supremacy the report details a work culture rif with low morale and high turnover rates there has been a 41% churn rate in only one year for the top leaders in the district costing an estimated annual $7 million in tax money to replace employees and a large increase in the retaliatory tactic of paid administrative leave or Pal which increased by nearly $1 million starting in 2021 or 57% and wasted tax dollars by paying two people for one role the report describes that a reporter and more than a dozen retired principles and other administrators of color alerted Acting Superintendent eckelson and incoming superintendent Skipper about a 2020 2 Memo by former BPS employee Charles grandson 30 seconds describing the increase in the number of black and brown BPS senior administrators out on pal the outcry led to an incomplete BPS funded review of pal determinations and disciplinary outcomes that resulted in no change to BPS practices or policies with school buildings crumbling and student achievement at alarming levels this waste with no accountability for the central office of BPS is inexcusable parents are losing faith in BPS schools students are fleeing it is time for immediate action to regain public trust and Lead transparency honesty and integrity thank you next [Music] speaker is Teresa prer followed by Nathan prer my name is is this on yes my name is Teresa prazer of Roxberry I have two children at the Boston Latin Academy and one child who received a spot at the West ELC in the fall my son attended the West ELC and when it was time to enroll my daughter in the lottery my husband and I deci decided to put the West DLC as number two on our list because our son had such a positive experience had there been any level of community engagement or communication we would not have chosen the West DLC for our child only for the school to close in one year later BPS has promised to do better with parent engagement but in my 9 years as a BPS parent my experience is that parent engagement has only decreased I enrolled my Rising K2 student in the first round the lottery at a time when she would have had a good chance of getting into a school that was not closing in one year but BPS chose not to communicate the closure until May after she had had a seat for over a month that and that choice was taken from us days before being informed of the closure was in a meeting with J Escalon where he was talking about the reason kzero spots were being thrusted upon K1 classrooms he said it was because B BPS had a very large shortage of kzero spots and the district need to do whatever they could to provide more seats he said the best option for kzero seats was really Early Learning Centers and growing or even building new Early Learning Centers is the best long-term option hearing this made receiving the news that the West ELC closure more shocking why when BPS says elc's are the best option for our youngest children especially the highest children are they closing the school I understand BPS needs to close some schools but why the West ELC shouldn't the closures happen when it's absolutely necessary they're saying no major um Renovations are going to happen to the henan and the identified cost savings the teacher the ratio of children to teachers is going to be more children to teachers the fact that sharing a building with the the henan is an asset and it's they have a lot of your time is up I sent my testim thank you very much next speaker is Nathan Pazer all right hi everyone I'm Nathan prazer I live in Roxberry and I'm currently finishing up my freshman year at Boston Boston Latin Academy excuse me um I attended the West Early Learning Center in 201 5 through 2016 for first grade I came to the West DC after going to the Higgins St Louis for a month in my short time at the higginson Lewis I had a pretty bad experience with a school school felt really big to me the kids were pretty rough and the teacher yelled a lot um so I left the higginson Lewis because I wasn't learning a lot and I wasn't having much fun either so my start to education in Boston Public Schools was off to a portion start um but when I came to the West DLC I had a better experience the school was a lot more comfortable classroom was calm there were three teachers in my classroom I learned a lot and I had a ton of fun so once I started going to the West DLC I experienced a strong sense of community there my teachers cared for every student and had the time to help each student and the students were friendly to each other and the students even seemed to have a community with other teachers and staff in the school which was pretty cool because the school is tight and close together so being surrounded by such a strong Community gave me a better impression of public education and I was more motivated to do my best in school um because Everyone Cared and helped me to do my best so 30 seconds I was ready for when I went to my next school the Nathan Hil School in Fort Hill my first year there was rough because I my teacher left after about two months but so I had substitutes despite that did my best to finish the good grades following years was blessed with good teachers and continue to try hard now finishing freshman year Summa Kumar um so please don't close the West DLC because thank you very much thank you next speaker is Erica Herman good evening my name is Erica Herman it is a superintendent's ethical and legal responsibility to fulfill her duties with honesty and integrity while protecting civil and human rights of all individuals this committee is responsible for supervising and evaluating the superintendent I implore you to demand she call off the attacks on me personally and professionally I am no longer employed by BPS yet the attacks keep coming this Administration continues to widely spread defamatory remarks even going so far as to call parents intimidating them not to speak on my behalf the fishing Expedition continued sending a legal demand letter to our foundation threatening a long-standing board member and a funer to this district and now a cease and deist letter from Labor Relations because I have yet to update my LinkedIn profile I know longer work to indicate I no longer work in BPS I sincerely hope our legal team has larger problems and priorities focused on students and families and not spending valuable time monitoring former employees social media posts I have already been disposed of by this Administration and I'm having to fight to receive my correct wages and even collect my personal belongings the superintendent ignored the law bypassed her own circulars violated my du's process rights defamed my character with lies and in ignored my claims to the office of equity if this Administration was really worried about furpa violation they would notify the employee whose confidential Personnel record was erroneously included in mine violating her right to privacy in circular HRS popo6 if this Administration cared about confidentiality the chief of staff would not have read alowed a confidential investigative report at a family council meeting if superintendent Skipper herself cared about employe rights would not have shared such a defamatory letter to families to the Boston Globe and a direct violation of my my rights silent speaks thank you our next group of speakers is are Nicolas Sal Lopez rose Perez Charlie TI Lauren laferty and Lauren omal Singh Nicolas Lopez good evening the B Public School Center office is failing our children silence our families abusing the employees the public has pleaded a scream reported petition rally and protested to ours committee mayor wood and super attender Skipper we all have been inore and silence when I feel unheard and I just I just sto speaking hash silent speak e e 30 seconds thank than you Miss Perez M Lopez your time is up next speaker is RO Rose Perez good evening school committee and superintendant my name is Rose Perez and I live in West Roxbury I'm also a bilingual BPS school psychologist I work at the William Monro trer and nethan hail elementary schools I'm giving testimony today because I'm alarmed that the district is cutting seven school psychology positions there already Aren't Enough Mental Health Providers to support the stud students current needs there are students at my schools who struggle to stay seated May throw chairs or have other behaviors that make it difficult to learn they will get there with high levels of support however cuts of school psychology positions take away some of this support on the other side of the spectrum there are students who may just show signs of being at risk for various mental health disorders studies show that we can prevent the later onset of depression anxiety alcoholism and drug use with early intervention however without enough staff these students fall through the cracks all students need to feel safe and supported in order to learn every student deserves access to a mental health provider who has a manageable case load so they can focus on students wellbeing every student referred for special education for struggling in school deserves a comprehensive evaluation so their team can understand their needs this takes about 12 hours every school deserves a tier one climate team or comprehensive behavioral mental health Team to improve the experience of all the community members of a school children teachers and families these teams are also excellent venues to address inequities School psychologists are vital members or often um lead these teams such as myself because of their particular training to improve systems and School climate we need to add more positions to continue to make positive change for students and to take away school psychology positions would be going backwards thank you for listening to my testimony thank you next speaker is Charlie Titus even chair Robinson superintendent Skipper distinguished committee members um I am here my name is Charlie Titus um I am a product of the Boston public school system and a proud graduate of Boston Technical High School now John D O'Brien High School um I'm here on behalf of the renaming of the Burke School in favor of uh the Dr Holland school I think that you've heard enough over the last last several months um and it seems to me that a compelling case has been made been made I don't want to rehash all that's already been said so I want to tell you three things I think you should know about Dr Holland and then I want to try to quickly run through a chronological list of his um his employment in the school department so that you have that context um so let me just say Dr harand a man of High character a man of who word and possesses unshakable Integrity absolutely unshakable he's committed to community building particularly through Youth Development and service to others he has great family values and practices those values every day within his immediate family his vast extended family and in his workplace so Al came into the school system in 1975 Mary and Fay he brought him in she was superintendent um he was an on budsman and special advisor to the superintendent this 30 seconds during school to say already huh all right so I'm not gonna get to the chronological I'll submit it but let me just say this um W he's a person from our community who they can who you can build a historic course content on leadership mentoring student engagement and why why a school is named after a guy who used to live in that neighborhood it's an opportunity for this school committee and the superintendent to do that within our community and to have your time is up please send you can either give it to me and I will send it to the member so you can send it to me by email yeah Charlie just submit the comments but but that's yes thank you I'm sorry I'm a coach I have never done any it's all good you do well is you great thank you great thank you very much next group of speakers are Laur oh no Lauren lefery good evening my name is Lauren laferty and I was a Boston Public School employee for the last for 16 years Garner pilot Academy was my intern site while I received my Master's Degree at Harvard I had stayed there because the school vision and commitment to community Hub restored my faith in public education I'm deeply saded that my time at GPA came to such an Abrupt and abrasive ending with absolutely no warning or clear reason we were being praised at public speaking engagements by the superintendent this fall and then suddenly our leadership was under attack including my position using our staffing autonomy I worked a hybrid schedule like that of over 400 central office managerial leaders including the superintendent however after nearly nine years of a hybrid work schedule that schedule was abruptly changed with no opportunity to engage in a dialogue about why this would be detrimental to our Hub School model the stress of this shift both physically and emotionally required me to go on FMLA resulted in a surgery as well as mental health implications I made attempts to speak with the superintendent had numerous conversations with the office of human capital and made formal requests to the office of equity with adequate Vis documentation which were denied against medical advice superintendent Skipper told our governing board there is no exception to allowing school-based employees to work a flexible work schedule however there are many examples in which school staff have been afforded the opportunity to work a flexible schedule it is quite astounding the superintendent used my flexible work Arrangement a schedule as a reason why my principal was terminated from her position it is with great dismay that this committee remains complicit to superintendent Skipper's behavior and does not hold her accountable to Le for leading with integrity and honesty the students and families of Boston deserve much better thank you thank you next speaker is Lauren om Al Singh Miss omali Singh no then we continue with the next group of speakers Minard col pepper David Lewis Kathy Breer and Abdi Ali and Delany Peña Minard col pepper thank you madam chair my name is Reverend Minard Co pepper I thank you superintendent and to the school committee I come excited about supporting the name change to Dr Abby Holland there's been a lot of discussion about Al's work at uh the Burke and other schools but I want to take uh my two minutes to talk about Al's work during busing Al was at South Boston high school I was a student at English high school we all went to the Roxbury Boys and Girls Club where Al Holland Peter param Ron Grant and others were our mentors I'm not sure how we would have fared without the mentoring of Al Holland during busing the trauma I mean we all feel the trauma we'll never get through it in a way that there won't be activation points based on what happens in Boston but I think non Al Holland uh the principal of the jiah Burke takes us a long way into making some amends for what happened to Boston I think Martin Luther King said it right when he said the time is always right to do what is right I think this is a time to make some amends to do what is right to show the city of Boston that during busting some of the most difficult days in this city that during busting we now can look back at it and we can do what is right and begin to make some amends so that the young folks that are now in the city of Boston can look back on the history and see that we are working now to begin to write the history that was so cruel and mean to us I'm not sure if I would have went to law school without how I'm not sure if I would have went to Howard dity School without Al Holland I'm not sure if I would have went to Brash University without Al Holland we need the school's name to become the do harand so when we ride down Washington Street we can all smile and look back at history and a glamorous way thank you so much thank you our next speaker is David Lewis Follow by Kathy Brooker sorry yeah Kathy Brooker is gonna go first please that's okay good evening I'm Kathy Brooker ESL teacher BT R and governing board member at bcla McCormack 7 to2 pilot school now named Ruth bapson Academy um first I'd like to start by thanking the school committee and uh Capital planning for listening to us this year and putting us on the priority list for a facility upgrade with BPS in the city of Boston I'm here this evening though to highlight our ongoing concerns about our current facilities and to request that BPS pledge that it will maintain our current budget for next year regardless of possible changes to our enrollment last year we submitted a facility's vision that among many needs identified and asked for five more classrooms and an office space to accommodate our incoming students and our High Park staff we were told we could use rooms at the de at the end of April 2024 our school leader was alerted to the fact that we couldn't have the number of rooms we asked for and negotiations started again since then we have had to try to advocate for a solution that does not involve our adolescent students using spaces that were designed for kindergarteners even if we're able to get more usable classroom spaces at the de this plan is still shortsighted and inadequate until our building is fully renovated projected to be 5 years all of our incoming seventh graders will be separated from our community and as our youngest students will'll have to negotiate moving between two buildings for lunch specialty class classes and resource room 30 seconds these same students will be separated from their counselor social worker and mental health clinici conditions and this plan requires dedicated staff to support them in the de and to move from building to building we're concerned that the inadequacy of our facilities will lead to a decrease in student enrollment as families see these conditions and decide to send their children elsewhere our request is that BPS guarantees that it will maintain our current budget so that we can continue our mission to to provide a high quality education and without the threat of having to cut positions thank you I'll email testimony good evening school committee uh thank you for giving our school an audience um and for your continued support of Ruth Batson Academy my name is David Lewis and I'm a school counselor and a member of the governing board and a Dorchester resident I want to highlight some of the facilities needs that our governing board laid out over a year ago that are still unmet and our quality of life issues for our students stud and staff here are some examples bathrooms students and staff do not have adequate bathrooms student bathrooms are in poor condition staff have only one single use bathroom per floor for a staff of over a 100 the plumbing and our defunct locker room could create additional staff bathrooms but BPS has no plans to renovate these spaces anytime soon water we're still relying on deliveries of bottled water despite requesting new water fountain fountains such as those installed in other schools in 2021 the five gallon jugs are less healthy for our students and worse for the environment Jim our gym needs a full renovation as it stands now we cannot host games for a volleyball team despite having enough players to field a team even some basic aesthetic upgrades would be a start for years we've had the same broken down Planters greeting students and staff I brought some pictures which I've shared with Miss parix to to share with you I was one of the members of the governing board that voted to change our name to to Ruth Batson Academy I love what Ruth Batson represents the fight for educational Justice for students in Boston however it's embarrassing to see Ruth Batson's name fixed to his school bu building with these conditions it feels inauthentic or Worse hypocritical um chair and vice chair and Dr Atkins have visited our school and witnessed these conditions um and I know you're working with the school uh with the school district on behalf of our community but we're asking for Action now um what we're asking for is that BPS addressed the 15 of our 24 requests from last April and that BPS facilities and Capital Management set up a meeting with our governing board by September 2024 um to go over these requests much thank you your time is up thank you next speaker is Abdi Ali good evening chair Robinson school committee members and superintendent Skipper my name is ABD Muhammad Ali I'm the son of the late Dr Michael Le Haynes who for almost eight decades served the city of Boston its families and children I'm a lifelong resident of Roxbury My Two children attended the Rafael Hernandez I'm also the founder at one point of B Boston Arts Academy faculty founder worked in the Boston public schools for almost three decades until my departure in 2022 I'm also the executive director of Wright Boston which has served the Boston public schools for 25 years I'm here in support of the renaming of the Jeremiah e Burke High School as the Dr Albert D Holland School of Technology in 1993 and this is very person to me Dr Holland recruited me as a teacher for the Boston public schools and for the next uh three decades uh Dr Holland mentored supported coached advised he has been my standard Bearer my anchor uh in this profession he has been doing the same for many school leaders and Educators in the Boston public schools for 50 years working to coach and Mentor new SK School leaders 30 seconds in 1982 after seven years championing the desegregation of the Boston Public Schools Dr Holland was appointed the Headmaster of the Jeremiah Burke High School and elevated its National profile Dr Holland is an astounding outstanding educator role model he deserves it he's earned to have the school renamed for him thank you thank you very much our next speaker is deleni Peña theen Peña delen Peña is not here we will now transition to Virtual testimonies please make sure you sign into to zoom with the same name you use to sign up for public comment and be prepared to unmute yourself and turn on your camera when it's your turn to testifies test if I please raise your virtual hand when I call your name our next group of speakers are is Tanya Woodward Linda Parker John mud and Mike hman Tanya Woodward please accept the prompt you can you can start I can start yes could you please turn on your video thank you thank you you're welcome good evening it is with a heart of joy and an unwavering Spirit oh I'm Tanya wood the principal of the henan school in Jamaica plane it is with a heart of joy and an unwavering spirit that I speak before you tonight as the proud leader of the hen School throughout my tenure at the school spanning over 22 years I have worked diligently towards establishing our school as a beacon of educational Excellence where we celebrate our Scholars collaborate with families and remain responsive to the needs of our community my school's dedication to these principles allows us to cultivate a nurturing environment where every child can thrive at our school we are dedicated to shaping the leaders of the future nurturing compassionate and enlightened Scholars who show the strength and determination to rise above any barriers they encounter we celebrate our scholar successes accompany them on their Journeys and join hands with our families to ensure that their child is surrounded with love and with the resources they need I am filled with excitement as I express my support for this incredible opportunity to expand our vision we are poised to welcome another school community that mirors our firm commitment to the growth and success of our Scholars and families in coming together we can forge an even stronger educational setting where our unified effort will yield extraordinary futures for future Scholars together we can construct a harmonious School environment that not only upholds our shared Devotion to Excellence but also Embraces the rich diversity University and strengths of our combined communities we look forward to working with the staff Scholars and families of the West Zone ELC working side by side to ensure a seamless transition and radiant future for all I thank you for your support and dedication to our mission as we embark on this new journey I am confident that United in purpose and heart thank you very much greatness for our Sol Community thank you next speaker is Linda Parker hi my name is Linda Parker I am a ji B alumni class of 1988 and a former Boston Public School teacher I also reside in Dorchester I stand before you in support of renaming the Jeremiah Eber High School to Dr Albert D harand High School Mr harand goes above and beyond the Call of Duty to help people I have been knowing him since I was a freshman in high school and Mr Holland is still my mentor and he supports me whenever I need every time I call him he answers I can't remember one time he told me no or didn't figure out a way to make my situation better he doesn't just do it for me he does it for many people he made it makes a difference in so many people's lives Mr Holland is loved by so many people let's show him that we appre appreciate all he has done while he is still living renaming the Jeremiah Burke to Dr Albert D harand is the least we can do to H him so I stand before you in support of changing the name of the school thank you very much next speaker is John mud good evening my name is John I'm a longtime resident of Cambridge and a longtime education advocate in Boston we have heard from the district that there are not more substantial facilities proposals because they first need to develop more trust with the community and that the way the district can develop trust is by implementing proposals well this is fundamentally misguided it is the wrong way to develop Trust many of us have said many times that the way to build trust is to engage the community in the development of plans for their schools not just in their implementation treat parents and stakeholders as adults as respected Partners in planning not as children who need to be told what is best for them after the mess that was created and springing the plan for the o'briant on the community without warning after the upset and opposition you will no doubt here tonight from the West Zone Early Learning Center parents who were given only a few days warning about the closing of their schools why can't you learn why do you have to keep repeating these mistakes it is clearly not a winning strategy you are losing both in not facing up to the need for a master facilities plan and in not building a foundation of trust to move forward it's a mystery why BBS would continue in this way people haven't actually experienced what genuine Community engagement is there are many of us who would be willing to try to help you understand can BPS accept help of this kind you know now have the time to delay action this year and transform your approach for next year will you meet this opportunity and challenge thank you for hearing My Views thank you very much Mr M next speaker is Mike heishman Mike kishman dochester I testify this evening as an individual and not as a member of any organization silence speaks 100 plus voices beyond the trauma is a report written by many past and present BPS educational leaders it is is being released to the school committee and the public at tonight's meeting recently I have received a draft copy of this long report and confess that I've read and digested less than half of this compelling story it is a story that began a long time ago education schooling has long been an arena of struggle between those who use force and control in the service of the power structure versus those who aspire to educate and liberate in order to create a more just world it's my conviction that an essential part of the mission of our educational leaders is to fight for the best interest of all of our children being that kind of leader is a challenge I do not believe that the authors of this report have performed their duties perfectly they are all human they all have weaknesses they all make mistakes and if Justified they should be held accountable un the leadership of our current superintendant I believe that the hd's educational Justice leaders has significantly escalated the authors believe that the major reason for the retaliation and H Sim is because they have deared to speak out against the top BSC leadership I am testifying this evening because I believe this is the truth I am proud to stand in solidarity with the authors and demand further investigations and action to remedy the harm that has been done mayor woo what are you going to do about this report the school committee what are you going to do about this report thank you very much thank you Mr Hyman next group of speakers are Ruby Reyes Cheryl Buckman Mora Smith Melissa Jones and Austina  Ruby Reyes uh my name is Ruby Reyes and I'm the executive director of the Boston education Justice Alliance and Dorchester resident since 2018 the build BPS and green New Deal stakeholders Coalition has demanded that BPS create a systemwide long-term facilities plan complete with specific building plans implementing the racial Equity planning tool with Fidelity to determine if plans are Equitable by race socioeconomic status neighborhood disability and linguistic groups and share the tools analysis publicly and release a financial report and an educational plan regarding programs grade reconfigurations Extended Learning Time and student assignment the group adds that prior to merging or closing of a school BPS must have a new modern facility ready for students in the affected School the process has not adhered to the community engagement outlined in the racial Equity planning tool thus far the tool asks the key questions how have black Latin X elel special ed and economically disadvantaged students families and staff and other internal and external stakeholders been engaged in considering and shaping The Proposal is the plan realistic and adequately resourced the answer to these questions is no stakeholders have not been engaged in considering or shaping the proposals that have come forward they were decisions that were already made and are being pushed upon them and we know the plans are not realistic or adequate resourced because there's a list of schools whose promised Renovations and new buildings haven't been completed yet with the McKinley and Blackstone their promised Renovations have virtually disappeared from progress The westone Learning Center Community does not want to close nor should they have to they are one of the very few Early Learning Centers in BPS mayor Woo's campaign promises a commitment to Early Education so why close a desperately needed Early Learning Center with a newly hired principal why put get another school Community through more trauma without being thoughtful thank you your time is up thank you next speaker is Cheryl Buckman Cheryl Buckman please accept the prompt so we will sh bman is not accepting the prompt we will continue with Mora Smith and we can come back to you Mora Smith hi my name is Mara Smith I'm a parent to three children at or entering West Zone Early Learning Center and I'm speaking today about the proposal to close it I'm urging the school committee to vote no passing it with create a dangerous precedent that the district can take can make top- down decisions about school closures and the future of our children's education without proper justification or any direct Community engagement my family already endured one disastrous and deeply traumatic School closure at Mission Hill this experience feels eerily similar once again the district is acting without any dialogue with the community directly impacted by its decision once again a huge life-altering decision I watched you speak yesterday on on the record when asked whether you were abandoning a previous BPS strategy of quote top- down decisions where BPS quote goes ahead and closes a school without actually checking in with communities of sorry families about what they want unquote I heard you commit to working with and fully engaging the community at every step of the way but you have not done that you decided to close our Beloved School despite the fact that it is meeting all of BP his own benchmarks for enrollment and achievement without talking to us you haven't been able to explain why such a thriving successful school was targeted for closure we are asking you to do precisely what you said yesterday should be done we're asking you to recognize that the process matters as much if not more than the outcome along with over 100 parents and caregivers from our small West Community who signed a p a petition paper last week and hundreds of Boston residents who signed our online petition we we are asking you for a voice in this decision please vote no and give us the chance to collaborate on preserving and replicating the things that make West zone so special things that we believe should be modeled throughout BPS a dedicated Early Education focus with low student teacher ratios free surround care which every school should have a high quality curriculum that includes dance physical education music and storytelling your time up thank you I vote no next speaker is Melissa Jones good evening members of the school committee thank you for allowing me to address you this evening my name is Melissa Jones and I'm a first grade seci teacher at the jamesw hingan school I've been a part of the hingan community since September 1999 first as an americ Corp member and now as an early childhood teacher for the last 22 years I feel very fortunate to have been a part of this diverse and multilingual Community I'm here to speak in support of expanding the henan community to k0 to 6th grade I'm speaking on behalf of myself and members of the henigan K to2 team that could not be here tonight first we'd like the members of the ELC Community to know that we empathize with the families students and staff impacted by the potential closure of the West Zone ELC but we are excited for the opportunity that this presents for the scholars in both communities and we look forward to working closely together with all involved as the the transition potentially happens I've spoken with some of our families who have young children and they are excited by the opportunity to have their child in one seat from k0 to 6th grade with minimizing interruptions we are excited to enhance the connection between our staff and the ELC with existing relationship spanning both schools professional collaboration will enable us to more effectively support our students during the expansion of classrooms across all grade levels the hening and Community is also working through our own loss of family students and staff members as our seventh and eighth grade Community transitions to other schools but we really want to focus on the positive impact for Scholars and families that will be provided by expanding access to increased k0 K1 seats and providing families and students a Continuum of educational services and to remain in our school from k0 to grade 6 we're also excited about becoming a Hub community school where we will be able to offer wraparound Services for Families in Need we think this is a great opportunity for the Jamaica plane Roxbury and Dorchester communities thank you again for this opportunity to speak for myself and the hening in early childhood team thank you very much we're going to try Cheryl Buckman again good evening my name is Cheryl Bachman I'm a parent to a fifth grader at the de and Dorchester I'm also a member of fosa long life resident of South Boston I'm here because I'm deeply invested in the well-being of our CH our students and their right to a high quality education my son's school is expected to lose 10% of its Educators in an SEI program plus the de was promised a new play area for the students to play in and it yet has fallen to the Wayside do the parents of the deor even have a say in what happens in their community or does the school committee already make that decision for us BPS you should be investing in our children's future by adding more Educators that have one license to teach programs like inclusion Done Right Mental Health Services fully staff libraries equal pay for our Educators without these proper components how do our children spread their wings to learn this is a major insult after all our Educators have been our community's backbone during and after a historic pandemic having our Educators and children suffered enough by eliminating our Educators who will be there to teach our children to taking the programs that helped our children Thrive isn't the answer as well hasn't School hasn't schools like the deor suffered enough I come to you as a parent tonight to please reconsider the choice choices you are making because the wrong one will impact our children for many years to come I also urge the school committee to vote no on closing the West Zone thank you thank you very much the last speaker for this first hour is Austina  Austina good evening members of the school committee my name is Austina and I'm a resident of Jamaica plane I am a parent of a student at Weston Early Learning Center over the past days our incredible Community has voiced our strong opposition with compelling reasons that underscore why our school should remain open why close Weston Early Learning Center a high achieving school that provides high quality seeds and Surround care to Boston Working Families Weston Early Learning Center focuses on early childhood education its dedicated Specialists Educators trained staff and enriching educational programs make it a model that should be replicated and not closed the decision to close our school did not include the voices and needs of our community moreover The Proposal lacks a concrete plan and the only aspect we are aware of is this oneyear transition period which is a very concerning concerning aspect of the plan to me because Educators during that year and families everyone should be expected to work and show up without knowing what the future holds for everyone after the closure I urge you to vote no on the closure of westone Early Learning Center instead keep it open and replicate it excellent model to expand the city's early education programs which are greatly needed I ask you to allocate resources to support Young Learners ensuring the receive the necessary Foundation to thrive and contribute to a vibrant future for Boston thank you for your time and consideration thank you very much chair that concludes our first hour of speakers thank you Miss parix and thanks you to those of you who spoke this evening and shared your perspectives your testimony is very important to us all right our second action item this evening is the approval of interim salary and non-personnel payments on external funds you'll recall that Chief Financial Officer David Bloom presented this recommendation to the committee at our June 5th meeting I'll now invite the superintendant to offer any final comments uh thank you chair uh nothing additional uh CFO Bloom is here but um this is uh really our performer for our ability to be able to continue to um approve grants and funding uh continuation throughout the summer but CFO Bloom is here as well thank you I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee no okay I'll now entertain a motion to approve the interim salary and non-personnel payments on external funds as presented is there a motion is there a second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion Miss prex will you please call the RO Dr alkins yes Mr hernandes Miss Lima Barbosa yes Miss palanco Garcia Mr Tran yes Mr Neil yes Miss Robinson yes the the motion is approved unanimously thank you our third action item this evening is the renaming proposal of the jeremi Eber High School to the Dr Albert D Holland High School of Technology now at like to turn it over to the superintendent for any FAL comments uh thank you chair uh so tonight we're also asking for a vote affirmative to approve changing the name of the Jeremiah e Burke High School to the Dr Albert D Holland High School of Technology I think as you heard last week from school leader Amil car Silva and school administrator Greg Hill this proposal follows a robust public process you've also heard from so many supporters myself included who spoke to Dr Holland's distinguished career at BP PS his leadership of the Burke and his many contributions to the district which continue today Dr Holland's a lifelong Boston resident and a retired BPS administrator who spent 50 years working in our schools serving as the head of school at the Burke a former BPS student and student athlete Dr Holland also served in District leadership positions including BPS High School Superintendent he's been recognized and published for his many accomplishments in the community and field of Education since his retirement in 2008 Dr Holland has continued to support the work of our district by coming out of retirement in and supporting in different schools Dr Holland is currently still giving back to PPS by mentoring and coaching new District school leaders every day uh for so many reasons this is uh the right decision and I would ask you to vote uh in favor of this proposal thank you I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee I'll just quickly say um it was really heartening to hear from so many people about Dr Holland and from all the the love and support he's given this District as I said last in our last meeting I think of him as our firefighter because we have called him so many times when we've had problems and I'm not really sure if the word no is in Dr Holland's vocabulary unless someone says Dr Holland have you done enough um and so I think the old of them and I fully support this I do make two requests one is superintendent we have to make sure that we fill the second part of this when we say School of Technology that means curriculum that means Staffing that means Partnerships that means hardware and software um internships for our students in technology you know career Pathways we we owe it to Dr Holland to have the second piece of that be at the level that he deserves um and second as as I mentioned last week and it really brought it home when Miss Lima boso and I were out at Burke for the graduation and talking to some folks there it's you know the way to bridge that gap for folks who graduate from Burke and may not know Dr harand but have there's a lot of Burke pride and um I don't know if it's naming a burke alumni room or something like that but learning from um Tech Boston in the past that you know became o'briant rightfully so just just allowing a a bridge for bur Alum to still feel a connection to the school even with a different name and many of them will be excited to learn about Dr Holland and and why we're naming it but I just think it's important we do that out of respect for the Burke Alum that feel that pride of school that you feel the second you walk in that building so those are the two requests I make thank you second those request anyone else I will now entertain a motion to approve the name Dr Albert D harand High School of Technology is there a motion so moved thank you is there a second is there any discussion or objection to the motion Miss Prix will you please call the RO Dr alkins yes Mr K hernandz Miss Lima Barbosa yes Miss palan Garcia Mr Tran yes Mr O'Neil yes M Robert yes the motion is passed unanimously thank you and thank you to all our last our last action item this evening is the closure proposals for the school year 2526 the closures of the Lyla Frederick middle school and the West Zone Early Learning Center now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments thank you chair so tonight we're here to ask for approval of several measures that are an important part of our long-term facilities planning we're asking specifically the committee to vote to approve two things the closure of the westone Early Learning Center and its consolidation into the henigan school and the closure of the Frederick pilot Middle School the district's last Standalone Middle School first I'd like to thank the school communities the school leaders staff students and families we recognize that closures are not easy but the work work we're doing is important for the entire District's ecosystem and future generations of students and as we continue to move forward with our Capital planning efforts closures will be part of our long-term work but we need to continue to invest in our schools in both high quality instruction and Facilities so all students have access to Great Schools to make significant and impactful generational change the entire District must move in the same direction we're doing that work now we are aligning our entire system across departments and schools to do this work and ensure that all students have access to the education and support needed to fully engage and succeed the vision is supported by three pillars creating and improving academic and enrichment programs for example our implementation of inclusive education and Equitable literacy which we presented back on June 5th expanding bilingual education SLI and newcomer programming and strengthening the secondary school ecosystem secondly secondly structural change like the Strategic expansion of high quality seats minimizing student Transitions and increasing access to strong School choices for all students by rethinking student assignment and special education policies and lastly investing in our facilities through new builds Renovations and closures merges and consolidations like the ones you are voting on tonight well we are not closing any secondary schools this year we are laying the foundation to get all of our high school students into high quality seats yes closures are one strategy but we will use an entire toolkit of strategies to get our students what they need we are committed team and City dedicated to doing the work alongside the community to move us forward the vote you are being asked to take on the Frederick middle school and the West Zone ELC are not happening in isolation we have made unprecedented investments in creating facilities equipped to support the highquality student experience more than in the past 40 years combined and we are making clear transition Pathways districtwide with grade reconfigurations we are listening closely in addressing Community concerns as we go we are striving to get better with each step this is long-term work we are dedicated to getting it right and continuing to improve the process the Frederic closure was first announced on January 10th of 2024 is part of the BPS phase out of middle schools but has not formally been approved the Frederick is the last freestanding Middle School to close following the district's implementation of a 2019 policy to shift to a district ride pre 6 7 to 12 and pre 8 9 to 12 grade configuration this creates fewer Transitions and clear Pathways thereby eliminating traditional middle schools the current state of the West Zone LC in henan is that they share a school building and are squeezed tightly into it there are a total of two planned k0 K1 classrooms for 2425 school year between the two schools staff at both schools currently lack adequate instructional space you can regularly see teachers delivering courses on carts the proposed future State through this proposal adds four classrooms in k K1 including new substantially separate classrooms we determine the specific substantially separate programming in the years to come in partnership with the school communities we know that there's a need in the area to serve more early Learners with disabilities this proposal helps us to meet that need central office teams will collaborate with school leaders and school communities to determine future sustainability of separate programming so sorry future substantially separate programming and prioritize vacated space from the eliminated 7th and eth grades for Specialists itinerant and family center spaces to get teachers off carts and into instructional spaces this proposal allows the district to meet key priorities to expand access to the high quality student experience by expanding Early Childhood seats particularly for students with disabilities by providing additional opportunities for inclusion and partial inclusion settings by ensuring strong academic programming for S students by maximizing our physical footprint to provide more flexible spaces for instruction planning resource rooms and family centers I'd like to take a moment to talk about the engagement with the West Zone ELC henan and Frederick communities and explain how we have defined Community engagement first a thorough Community engagement process led to the development of the policies we are using to guide decision making once a proposal is put forward the first questions we ask are what is the best process to get us to where we're going and how will we engage the community for example if it's a grade reconfiguration Community engagement is about ensuring that impacted students and staff are supported to make the transition as smooth as possible if it's a school closure like the Frederick Community engagement is about working to identify try ways to support all who are impacted including students staff families and the surrounding Community we have been engaging with the West Zone and henigan school communities since early May through public meetings letters to families and office hours for the school staff Capital planning staff were at the building just yesterday we have allowed the entire 24 25 school year to deepen that engagement and ensure the new community will have everything it needs together we have responded to community concerns and committed to the following relative to the westone ELC and the henigan guaranteeing every student at the westone ELC a spot at the henan provide free extended day programming make facilities improvements at the henan make the new henan prek to 6 a community Hub School model to provide increased support for students and families expanded learning time and strategic Partnerships in service of increased academic and social emotional opportunities all coordinated through Community engagement collaborate on outstanding questions concerning Staffing programming and operations keeping the entire building open for learning as the henigan 3K to 6 school and committing to ongoing transparent engagement and Communications we will continue to work with the school communities through two work groups launching this fall we began convers ations about the future of the Frederick building with the Frederick governing board leadership in the spring of 2024 and met with them most recently on Friday June 14th we will accelerate and broaden Community conversations this spring and summer BPS is grateful to the Frederick Community for being active and thoughtful participants in the planning process and is committed to the following principles that the governing board has elevated maintaining the name of the Leela G Frederick was long time advocate for education and empowerment in Grove Hall and for the school continue to use the building for Community purposes during any potential transition period instead of leaving the building vacant maintaining access for future generations of students in Grove Hall and the surrounding community and maintaining the future occupants of the building as a community Hub school with Partnerships and neighborhood organizations hopefully um we've been able to answer and address I think in any of these situations there can be a lot of information that the community receives sometimes there can be confusion the team is committed to continuing to meet to clarify but most importantly to reassure in both cases that we will continue to honor the things that we've promised here that we're saying publicly uh and to do that with the community and to do it during the transition year of 2425 uh so chair those are my comments I also know that Chief Santa L and her team are here whether there be any specific questions so I'll turn it back to you thank you now open it up to questions and comments from the committee Dr um so what we what I'm holding um particularly with this is what are we learning in terms of the timing of of Engagement um um it seems that a lot of the particularly the comments that we heard here tonight one I noticed that there are have been significantly fewer voices I think I've heard from the henigan side and obviously more from the um West um Zone side um but it seems that a lot of this has particularly come it seems that the community feels that they were taken by surprise a little bit on this and so I'm wondering what are we learning about when we need to inform families about a potential closure or a potential conversation of consolidation and um yeah how do how are we thinking about that yeah so Chief Santa do you want to uh come up just because I I want you to be able to speak to you're doing the Deep work with the community engagement part um but what I would say Dr alkins is like I think it's we want to be able to allow the year of transition which think is really important uh for the actual transition itself um it dep you know I think it depends on the grade level and what's happening whether it's a merger a closure uh seventh and eth consolidation like it really depends on what it is um but I think what uh Chief Stanis and the team have done is to try to get all the data and the tools out there for the communities to start to use to be able to look at in the different regions you know what what kinds of how do we generate more high quality seats um in the case of westone and henan this was something that had sort of been brought up um kind of as we're talking with school leaders School staff School communities um and I think that uh we wanted to be able to bring this forward as kind of a together not one at a time um I think going forward for next year Chief Stanislas is going to be working right from the fall on with community region by region to really tease out what those possible closure mergers could be to be able to increase the high quality seats um we've done some analysis in the data of uh by region of highquality seats versus the capacity that we have and there are some regions where it is very mismatched uh very much fewer high quality seats so Dell and her team are going to work very hard in each of the regions but particular focus on the regions where we know we have to make sure that we have solutions that are going to quickly increase high quality seats D I don't know if there's any you want to add yep um thank you for that question good night everyone um D Stanis La Capital planning um just wanted to lean into your question Dr alkins one just wanted to hold a second that like closing a school Community it's not easy so I understand that the community is like grappling with the news of closure so just wanted to hold space for that in terms of engaging the school communities while we were doing the um the work with the long-term facilities plan there's been a there was a series of Engagement through webinars workshops um we held space for the communities to look at the data uh walk the communities through um decision making process how as a district we'll be making decision and closures going forward um and one thing that we heard from the community while we were doing these sessions is that before we bring recommendations to school to the school um committee that school communities wanted to um see hear about the recommendations before they go to school committee so that's something that we changed um this time around instead of bringing it to school committee and leaving a period of time to engage the school community we brought it to the school communities first before we presented it to school committee I think um as the superintendent shared however I do think um there's always space to learn there's always space as a team for us to um improve and one of the things that we started looking at already is how we kind of just like bring our school leaders along in the process um starting the beginning of next school year fall lay out a calendar for um the entire school year um so that uh so that we're bringing our schools along like a lot earlier in the process um I do think um having the operations and the engagement teams for a full year of like transition and working collaboratively and engaging with the school communities um I do think I've seen like some positive sort of like outcomes with like the suar um fil brick through that merger process um and also the Sha Taylor um as we redesigned what their uh work groups sorry their engagement groups look like um after hearing feedback from the school committee and those School community so I think that listening to the community and also um taking their feedback and just like readjusting our engagement planning consistently is important yeah I also it was my mistake senior advisor Grangers is here too and please feel free you should come up as well because you've been intimate in this process no I mean I I I completely see the the year of Engagement as far as the transition I'm thinking also it seems like there's those two phases right so you have that year of transition which I absolutely believe is is necessary and it's also seeming like we're hearing this previous period of Engagement where yeah like that is that decision even worthy of being brought like so I appreciate you you um bringing that to our attention the other question I sort of have with this because I do see the the the stats for the engagement I'm counting about 33 um staff um that you all engaged and you know I'm looking at um about 60 participants between like the sessions that you all at least what I'm reading in the report I'm also wondering um are you all sharing sort of this stakeholder analysis like with the community like after you've done you know the four or five different sessions of community engagement um you know I'm thinking about some of the comments that we heard and um you know I'm looking at the racial Equity planning tool right now which you all have been using like for that so it'd be it would be good for those communities to also see that it's like no we're act there is actual a use of it um and um so I'm wondering how you all are sharing sort of the overall analysis that you are getting after the engagement period um that's a that's a good question I think what we've been doing as a team is getting um so just in terms of like how we share back out with the community one thing we heard from the community is that they would like us to um be really open from Gathering questions from like all all of the community meetings and like sharing that um publicly so that's something that our team has been doing but in terms of uh sort of like additional like analysis like break down like the number of like um attendees uh and all of that good stuff like we've shared it here um however that's not something that we consistently share out but like super open to sharing that out um more publicly um so folks can see the level of Engagement and also sharing it with our the with the school communities no no no that's very that's very helpful particularly as like there's a there's a narrative right that goes along with it where when you're hearing no engagement whatsoever we haven't heard this and if you can point to and you're actually sharing that with them is like not only are we having these meetings but here we're giving the results back to you as to what we heard um and of course um individuals are are always able to um have whatever stance that they have um but I think it's critical for us as we talk about transparency to make sure that we're sharing that stakeholder analys is with them so that we can hear it echoed back that hey you know you're misinterpreting what we what we're communicating to you or um we're just being transparent to say yeah like we've interviewed this many people um as well and I think that would go um a long way in just in terms of transparency as we're talking about Community engagement and where people can fall into that process so no umk thank you for that I'm just wondering the what you all have been doing do so yeah thank you I think that's a great Point thank you so much for that feedback Mr I'll just say um sorry that qu's a little far away I know it's fine um so superintendent what what was important was to me and and you know you have two different situations here right so the Frederick is keeping with the policy of getting rid of middle schools but what I heard in particular was the work you've done with the Grove Hall community and the commitments made about um the name using the building for Community purposes having it available as a BPS School in the future for students from that Community I mean that's listening and working and and making commitments and to me it makes perfect sense and with the henan and and the West Zone you know people hear a school is closing and they think something and then when you read off the Comm if you ask parents at the westone what do you like about it well we like the extended time you know we like the partnership so on and so forth and you walk the building as you and I have together it you know you you're at the West Zone kindergarten classes and then you at the henigan ones and then also you're back at the West Zone ones it's like a mix back and forth and it just you know and having talked to both of the school Leaders with you it it makes sense to me your commitments are that you laid out very specifically tonight are all what Everyone likes about the West zone right and it allows the henan to be strengthened to now be pre to 6 to have the additional room to become a hub and that is huge with the handan that the commitment that that whole building will be kept open as the henan I mean these are important commitments made so to me it gets past the the word that people have a reaction to and when you look at the commitments you've made I I find it encouraging um and thoughtful so I thank you for those commitments and sorry my and sorry and I think the and and I think the point that I'm getting at about mirroring that back to the community then like also helps in the conversation um for it it helps frame and and basically like you know Community engagement is another form of just active listening right and so but I need to be able to repeat back to you is this what we're hearing from this community um and then also with the Frederick um you know thank you to Dr Granger for digging deeper and finding a little bit more context and so my understanding is that that particular um the the issue with the Frederick goes all the way back to 2014 2015 um and really just thinking about um the the ability for them to to particularly I think with um sub separate classrooms I think was one of the the um the the the starting points for for that conversation and then just over the course of changing administrations and things like that things sort of fall through the cracks um and so I think you know as a member of the body I'm you know for me it's just to understand that a school Community went through that and I know that they're not the only example I think of that um is you know I think you know from the committee standpoint that's that's something that we can say that like we apologize to that school community because it fell through the cracks for as long as it did and um but thank you for the continued advocacy for those people who came here um on behalf of the Frederick um but I love that that I do think that you know we're going to be able to for one definitely keep the name um like of it and um just the spirit of that school and so um last thing I wanted to say about that the one thing I I think that we we all are learning and will learn with this whole process that change is difficult no matter how big or small it is um as an early childhood person and as a person who's been very much engaged over many many years um with the Early Learning Centers you know I think they are an amazing model but I think we've also known for 25 or 30 years that um they're not something that alone the district can bring to scale and that over the last several years particularly as a district has engaged and opened up more and more um k0 and K1 classrooms I think an issue that has bothered many of us is understanding the need for surround care for all of our young children particularly given that the rules are different for um 5year olds than it is for threes and fours in family needs for um you know overall surround care um the West Zone I believe is the only school that is a school within a school and there is an early childhood there are already Early Childhood classrooms but it felt like they were two different RS um as difficult as this is for the West zone I'm happy that there is a year um because I feel like we can learn a lot in that year and and not only Advocate with nvps but look in partnership with the city um with the you know to to look at the needs of families I've talked to families in many of the Early Child to and in the elc's who've all said um they feel like they've won the lottery when they've gotten a seat in ELC because it's a program that guarantees them surround care and for many many many of our families um it's a lifesaver um because of the high cost of of child care so I feel like it's not something that we can ignore um at all irregardless of who the families are in a program um this has been a very special program and I wish with all my heart that we could make this Universal because every single family of a young child needs it but I am hoping that we can seriously take this new year to work with families and to work with our early childhood division period to look at this need and to look at it with the city and others to make sure that um we are trying to create a more Equitable opportunity around these opportunities for our young kids thank you um just a little chime in I hear you I understand that uh change is hard but uh in my view change is if changes are are done for the better I support that 100% I I also hear uh Dr Al alin's concern regarding Community um in uh involvement however so far what we have heard I I be very Frank a lot lot of information that or a lot of public testimony that were presented to us I Believe come from alternative facts I don't believe it's true facts I think it's alternative facts whether whether those facts were deliberate or or because of the society the way it is uh I I don't accept them I I do I do understand that you know the the the the community should be a uh you know stakeholder but if if you come here and you provide me with alternative facts don't expect me to hear you so that's how I I take it and again um in my [Music] view it's not it's not a closure we play we were playing with words it's not a closure it's a consolidation but consolidation for better assessment so be it so I'm with you thank you all right thank you all if there's no further discussion I will now entertain a motion to approve the proposal as presented is there a motion so move thank you is there a second second is there any discussion or objection to the motion Miss provix will you please call the role thank you chair Dr alkins yes Miss Lima Barbosa yes Mr Tran yes Mr O'Neal yes and M Robinson yes the motion passes thank you we'll now move on to reports tonight we have just one presentation I'm delighted to welcome Diego MAA our student representative to provide a brief update on the Boston student advisory Council I must also note that this occasion also Marks Mr Mater's final BAC meeting we also want to congratulate Mr Mater for receiving the Marian El herd scholarship at the United Way of Mass Bay congratulations Mr meta we're very proud of you and I won't explain to people what that is um one of the issues as we all know is our school Committee Member does not receive this a stipend for being this and it was actually um and one of our school committee members that worked with the the United Way to provide a scholarship for our student and actually the scholarship is much more than what the um yearlong stip him would have been so Mr MAA is going to receive uh over four years am I correct $14,000 so it's 30 $3500 oh well deserved very proud of you so before Mr Mata starts I want to invite the superintendent to give introductory marks oh I mean I we're just very proud of you Diego I think um you know knowing how much time you have to take to come to our meetings and uh and you participate you ask questions you know you have a sincere interest and you always voice for students not just yourself but for the students you represent which is what be is all about so you've you've really been a great representative and um I've learned a lot from you from the kinds of questions that you ask and I know that when you go on to nor Eastern you're just going to do a great job and who knows maybe you'll be back in the BPS at some point thank you um so uh me pull up all right um so our Academic Year programming focused on uh four student Le initiatives and continued professional development including educational Equity mental health Adultism and anti-racism within BPS um and gain leadership development internally and externally through BPS Partnerships um so our Academic Year highlights 42 students were enrolled in Academic Year programming um from the 28th of dece of November to May 16th uh BAC students uh formed Affinity spaces to promote community and inclusivity within Council from lgbtq and U Brothers at BAC um students participated in financial literacy workshops restorative justice workshops and career development projects um with many different people and members coming in uh students created BAC P passion projects for the first time which are individual research projects and short slideshow demonstrations that highlighted personal experiences um and areas of growth that BPS could have um um these ranged from mental from creating mental health spaces to um trying to um to trying to abolish mcast um collaborating with over 20 organizations and Partnerships internal stakeholders um so in the summer we're going to have a six week long program running from July 1st to August 9th um 30 students are set to enroll uh in community building community service leadership development and student based curriculum um these the subcommittees will be continued and uh projects with Community Building internally and externally from BPS um these are our um so just also some the dotism subcommittee completed a professional development Workshop in video skip um to um to go along with it the mental health subcommittee uh did presentations on the effects of mental health and why more resources need to be provided to to schools regarding mental health and their own solutions for that um the education Equity subcommittee made a video of a day in the life that's heard in schools and a presentation regarding inequities in schools that we attend um and the anti-racism subcommittee cated an anti-racism Workshop in a position paper about current events um these are some highlights we had uh around 275 members from our showcase that happened on May 9th um and over 40 passion projects presented um and we we'd like to thank you guys uh thanks uh Miss Skipper and the rest of the scho committee thank you okay thank you for the update and thank you to all of the BC students who are working to amplify student voices which is so critical to our work Mr Met we appreciate your dedicated service and we wish you all the best in college I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee I just want to say I I went to the Showcase uh and the passion projects were awesome um just going around and being able to talk with the students about why they were picking the particular topic um and and what they they felt they wanted to see us change so it was uh well done I just have a very quick question so Mr meta thank you for your service you've been a great representative of BAC with us for a while now so and best of luck at nor Eastern um and congratulations on the Mary and her and scholarship that's great um I'm just one Cur and I love hearing about the passion projects by the way and I love the name of it right what are you passionate about that's excellent I'm just curious um how many and if you don't know it it's okay but you know the goal of BAC is to represent all of our high schools right and I know how hard it is to get a rep from all the different schools um I think you had you said like there were 42 students enrolled overall but yeah I do not know the current total let me just I happen to have it I do not happen to have it um I am sure that uh Miss Denise Rory will have that information okay great um though I don't think we're missing too many schools but it's so powerful when you're speaking on behalf of all the students right so and to get input from all of them is very helpful absolutely great thank you and enjoyed working with you I too had an opportunity to attend the um your last seminar and was duly impressed um not just by the members of BAC that um were presenting but by the number of other students who had come and I guess my question is back at their high schools how does the work that BAC students are doing as part of BAC do these projects roll back to high schools do you see high schools picking up and as part of their own student councils taking on any of this work um it impacting the schools well most most students um in BAC are part of student gov um as part of a position there so they are participating within student gov um and circling back um with some of the the projects that this committees have worked on for example the adult autism project um they've created a professional development Workshop um so that's going to be going into um into schools eventually so um that's great thank you you have question I don't have any questions just um comments I was involved in student government not in BPS per se but at UMass and I know how important uh to sit at the table it is but also juggling you know school work family and any other responsibilities there is that's a lot so I I know you've inspired other folks uh at BPS your your colleagues and other generations to be able to sit at the table ask the hard questions and truly understand what the BPS system is so you can actually like know what to advocate for uh not only for you but also for uh the overall community so just congratulations looking forward to see what you're going to do after thank you thank you anything else any other questions thank you all thank you well now return to public comment Miss PX thank you we have 16 speakers um first group of speakers is Stephen magana Kathleen shorter Ain Birmingham anadu and Amy amaru stepen Magano Magano is not in the meeting um next speaker is Kathleen shorter back Kathleen shorter is not in the meeting either Arin Birmingham anadu I don't see in the meeting either Amy amaru no Amar is not in the meeting either the next group of speakers is um are Emily kavana Lisa Wong Tanya Yang Kate Michelle Bala and sule Coto Emily kav please raise your hand when I call your name Emily kavana hello please turn on your camera hi um my name is Emily kavana I have a third grader at the Manning and I live in Jamaica plane um tonight I'd like to testify about bps's lack of caregiver engagement a story that we've heard many times from other communities in the district such as the O'Brien West Zone Etc like other parents at the Manning who were hoping to speak tonight uh I have been very concerned about principal Hart's treatment of students parents and teachers and signed the petition anonymously asking for an independent investigation to give all parties including principal Hart a chance to be heard this evening the Manning Community received an email from Principal Hart stating that she would be leaving the Banning for another position in BPS and I just like to preface my next comment by saying I'm I'm still processing this news um I'm but I'm relieved that should not be at my son's school but I'm also concerned that BPS is trying to sweep this under the rug with no transparent grievance process that allows the caregiver Community to come to a common understanding of what went wrong as a school furthermore it allows BPS to possibly move her to another school Community without unearthing the facts of how she implements BPS policy works with teachers and engages or doesn't engage with caregivers please we are a divided community and we are hurting there is no accountability here and no resolution BPS needs to take a hard look at how this happened particularly in regards to the conduct of not only miss but Elena Luna Kristen weeks and Drew ecken who continually tried to label is as privilege or well-connected parents we are not the first community of caregivers to be disused by PPS and probably not the last BPS needs to do better and we still need an investigation thank you thank you very much the next three speakers are not signning to the meeting sua Soo hello good evening sua sto BPS parent and um a supporter of parents and families um which seem to be you know uh you know always seem to be accused of of lying or um Mr qua Tran said today present an alternative facts um I would just like to say that I am very disappointed in today's vote and I um just want to say that you all vote on alternative facts um every sing single time you decide to double down on top down decision making that is undemocratic um and again there's no consequences for you all because you are not elected um it is saddening that you all continue to make decisions that pin communities against each other and do not you know keep up with the promises that you continue to make um you continue continue to disappoint the parent community and it is you that are pushing parents out of the district I believe it or not support BPS and believe that the um there should be higher quality of schooling for all children but I don't think that should be done by dismantling schools that are already doing well um you all are just going about it in a very very bad way and I'll just say that you know you asked Dell Dell and the team and the superintendent what was the community involvement process they talked about a Citywide Community involvement process what is the involvement process for the individual communities before the decisions are made that was a clear question Dell gave alternative facts and you still voted with it so again committee members you really need to be like I just need we need an elected school committee you guys are just much very disappointed thank you thank you the next group of next group of speakers are Rob Garrison EDI Bazil bavin Kenny and Karen Allen Rob Garrison Rob Garrison please raise your hand and accept the the prompt okay so we will we will continue with the next speaker eat Bazil mril thank you three exam schools discussed every meeting McKinley's three therapeutic schools never discussed why mostly black males McKinley are run like detention centers metal detectors cameras random searches restraints timeout rooms safety offices Boston police referrals to dyss an intervention team working group Ian desie mou showed no Improvement consultant Dr Green's August 2023 report States therapeutic programming has never been fully or even partially integrated into the schools or its classrooms staff acknowledge feeling they do not have the training background or expertise to address the needs of these students this has left staff with little or no guidance on how to handle the sometimes significant mental health issues Dr Green concluded the racial Equity planning tool recommendations were never enacted his contract ended Green New Deal suspended McKinley's rebuild yet more cameras are being installed in the old building enrollment declined by two-thirds 80% chronic absenteeism numerous holes in the walls of the timeout rooms tell the story yet in her first three months Skipper modified the exam schools admissions policy for those already benefiting from bps's racist structures she did nothing to end the emotional physical and psychological harm to McKinley students skip a sabotage work by pushing our black leaders and eviscerated racial Equity initiatives we fought for since desegregation she only hires those willing to do her bidding ignoring and silencing authentic black voices yet Skipper gets a pass of white privilege for upholding white Comfort while reaing structural racism juneth our freedom day marks another year that we demand accountability for black students from this Committee in the mayor time is up thank you next speaker is Bevin Kenny can we please accept the prompt we will try with Karen Allen first and then we will come back to you Karen Allen hello can you hear me yes we can hear you you can start okay thank you my name is Karen Allen I live in Rosland and I have two children in the Manning Elementary School I'm here tonight because I want to express my concern about the way in which the Manning caregivers concerns about school leadership and model change were happen were handled by the district leadership in the last six months I urge this body to initiate an investigation into how these incidents were handled particularly by Dr Luna Dr Weeks and Drew eckelson in the winter when the model changes were first introduced our caregiver Community asked questions these questions went unanswered or were treated as in appropriate for example during an April School parent council meeting Dr Luna brushed off questions about data and controlled the conversation in such a manner that caregivers questions were labeled as entitled when teachers raised red flags about the school leadership and a toxic and divisive workplace for teachers describing manipulation and recklessness we were they were given no pathway or support um for these teachers around their concerns when parents asked for a mediated conversation with the school leadership and the district they were ignored we have email documentation of all of this on June 6th when we sent um to the district a petition of almost a hundred signatures asking for an independent investigation into the school leadership it was met with a response from Drew eckelson 24 hours later expressing full support of the principal and claiming to have spoken with multp who said there was no problem in the June 11 School parent council meeting the caregiver Community pressed Dr Luna to State whether any families had been contacted in that 24-hour period and she did not answer she sat silently we know that no families were contacted in that 24-hour period we have been lied to on multiple levels and it is unacceptable that the teacher and caregiver concerns and grievances were ignored Shan thank you B K is not in the meeting so we are going to um go to a public speakers on reports Edith Bazil thank you so much I want to say congratulations to Diego MAA for his accomplishments to expand college readiness to all students strong literacy must be an accessible Gateway for all students to ensure they succeed academically professionally and civically current research concludes that 95% of all students regardless of cognitive ability can be taught to read on grade level by the end of first grade yet there is no improvement in sip why a decade of data reveals bps's Focus curriculum failed over 80% of black latino multilingual Learners and students with disabilities to achieve reading on grade level by third grade by uh by evidence by mcast research says after fourth grade poor readers are four times more likely to drop out of high school after 10 years of failure with Focus BPS instead of using an evidence-based curriculum added foundations and heedy to it that is like eating McDonald's every day and saying I'm going to add water and vitamins to get healthy why is BPS now going to spend and waste taxpayers money to find an independent vendor to refute over 10 years of data which links uh uh poor outcomes uh which lead to avoidable special education referrals and parents who must fight for reading Specialists which BPS rarely has learning to read should be a child's right not a fight to achieve a apprpriate literacy the superintendent must drop focus and be accountable for cutting the fat in central office expanding School budgets use an evidence-based literacy curriculum and ensure that all schools have fully funded libraries fully funded Librarians full-time literacy specialist inclusion facilitators time thank you thank you very much so Bon Kenny was able to join the meeting so please um you can start your testimony hello thank you thanks so much sorry I had to rejoin uh my name is Bon Kenny I have two children at the Manning school and I've been a proud BPS parent for the last seven years I've been advocating within our school in The Wider BPS Community since 2020 and I've always noticed that BPS interacts with caregivers as if we an obstacle or a pothole in the road to drive around but the systems totally disregard guard and disrespect for families has worsened over the years at Manning School a successful inclusion School caregivers have tried for months to get BPS attention to our school environment and teacher dissatisfaction we finally resorted to a petition asking for an independent investigation it was signed by 70 current caregivers and in a school of only 150 or so kids that's a lot of caregivers and 18 staff many of those staff signed anonymously again a large amount in a small school during our advocacy our School leader and BPS administrators called us toxic problematic and entitled and our efforts to get BPS to pay attention have divided our school community and devastated our teaching staff and our teaching model our success and inclusion did not matter and you've heard from many people tonight about the issues BPS has around engagement especially around closure and plans around the West Zone ELC I would like the school committee to hold BPS accountable for this lack of Engagement in fact a disrespectful attitude around caregivers we are a very important stakeholder in the system and the only stakeholder who have and hold these students in every other hour when they are not with you hearing our concerns and integrating our voices into your planning is critical thank you so much thank you chair that concludes public comment thank you new business um nothing Beyond just making sure that we're following up on like what we've just heard M agreed all right that concludes our business for this evening our next hybrid school committee meeting will take place in person on Wednesday July 17th at 6 pm here at the bowling building um like to end this meeting is there a motion thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion objection to the motion is there any objection to approve the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the meeting is adjourned happy and to the week's St good night good night