e honoring our remarkable finalist along with their families and esteemed School leaders your dedication and achievements have truly made us proud I would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr Tony King from binka Mr Gavin Smith from Boston Latin Academy Mr Jason Gallagher from Boston Latin School Mr milar Silva from the Jeremiah Burke High School Mr Matt Holzer from Boston green Academy and Mr Philip brandfort from East Boston high school your leadership and guidance have undoubtedly played a pivotal role in shaping these remarkable students into the individuals they are [Applause] today and to the extraordin extraordinary students who stand before us so as I call your name please stand up and wave to the people back on thank you Abul aam from binka Anna Tran from Boston Latin [Applause] Academy Mari Baker from Boston Latin [Applause] School valkia Tavaris Montero from the Jeremiah I Burk High School yiang zong from Boston green Academy and Julie cyprien from East Boston high school your accomplishments are a testimony to your hard work passion and unwavering commitment to Excellence congratulations on your achievements and thank you to everyone who is supported these students along the way we look forward to witnessing your continued success I'm now turning it over to superintendent Mary Skipper thank you hi thank you chair Robinson and I want to take a moment to just thank Dr Ray Hart who's the executive director of the Council of great City Schools we have such a great and strong partnership with the council and uh Ray in our district frequently and always supportive so thank you very much for sharing that and being letting allowing us to be part of the [Applause] council we're also joined by representatives of Scholastic Inc tonight vice president Tai chap who is on the stage David Smith who is the vice president of the Eastern region of Scholastic education Solutions and a count executive Mary Ellen lacamera I really want to thank Scholastic Inc for sponsoring the scholarship and for your support always of BPS students you know we know that for parents college is a huge undertak it's something that certainly creates a lot of worry for our students and families and to have this kind of support really ensures that our students who are hardworking dedicated and talented the six that are here you know that that they will get opportunities that they deserve in college so thank you Scholastic and now I'll turn it over to Tai Chapman well good evening everyone um I will tell you Scholastic beliefs our late chairman Richard M Robinson would always say we do well by doing good so this opportunity to share with you uh on behalf of Vice chair O'Neal I say it was seamless because of his dedication to improving Boston Public Schools how commendable that is uh his leadership on the school board has been absolutely instrumental in driving positive change his commitment to Student Success and Equity sets a high standard for educational leadership and last but definitely not least his tireless advocacy for students and teachers are I mean just speaks volumes for his character I as I said earlier um came into his life from the council and I was a newbie brand new to actually introducing the council and it was a new role for me he was absolutely seamless I am forever grateful for your leadership for your care and compassion and I only wish as I said I could bottle it up and take it back to Dallas with me so I thank you for allowing us to be here and support you along with my colleagues thank [Applause] you yeah that means good afternoon in C good afternoon y'all I'm very excited to be here as uh one of the members of the school committee thank you so much uh V Shar and chair for bringing me on to help uh identify uh the winners and the aies today so I just want to share a little bit about them so you all know who are they other than just their names right uh it's not limited it's going to be very brief so take your time maybe to chat with them after uh the ceremony so first from binka we have Abul aan uh Abul was born in Burma moved to Thailand and at a early at an early age due to political unrests then on to Bangladesh before moving to Boston only 4 years ago yeah only four years ago uh speaks three languages uh a bit of Arabic right now they're trying to decide between you Boston and Wentworth uh and family is something that's really important to him they really shaped who he is um loves the environment at binka shout out to binka plays soccer also is on the speech and debate team maybe one day you'll be here on the school committee uh and uh fun fact he wants to design a Rob to pick up trash uh in the water so shout out to uh blue if we can give him a round of [Applause] applause from Boston Latin School we have Mari Baker Mari has been at in the BPS for 14 years now starting at Murphy Dan BLS uh plays flute a hockey player her junior year and her mindset of bad at Matt that her teacher changed that she didn't think she was good but look at you now you're getting some cash today because you're good at math uh not only that but all the other accomplishments that you've done so far uh you've also been involved on your school newspaper Argo me too at the Burke uh and also was involved with the perk uh pick internship uh open her to architecture which is something she's really passionate about and we'll study at northeaster from East Boston high school we have Julie cyprien uh is going to attend Salem State uh and then her plan is to go to suff law so hopefully one day you are advising BPS legally uh she took dual enrollment classes at Bunker Hill and I'm sure that's prepared her to her next Journey after graduation uh um and then that's really it's really helped her on why dual enrollment is important so the school committee is listening to Jack hopefully we can expand that in the future uh she wants to have an impact in the criminal justice as a uh Criminal Justice Reform as a lawyer and then a judge shout out to uh Julie can we give her another round of applause now we have a jeremi Burke High School valkiria Tavarez mono who's also been at BPS now for only four years uh moved from kver when she was only 13 cheerleader uh played w also was an indoor tract and was involved in wow working on Womanhood thank you wants to study child psychology has a career uh first in first in the family to go to college so a first generation student just like me as well speaks four language and right now is undecided between UMass Boston and Bridgewater State University next we have Anna Tran from Boston Lain Academy volunteers a lot Anna uh been at BPS for 12 years also attended the Murphy School she's going to bundley University to study actuary science which is the first which she first learned through her pick internship a huge partner VPS uh volunteers at Aspire as uh also plays uh volleyball and was the president Asian Student Association Club um she asked us to reconsider activity blocks in and scheduling what we'll think about that uh and wants to support the Viet community in Dorchester thank you Anna now we have yinyang zong from Boston green Academy will attend my alma moer UMass Amherst to study computer science with a double major in math in Neuroscience came from China two years ago and has worked really hard as y'all can see she's here with us um also learn uh but also learned uh to admit to failure and keep trying that's really important to hold yourself accountable and take it as a learning opportunity did an intership at a national park in Boston she's really concerned over mental health uh special supports to our teachers and Educators and staff at BPS upper um Upward Bound program uh helped her a lot on her pathway and definitely deciding where her major is and what she wants to focus on so a round of applause for yinyang as well now I'm going to pass it on to Vice shair O'Neal thank you thank you member Lemar Barbosa so how awesome are these students huh how inspiring are these stories that you heard how would you like to have been in our shoes trying to now and by the way they had peers at their schools that we also interviewed who are also incredible so the fact that they're here shows you how strong they are but boy what I thank you the school leaders for putting forth these students and what um representatives of our schools and what represented it shows that we have great students throughout Boston Public Schools through all of our schools through all of our high schools and I hope that comes through loud and clear tonight so thank you for that so I just I just want to take a moment um we did have a chance to be upstairs with the families and and um you heard about me but I just want to say like you I am from BPS I am from Boston public schools and like ch Robinson and member Lima Barbosa we are the three members of the school committee who went all the way through Boston public schools and so BPS set us up for success in college and in our career but I personally would get frustrated that I never met other BPS grads in my career so getting involved first with the Private Industry Council and then with the school committee was my way to help others have the opportunity that I had and I've been honored to do that for 16 years now and can honestly say I've over always tried to keep as my guide post what is best for our students through easy decisions and through some tough decisions that we have to make sitting right here and I was humbled when the council chose to a award me the green Garner award for excellent in urban School leadership which I saw as validation of our work as a school committee and a district together being recognized by our peers nationally I thank the counil and its executive Dr executive director Dr Ray Hart who's doing an outstanding job leading the council and you will hear from him a little bit later um and I also thank chair Robinson and superintendent Skipper because they nominated me and I appreciated that and then they kept it silent for me when they found out I won and didn't tell me for months and that made it painful but I also want to thank some of our district Partners who are also here today because I found out after the fact they supported the nomination so uh Neil finnean uh excuse me uh Neil Sullivan from the Private Industry C Council marinel rousa manire from um edvestors and John Kim from the DM group all supported Boston school committee being recognized nationally and I appreciate that you did that I also have to thank Liz Sullivan and uh Megan Costello our former executive secretary Liz suvan who returned tonight is Liz here okay um but uh lizan um who put it to put together the nomination as well as my predecessor as chair Reverend Greg GR who's in the back Reverend K was my mentor as a school Committee Member as a chair and and taught me so much and I've been eternally grateful for that so oh and Liz suan our former executive secretary I just just thanked her for her work in that I also thank Rob waldwin of curriculum Associates who's been a great friend and supporter of the council particularly in the important work of the executive committee so and I served on that for nine years and superintendent Skipper is now a member of the executive committee of the council so uh we thank for the support for the council I also learned growing up the importance of being involved in our city as taught by my parents represented tonight by my sister Megan so glad you see we're also joined by my love and inspiration my wife R who has taught me so much and inspires me every single day and our son Tyler um both of them also live the Creed every day to whom much is given much is expected Ron is on the board of the Children's Museum Tyler's on the board of world ocean school so they both also try to give back and try to make our city better and I thank them for that but the best part of winning though is why we're here tonight through the generosity of Scholastic Inc and thank you Ty um it's always great to share the stage with you as well as your colleague David Smith and marielen lamra thank you for joining us we get to award a $10,000 scholarship to observing senior and we do have many as I said in front of you are six amazing young students from six excellent Boston Public Schools it was hard to pick six to work with and even harder to Nar to these students but they represent Boston at its best some are born and raised here like me some immigrated due to hardship and strife or Strife in their home country like my wife most speak multiple languages all worked hard endured challenges found soless in school classes clubs sports or volunteering all have amazing dreams and goals and all were inspired by Boston Public Schools even as they offered us pointed and constructive advice on how to improve so Madame chair and member Lima babos and I learned more from talking with these students than they realized we valued our time together and they inspired us so I thank the school leaders you've all been names so I'm not going to repeat it again what an honor to work with each of you so I want to close though and saying to our finalists we're only going to award one Scholastic Inc scholarship but please know sit here and smile take a breath we hope you all leave tonight knowing that you were seen your path was heard your goals are inspiring your advice was welcomed and somehow please know that you will leave no one you are valued and supported as you move forward towards your next step so with that I'm going to announce the win of the green Ghana scholar Scholastic Inc scholarship joined by Tai Chapman and um then Dr Hart is also going to speak on behalf of the council so the winner of the green Garner you going to join me Ty yes thank you you and I have done this on stage a few times the winner of the green Garner Scholastic Inc scholarship is Julie cyprien from East Boston high school [Applause] okay [Applause] congratulations folks don't go anywhere I want to introduce Dr rayart the executive director for the Council of great City Schools so congratulations uh congratulations to our award winner uh again thank you to Scholastic uh for their contribution to the council uh and for one last photo opportunity I'd like to invite all of the students up to the stage if you would uh if you could all come up go ahead come up uh for one last photo opportunity um and just from the Council of great City Schools we want to say thank you uh to the Boston Public School uh and we also want to say thank you to um to someone special uh we got a call um from an anonymous benefactor at the council and that Anonymous benefactor uh mentioned to us that they wanted to donate $50,000 to the council because they believed in the work that we do and the work that occurs in public education and so I'm happy and pleased to announce that that $50,000 means that all six of our finalists [Music] w [Applause] I got punk [Music] [Applause] congratulations [Applause] congratulations so thank you very much congratulations to the students and you'll see them outside [Music] side e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Boston school committee I'm chairperson Jerry Robinson we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I want to welcome everyone who is is joining us 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 bostonpublicschools.org school committee under the May 22nd 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 page and on YouTube the recording will be available in all of the BPS languages the committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish Haitian creol cabano Cantonese Mandarin Vietnamese and American Sign Language Zoom interpretation feature has been activated Zoom participants should click the globe icon at the bottom of your screen to select your language preference I'd like to remind everyone to speak at a slower Pace to assist our interpreters the committee will begin this evening by holding a public hearing on the Massachusetts school choice program for school year 2425 under state law each year the committee must vote by June 1st whether the Boston Public Schools will admit non-residents do we have any speakers to testify on the school choice issue Miss parvex no we don't have thank you Miss parvex as you remember we received a detailed presentation on the mass school choice program at the May 8th meeting tonight we will be voting on this matter I will now entertain a motion to adjourn the hearing on the massachusett school choice program for school year 2425 we will then move into our regular meeting so move thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the motion is passed before we start the meeting I'm thrilled to share two remarkable highlights from this week first and foremost I want to extend my sincere congratulations to our superintendent Mary skipper for receiving an honorary degree from Boston College just this past Monday it was a great experience to attend the commencement and witness our superintendent being honored for her unwavering commitment to education secondly I'm pleased to announce that we just held the green Garner award ceremony where we awarded scholarships to six deserving BPS students from various schools including binka Boston Latin Academy Boston Latin School Jeremiah e Burke High School Boston green Academy and East Boston high school I want to take a moment to congratulate all the students for their hard work and dedication to Le that led to this welld deserved recognition we'll begin the meeting with the approval of minutes I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the May 8th 202 for a 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'll now move on to the superintendent's report I present to you our superintendent superintendent Mary Skipper thank you chair um yesterday I provided an update on the district's systemic Improvement plan or what we call Sip to the master Massachusetts Board of Elementary and secondary education this was our first update since the creation of the Sip in June of 2022 I want to thank chair Robinson for joining me and for your supportive remarks the update focused on three of the eight key areas identified in the Sip inclusive education transportation and facilities in capital planning I appreciated the positive and collaborative Spirit of the meeting with acting Commission Johnston and the board members it was my first opportunity to share the steady progress that we are making as a district the follow-up questions by members about chronic absenteeism and transformation schools as well as a future opportunity to talk about some of our best practices in academic student outcomes made for a really great discussion we will share the presentation of my remarks with the members I know chair Robinson is interested in taking a deeper dive into into the Sip in the fall so we'll work together to get that onto the agenda for a future meeting the office of multilingual and Multicultural education or what we call M that team recently concluded a series of community meetings with St Stevens youth programs and its extended Community Partners the purpose of these engagement opportunities was to directly connect with parents families and community members during the last session Chief Jo Joel gamir shared her vision for om and its alignment to the district's inclusive education plan she spoke about the areas that are the most important to our families how we will ensure multilingual Learners receive access to a quality education while also experiencing a sense of belonging that focuses on their assets like language and culture and their funds of knowledge thank you very much to member palanco GR for helping to facilitate these meetings as well as to the dedicated staff and families of the St Stevens Community we had a pretty exciting event yesterday um Junior Fahad Yim who became the first student in Burke High School's stem Aviation program to fly an airplane which was a a Cessna 172 and he flew it at the Norway Memorial airport yesterday the Burke program is not just the first of its kind in the city it's the first of its kind in the state the program director has been working closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop the program Fahad who's pictured here with certified flight instructor Harry scales has logged 60 plus hours training on a simulator over the course of the school year he and other Aviation program graduates will receive their Wings on Tuesday May 28th at Burke High School during the second annual pinning ceremony this program is a great example of what we can do when we Center our students and get creative I look forward to many more flights from Fahad and other students and just as a sense this was actually brought and created by a teacher at the Burke right so this is again you know a one-of a kind uh and was so proud I will say that once I heard that fad had touch down I was like thank you um that was my mother coming out in me but um so again congratulations um early this month I attended the 21st annual edvest showcase which is an opportunity for the edvestors community of Educators nonprofit Partners Civic leaders and supporters to learn about creative on theg ground Solutions happening in schools chair Robinson and member Cadet Hernandez also attended the event this year's showcase was focused on our work around the secondary school experience a topic close to my heart it included panel discussions on the importance of student voice rigorous and relevant mathematics and career connected learning the student voices panel included students from cash which is Community Academy of Science and health Boston adult Technical Academy which we call Bada and Fenway High School students shared perspectives on the importance of student voice finding a sense of belonging and community in their schools and how valuable The Early College and Career Connection experience is and has been for them 13 BPS students in grades 5 through 8 were celebrated on Wednesday May 8th for completing a 10-week coding program through Capital One in partnership with the district's parent University program students participate remotely one evening a week with capital 1 coder mentors who Inspire students to recognize their potential and help them cultivate a greater interest in computer science students designed and coded their own apps and websites while learning new skills the program included students from the suner deor Otis Hurley mild AV quiny upper Condon and bla all students were given a capital one Chromebook t-shirt and planner a big thanks to Capital 1 for its support of our students we are excited to invite you to the 17th annual BPS Wellness Summit which will happen on Tuesday May 28th from 8:30 to 12:30 at the great H the Great Hall at cman Square Health Center this year's Summit theme is let's talk student well-being reflecting on 30 years of Youth Health experiences we will recognize the incredible work of our school Wellness awardees who have supported the social emotional and physical health and well-being of their school communities keynote speaker Kabir Amari is a nationally respected diversity Equity inclusion belonging and justing consult Justice consultant with expertise and experiences of lgbtq plus youth of color they will lead panel discussions of Youth and adults to gain perspective on past and current health friends a healthy breakfast and lunch are also included in the day on Monday May 13th BPS celebrated Asian-American native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month here at the bowling building the event featured a panel discussion of a nhpi school and District leaders centered on cultivating leadership and highlighting a nhpi experiences in education uh I won't list every member but we had principals we had central office folks uh we had Regional soups and um just to be able to hear their different experiences and just share very vulnerably with the community it was a very very special event um and just a reaffirmation of all of their leadership in the district the event was organized in Partnership by the BPS Asian Pacific Islander Desi American affinity group and the BPS office of opportunity gaps the Boston Public Schools stem Department department is excited to host the annual steam Fest at Madison Park Technical vocational high school on Saturday June 1st from 10:00 a.m. until 1M I think last year Dr alkins was the lead speaker there and it was amazing talk um join our community of BPS families students partners and Educators for our annual celebration of steam across the district more information on the event can be found at bostonu schools.org slbp s- Steam appala students can also sign up for the Innovation Challenge taking place at the event winners will receive pretty awesome stem prizes as they did last year I'd like to close with a preview of one of the district's Signature Events the annual valedictorians lunch in on May 28th at Fenway Park it's here that we celebrate the Brilliance perseverance bravery grit of our incredible valedictorians their inspirational stories remind all of us why we do this work and I look forward to seeing many of you there that's my superintendent report and back to you chair thank you superintendent I'll now open it up to questions and discussion from the committee questions nothing anybody going have anything I'll just ask one quick one superintendent um you mentioned about the presentation to the to the bie board uh the board of Elementary and secondary education and you mentioned the chair asked you have a presentation for us later on I'm just wondering you know kind of your reactions to it are there some immediate to-dos coming out of that that you think are important to reflect on uh let's see through each chair um so I think it was a we we we chose three areas to hone in on and present um and then they subsequently asked about safety which which we we then spoke about and they asked about transformation schools so I think at the end we covered almost all of the topics um I think you know we have a pretty detailed plan of how we're meeting each of the pieces of the Sip and we're constantly reviewing that and making sure that timelines um you know are we're hitting those timelines and we're getting our deliverables in uh what I think you know we talked about was that for us it isn't a checklist um you know for us it's really deep meaningful work and they echoed that you know they said for us this isn't a checklist e either and what you realiz is behind so many of the deliverables there's 10 or 15 other things that you have to do in order to be able to um address that one particular thing but I think what struck me was just all of the really good steady work that's been happening since the Sip was put into place here in the district um you know when I when I think about about it from transformation work it's really in so many different areas and yet they're connected but each one of them represents such a body of that work so I was incredibly proud of the team knowing how hard they're working behind all of this to get those pieces to happen um we then we did have a really interesting conversation about chronic absenteeism um because the department has put out uh a dashboard um and an update and they normally do that but they did in the March time frame uh sorry uh late April time frame and so we kind of had a bit of a discussion particularly about secondary education and what we're seeing you know here and nationally and Statewide which is this persistent trend of chronic absenteeism for our high schoolers and then really kind of talked a little bit about what some of those might be so for me that kind of came away um you know even even more so making sure we're communicating out all the efforts that we're doing in this particular area um the other the other was uh you know a question around seeing disparity in the schools of performance and I think that was an opportunity to talk about our transformation schools and really you know with director Asin like just the really solid work that we're looking at in the transformation schools but really trying to calibrate across the district Equitable literacy Strong high quality use of high quality instructional materials and on the you know on the instructional side using the regional support model to make sure as we go into every classroom we have a common set of things we're looking for to see those materials being used in the instruction and so I think it was a chance to really reflect that this is about addressing the pockets of where we're seeing the lower performance but it's also about lifting the entire district and um so there were just some things I had an opportunity to talk about and questions they asked that just caused me to think about that and how we need to work to share that out and to communicate that not only among our body here in school committee but in the general public thank you thank you for that that that was helpful and I look forward to it being a a deeper presentation where we go through the actual items on it and the progress towards each of the pieces but that was very helpful thank you I have a question just a followup to that so what is desie thinking in terms of maybe um one what is the trend of chronic absenteeism are we saying that it's stabilizing or are we seeing that it's increasing um and then are has Desi been thinking more around Statewide task forces around this um I know they share resources but yeah like so they didn't um they didn't mention that specifically but I I think the trend is definitely coming down um and you know and I think it's a you know it's about intentional Focus you know making sure that parents are aware students are aware the correlation of being in school and performance uh being in school and being engaged um so I think there's been a lot of intentionality the the uh State seated grants to the districts right we were a beneficiary of that to be able to really kind of work on this and obviously for us we're working on the campaign continually first as pilot but with the goal to roll it out for next year so even among our numbers we saw some drop um but I'm not ready to celebrate because when we still have you know high 20s in the high schools right that that's grades that kids need to be in school and making you know making forward progress on toward graduation uh toward their job skills toward uh Early College so um you know I think there's definitely some promise there I think the state felt uh as they reported out that there was definitely some things to celebrate Statewide um but for us we're just going to stay very laser focused on this uh to drive these two not just prepandemic but my goal would be the lowest we've seen in BPS just a followup question on that is it is it just then like Outreach work or is there programmatic changes because I think like probably we've talked about this like both are true one to school for good school not just forced to go ex yeah this is exactly thank you for that this is exactly what I spoke about was that when we're approaching it particularly you know at the secondary level where kids can vote with their feet um which is what we see happen the why has to be there for students and I think post pandemic it caused everybody to think about their why and students are no different than that at the younger grades parents are much more you know have voice to that but as kids get older they they do have their feet to to make different choices so for us the Early College work specifically the career work I think one of the things we heard about you know from all of the scholarship winners was many of them were involved in you know internships uh Career Training skills skill building Career Connections and that gave them relevance to their learning you know that's that's what and they can see how to apply that when they graduate so that's why we're working so urgently in the high schools to get those programs up and running right and then it's also really why for those students who have become off track either by age or credit um or interest you know it's important for us to have a robust alternative education system to for students to be called back to and plug into that's going to allow them that possibility not only of graduation that's bare minimum but of going on then and seeing their dreams fulfilled in college and in career and so that's why we're we also are working very hard to redesign some of the alted and get the Early College in the C embedded where it hasn't been in the past just one last question is there any correlation as we're talking about master facilities today between schools that are under enrolled in higher levels of chronic absenteeism like I'm imagining the school you brought up uh Dr alkins a few weeks ago with 34% 33% at 33% capacity like I don't know if I was a kid I can imagine being like that doesn't feel like a place that's sort of exciting and fun to be at I I but I that could just be all speculative do have we looked at those Trends and is that part of the driving conversation around mergers uh so so yes I think when we get to the slides tonight there's a slide in particular that really underscores um concentrations in our open enrollment schools which also happen to overlap with transformation status which over can also overlap with under enrollment or more administrative placement um for the wise for students um it's also for under enrolled schools that tend to be very small as we've talked about it's very hard unless you create intentional Partnerships for them it's very hard for them with the resources they have to have what a larger comprehensive school would have so I think that for for us right now as we're working through this um we're also very deliberately though partnering partners with some of those under enroll smaller schools uh because every day counts for every student so it's not as if we wait for a year or two years or three years um we have to make sure we're putting that programming in place thank you any anything else right okay thank you all I do have one more actually I'm sorry and I apologize we brought it up last time is there any other just an update from you on what's happening at city council with the budget is there an update for us anything we should be aware of and sure so we have um we've had I believe five different hearings uh around uh various topics and we kind of break them up and our staff represent I've gone uh to the to the kickoff one and then we had had the pre- meeting which I again compliment um Council warell who is the head of uh Ways and Means uh for having that foresight to do that because I think that opened up the dialogue with the budget um and so that's since carried into the hearings we actually tomorrow have a three-hour hearing um you know where we'll take a variety of topics uh I'll be at that hearing as well and are but are there any concerns we should be aware of or places within the budget that we suspect will move as a result of the work of city council I think it's fairly early to say that I don't I I'm not hearing that I think by having that deeper conversation initially we were able to get at some of the things that we knew the counselors um Wanted and year to year it's all you know like at least in my experience before and now um you know the counselors have particular areas of interest and so we work very hard to Eng engage with them to you know have them be partners with us in the work as well much like all of you do you know you have areas of Interest so I think that's going very collaboratively and I think you know that whatever questions remain we'll get at the hearing tomorrow we'll have a better sense right after that but I the the sense I have right now is uh no I don't I don't see that right now perfect okay thank you all I'll now entertain a motion to receive the superintendent's report is there a motion so mov thank you there a second second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing on the superintendent's report is approved we'll now move on to General Public comment Miss prex thank you chair the public common 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 at this time but are referred to the superintendent for a later response questions on specific policy matter are not answered this time but may be the subject of 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 testified will have the opportunity do to do so at the end of the meeting we have 30 speakers speakers this evening each person will have 2 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 alloted time speakers may not reassign their time to others please direct your comments to the chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members or District staff please take your name name affiliation and what neighborhood you are from before you begin we will begin this evening with our in-person speakers our first group of speakers are John mud Alisa Hunter Jonathan Barry jackary Martin and Mary mcclaflin John mud is this working good evening my name is John mud I'm a resident of Cambridge and a longtime education advocate in Boston I would hope that you the district and all of us would look to find lessons in this first experience with proposals under the long-term facilities plan some preliminary ideas I must say that after all the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on facilities assessments and millions on the supposed it master plan what we got last week were proposals for the grand total of one merger of a small early early learning center and three grade configurations many of us have protested against this peacemeal approach where is the overall master plan where are the proposals that meet the challenges of this moment I should also add that in none of these proposals was there any analysis of the impact on enrollment or the budget but critically important the process used in presenting these proposals to the affected School communities does set a precedent for Community engagement and this precedent is totally inadequate if you are at all serious about Community engagement consider this the four affected communities School communities each received a letter describing the proposals with only 2 to three days notice for a 1-hour virtual meeting in which the community would be told what had been decided for them at one meeting I counted two people at two minute at another four the BPS approach in these meetings is to inform School communities of decisions that have been made for the schools they are not asking for Community participation in developing the plans only for their implementation it is hard to believe that this is what the school committee wants but you seem to be allowing it to happen do you know what genuine Community engagement really MEK Mr M your time is up thank you very much and I plead with you don't let this President stand say that you want more genuine engagement for future proposals thank you thank you Alisa Hunter good evening my name is Alisa Hunter I'm a resident of Brockton Massachusetts after living in the city of Boston for over 40 years I'm the vice chair of the board Board of Trustees for Boston day and evening Academy and the mother of a BPS graduate my professional background is in mental health this is the reason I volunteer my time at bdda a school that serves the most marginalized students in our district by prioritizing their physical and emotional well-being at the core of trauma informed care is a recognition of historical trauma and acknowledging that white supremacy permeates all of our lives for the past 5 years the BDA Community has been split apart with two-thirds of students located at the Phyllis wheatly campus and the other third temporarily in the timoty building half a mile away but also in Nubian Square we we were recently informed that we needed to vacate the timoy by the end of June with the option to move temporarily to the Gavin building in South Boston let me be clear South Boston is a community where the historical trauma of busting busing still permeates the memories and experiences of the city's black and brown communities making decisions about access to education in this community without including bda's voice in the discussion per perpetuates a div Ive oppressive culture please provide a clear plan for how BDA 30 seconds can come together as a single school once again do not displace the 60 students most of whom are black and brown young men calmly failed by the education system let them remain at the timoty until there is a viable plan that centers on affirmative nurturing education which is the defining value of trauma informed Care thank you for your time thank you next speaker is Jonathan Barry my name is Jonathan Barry and I'm the treasurer on the board of Boston day and evening Academy and a member of the schools development committee I'm the director of portfolio reporting at ax private debt located here in Boston I'm a resident for the past 21 years currently residing in the West End I've chosen to volunteer my time because I live in a professional world of abundance and to ever create Equity I know that the students of BDA need and deserve access to that abundance the committee's decision impacts upward economic mobility and the critical need of access to high praying career paths in Boston thus accessing set abundance we lean into the vibrancy of Nubian square with Partnerships that provide everything from an in school health clinic to internships in the green job sector BDA graduates approximately 50 students a year many of whom attend in multiple other BBS high schools prior to coming to bdaa those graduates turn around and invest Millions more dollars of Lifetime earnings back into this community compared to their potential earnings had they dropped out I in the field of investing in my line of work companies invest their resources with the expectation of exponential growth and return on that investment where companies choose to invest their money speaks volumes about their perceived value proposition BDA deserves an equal investment from this city as board Treasurer and member of the executive committee our team has ensured Financial viability of bdda we have made hard decisions around reducing expenses while investing in areas that will increase income especially as we experienc the conclusion of federal Co covid relief money this year the school committee decided to move the o'briant to West brocky and the community responded these exam students are students from whom this city watches out for values uh and values their results and their outcomes BDA also is about results and outcomes but it can't solely be about speed to graduation and number of seats filled Boston will feel the impact of divesting and the most vulnerable population of students in this District therefore the BDA Community is also responding to reiterate this is a matter of resources and who the city just chooses to invest in the Timothy building is currently housing 70 students we employ you to consider who these students are when you make this decision thank you thank you jackary Martin my name is jori Martin I live in mat pin and I'm representing Boston day and evening Academy I an alumnist of BDA and I just graduated in April 2024 as you likely know BDA does school differently and having our graduations having four graduations per year is just one of those differences this year I'll be one of 50 graduates from our school I understand that BPS has told us we need to move out the James P Timothy building with a few weeks notice and I want to speak on what stability at school actually means throughout my academic career in Boston Public Schools I've experienced two closures that are very inconvenient to my academic trajectory one being the William Barton Rogers Middle School in my sixth grade year and two being Urban Science Academy located within the West rockberry education complex during my sophomore year high school I'm not aware of all the factors that go into running an entire school system but one thing I do know is there is no school system without students I've personally watched many students and Friends drop out of school due to these closures and attempted relocations asking for a comfort and space for students to explore their academic and creative Endeavors is asking for the bare minimum especially when we're dealing with communities of color the BDA 2.0 Community is a s is sacred because it's located in the heart of Boston giving us an advantage to take what we're learning and actively building connect with Community kicking students and staff off the timoty without a clear plan causes a disconnect with our mission and values it's also important for students who attend classes at both campuses to be in proximity of one another or or can or can potentially affect their progress this fall I'll be attending Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts with a full ride as a James Baldwin schola I'm an artist with a business mind and an advocate for equality the BDA the BDA Community has taught me not to just be a student in the classroom but a student to life what makes this community so special to me is everyone has a voice and everyone story deserves to be heard as demonstrated within this moment than your time is up focus on stability those that follow my footsteps will need that and they definitely deserve it thank you thank you thank you next speaker is Mary mclin I'm members of the committee and superintendent Skipper I'm Mary cther mcgoffin and I live in Dorchester I was born and raised there I'm here representing my daughter who is a four-year-old student with autism at the Henderson inclusion school she was approved for 30 hours of ABA Services by our insura at my first iip meeting need was offered one hour a day of ABA services from BPS I rejected The Proposal with the along with the admission of Occupational Therapy we reconvened to discuss the rejected portions they did not ABA and added occupational therapy to our IEP at this time teachers told us that there was a huge safety concern for her choking incidents and potential for other medical inest issues from ingesting items I continue to ask why NE is not qualifying for any additional ABA Services the bcba at the Henderson School stated that since covid things have changed at BPS and if you want more ABA you can go to an ABA strand you can go to a sub- separate classroom and I stated my daughter will be in an inclusion classroom and the law that Services should come to the child no matter the placement during the same time I've asked for a onetoone trained in ABA due to the increase in NE putting items in her mouth BPS refused my request and stated that we would need to take data the data was supposed to start collection on April 4th we received an N2 letter from this BPS saying that there would be no additional ABA I filed for mediation on April 11th but weeks went by with no response from BPS before April 4th meetings I required that we had our meeting I was told that there was no meeting because the no data had been collected over two-month time period during the meeting on May 14th the data collected was that was discussed first by the coachers reporting that NE was regressing in toileting and requires nurse assistance now prompting with hand over hand but the bcba reported that she had made progress that we asked for the five steps and the bcba could not explain what the five steps were the co- team chairperson was in the room collecting data for NE and while the teachers removed a magnet from her mouth the the chairperson at the Henderson school did not collect this data and write it down they omitted it I asked for a safety plan the bcba told me that the safety plan was there you pleas send that by email the bcba said that the it was in place I have never seen a safety plan her occupational therapist did not see a safety plan and her teachers did not see a safety plan her parents did not also sign for the safety plan the bcba said she then had a conversation and they apologized for the mistake only after reaching out to Julie pandaly the ad now we can go to mediation NE is now regressing in toileting self-injurious behaviors and placing non-edible items in her mouth my daughter is entitled to supports and services that requires to meet her unique needs and to keep her safe at school thank you for your time thank you next group of speakers are Jacqueline Rodriguez Peggy wienberg and D randing Jacqueline Rodriguez good evening school committee members and superintendent Skipper my name is Dr Jacqueline Rodriguez and I have worked for 23 years as a bilingual school psychologist in Boston with a $21 million investment in mental health next year BPS has chosen to cut seven School psychologists from the behavioral health department in my 23 years here our department has never been fully funded and it's always needing more Bilingual School psychologists because we are considered hard to recruit we need at least 119 School psychologists and should be placed full-time in each school like nurses and social workers this is is what our students and families need the impact of losing seven positions will impact at least 3,000 of our BPS students being full-time at the Charles Suna Elementary School for seven years has allowed me I've been there two years full time and I've been there a total of seven years but it's allowed me to conduct social groups teach social emotional learning in classrooms where the students are beginner English language Learners and assistant assistant emergency crisis assist the emergency crisis team I also conduct special education eligibility assessments provide counseling and conduct suicide and threat assessments at least once a month so our students and families need access to more not less School psychologists and I hope you will consider that um in for next year because we are uh moving to an inclusion uh program here at my school where where we're going to have more students on IPS not less next year thank you thank you next speaker is Peggy wienberg thank see piggy good evening and thank you I am the parent of three Boston Public School grads who went from K to 12 I'm testifying on the proposal to combine the ELC West and the henan school two schools located in the same building in Jamaica plane where I live my son attended the ELC West the same years my daughter attended the fourth and fifth grade at the henigan school I was on the School site council at the ELC I realize the city is trying to save money and cut administrative costs but I'm here to urge you to vote no Early Learning Centers offer before and after school care operating from 7:30 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon they're free and do not charge a fee for the hours beyond the btu contracted day I was so grateful for the ELC I was working two jobs I had children in three different schools midy year I was admitted to the hospital but I knew my son would be well cared for in the ELC we were fortunate to have a dedicated principal Valerie goms and a dedicated secretary Joanie at the ELC West Elanor Perry was the principal at the henan a large school with many specialists including art music gym cafeteria custodial staff the henan started school and uh later and the ELC um and than the ELC and it ended earlier at the ELC the administrator assistant received the buses at 7:30 in the morning and made sure students got home to school at the end of the day the ELC paid a certified teacher to be in charge of the afterschool program which offered a rich array of learning activities not just babysitting the principal is directly responsible for the building this means if kids are not picked up on time and remain in the building after the teachers finished their contracted hours thank you m the principal has to stay until the parent caretaker shows up uh just one more sentence this means that if something happens like an accident and the nurse has left the principal and our Administrative Assistant may have to call for an ambulance and must call the parents I realize the system is trying to downsize its footprint and merge schools that share a building has some logic but please do not eliminate the ELC West thank you next speaker is sted raning my name is deardra Manning I'm a Dorchester resident single parent of two minor children BPS parent and a charter school parent I've spoken to you before I've pointed out to you the Stark differences between a tier 7 home in a less desirable area of Dorchester where refugees live and a brownstone on Beacon Street in the Back Bay I've said before that it's ludicrous that there's such a wide difference in a particular tier I've identified the American community survey in non deade census years as a flawed methodology for determining tiers where you survey only 2.5% of the population here's additional data which I will provide to the school committee members that shows another what I consider to be flaw of the tier um process so if you have a difference in a socioeconomic score within a tier you've got tiers 1 through five essentially a two for a socioeconomic score and you got tiers 6 through eight at a 2.4 there are many students in tier six seven and eight who are disenfranchised by this process they are excluded some would argu targeted for exclusion by this process I literally don't understand why so many parents and other students have come before you to complain about this flawed process a simple fix would be allocating the number of seats per tier by the number of applicants in each tier you shouldn't have a virtual Universal acceptance rate in tiers 1 through five and low 40% for children who live in tier six s and eight I am likely moving my fourth grade BPS student to a charter school we like the school that she's at now after being um having to leave the Henderson Community but there's a clear path to a quality school if I move her there if I leave her on BPS in two years I'll probably be in the same position with my next child excluded from an educational opportunity the time is now to fix this problem thank you thank you we will now transition to Virtual testimonies please make sure you're sign in to zoom with the same name you used to sign up for public comment and be prepared to unmute yourself and turn on your camera when it's your turn to testify please raise your virtual hand when I call your name our next speaker is Robert Jenkins followed by Lily Rodriguez Ruby Reyes and Cheryl Buckman Robert Jenkins Mr Jenkins declined so Lily Rodriguez hello hi my name is I live in Dorchester High School and I will be attending North Eastern University next year Lily could you please turn on your camera yes of course okay thank you course um I just wanted to take the time to talk about Up Academy Dorchester up Academy Dorchester has impacted me in so many different ways it has taught me how to become a leader as well as how to respect others and be myself uad is a school that stays connected to their students even after they go for example a staff member who has always stayed connected to me is mate T Pena she has always looked out for me and has asked if I ever needed anything she is currently helping me out by providing an internship at the school where I help her with office work as well as assists K1 teachers I am currently making goodie bags for the students because I felt their to do so after having an incredible six- we internship at the school the the kids were so lovely and welcoming as well as all the uad staff so thank you so much for listening I just wanted to take time to share about my middle school so yeah thank you thank you very much we are going to try again with Mr Jenkins Mr Jenkins oh Mr Jenkins is no longer in the meeting so we will go to our next speaker um rubber Rees uh good afternoon my name is Ru Rees I'm the executive director of the Boston education Justice Alliance and Dorchester resident Educators and families were notified on May 9th what would be happening with their school closure merger and process this has been the community engagement process this process does not adhere to the steps of the community engagement outlined in the racial Equity planning tool the tool asks the following questions how does this proposal impact the students and communities with the greatest needs how will this proposal address racism and close opportunity gaps how have black Latin X elel special ed and economically disadvantaged students families and staff and other key internal and external stakeholders been engaged in considering and shaping The Proposal what has our engagement told us about the potential positive and or negative impacts of the proposal for different groups and how is this proposal might how will this proposal produce or perpetuate racial inequity what are the potential unintended qu consequences is the plan realistic and adequately resourced how will we ensure accountability including evaluating and communicating results School communities were not included in shaping The Proposal nor was their engagement with these School communities to learn about the potential impacts mayor woo and superintendent Skipper staff have only been clear that their version of community engagement and the equity tool is to inform School communities how they will manage the closure merger or reconfiguration School communities with larger numbers of black latino students are also being pushed aside including the Blackstone and Mel kingies none of these questions were answered in the presentation we have been told repeatedly that the equity tool was a through line the equity tool was not used and is not a through line School Committee Member Hernandez summed up the reason why you should not rubber stamp building decisions until you receive a plan he said at the last meeting there are certain families in the system who will not be impacted in all of this mine included my kid goes to a tier one school it's not going to be closed there is a lot of damage we can do without a clear plan thank you your time is up plan thank you our next speaker is Cheryl Buckman good evening my name is Cheryl Buckman I'm a parent to a BPS student who has special needs he's a fifth grader at the de I'm also a member of fosa and a longtime resident South Boston I'm here because I'm deeply invested in the well-being of our students and their rights to a high quality education as you know the school my son attends went into receivership in 2014 even when the deor community for not to the deor Lost 15% of its Latina teachers in a state-of-the-art dual language program and now with even more budget cuts the deor is expected to lose 10% of its full-time teachers and staff in an SEI program I ask if the superintendent and school committee has pushed back against having this program pulled or did you look the other way do the parents of the deor even have a say on what happens at their school according to des's own record eel's at the de in grades 3 through6 outperform compared to other BPS schools and Statewide in math and Ela haven't our children and educated suffered enough in this process why are we playing tug of war why can't BPS stand up and show a little bit more backbone where is the honesty shouldn't we be investing in our children children's future by adding more teachers and programs like an inclusion program done correctly Mental Health Services fully staff fers and better pay for our teachers I'm going to leave with this a closing with for my son I love going to school and seeing all of my friends and teachers I don't want to see a day where my school closes and we're all separated thank you thank you our next speakers are um will need the support from interpreter Maria Mia Sonia Medina paa Ortiz and simel Rodriguez Lamar Maria Mia our Spanish interpreters interpreter will help us with that okay Maria is not signed in Sonia Medina will be our next speaker um our Spanish interpreter hello want inter should interpr yeah you can interpret here just telling her to proceed something happened with the other interpreter but I'll be happy to interpret good afternoon school committee good afternoon the correspondent uh authorities and Leadership and thank you very much for the opportunity you're giving me today name is Med I live in the sou end and my kids go to the Boston Public Schools I'm a mother I'm a mentor I do have my kids at the or Gardens I'm a mentor there and I do have some concerns in a meeting that was that took place I was told that the school was going to close but apparently that is not the case any longer so it will be ideal to know what plan is it that you guys have in place for those schools that will not be closed after the pandemic crisis cleaning must be a priority that particular School needs better cleaning that's a top priority cleaning staff has to be allocated there because there are many students that need better care cleaning is an important part of it when it comes to repairs we need a better uh public space for the kids a better park or playroom that is has all the procedures so bacteria will not be to prevent infections to prevent this type of things there for the kids so same mother as you heard I have many concerns and I ask you to I'm begging you please hear our concerns and thank you very much for allowing me to participate tonight muchas next speaker is Sim Rodriguez Lamar who will also need Spanish support Rodriguez good afternoon members of the school committee thank you very much for providing me with the opportunity to express myself right here just apologize asking if you could please repeat so I'll be able to continue the interpretation the other interpreters in the wrong Channel asking if she has to start again okay so she'll start again good afternoon members of the school committee thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to express my concerns here today simel Rodriguez is my name I live in the rockbury community and I am a volunteer at the Blackstone school where my daughter studies thank you very much for deciding not to close many of the schools when you're thinking about the different constructions and long-term planning so considering the fact that the schools will remain open I was wondering what type of plan is it that you guys have in place and what type of repairs will take place there for those that will be kept open I'm actually at the I volunteer at the Blackstone School my daughter goes there one of the schools in reference that I'm referring to is the Blackstone elementary school so there was a promise that some funding was going to be provided some money was going to be allocated I was wondering what type of actions will take place for that purpose this particular School needs of needs a lot of renovation because it's been built for a long time it needs a lots of Renovations so that there's a wonderful swimming pool right there that cannot be used because there are many cracks in that swimming pool there's some there are many walls that there are walls in it there's some filtrations there in some of the walls of their school so that is very concerning to me and as a mother I was wondering what type of actions will take place to provide remedy to this situations thank you very much thank you our next speaker ikram hamadi will need support from an Arabic interpreter yes ikram please unmute yourself microphone yeah we can't hear you I am telling her to open the mic thank you microphone yes so let's try our next speaker and then we can come back toam so our next group of speakers is Sarah horley suao and Elise Peter Sarah horley good evening my name is Sarah horley I'm in Jamaica plane I'm BPS parent and co-founder of Sosa BPS families for covid safety I appreciate the city's efforts to improve school facilities but you must make fundamental changes to ensure a transparent Equitable and Democratic process to highlight one issue 96 of our schools lack modern ventilation systems without adequate fresh air learning is impaired and students and staff are more likely to catch respiratory diseases I have learned that my child school will have its ventilation upgraded that's great but what about the remaining 95 schools without adequate ventilation when we asked this question at recent workshops District staff told us that ventilation upgrades will be part of every new build and major renovation okay but when how are you deciding which schools get prioritized how are you incorporating racial equities in those decisions this issue points to three problems with the way that BPS is conducting facilities planning first there is no comprehensive long-term facilities plan leaving us completely in the dark on the future of our schools a vague rubric followed up by peacemeal decisions is not adequate the full impact of a proposal cannot be evaluated without the context of a comprehensive plan despite stated commitments the district is also not sufficiently prioritizing racial equity for example the written plan mentions a desire to return to a neighborhood School model that contradicts the garity order and would exacerbate inequity finally mayor woo and BTS continue to make decisions in a topdown manner rather than partnering with school communities thank you very much community our next speaker is suaso my name is suo I am a BPS parent Southend resident and beija member I'm here to address the issues surrounding the facility planning and the lack of followup on promises made to the Melvin H Academy formerly known as the McKinley schools according to boston.gov in 2022 BPS launched a programming study for renovated facilities working with Sam architecture and design Civic mayor wo proposed 20.3 million in the y 24 this year's Capital plan to begin Design Services as part of the Sip the McKinley working group was charged with guiding the needs assessment phase of the built-in however that group has not continue to meet BPS has not followed up on premises made to the school Community or the state how is this work supposed to move forward if the working group has not continued to meet where are the updates and transparency for the community this lack of action and communication is unacceptable despite the name change to the Melvin H Kings health and Academy the school to prison pipeline persists what the name change just for publicity it is deeply disrespectful to name a school after Mel King a legendary leader without making transformative changes Mel King once said quote it seems to me there's a gap in our future it has to do with access to tools and resources that allow you to move up educationally and economically yet students primarily black and Latino boys are dumped into the school and met with metal detectors random searches and cameras instead of access to a gym cafeteria science labs and libraries instead of receiving therapeutic interventions they are often detained and police are called when they have melt out BPS needs to give students at the Mel King the resources access and building to support the students and the school to become a real your not just a Dumping Ground for next speaker is El Elise pter hi my name is Elise pector I live in Jamaica plane and have a grandchild in the Boston Public Schools I want to comment on two things the failure to address school facilities needs especially ventilation and the failures to allow families to be part of the design and decision making of the school Improvement plans the Boston Globe had a front page article today that highlighted some of the failings of the district's need to improve our schools but it was overly gentle in its assessment it called BPS progress slow there have been dozens of promises and plans to upgrade school facilities which would take care of these old decrepit and failing buildings in 2022 BPS wrote most of our buildings are not meeting students most basic needs there have been millions of dollars spent on facility Audits and indoor air quality measurement and the 10-year-old plan build BPS was launched but has not resulted in improvements then 70% of schools had deficient poor or no ventilation with resulting poor indoor air quality these problems have not been fixed and on a day like today with high ozone and indoor air quality and an outdoor air quality warning the school is at risk especially kids with asthma now even with continuing State oversight and millions spent on consultants and measurement we only have modest grade reconfigurations planned for 2025 2026 the globe are article stated that BPS met a state deadline to submit a plan in December if that plan exists the school Community has not seen it further they state that the state commented that Boston lacked thank you very much your time is up thank you thank you we will try ikram again ikram hamadi we can hear you good afternoon South and I have three children go to Blackstone School I work with in the school also as a volunteer and because I work there so I know how the school is doing uh how the school uh from inside and what are the things needed to be renovated uh the windows especially in winter when it rains the water goes through the windows to the inside of the CL sorry also outside school there are no shade which can uh protect children from uh being wetty so uh and there are uh more other things needed to be Blackstone uh we heard that there was A5 million doar for renovating Blackstone School uh although this school was uh in the the plan for the renovation but we didn't see any actions made till now 30 seconds we want to hear a a clear um plan for uh renovating the school and thank you so much thank you for thank you very much sorry could we get her testimony written I just really couldn't hear a lot of that could we please get your testimony written Amed could you please translate interpret that uh okay yes please send it so she was she was saying if I will sent it I was interpreting so I told her sent it and we will be transla yes sent it to me in Arabic and we send it for translation okay thank you very much thank you our next group of speakers are um edit Bazil Ellen D dong ring and chinchila the George and Christine Downing eat it pil yeah I know good afternoon thank you s aoto for your fiery testimony continuing with the McKinley if you walk into McKinley schools you are greeted with metal detectives cameras and random searches within a rundown physically miserable place of racial segregation there are no librar science la cafeteria no gym no clubs Athletics or team sports making McKinley school's an academic dead zone that robs the mental emotional spiritual hope of its primarily black and Latino students with disabilities and complex histories of trauma not surprising two-thirds of the students stopped attending over the last three years now with 112 staff and 139 students the staff student ratio is about 1: one however chronic absenteeism is about 80 % 50 years ago Boston desegregation and black students at the McKinley schools continue to be pushed into the school to prison pipeline at the highest rate what has this Administration done about it they placed a legendary black Leader's name on McKinley schools while maintaining segregation isolation and harsh disciplinary practices which makes the name change a cruel form of mock raci mockery and Injustice where is the outrage I challenge each School Committee Member to spend a day in these elaborated outdated lifeless buildings where BPS is now installing more cameras why where's the action for restructuring and building the city of Boston owes an education debt to black students and families of McKinley schools and all across the district instead of paying this educational debt BPS has put McKinley on the back of the bus called planning phase we need a plan thank you your time now there is no educational our next speaker is not here Ellen is not here so we will go with Anin cha the George and chinchilla the George could you please accept the prompt we will go with Christine Downing Christine Downing Christine Downing hello hello hi hi you can hi thank you good evening superintendent Skipper and members of the committee my name is Christine Downing and I have been a teacher at the West Zone Early Learning Center for 24 years 17 of those years I taught first grade and for the past seven years I have taught kindergarten one the West Zone Early Learning Center is a very special school one of the main reasons is the families that we serve some of whom are experiencing Boston public schools for the very first time as a small school with the youngest Learners we are able to build strong relationships and Partnerships with our families I feel so fortunate that I am able since the school is so small we have classrooms doors that lead to the outside and I am able to greet many of my families every single day so we get to know them personally and we're able to um really engage them in their child's learning and that is so important for the early Learners another important part of the West zone is the group of Early Childhood professionals that make up our staff many of the staff have worked for years in early childhood we have dedicated our careers to laying the foundation of education for our young Learners in our very special little school 30 seconds I ask that you do not approve the closing of the West Zone Early Learning Center please allow the children of Region 4 to continue to have access to the specialized education and early learner early learning that they deserve thank you thank you very much next next speaker is Rob Harrison is not here so we are going with me mikita Austina M and laon Martinez um Meg is not here either Austina M sorry now we have okay let's let's um try with Andy George and you can please start okay we will try with Meg mikita please you can start okay good evening my name is Meg Makita and I have been a teacher in BPS for 37 years and I have spent 35 of those years teaching at the ELC West as a k0 K1 inclusion teacher I know that inclusion is a Hot Topic at the moment the West Zone has been an inclusion school since our Inception in 1989 I am here to tell you what an early childhood school is all about it is about our youngest Learners having the advantage of Early Childhood professionals who understand developmentally appropriate practices it is about our youngest students learning that they have a voice and that their voices matter and are heard it is about giving our youngest Learners an opportunity to learn by doing to experience by living and to become socially responsible in an appropriate and safe environment it is a place where all staff know all the children by name and the students are all of our kids it is a place where students are met at their developmental level and grow and Blossom from there it is a place that builds the foundation for all the years of learning ahead in other words it is a magical place where the love of learning in school begins I understand the logistics of a school within a school but the definition of An Early Childhood Center is very different than that of an elementary school School our families and students deserve to have a safe appropriate child- centered environment to learn and grow I would like to say that I am here speaking for our children and families I am retiring so this is not going to affect me but our families deserve more I still I still have relationships with families from 30 years ago one of my former students who you may know Delmas Mayo is now a junior at Green Academy and an amazing para athlete he met his best friend in my class when they were three they came to spend the day in my class last year and I heard Delma say to Kiko when they got to the room it feels like we are home this is why we do what we do in early childhood the mayor has publicly stated that early childhood is a focus for her and administration I up thank you very much thank you for your testimony so we're going to try with Rob Garrison could you please accept the um prompt hello good evening um my name is Rob can you hear me actually yes we can hear you okay thank you um my name is Rob Garrison I am um live in the Jamaica plane neighborhood of Boston and um I have children two children in the west Zone ear Learning Center um one of my greatest concerns about the proposed plan is the lack of transparency in the planning and the sharing of information communication between departments and also between families it is very unclear when decisions were made on closure and Acquisitions of schools I use the term acquisition because a merger suggests combining to create a new school the West Zone will no longer exist according to this plan and the students will go into the new school or actually the school that's there the henan um the westone ELC was informed of the proposed closure on May 9th one week following the end of the search for a permanent principal and a candidate had been already forwarded to superintendent skipper week later we found out the westone was closing if communication were at its best this the interim School principal of the westone the families and the community would have known that this would have that and this would have affected a huge decision in hiring additionally now the school has uh a new permanent principal for one year and not to mention the new H yep the new hires who were also moving from other BPS schools that were closing or being merged so I ask that the committee um help to hold the district accountable to share the vision of our school restructuring with specific details Based on data and known metrics um the staff uh is is a wonderful staff and you've heard of two of them here now and I just am very concerned that the decisions Are CL thank you very much your time is up thank you please send us the your testimony our next speaker is Austina hi everyone hello you can start can I start okay thank you very much hello Boston School commit thank you so much thank you so much for this opportunity to speak and hold on one second I have my children no um hold on one second please hold on I apologize for this okay mommy sorry um so again and I apologize for the for the interruptions our family I um Austina mod resident of Jamaica plane our family was very fortunate that our son was placed in a k Zer spot at West son Early Education Center two years ago he's now in K1 with Miss Downing ever since he started we have been impressed with the level of care commitment and dedication of all teach teachers and staff at won what impresses me the most is the holistic approach to the students education not only about the academics but safety well-being and social emotional learning I believe that the Excellence of West son delivers lies in its Early Education Focus my biggest concern about the closure of won is losing the high quality of care to individuals student needs and losing access to resources specific for their school age BPS needs to create more of this type of Early Education Program and not closing them we need to ensure that all families in Boston have access to public Early Education so that we can go to work and make sure that our kids thrive in such programs I ask that the committee votes no to the plans of closing westone and think about the negative impact on current and future families that benefit from such programs thank you very much thank you very much so we are going to um our next speaker is la la Martinez and then we're going to try and Sheila the George again Zoom calls and Steven too late right Sten hi could you hear me hi can you hear me yes we can hear you okay hi my name is line Martinez I would first like to ask the Comm the committee to please vote no to closing and or merging the West Zone ELC my family's experience and that of many at the ELC has been amazing due to its small classrooms it has been able to provide the same educational level as many private schools I also have a 20-year-old son who actually went through the BPS school system now attends Bentley so I can attest as to other you know his K1 level versus what my daughter is currently receiving at the ELC what makes it even more amazing is their free extended hours catering to working months like myself I ask again to please vote no on the closing of the West Zone ALC thank you thank you very much uh is Anon Chilla the George no she's not um so that concludes our public testimony thank you Miss Parx and thank you to those of you who spoke this evening and shared your perspectives your testimony is very important to us we'll now move on to action items our first action item this evening is the grants for approval totaling $330,000 I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments uh thank you chair uh these are uh two grants uh one for the beu Consortium uh and the other for blackmail advancement Grant which is with the city uh to partner with uh Chief McCarthy and some of the work that um you know we've been doing cross sector with uh the city so I would just encourage their smaller grants but will be impactful grants and I would just encourage the committee to vote affirmatively thank you now opening it up for questions comments from the committee no all right thank you there's no further discussion I'll now entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented is there a motion thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent hearing none the grants are approved our section action item this evening is the approval of the UP Academy Boston and Up Academy Dorchester Charter amendments now I'd like again I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments great thank you chair um so just as a reminder The Horseman Charter Schools require updates to their Charter documents as part of the standard renewal process Amendment approval is required by this committee as well as the Charter School Board of Trustees the Boston Teachers Union and desie Up Academy Boston will consolidate into Up Academy doorchester at the end of the current school year and the school operate under the current Up Academy Dorchester Charter starting July 1st until that consolidation takes place there are required amendments that need to be approved for Desi compliance purposes for both entities before they emerge we ask that tonight you approve these changes so that the consolidation can continue uped uh up education network uh Chief Operating Officer Mike bow is here uh were there to be any outstanding questions are there any questions okay thank you all if there's no further discussion I'll now entertain a motion to approve the up AC Academy Boston and Up Academy doorchester charter amendments as presented is there a motion so thank motion great thank you is there a second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion Miss provix will you please call the role yes thank you Dr alkins yes Mr K Hernandez yes Miss Lima Barbosa yes Miss palano Garcia yes Mr Tran yes Mr O'Neal yes Miss Robinson yes the motion is approved thank you our final action item is the superintendent's recommendation to withdraw the Boston public schools from the Massachusetts school choice program for school year 2024 2025 you'll recall that Deputy superintendent of equity Comm community and F in family advancement Dr Anna tovaris presented the recommendation to the committee at our May may8th meeting I will now invite the superintendent to offer any final comments uh great thank you chair so tonight we're asking uh this body to vote on The District's participation in the Massachusetts interdistrict school choice program as you know each year the m and school committee must choose whether or not to participate in the program during the upcoming school year the educational reform Act of 1993 amended the Massachusetts school choice law and established a presumption that each school committee will admit non-residents under the school choice program unless districts vote not to participate by June 1st of each year the rationale for withdrawal must be shared then with desie if the school committee members do not vote to withdraw from the school choice program it means the district agrees to allow non-resident students to attend BPS school starting in the school year 2425 if the members decide the district should participate they must also decide whether to restrict enrollment certain grade levels or it is assumed that all grades will be open for enrollment in the fall since the law was enacted in 1994 the school committee has voted not to participate in the school choice program in order to ensure the Boston resident students have Priority Access to all BPS schools chair Robinson will review the the vote language this will this always causes a little confusion the keyw in the vote language is withdraw so yes means you agree the district should withdraw no means the district should not withdraw and that thus automatically enrolling us at the last school committee meeting Dr davaris and I shared several of the main reasons why participation in the school choice program would not work for our district right now or benefit our students so I'm asking for a vote yes to withdraw BPS from the program as I indicated last session to member Cadet Hernandez we will continue to explore for a future time what limited participation could look like so open for questions comments I have a question do we there are districts where we listed a bunch of districts that are not participating but there are districts that do participate how many students from BPS leave the district because of school choice to those places I I honestly don't have that information I mean we can get it for you but I I don't have it off I just I'm yeah I guess I'm just wondering the level of participation that currently only in Medico for the most I mean they can't like it's not it's not reciprocal yeah it's not reciprocal so it's not going to it the only place we would see is mecho but also virtual um we do see it with some of the virtual schools but like Fall River there's other places that I've opted in but we're not we not that we're receiving right our kids can leave yeah we don't we don't I don't off like right now have that data I'm happy to we can pull it and see if we can get it it would come out of the Sims data um so is data that we could get and I guess I will just ask um no movement on any smaller Pilots particularly like where I left last week thinking about having some curiosity around was sixth grade and well second grade sixth grade and Ninth Grade just given the way that seats expand in those grades so what we continue to have under enrollment in those places I'm yeah I'm just I think you know where I'm at I'm it's been two years of me asking for us to do something on this issue and for two years I've been told we'll talk about it next year and that is not you that's a that's a collective body piece but I'm starting to lose trust that we will talk about the issue unless we vote no and do something about the issue yeah I think um I think the to remember that it's not just the grade level the student comes in it's the we then have that student for the rest best of the grades they here and um you know I think when we're already trying our best to recognize we have a shortage of high quality seats for students and we're trying to add as quickly as we can those highquality seat opportunities to then have students from outside of the district who then would compete with students who have been in BPS for their careers uh and then potentially lose those seats uh that would be hard to explain for me at least to the community yes and also at the same time families who leave the city because they can't afford to be here anymore but also then have to leave our system like in the conversation so far we haven't talked about declining enrollment and the reasons for declining enrollment including the number of folks who just leave for more affordable housing outside of the city and maybe even still work in the city um so I'll just say same thing I said the last two years which is I hope next year we don't talk about this two weeks before the vote and that we can do try something creative even just to scratch an itch that I have um the idea of voting to withdraw from school choice doesn't sit well in my spirit any other comments Mr O'Neal so Madam chair thank you um I apologized to my fellow members that I couldn't be at the last meeting when this was presented I was out of state and so um I did catch up obviously on the conversation I remember the conversation last year and um I did reach out to some Statewide experts on uh school choice Beyond The District to ask them to both you know question what the district was saying to us but also ask you know so can we do a pilot program that that comment that member cadat Hernandez makes about people that have been priced out of district and have to move out I think particularly in East Boston right has been an issue of community members so I did ask some Statewide experts on the matter and the feedback I got was that this is predominantly the the districts that opt in are predominantly rural districts more in the Central and western part of the states because they're trying to fill you know a first grade or a second grade just got a couple more students be able to have a teacher um their sense was most in the eastern part of the state and particularly the larger cities do not do it um they did say we could do a small number but they really cautioned us to think about the implications of that because they said for two reasons um one is obviously the budget implications that you know we would be reimbursed 5,000 per student and we're clearly spending a lot more than that and we're already nervous this body expressed a lot of concerns about the budget for next year let alone for this year plus we would have to pay additional transportation costs Etc so they cautioned about the budget implications and the other thing quite frankly they kept saying over and over again is just remember once you let a student opt into your District you have that student through 12th grade so if we say well we have some under enrolled Elementary School let's try it there these students are now in our district and they're in our district till 12th grade and So at their siblings so now all of a sudden we have yes we have some under enrolled high schools and we're tring to deal with that but we also have large in demand schools not only our exam schools but you think of um Boston Arts Academy you know where students have to uh apply for them you think of uh quiny you think of a bunch of the smaller schools that have weight list and are trying to grow and and I would really personally struggle with explaining to a family why your child didn't get in because now someone from Brookline and Newton is getting in and they're paying 5,000 and so um I I understand EX ly the thoughts about is there something we can do creative on this particularly for the rationale raised but I personally and I'm just expressing my opinion now because I wasn't able to last week um I just I struggle with the concept of doing it because there was so many side recom Rec repercussions thanks so I love the idea of in theory but then in practice I really struggled and I and I checked with the state experts to say is there a way we could do this so I just wanted to express my opinion so for that reason I'll be voting yes to withdraw from it so it what you any other thoughts before we move on can I say one more thing I'm I'm curious who the experts are but I am also we're the same body who doesn't vote to expand seats at the screen schools where I mean this is literally in all of our control like sometimes I'm here and I feel like I'm going crazy just a few weeks ago we were saying we wouldn't expand SE we have schools that are 30% enrolled and we won't expand seats to to exam schools and yet the our fear of this and this is not just you this is what came up last time too our fear in participating in a school choice process is the exam schools they will want to go to our most selective schools when we literally control how many seats those have like we have so much power to do that even today I mean we're going to vote in a little or we'll hear the presentation of like our big facilities plan which is a school closure we heard about in January and a merger that like we could just do so much more so I don't know I and I hear all of it and I God bless the experts but I am I will I will continue to say this it is a pro desegregation strategy it does not surprise me that your big cities in Massachusetts have chosen not to participate in a desegregation solution and I think everything we're saying if we change around words is Scare Tactics that are often used to say not in my backyard and so I'm not thinking about the family in Newton I'm also thinking about the family in Chelsea I'm thinking about the family in Chinatown who doesn't can't live in Chinatown anymore but wants access to a great school and works in the community I think we can do the whole scare tactic thing of like the Brookline Family or the wealthy Newton family but like we all know that's not the family who's choosing to come here those schools are working too you're not leaving Newton public school to come into BPS I mean it may happen but like that's the floodgates are not opening what you will get are families who are working in the city trying to figure out out or who are priced out and what we might also get even if it's $5,000 we are spending a lot of money keeping empty classrooms open and empty buildings open and we are not we have chosen to not be aggressive on that and then at the same time we are choosing not to be aggressive on filling those seats with people who may be interested in going to them and then at the same time having to move things around to continue to create highquality seats I think we can do it all um but it and I will end here and I really will cuz I no it's not going anywhere it again doesn't surprise me two years of this conversation later and we're in the same place having the same conversation two weeks before being like we'll look at it next year and we didn't look at it at all this year um and I I on a personal level I feel like it's an a front and on a system level I think it's it's sad Mr Kad Hernandez I hear you I will respectfully say if you notice my very first comment was about the East Boston community and I have visited every single School in East Boston every single School this year I have talked with every single School leader in East Boston I acutely aware and I brought it up myself about parents who being priced out of that Community impact to their students so I'm not raising Scare Tactics I'm speaking truthfully about what some of the implications could be would be and I can name a bunch of communities that we would have people interested in coming to our schools but just want for the record the First Community I talked about was East Boston and the student the families that are being priced out and are moving to Chelsea and Everett and we Etc and the students have to leave our system because of it so I just want to make that for the record and I and I heard that thank you good uh this issue is For Better or Worse very very important to me because it is in my line of work for the last last 40 years and um as a matter of fact uh that's pretty much my life's work I'm I'm a civilized lawyer I cannot and I I will not be able to look at it beyond the uh lens of civil rights while I I I hear you I I understand the ramifications regarding um uh budget regarding everything else but you know I I I understand I do understand the constraints that that will be imposed on on the school district if we open this but at the same time member Brandon gnet hernandz surprisingly I'm with you uh I'm with you on this um on on the rationale that we are school committee we advocate ate for the segregation we advocate for you know for uh fairness Equity it would be very hard for me to balance between the real reality of of of of uh Transportation finance budget and all that with the under enrollment the uh you the the other issues that we are hearing every day regarding racism and and all that and here we are so uh it's very hard for me to vote Yes but at the same time I know that if I vote no it would be it would be um valerious to our to you know to to to our children so I let me State for the record very sorry but I will abstain from the voting thank you ch um going to try to be very slow forina um I'm voting yes not because I don't agree that every family in Massachusetts deserves a school choice just like myself that came all the way from kver and came to Boston and graduated at Burke however even the newcomers and folks are coming from another country and they're like oh my God I'm going to Boston best schools better than what I have at home sometimes that in itself is very misleading cuz TW two Wednesdays a month we're coming here and we're talking about the need of investing in Disability Services multilang all the different services that each of us come and advocate for so to me until BPS solves what we have here I don't want to keep misleading folks if it's from Brockton Newton cver to come and think that this is actually better than what you have at home so it's more of like a priority am I prioritizing into opening it up so everybody has access to it or am I prioritizing the issues that we currently have so they're not coming here and still dealing with the same issues that our Boston families and residents are so it's hard I I totally hear you like I I I'm all about opening the doors giving folk everybody the access but I don't want to lie to them and say if you come here going to be better than what you're getting at Chelsea so I that's where my my yes is coming from but I agree that we can't keep having this conversation and this is the first time that I'm having a conversation with the committee but I hear you on we can't have this conversation two weeks or a month before um I would you know I would propose the district to have some sort of group task force or whatever that's working on figuring out Solutions if it's a pilot whatever that is so it might not feel that every year we have this conversation it feels like our are tight uh and I don't think it was done purposely but I think it would be good to hear the feedback that's being offered about how we're actually being engaged in a matter um but I I trust BPS is doing a lot to fix things but I don't think we're there yet we're we're asking for a master plan so I don't really think I need to open it up for the rest of the state if I don't really know what what buildings are going to actually be here in two five 10 years I'm I'm just saying so um that solve the opportunities and challenges that we have here before thinking about opening up for the state and even if you open it up and it's oh we're going to have more money who's to say that the additional money that BPS gets is actually going to be allocated where we want it to be allocated it maybe it is but again there's still an issue we have all this money and every year there's still the conversation that BPS is now allocating money where it needs to go right so I don't care if we get more money or less money whatever we have we need to do a better job of allocating them in places that it needs to go um so and my case there thank you anyone else before we vote um I hold everything that uh colleagues have said um the the notion and if I'm understanding this correctly I think we also have a buffer to this too because in my head I think what the quote unquote prized possessions of of BPS exist in our exam schools and we have a policy in place that is literally designed to ensure that what we're talking about doesn't happen so I think I I hold that at the same point um when we when the any students that come in through school choice would have to go would would then be entitled to compete for any of the exam School seats so but would they also receive points like I think that's some of the intricacies right for us with school choice but yeah and as a committee we would we would be the the body that would address that right so um um so there's there's that piece um I think the the economic piece for this is probably like the main deciding factor for me um um yeah uh but also like what I'm like what I'm hearing out of all of this is is that this issue which is not unlike other issues that we've encountered as a school committee and I can only speak for myself um where it has felt um where it has felt time and time again that that we've kicked the can down the road and that we continue to do that as a school committee and so I hear member cardet Hernandez's frustration where where do we decide when it stops and um yeah then that's just attention that I'm holding and that's what makes it particularly uh tough um but yeah like for me I think the the deciding factor is is really that that that economic factor in figuring out all the issues particularly around um thinking about transportation and and like all the costs that are associated with it and just you know what um Miss Lima Barbosa pointed to as well just clean your own house before we start thinking about bringing folks in um and so uh yeah thank you before we vote could I just make one appeal um even though I I'll Stand My Ground on exstension I do recognize that the um the recommendation of of uh attempting to communicate or to enter into some sort of dialogue with other uh I I I I I respect the fact that you had already reached out to experts but I was hoping that uh this Administration this the school uh Administration will endeavor I don't know um somewhat um uh somewhat realistically in looking at other options including the P pilot um uh uh options that uh member Hernandez um uh recommendation it just it I I just like to see what are the outcom from those kind of uh communication from those kind of uh negotiation um um it may not go anywhere but at least you know we it'll prove to me that we are trying our best to land some some support to the community who are very much concerned about transparency who are very much concerned about I we've we've been hearing every every every public hearing racial equity and all that I I I like to see some you know some some um attempt at satisfying that concern to the extent that you could thank you and I mean I'm actually curious particularly from your perspective because it is also it can also compromise our commitment to racial Equity because you'd be thinking about removing financial resources from some of our most disadvantaged groups so I I'm just so again I'm holding that too right so um so like the I'm I'm wondering how you see that um and just just to give me a little bit more perspective on it as well um yeah I'm just really curious uh I I hear you and I respect your position I I don't particularly just look at the financial aspect of it although I recognize that it is very important but we are minorities we' we' we've we've learn we've known all our lives uh Beyond Financial aspect of of of of discrimination there are other aspects as well and and I I do understand and you know the fin Financial aspect play a major part but I'm looking at other other opportunity other equality for everybody that's why the fact that I'm not saying that it's not it's it's not crucial but I strongly believe that we can work around it we can find ways we can find Innovative uh options um if we put our heart together and balancing out all other factors that contribute that contribute to racism uh because Financial aspect is is not the only aspect that is that is to be considered in in discrimination right so that that's how I see it but I'm not saying that it's it's not the wrong way or the right way I I respect everybody's decision thank you thanks thank you madam chair um I appreci appreciate you come in everyone um I'm going to say it in Spanish this time I'm going to be very brief as well in the process where I'm hearing all the comments that all my uh Partners here are making it comes to my mind what is the student population that we have in our district study is my question so financially at least in that particular point we are in agreement in the financial aspect however it is very concerning do you know how many people how many persons do we have on weight list particularly for those students that are immigrants that are hoping to have access to a school where they speak their own language so if we open up this opportunity for students to come here to the district as the Choice program States we have to consider that there are many students here waiting waiting for the hope to be able to access a school that is bilingual there will be basically at the same competition level so you have to consider that our population The Immigrant population the financial uh levels or status is typically very low which is not the same Financial condition that this districts have they have a different financial situation so if that is the case they could be at a disad Advantage so for that particular reason my vote is yes all right I'm gonna I just want to make my one comment and then we'll do whatever can I ask one question quick you may ask one question thank you so much I just if whatever happens with this in the future if we continue to explore it I do think and I think there are Scare Tactics in the present ation here I also don't think we're getting an accurate picture about the budget it is $5,000 from the sending District but we would still get state aid for the student who is enrolled in our district and we would still get the federal funds and I just um could I ask um CFO Bloom to just come and weigh in on that because I want to make sure that we actually have accurate information on this one um hi good evening superintendent and uh committee so um with the way our Chapter 70 Aid is set up with minimum state aid we essentially would get very limited of any additional state revenue um if the student was low income there's a chance we would get a little bit more title one but the the the benefit of um the financial benefit we would get would be way outweighed by both the cost and the risk of future Transportation costs once we own the student and the transportation cost being if they had a disability yes or if they you know move districts in a circumstance that means we're still obligated to pay for their transportation and there's lots of I uh it's unclear to me what the what thei the limited financial gain we might get um from this um would feel like it be outweighed by the risk of continued obligations to meet the needs of students I maybe we bring the E some other additional experts into the conversation I thought the idea of a task force would be helpful but oh sorry I was saying maybe in the future as as we don't have this conversation two weeks before we have a task force we bring in some of the experts um I think there is deeper conversations around the equity implications the financial implications um so yeah okay I want to call for the vote but I just have one quick comment to make um we're sitting here with this discussion which I think is very important but what's looming ahead of us is the major discussion about the own future of our own district and where we hear week in and week out from parents saying their needs are not being met we have children we have numbers of children children on IEPs multilingual Learners any number of things that we're not already meeting the needs of students that are in our district as much as I would like to entertain the idea of having additional students come as Miss Lima babosa says when we've got our own house in order and we feel that we are adequately meeting the needs of all 50,000 students that we have now which is the bus biggest District in the state then I feel like yes we can welcome in Open Arms other students but personally until we're there I really feel like I want a better obligation to the students that were already trying to educate plus those students who may find their way to us as migrants or other pieces in the near future because their needs will also be great um and um yes we can one thing that I would hope we can do is maybe to get the state data next year before we have this conversation so that we could take a look across the state as to who does or who does not and are there other districts of our size or near our size that are looking into this issue or as what we've heard are they only really some of the smaller ones that are looking to have two or three students so um thank you all for your concern but I think we've really got to turn our efforts towards the big issue that's facing us this evening so with that I will now entertain a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation to withdraw the Boston public schools from the Massachusetts school choice program for school year 2024 to 2025 as presented just to be clear a yes vote means the district agrees not to participate in the school choice program as recommended by the superintendent this can be confusing because it is a double negative so as an example I will be voting yes because I do not think we should participate in this program is there a motion so moved so moved thank you is there a second oops you have no just one question vote Yes means only one year this this we only vote for one year at a time it's only for one year at a time yes so it's for this next so it's only for we're voting for school year 2024 to 2025 right okay so is there a motion so move thank you is there a second is there any discussion or objection to the motion Miss provix will you please call the role thank you chair Dr alkins yes Mr K herandez no Miss Lima Barbosa yes Miss palano Garcia yes Mr Tran abstain Mr O'Neal yes Miss Robinson yes um the motion is passed by five and one n and one abstained thank you now we'll move on to reports as you may recall we're trying to prioritize efficient time management didn't do that so well few minutes ago with only one report on the agenda this evening it remained Paramount to optimize our time for a timely conclusion so miss prex will assist us in keeping us within the established time additionally I encourage members to seek clarification from staff for any unanswered questions as there will be no voting tonight providing an opportunity to gather fur further information between meetings our only report this evening is the long term facilities plan let's make sure this presentation and discussion don't go over 1 hour and 30 minutes so we are starting at what 8:20 so 8:25 that brings us to 10 10 o you have children you want to get home to help your children go to bed and you want to get up in the morning so 10 o'clock this is this is our first conversation it will not be our last so before I turn it over to chief of capital planning deliv and Stannis laon senior advisor for youth schools and schools Rebecca Granger I want to invite the superintendent to give introductory remarks thank you chair tonight we're here to present the second part of our long-term facilities plan to the school committee in addition to Dell and Rebecca who will be presenting tonight I'm going to ask the whole team to join them because this is not just about our buildings but it's really about our vision for all students and every member of my team from academics to family advancement and operations has a role to play in this work we are calling this presentation realizing our vision proposals for school year 25 26 during our presentation two weeks ago on May 8th we brought you up to date on our ground work over the past two years we gave you the historical context for this work and reviewed the work we've done with the community since publishing the long-term facilities plan 6 months ago we shared an overview of each of the 11 major capital projects that are now currently underway and where we're making significant progress as we noted this number is more projects than BPS completed in the last 40 years combined I want to say that again this number that we currently have underway is more projects than BPS completed in the last 40 years combined these projects represent an immense amount of work from the capital planning team and our collaborators across the district including facilities schools and Community engagement teams it also represents the continued commitment for mayor woo and the City of Boston to invest in our school facilities we are especially grateful to the team at the city's public facilities Department it is critical that we do the work we have committed to already with the the community and to a standard of Excellence the community deserves tonight you will again hear from Chief of capital planning deliv sanl and mayor woo senior adviser for Youth and schools Rebecca Granger who will build on the May 8th presentation we have several new proposals for you tonight that include consolidations reconfigurations and two closures we will also share a number of academic proposals and other milestones we expect to reach over the next 12 12 to 18 months that are designed to increase the number of high quality seats high quality seats available to our students we describe each of these strategies in much more detail in the comprehensive memo shared with you last week and posted on the Boston school committee website for the public to read our Capital improvement work will allow us to build on key initiatives in the following ways creating spaces that support the implementation of inclusive Ed allowing us to expand bilingual education s and newcomer programming including dual language programs new bilingual programs and formalized newcomer programs at several high schools strengthen the secondary school ecosystem including Early College Pathways and more AP course offerings and adding six new community Hub School sites tonight I'm also joined by my three deputies Deputy superintendent of operations Dr deina Deputy superintendent of equity community and family advancement Dr devaris and Senior Deputy superintendent of academics Dr Chen this is districtwide work so our division Chiefs are also here to support with follow-up questions we cannot remedy Decades of disinvestment quickly this effort must be ongoing intentional strategic in each year continue to build on the goal of increasing high quality seats for for students throughout the district over time we will be able to shift our physical footprint so that we have fewer and on average larger schools that can offer the full range of academic and enrichment opportunities for all students as we shared during last meeting we're not proposing a large number of closures or consolidations this year we need to plan this work carefully with our school leaders and school communities at the same time we need to be building up capacity so that when students are impacted by closures consolidations or other changes families can be confident that they will transition into highquality learning environments that meet their needs I'd like to stress that we are allowing the entire 2425 school year for that planning so our 24 25 school year is going to be for planning and transition work to happen with the communities these changes would take effect in school year 2526 I'm confident that the proposals we're making this year will improve the quality of Education our students receive and better position the district to be stable and sustainable for future Generations we'll come back to this body on Monday June 17th to ask for your vote over the last couple of weeks the team has started engaging directly with impacted School communities and that work will continue we began this process at the start of the school year by working with our school leaders throughout the district to identify opportunities to give students more access to high quality with fewer transitions in the next few weeks the team will be holding in-person Community meetings holding office hours for staff and sending out a survey for family students and Educators to start to design a transition plan for impacted students if these proposals are approved we will continue holding regular meetings with school communities to further develop a specific transition plan over the next school year I know that for students families and Educators any potential change to our schools can mean disrupting established communities and carefully built routines our approach must be grounded in continuous Community engagement for both the impacted School community and our communities that welcome students into their schools we have committed to an annual cycle to review the data engage with the communities and develop new prop proposals each year with enough lead time for students families and Educators to meaningly participate in developing transition plans we've had meaningful conversations with this body about why this annual cycle is the right approach I understand why some community members are asking for a specific year-by-year road map but this work is so intertwined with the core academic and structural changes we're making from inclusive Ed to the expansion of bilingual programs to the expansion of secondary school path ways we have to move carefully reviewing the data each year and making adjustments to make sure we are continuing to put students first I have said before that this work is about more than just buildings new buildings alone don't produce a high quality student experience but often building projects do serve as Catalyst for deeper change the work we currently have underway will result in a significant increase in the number of high quality seats available to our students but we have a lot more work ahead while tonight's presentation is about the technical aspects of Shifting The District's physical footprint these changes will support the academic changes we are implementing examples of this are outlined as we get into the presentation and in the appendix of the presentation we'll come back to the body on Monday June 17th to ask for your vote on two specific proposals the closure of the West Zone Early Learning Center and the consolidation into the henan school and the closure of the Frederick pilot Middle School the district's last Standalone middle school and please note that this meeting is being held on a Monday instead of the normal Wednesday and at this point it's my great pleasure to turn this over to Chief Stanislas and Senior adviser Granger to walk you through tonight's presentation thank you superintendent good evening everyone my name is deliv Stannis I am the chief of capital planning for Boston Public Schools I am joined here tonight by Rebecca gringer senior advisor to the mayor of uten schools um who will be presenting along with me tonight I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my colleagues all of the Deputy superintendents Chiefs and other BPS central office employees who are here tonight as the superintendent shared this is truly collect Ive team work this team is talented and fully committed to Leading the efforts in service of current BPS students and as we build the foundation for the generations to come thank you to chair Robinson and members of the school committee for the opportunity to continue our discussion on the long-term facilities work we will refer back to when we were last with you on May 8th as tonight is a continuation of that conversation it's worth empath emphasizing again that our Collective vision of a highquality student experience is the core of what is driving the long-term facilities work we say Collective because the vision is rooted in the voices and experiences of students and families Educators in our schools and central office and our wider community and partners to achieve this goal we have to increase the number of high quality seats in every school in every neighborhood and for every student in Boston Public Schools the capital and infrastructure Investments we are making as part of the long-term facilities plan move us towards increasing the number of high quality seats but as we all know new buildings alone do not res result in every student having access to a rigorous and fulfilling education which is why this work is deeply intertwined with our core academic strategies as well as wider structural changes as we have shared previously this work takes collaboration and careful planning it also takes time on May 8th we provided historical context on our Capital planning work to date as well as the unprecedented number of capital projects both in planning and underway as we mentioned at the last school committee meeting we are proposing a limited number of school closures we engaged with the impacted School communities last week and tonight we'll be sharing those proposal those new proposals we will also share our continued work on grade reconfigurations in alignment with the 2019 school committee policy to create fewer Transitions and clearer Pathways for students our goal is to ensure a well-rounded BPS ecosystem in order for us to get there we must increase the number of high quality seats that support the highquality student experience for every student in the district the three pillars outlined on this slide structural changes investing in facilities and creating and improving academic and enrichment programs are key drivers to achieving our shared vision of high quality seeds for every student in every school later in tonight's presentation we will walk we will talk about specific Milestone we expect to reach over the next 18 months to create an improve academic and enrichment programs as well as structural changes including creating two new programs in service of building a strong well-rounded ecosystem this is all in service of increasing access to high quality seats in school buildings across the district there has been a lot of focus and attention on under enrollment and the need to rightsize the district it is true that our total enrollment is lower than it was a decade ago but the full picture is more nuanced in many schools and neighborhoods it's not that we have too many seats it's that we don't have enough high quality seats particularly for students with particular learning needs closures will be a part of our long-term work but we need to continue to invest in our schools birth both in terms of high quality instruction and in terms of facilities so that all students have access to Great Schools when we say we need to build capacity we mean that now and in the future whenever students are impacted by a closure or consolidation they will be transitioned into a high quality learning environment across the district in the next few slides we will discuss how the Three core pillars you see here help us lay the foundation to actualizing our vision good evening um so I want to point out again uh the collective team that's here tonight um they Bridge across departments supporting all aspects of District work this is so important to highlight because for system level work to take hold and make generational change it will take the entire system aligned and moving in the same direction I'm thankful every day to work closely with the BPS team and I want to highlight them because I'm about to share their hard work tonight we are focusing on high impact Investments to transform The Learning Experience for all BPS students as we increase the number of highquality seats these are additional tools and strategies to lay the foundation for greater change a strong foundation will lay the groundwork to continue to move with urgency but we'll also ensure that changes are impactful and last ing I will touch briefly on some of the work underway to create and improve academic and enrichment programs but there's much more detail in the school committee memo for tonight's meeting which is posted online on the school committee website for members of the public to read inclusive education and Equitable literacy are foundational to bps's academic work the academics team will share a more in-depth update on Equitable literacy at the June 5th school committee meeting Equitable literacy ensures strong foundational literacy high quality instructional materials and the integration of culturally responsive texts and is a key component of our inclusive education plan which was launched in October 2023 inclusive education will continue to be implemented over the next several years with implementation beginning in grades K 0 K1 K2 7th and 9th in the fall of 2024 We are continuing to expand the number of schools identified as Community Hub schools we currently have 14 and we'll add an additional six next school year Hub School coordinators will be welcomed in uh at the Ruth Batson Academy I still love saying that name uh the Sha Taylor the Phil brick suar and the henan um demonstrating a key strategy for supporting our schools undergo undergoing mergers or consolidations we are expanding bilingual education SLI and newcomer programming this year or sorry this fall we're formalizing three newcomer programs at the secondary level we're also implementing the expansion of the margarita mun a dual language school starting with seventh grade the mun will also add a Spanish s program which will support students and staff transitioning from the Frederick for the fall of 2025 BPS is proposing new bilingual education programs at eight elementary schools in Spanish kolu from Cabo and Chinese we will be engaging directly with school communities over the coming weeks and months to identify the programming that best meets the needs of each individual community and will'll finalize and submit proposals to desie in the fall and expect to hear back in time for next year's assignment season we're also proposing a new bilingual program at the Ruth Batson Academy we estimate the nine new bilingual programs will expand access for 250 students in year one a significant amount of work is underway to strengthen the secondary school ecosystem by increasing the number of pathway programs and by increasing student participation in these programs which research shows is correlated with higher graduation rates and postsecondary outcomes over the last few years there's been great progress in increasing the number of Early College AP course offerings Innovation pathway programs and Career and Technical education programs across our secondary schools new for next year and Beyond we're expanding Early College with a new designation at East Boston high school and a particular focus on increasing Early College access for multilingual Learners where expanding AP course offerings including continuing to add AP African-American studies at four additional secondary schools next year and we're deepening our commitment to career and Technical education including through the redesign and renovation project at Madison Park there's a lot more detail in the full memo that was shared with you and with the public the second pillar of aligning our work to our vision is structural changes which is foundational to increasing access and removing barriers we're expanding the number of seats at existing schools that offer a highquality experience there are multiple strategies we're utilizing to expand highquality seats across the district at the Josiah quinsey upper school we are expanding seats up to 650 through a new build as noted earlier the margarita mun Academy grade reconfiguration will increase access to a secondary school dual language Community by 190 seats at grades seven and 8 the relocation of the Edward M Kennedy Academy for health careers which currently is spread across two campuses will allow emk to double its enrollment to 800 over the next 5 years there are also schools that students and families seek out but whose enrollment and growth is constrained by the physical limitations of their building this summer BPS will be starting work to identify potential building options that would allow two of those schools the Boston International newcomers Academy binka and Boston green Academy BGA to expand to meet demand binka currently serves 582 students in grades 9 through 12 and is and its building is nearly fully utilized relocating and expanding the school would allow it to add a seventh and eighth grade which is critically important to meet the needs of our changing student body BGA currently serves about a uh sorry about 460 students and is essentially at its physical capacity BGA is Boston's only School focused on sustainability and preparing the next generation of diverse leaders for college and careers in green Industries and runs a reported weight list of nearly 250 students demonstrating a high level of interest from students and Families at the May 88th school committee meeting we provided an update on the policy passed in 2019 to standardized grade configurations and BPS to either prek through 6 7 through 12 or prek through 8 9 through 12 we are committed to minimizing student Transitions and creating clear Pathways that provide options aligned to the highquality student experience for students this slide summarizes the grade reconfigurations currently underway as well as the progress made on changing grade configurations since the 2019 school committee policy was passed reconfiguring grades is another strategy we are utilizing as it provides an opportunity to use the space we have available differently for example transitioning seventh and e8th grade um out of a school may allow for the expansion or addition of early grade seats we have recently announced three additional grade configuration changes that will take effect in school year 25 26 two of the schools where conversations are underway are the Raphael Hernandez dual language school and the gardener pilot Academy both schools will be transitioning from prek to 8 to prek to 6 Community meetings are also underway at the James W henan School school and we will go into more detail on the henan on a later slide this slide summarizes current enrollment information for the Hernandez and the gardener we held in-person staff meetings and virtual community meetings to provide information about the transition process and timeline and to address any questions or concerns as we have shared there will be a full year of planning where we will continue to engage and support families and staff throughout the transition particularly those who will be transitioning to a new school Community students who will transition to another school will receive support with the transfer and registration process students directly affected will receive priority in the assignment process for a new school assignment for the 2025 26 school year all students who have required programming in alignment with their IEPs or multilingual learning needs will continue to uh have access in grades seven and 8 at the Hernandez For example students graduating in the sixth grade will continue to have a pathway to dual language secondary education by transitioning to the munis which is adding grades seven and eight we're also creating new programming specifically designed for our 19 through 22-year-old students who are primarily served right now in our open enrollment high schools we serve about 850 students in this age range every year as this population of students prepares to transition to life in the community they often need support and services tailored to their unique needs over the next 12 to 18 months BPS is launching two new programs to better serve students with special needs and newcomer multilingual Learners ages 19 to 22 who will benefit from tailored programming this coming school year our 19 to 22y Old multilingual Learners um sorry for our 19 through 22 year-old multilingual Learners BPS is opening a satellite campus for Boston adult Technical Academy or B East located in the orient Heights area of East Boston there are currently about 90 students 19 or older living in East Boston or charl town these students and others in the area will have the opportunity to transfer to B East to access School closer to home B East will provide opportunities to earn a diploma and gain gain college and postsecondary application assistance for 18 to 22 yearolds with disabilities we are designing a postsecondary transition program anticipated to start in September of 2025 with an initial enrollment of approximately 60 students with the potential to grow the program will help students develop the skills that will enable them to pursue further education and vocational training develop essential skills to gain and maintain employment and live as independently as possible creating these two programs to better serve 19 to 22 year olds with specialized programming needs will be foundational to deliver on our commitment that when our secondary students are impacted by a closure or consolidation they transition into a highquality learning environment that meets their unique needs and aspirations we also need to take in a close look at our student assignment and special education policies this graph shows the percentage of Grade 9 through 12 students enrolled across our secondary schools highlighting the percentage of multilingual Learners and students with disabilities there is a disproportionate distribution of multi-link Learners and students with disabilities at our open enrollment secondary schools which serve 42% of all students but 55% of multilingual Learners and students with disabilities I'm going to actually just stop on this slide for a minute and just ask School Community to really kind of look at it um this is the first time we've kind of put the data out in this way and I think it tells a tale particularly at the secondary level of why why this is not as simple as just merging schools and closing schools at the secondary in the secondary world without us doing deeper work to prepare seats for the students that would be impacted so when you look at this slide we have you know 34 high schools roughly uh all different shape sizes and types and what you see is that the multilingual Learners in our special education students are really concentrated in our open enrollment schools it is those open enrollment schools that are actually under enrolled and underutilized from a building perspective however we can't just simply close or merge them without first developing a way for the students who are in them who are the most fragile who are our multilingual Learners and students with disabilities to have seats in other places some of this has to do with barriers that we have to break down for parents with accessibility some of this has to do with building supports up in these types of schools that are on the left side so that they can better serve and receive students with disabilities and multilingual learners but we cannot have a system where 42% % of the population of of high school 9 to 12 is being served in open enrollment schools and they represent six of 10 students are multilingual Learners in special education this is not a new problem anyone that's been in the high school world has known this problem seen this problem but we I also want to say that the vast majority of the Open Enrollment schools are also transformation schools because we have concentrated and clustered the students with the highest needs in one place so we would literally be moving students in any kind of merger closure or reconsolidation on that open enrollment part to other open enrollment schools and how do we say to a parent we're going to disrupt you disrupt your high school kids experience to put you in another school that isn't going to be able to serve you better right now there's also great disparity in the open enrollment schools with Early College in career and since we know that's a ticket like we know from the data that's the ticket to enrolling in college and being successful having those post outcomes we need to be doing next year the deeper work as we have been this year and last year in making sure that the that that the student that The Fad who flew and had got the chance for Aviation at the Burk that that can happen in other high schools that's the systems work guys that we have to do so when I say repeatedly you cannot close your way out of this we cannot close our way out of this we have to do both we have to develop the programming and the strong academics and remove the barriers and we have to work on our buildings so this is a really good slide to kind of frame around because I think it really does set the stage when we talk about the bigger systems problem and the reason why all these guys are sitting together right here with Delan Rebecca because to undo that that I lived with cuz Tech Boston is over there right like on the open enrollment so to undo that that is all of their work that's the systems work we have to do and I'll just say before I pass it back over to Dell that we are not yet in a position to guarantee that all of our students um have access to these high quality seats and to to do so will require addressing the barriers that superintendent Skipper was just talking about which is possible but it will take time the third component of our strategy is investing in our facilities this includes new bills and Renovations as well as closures consolidations and mergers we are also evaluating how to best utilize our current buildings which I'll return to in just a moment at our last meeting I shared the 11 major capital projects underway more than BPS has ever more than BPS has seen over the last 40 years combined this represents a significant acceleration of this work with multiple projects finishing each year the mayor's recommended Capital plan for fiscal year 25- 29 includes more than one .3 billion for BPS projects this is about 27% of the city's overall Capital spending over the next 5 years this is a significant amount of Investments but we want to be transparent that much of it is quickly absorbed by the 11 major capital projects shown on this slide but the capital plan create continues to invest in BPS in a few important ways there's a significant new funding for small scale repairs and infrastructure upgrades across our schools led by my colleagues on the facilities team there are placeholders for major new projects that aren't yet underway but that the district and the city remain committed to beginning as existing projects wrap up and new projects begin and there are resources for BPS to scope out potential investments in some of our buildings that are currently underutilized but hold great potential which will share more about in just a moment finally there are resources through the renew Boston trust program to pursue deep decarbonization projects in our school buildings we're currently exploring the feasibility of decarbonization projects at the JFK and ois elementary schools of course new buildings alone do not provide the highquality student experience but these projects can serve as a catalyst to align efforts and resources expanding the number of buildings equipped to support highquality seats across the district school closures are also an important part of our facil work as we shift the physical Footprints of the district tonight we are sharing two School closure proposals we've informed staff and school communities of these proposals prior to bringing them to school committee and have begun engaging School communities to meaningfully shape the transition plan that we're developing each of these proposals contribute to our larger District vision of fewer transition and clearer Pathways for our students we deeply recognize that for students families and Educators any potential change to our schools can mean disruption established communities and carefully built routines so our approach must be grounded in continuous engagement over enough lead time to carefully plan for supported transitions for each impacted family and school Community D I just want to interrupt for one minute on this slide so there is no comparison to what BPS is doing right now compared to the old of BPS I want to be crystal clear in this these 11 major capital projects the investment the mayor and the city's making in our Capital the proposals that have successfully gone through msba represent more than 40 what we did in 40 years so there is no no narrative in which we say this is the same with BPS that is just not true these projects unlock high quality seats at a faster rate than we have ever done but we need to do them well and we need to make sure that as projects come off like the Carter and like quinsey upper that we are prepared and ready to put other projects forward that has always been a stumbling block for us that is what we're working hard and the team here is working hard to do that does not mean that in the other 108 buildings that we are not doing some real major work like the work that Teresa and Brian are doing in the facility side of the house is really making sure like we're taking advantage of roof acceleration repair and uh you know doors and windows you know and uh any kind of Heating units ventilation right those are all happening in the other 108 buildings we are working on that and there is budget but to to Really transform some schools you can't put enough money in unless you actually redo the whole school and so these 11 11 major capital projects represent stages of almost complete to The Design This Is Why when we say every year we're going to come before you that has not happened before when we say every 18 months we're talking about the capital cycle regenerating that has not happened before so this is work that's been that's being committed to that ties directly into the slide you looked at before which is we need to focus on high quality seats and experiences for kids and there are multiple things we have to do to make that happen the capital projects is a big one but it is not the only one our first proposal for school committee's consideration and approval is the closure of the Lila G Frederick pilot Middle School the last Standalone Middle School at the end of 2024 2025 disclosure was announced on January 10th sorry I just wanted to correct the end date for the Lila Frederick coming offline it's school year 2526 this closure was announced on January 10th 2024 and is in alignment with the 2019 policy to shift a districtwide prek through 6 7 through2 and prek through 8 9 through 12 system the current eth graders at the Frederick will graduate at the end of this school year the current seven graders will graduate at the end of school year 2425 to ease the transition no incoming sixth graders were assigned to the Frederick for the upcoming 2425 school year for transition plan planning we are focusing on the 98 sixth graders currently at the Frederick who will become seventh graders next year each will be supported in transitioning to New School communities for 2526 and will have priority in these assignment process students in special education programs in alignment to their IEPs as well as students in specialized multilingual programming will be supported to find programs and school communities that match their needs the Frederick currently has a Spanish s program the entire program including the staff will relocate to the margarita munis this move will complement the current programming at the munis as well as the expansion of grade 7 and 8 which will begin implementation with an incoming 7th grade cohort in Fall of 24 we are grateful to the Frederick Community for being active and thoughtful partners we are committed to maintaining the name of Laya G Frederick for the building and continuing to use the building as a school to serve our younger people in Grove Hall and throughout the region the Frederick is one of our newer buildings in the BPS portfolio it is in good condition and can comfortably fit about 650 students this spring we had initial conversations with the Frederick governing board about the future of the building and a and upon an approval vote for broadening Community conversations to understand possibilities for that school what school Community or communities could potentially merge and relocate into the Frederick building our second proposal for school committee consideration and approval is to close the West Zone Early Learning Center and consolidate it into the H the henan school configured to serve grades prek through 6 effective 2526 the westone and the henan currently operate in the same building and they both serve students in K2 and grade 1 but there's no guaranteed pathway for West Zone students to transfer into the henan there are also some operational inefficiencies due to the overlap in grades consolidating the West Zone into the henan provides a pathway for students from k0 through grade 6 I want to reassure families that every West Zone student will have a guaranteed placement at the henan the henan will also undergo a grade reconfiguration eliminating the seventh and eighth grades from the henan and consolidating a small number of classrooms across the two schools opens up space and opportunities to add additional K1 and K zero seats to meet the increase in demand in the Mission Hill Neighborhood and surrounding communities especially for students with disabilities the number of new Early Childhood seats will depend on the programmatic decisions determined in collaboration with the school community Through conversation with the westone community we know that two issues to work through are the difference between the West Zone and henan in bell times and the options for extended day we are committed to working with the West Zone and henan Community to make sure students and families continue to have access to extended day as we make this transition as part of this closure and consolidation we are also committed to a 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. bell schedule with extended day opportunities until 4:30 p.m. for students in grade k0 through K2 and collab collaborating with the school community and partners to develop a community Hub school this will allow students in Upper grades to also have access to after school programming both of these proposals will continue come to this body for a vote on June 17th between now and the 17th we will continue to engage with the communities and lay the foundations for next steps we're particularly asking for meaning ful Community participation in shaping transition plans for students Educators and families which will be finalized over the coming school year principal Tanya Woodard from the henan has expressed to her staff and Community her excitement for this opportunity to warmly welcome the West Zone ELC Community into the henan as we accelerate new school construction and renovation projects we have to also focus on on utilizing our current buildings well our district portfolio includes a lot of buildings that are small and outdated but the long-term facilities plan and the decision-making rubric helps us identify the buildings in our portfolio that have a lot of potential with the right spaces to support our Collective vision of a highquality student experience over the next year we'll be working with our partners in the public facilities Department to scool potential renovation projects some of some of these at some of these sites the buildings listed here can currently fit in model space meaning they are able to hold the physical spaces identifies as identified as supporting the highquality student experience they're also underutilized as of October 2023 or will soon be vacated some of these buildings will likely require significant investment to bring Building Systems up to date which Others May only need more cosmetic upgrades in some of these Schools Enrollment is already projected to grow due to grade expansions or welcoming additional students the district is meeting such opportunities with academics and Facilities investment to further expand the highquality student these schools which then increases enrollment and and therefore the utilization rate of the schools listed here on the next few slides we'd like to spend a few minutes talking about what is ahead for implementation of the district's long-term facilities plan at the May 8th school committee meeting we shared three metrics as part of the data framework these metrics served as an initial guide for decision decisions about Investments including closures mergers reconfigurations and other school changes as a reminder the three metrics on this slide serve as three distinct indicators that some type of intervention should be considered indicators that something about the building is a barrier to providing the highquality student experience these measures are if the building experience score is a two or less on the scale scale of 0 to 4 whether the building can support a high a support a full Continuum of services and the 5year utilization rate of the building the majority of our current school buildings met at least one of these criteria at the moment we're also taking into account other metrics many of which surface through conversations with this committee School leaders and other school Community stakeholders since January the additional metric shared here aligned with the academic priorities and structural changes we shared tonight these metrics and all of the underlying data are available to the public in the memo posted to the school committee website this data framework bills on decision- making rubric we developed for new builds and major Renovations and will help inform decision making for future proposal for closures consolidations mergers new bills and major Renovations all of this data is available to the public so that we can collaboratively develop future proposals alongside community members some of the things we are taken into considerations are how families are choosing their schools illustrated by the percentage of students who are administratively assigned as well as which schools are often found in student often found in students and top three choices another Factor we're considering is the percentage of student populations that live near the school whether within the walk zone or in the same neighborhood we heard repeatedly that students and families prefer to attend schools closer to home and finally because we also heard repeatedly the importance of schools as part of their communities will re review neighborhood factors such as the population of School aged children nearby and programming opportunities aligned to the needs of our families tonight we shared two proposals to close schools one of which includes a consolidation into a collocated school we also shared plans for three grade reconfigurations as we continue to move toward a primarily prek through 6 7 through 12 system each impacted Community has been assigned a senior project manager from the capital planning team who will work closely with the school leadership team to manage all aspect of the project and facilitate Community engagement and participation continued engagement efforts will include a survey regarding transition supports in-person Community meetings and office hours for staff we are fully committed to supporting and continuing to engage with impacted communities throughout the transition we know that transitions are challenging we also know that this work takes time so we have developed an annual cycle of evaluation and reev evaluation and review applying the data framework to determine proposals and engaging with Community around priorities and supports we've committed to a full school year of transition planning so that students families and Educators can meaningfully shape what the transition looks like for their community as the superintendent said this is long-term facil this is a long-term facilities plan we've committed to this cycle so that as we're creating new high quality seats we're also closing and consolidating where necessary to move students into better quality environments on June 19th we are asking for the school committee to vote on the two School closure proposals presented tonight when we think about the future of Boston Public School Division is a full ecosystem of schools districtwide able to provide a holistic and high quality educational experience so it's partly about the number of SE so it's partly about the number of seats but it's also about the type of seats and opportunities that the schools offer when we consider seats available and demand for seats it's not an Apples to Apples comparison we've learned quite a bit about how we want our physical spaces to support our students learning the type of learning experiences we have defined as a collective Community require not only a greater amount of space but for the space to be used differently and therefore to serve our school communities differently thank you for your time tonight and this includes tonight's uh concludes tonight's presentation thank you thank you both for your presentation um we've got 45 minutes that we if we're going to end it 10:00 there are seven of us that says you can have seven minutes each no you want more than that you want to go beyond 10 o00 I mean the issue is we said we were going to try to do an hour and a half yeah so chair just I just also want to remind this is obviously front loading with a lot of the information but we have uh we don't have the vote until the 17th which means we have another two meetings right in your time in between times to get all of your questions answered so before we begin this process I want to know if we can agree to S minutes each for this evening or do you want to change that I mean it's up to you 10 o00 all right that means 7 minutes each all right I I'm just stating for the record I hate this part like just have the conversation see how it goes but I I hear what you're doing and I totally respect it but right I mean I know that people have families and want to go home so I just want to make sure that but I would also I would offer the same energy to the length of the presentation that you do to the seven members of the body respectfully but I hear you I will take seven minutes okay let's begin we'll go this way I'm just going to go straight down Miss Lima Barosa thank you uh superintendent and the team I see y' came prepared the whole team is here it's good to know that um y'all are working together um superintendent I understand why we're only seeing this proposal but it's hard to ignore just from the public testimony of what some families were concerned about LC henan uh and then seeing the presentation and looking at the slides earli I was like oh some of the concerns that folks were mentioning you all are actually committing to make sure for example the extended hours for working parents right or caregivers from the slide it seems like that's something that we're going to commit to I think it speaks to sometimes the the community engagement piece where we made a decision to like okay we're only going to do this and then we only really engage with some communities with one meeting you send emails I know that but it's not enough sometimes for families to digest that information and really understand what is being proposed what they're going to lose and what they're going to retain so I think as you're planning for every year to come and give us different proposals really think about are y'all giving the families and the school leaders and community enough time to even digest information so we don't have a school committee meeting where there's plenty of folks doing testimonials where you can see they didn't digest the information so that would be my feedback and I think when it comes to community engagement and Community process I keep saying it it's not just saying like oh we're doing the community process but it's being truly intentional that you're giving people time to like actually digest us especially when we think about our our immigrant families our families are supporting their kids to have dis disability um disability um learning with that being said again it's it it just speaks a little bit to like y'all had a plan but clearly some folks maybe just didn't have the time to digest Ste and like okay let me ask clarifying questions before coming to BPS and say y'all are not doing the right thing you're not thinking about my family's needs right um let me move on to my questions because I know I'm already running out of time um nice to see that we are proposing new bilingual education um especially C and Creo this is a conversation that goes back to mayor minino time uh the community has been asking for this for a while I just wanted to see if somebody can clarify why we're thinking about um 20 U school year 2025 2026 just trying to understand like why that's being proposed then and not in the fall um and the word amb beond scares me because it doesn't mean that it's happening it could mean that it's not happening in the school year of 2025 2026 so maybe it's not a we don't have to have the full conversation today but just wanted to have an understanding why we're making a decision for that particular school year and not in the fall given that we've had some advocacy like Beyond mayor Walsh's Administration if anybody can help sure so I think Joel thank you member Lima Barbosa I welcome that question um I don't want to scare you off by saying 25 26 and Beyond um it's really about the imple how we would implement the program so the reason why we don't implement it for 24 25 is because we do need to have it approved by desie and we're building out curriculum engaging the community whether it be a TV tve program or dual language program but in the imple implementation of the 2526 school year mean we' probably start with a K1 and K2 classroom and the Beyond is the building out of the program so as the students move up then we would create more additional classrooms and I only ask only of course to educate myself but also to the folks that are interested in this conversation so they can understand it's not as just kicking it for later but there's particular steps that you have to do in order to actually implement it so I appreciate you sort of lining that out absolutely and actually we've reached to the community to have a meeting on the 17th with the community but just realizing that it's the day of the vote so we may actually change that to the 18th so we'll reach out to the community but thank you um I understand and I appreciate you all really touching upon you know we can't make all these changes because we have all these services that we need to make sure that they remain especially for the families and students that need it uh I know we we haven't identified the particular Elementary School um but what would the uh Community engagement would look like not only for the C and Creo language but all the other uh programs that the Dual programs that you all are sure proposing starting off with the cering community we actually have started the engagement process um going out into the community and meeting with some community members and then actually going to uh Orchard Gardens and speaking with the teachers and really learning about the um different nuances and the different dialects of the cver and kolu language um and identifying which dialect or which um version of the language that we would be able to implement for our curriculum to align it with our curriculum um but what the engagement process looks like is really um what we have done is the way we have identified the schools is really looking at the fill rate looking at the language capacity of the students looking at the Staffing uh the bilingual Staffing uh if there's bilingual Staffing and being able to create more of a pipeline for educators there too communic a with school leaders communicating with the Educators but then also uh reaching out to families and looking to see what is what would they like in a program for bilingual education program for their child and then looking at whether the capacity would be for possibly a TBE program a transitional bilingual education program where we start kind of like for students and then we have an clear exit criteria as students learn and and and adapt um more English but giving them more native language access and um instruction or whether having a true dual language program where students become bilingual biliterate in a language and ultimately having the Seal of biliteracy okay final question and maybe uh share this could also be more just systemically how this works so for let's say it's Orchard Garden how does that work is Orchard Garden making a decision on hosting this the program or are they being told that you know after the work data yada yada that y'all are the best home and does that decision somewhat then comes to the school committee to actually like vote on it or is this something that don't require like a vote right it doesn't requ okay but how does the school like who makes the final decision the school leaders or central office and I think it's a shared decision a shared decision between the office of multilingual and Multicultural education working with the school Community uh we really want School communities meaning families teachers School leaders to really be on board with it but also just really looking at the capacity for the program and sustainability of the program sustainability is really key so we can't just say oh we want to have a program and we Implement a program in a school but we don't necessarily have the teacher capacity the language capacity and the student um fill rate for the program um so we have put forth some proposals to desie and those proposals were passed um based on the sustainability of the program the capacity for students and teachers to be able to implement the program so it's really kind of like a shared shared decision but really kind of really calculated and and intentional to ensure that we have long-term success for the program thank you welcome and then for the next meeting uh if uh Dr Tavaris and her team could um come prepared on providing data of how many Cape veran newcomers we're seeing entering and I'm talking specifically about the Jeremiah Eber and the m um school it doesn't have to be in the chamber but I just would really like to understand what's going on at the high school level just because I see that you all are formalizing newcomer programs at particular school I don't know if Burke actually has one but we should definitely have that conversation that would be great thank you chair actually don't I'm not ready sorry go to okay asking for the me no we're going to just come back down the line cuz everybody's going to speak so we're going down to off of them come thank you thank you Madame chair thank you uh Team for presentation I have a lot of questions um for my seven minute I can to start with um say uh thank you BPS for of bilinguist thank you very much for thinking about different options on how to expand the bilingual programs I do appreciate that that makes me arrive to the conclusion that the work that the communities and the parents are doing their voices are being heard we had actually a meeting at the S Stevens uh program there last night and we were talking to the parents that this particular Community have been forgotten for many years the English language Learners that is However the fact that I'm seeing that you guys are taking action creating more bilingual programs that makes me arrive to the conclusion that we are taking in consideration this particular segment of the population the bilingual students so I do hope that this is not just a poor planet to put it that way I do hope that there is sustainability in the process as well and in the future with this so This sustainability over time must reflect that the students the native speaker students do not lose their native language that is an important component so this bilingual programs might must incorporate that they do develop their skills not only in English but in their own native language so question um going to ask you it is regarding slide number eight let me see so slide number eight states to reduce the transitions and to offer more uh scholar more educational options which in fact that is good so I do have to agree that these transitions present disruptions and the inability to to have the proper transitions this are impacting the students it is my understanding that the rapael Hernandez at the and the herley school as well the plan is to cut grade eight if I am understanding correctly so that is what you're suggesting correct is that the case it's the Rafel Hernandez and the henan not the Hurley not the Hurley okay I wanted to clarify that thank you and what is it that you guys have done to be able to measure the impact that this will take the in the families and the students as well so at um at the seventh and eighth grade level at the middle school what we've been seeing at sort of like after the sixth grade is that as a just like across the district we've been losing a lot of student ex sorry the other interpreter is not there is something that she's not hearing the interpretation from the other interpreter who is virtual she okay so how is it how is it that you guys are measuring the impact that this will potentially have in the families what is it that you're doing to be able to quantify to measure the potential impact on the families that a question you can most recently um and I just want to acknowledge very difficult not to speak to you in Spanish um most recently we held a community meeting that uh was specific for families to ask these questions um and of course there were so many Community meetings I think it was last Wednesday but please don't quote me on the date because we had many of them um and we gave time and opportunity for families to understand to your point earlier um um member Banco Garcia this is a lot of information and some of our families for them it's it's new information and they need to absorb how is this actually going to impact my family and the transition of my student and um during that community meeting we had the school leadership we also had the the leadership ship that supports the school and um many of the folks from my team and the capital planning team were also there to respond to questions directly in the moment but also to connect with families that required additional support even after the meeting so one of the ways in which the teams are working in in in as a cohesive team is that the the parts and pieces that are the logistical parts of the presentation that both Delan or Rebecca shared with all of you those are components of this plan and to your point how our families then brought into the conversation is they're brought into the conversation at many points not just one because this is complex and the margarita munis Academy and I'm only going to speak specific to the ernandez school um because of course no surprise to all of you that's the school I know the most um when the margarita munis Academy was was even created there was always um a pathway for our students from the Hernandez to the margarita munis Academy this plan actually supports formalizes and makes concrete that pathway in very specific ways that my colleagues just shared with all of you and then how do we bring families that weren't there in the beginning when all of those plans were happening is in these conversations that we're having with community Through our Collective um participation in the process um and I just want to quickly add on to what um my colleague just shared um just like holistically like the schools that are going through um sort of like this transition what we've seen at the sixth grade level um and I Anna just used the the hernand as an example and I'm I can just build on that just a little to just like understand the full picture is the sixth grade at the Hernandez we see like a lot of students peeling off either to exam schools or other schools um and what we're seeing is very low numbers at the seventh grade level like for example next year like this the the Hernandez um projected seventh grade numbers is like about like less than 10 students to a classroom and as we're looking as we're looking at like the magarita mun that's open up like a dual language program right um having like peeling off the seventh and eighth grade student of obviously it's like uh Parents Choice but students having the opportunity to attend the magarita munis or any other um program across the district 7 through 12th school right it increased the numbers in those classrooms students get access to more programming Etc um at the high school level and I think this just like goes back to the conversation about ensuring that we have like students are getting access the high quality seats I think that looking at the margarita mun and the Hernandez right um as an example um I think it's like really important for us to like just like take a step back and just like look at zoom in and say okay how we're looking at ensuring students have access to high quality seats while also looking at not segregating like our special needs students cuz as part of like sort of like the sixth grade transition we're seeing like a lot of our special needs students and some of our seventh um and eth grades being segregated at some of our schools So to avoid some of those things um investing in the high quality seat in our 7 through 12 and making sure that our students have access to those as we're transitioning the seventh um and eighth grade seats thank you Dr alins uh thank you for the presentation um I appreciate um particularly understanding going back to to the our midyear update and then coming back to this to understand the the annual cycle um and so I'm curious on a couple of things particularly what community engagement then looks like in terms of how we're defining or how we are actually informing folks of where their power lies in the decision-making process because I think what we're hearing from testimony often times is again we're told things or that they are told things and it doesn't seem like folks are un are the transparency is not necessarily what's going on with a process but do I actually have a voice to say whether or not this happens or doesn't happen and just being transparent with that changes the way that people can show up in meetings and it changes the way that people then digest it because then it's like oh you're looking for me to be involved to this extent and then I can work with you more transparently rather than thinking oh I actually can vote on this and it actually turns out I can so I'm wondering what you all are doing in that sense to make it clear upfront about what the process is um and I'm and I'm saying that because also it then if you have those conversations you can point back to the racial Equity planning tool which has the that that spectrum of Engagement um you know and you can point to it that way and then another question I have just for us as the committee is do we receive or maybe that's something that would help us um do we receive any of the the stakeholder analysis piece that's called out in the racial Equity planning tool so that we're so that we're understanding of the of what the perspectives are from the community so it doesn't sound like we're hearing it from public testimony where it's like hey we didn't get this or this meeting didn't happen or and we also understand that different schools are going to require different levels of engagement right so we're not expecting a one-size fitzall here but perhaps what would be helpful for us is as you all are looking at what's the feedback you're getting from those meetings sharing that with us so that we can read that and say all right so like public testimony is not such a surprise to us at times um so I guess that's more of a statement rather than a question but I am qu but but okay I promise one question um thank you uh member palanco Garcia also for um highlighting I I do appreciate that there is an attention to our multilingual Learners um that we are focusing on my question is is as we're developing the curriculum for these programs to to come online how are we doing with the Staffing plan for these classrooms um how are we doing with uh getting teachers certified uh just I'm very curious on how that planning is moving along as we're doing this so that's my one question are you you're asking specifically about the bilingual programs yes like yes I mean I think it's a I think it's a I don't think I think historically I think we've we've spoken about um you know as I think about like the the elll task force I think about what the district has been doing and from my understanding of it is that there's actually a lot of alignment yeah right um um but perhaps like what I'm less clear on is the Staffing strategy that is adequate to support it yeah and so just I think the reason people were because this is an example where it actually cuts across multiple departments right so that's why Francis is looking at Joelle who's looking at so I think the the easiest answer to this is as we've been meeting with the communities um we readily say we need your help recruiting native language learner native language speakers in these areas when there's sometimes no curriculum exists no formal curriculum exists as I think when we went into the cap of Verdian community that was like one of the things they had actually put a lot of effort into developing a curriculum so it's really working with each community and that language to sort of figure out is it it you know what will be our strategy for recruitment of Staff within the community uh Andor is it more of like a recruitment on Francis is with o HC side uh if it's curriculum is it something we need to develop with the community or is it something that we can work with a publisher to find out if it exists those are the kinds of crosswalks that we need to as we're kind of thinking through each of the language Pathways and only thing I would add to that superintendent is that we also have um programs in our ohc department to help with certification so we could support the the people that we recruit in their certifications as well yeah yeah like we have a $6 million um pipe line Grant right now right that just got through approval for Paris who now their ability to speak all kinds of language right but helping them to become teachers right so that's like a perfect example where we're trying to you know apply for Grants and uh work with our postsecondary partners who have these kinds of programs um RCC we have a bilingual PA program for instance so it's really this is crosswork to be able to do it but it has to we really have to work with the community to do it my turn your turn your turn my turn well uh thank you for your presentation I I don't have question I just have a a comment first of all um I do agree with uh uh the superintendent that that that it's long time overdue 40 years uh 4 years or more and it's and it's now in your hand and you have been showing us an astronomical type of work putting this together I I applaud that effort and I I appreciate your your contined U work on this uh the only comment I would make is on that uh web page 15 uh um in addition to echoing the transparency and all that I think we we've been hearing that all the time uh well actually two comments first I support my my my my brother here um recommendation of a of a stakeholder synopsis stakeholder analysis synopsis I I think that's important I think I think we need that as a school committee we need that we need to see that that stakeholder analysis or a synopsis ofice every time we have a meeting so that uh at least at the very least um we I at least I don't feel very depressed when I keep hearing about I do I I keep hearing about uh lack of transparency in in community involvement depresses me I can't I can't sleep at night you know keep hearing that every every meeting so a synops of that would help the only thing out of that uh page 15 is a reminder please make sure that uh students are with disability and um uh multi langual students do do not have only restricted or restriction to uh open enrollment other schools are there and it's it's it's so low uh I'm not putting and a burton on you but um I'm very sure you are very you are all highly intelligent there are ways to increase that so that students with disability that's my area and St and multilingual students would have accessibility to other schools thanks thank you I just while we're on this uh one slide I just want to clarify something and be crystal clear our focus in the open enrollment School rols is not in any way safer form to foreshadow anything around consolidations clo any of that the point of this slide is to show that one our special education and multilingual Learners need more choice in the system which is your point Mr TR um you know in other types of schools uh and two that it is not as simple in any category of just closing a school or M in or consolidating because a seat is not just a seat it is a child and so we have to think about when we're making these decisions who is sitting in the seat and how we can ensure that they get to a seat that has the quality we're promising so I just wanted to clarify that and you know on this particular slide excuse me chair we have 12 minutes left okay still are you ready sure okay um I don't know where to start I guess one I really do appreciate the work and the conversation tonight and this slide 15 I think is I think it's sobering and important for us to to think about as we engage in the the bigger conversation I'm holding sort of of two things I think everyone knows I'm holding this we are not making any real announcements tonight around further consolidation of the system oh mic check after I said you know I'm holding two things we're not making major announcements around consolidating the system after two years of us being told we are we have to do this thing tough times are ahead and it's we're just not there um which leaves me somewhat hopeful because I still don't think we have a plan and so I think it allows us to have another year to not do what I'm worried we're going to do which is to do peac meal announcements and I think we heard from a young man this evening in public comment of the impact of having experiened two closures because our system didn't have a plan of where we were going to we were not sharing publicly what schools we were closing and we were sending kids to schools that would later close um so I'm worried that we're just about to do the same thing um but I'm hopeful that we can create use this year that we are buying ourselves to do much more Forward Thinking I think that's part of the community engagement that people are asking for not how do you engage me once you tell me it's happening I think they want this is the engagement they're talking about and we've had I don't know like 8,000 listening sessions and we still don't have a plan that highlights what the future of the system is I'm thinking about actually John mud this evening too and where is the overall master plan um and I think that's goes in two places like what seats are we creating how many where how in what timeline and I think it can change and be fluid as high quality seats come on the table but I think where're it's unfair to constituents to say like we're going to wait for high quality seats to tell you what the future is of the system I also don't think it's realistic on a financial level and I know we have to get through mayoral elections and all the other things to do hard things but I just think yeah that is my word so but I have a question in my seven minutes um and it's hard to ask this question because we we haven't seen long-term enrollment projections which I know came up in the conversation with Des but as we build new seats in existing places how do we make sense of like layering on complexity that we know will need to be unraveled when we do the inevitable which is merge and consolidate schools so like I I and it is a chicken or the egg question like what comes first but like if you build new programs and high quality seats and there's no way around it we've lost eight ,000 seats we will continue to lose enrollment we have to merge schools like does it not become more difficult to unravel the pieces or is it then just about performance and outcomes like I don't know what comes after that if that makes sense if every seed is high quality today you would still have to merge schools yes yes I mean I I think there's no clearly there from our utilization data that we've published there are schools that are underutilized and I think on one of the slides the team presented kind of what those buildings were I think when we talk about the needs of students as we're thinking about consolidating and merging and and and so forth and the seventh and eighth grades are kind of just good examples right they're two grades uh they're not full in in the schools and but our commitment has to to work with parents and the students to give them the option to be in a seat that is going to be a high quality seat different from what they might have been in or the same as what they might have been in um so we can't just have like that takes a process where we prioritize those seage and we work with the families letting them know and educating them about what their options are and choices are uh and then in some cases it's even worked out you know one of the things we've seen as a positive trend is that some of the staff from the seventh and eighth grades actually go to the high school in that region or that area so that for the student they feel a sense of connectedness and they can make those transitions so it really each one of these requires through the transition and I think this also goes back to Dr alin's point which is the the community engagement piece for us right now is on the transition year to really help the families um hear from them what's important for this transition to happen and then so for instance in the west Zone we've heard loud and clear the hours are really important like making sure that a feeling of no of being known for the students from like a small sense uh matters uh in making sure like the surround care is available like those are really critical things to them so as we're hearing them now we have to work those details out that is the transition planning that happens next year for that particular School each one of these whether it's a reconfiguration a consolidation merger as small as I it might seem when it involves families and students there's and staff there's a lot of details that have to be worked out there so I think you know in in the case you're saying yes there we we will continue to to as we move forward year to year we will continue to bring proposals in some years it may be more heavy on the closure in other years it might be less than the closure but we will continue to do that year toe as a commitment which is different than how it's been done before where years go by and nothing's done that has not been what's happened here in the last two to three years like you know we've shrunk 640 seats out of the system through strategic consolidations here last year in class consolidations that's 640 seats that we've downsized the system so but I I do think we are behind in you know and this is I think why this team is working overtime and just on it all the time we're behind in lifting the system with essential initiatives like inclusive Ed where part of the barrier here for students who are in a self-contained or have an IEP that calls for something specific is they're they're not able to access continuum Services across some of those other schools so that's one of the things inclusive Ed will help to do is to open up and get rid of some of the barriers and open up that choice but that inclusive plan as you all know right because you've seen it it's three years of staggered grade configurations that was looked at advised to us and we agree with from the Cil of great City schools that does this kind of advising and work all over the country that's not one we can snap our finger and just do we have to invest every year in it it's intertwined with Transportation with enrollment with how IEPs are written with family and Community engagement but that one thing starts to unlock some of the barriers the the uh development of bilingual programming and du language programming opens choice for families so instead of being these couple they actually have access across their regions to these things it's these things that the district's been behind doing and we feel the same sense of urgency we're on the same page about this we feel the same sense of urgency but we but some of these you cannot snap your finger and just do we have to do them invest in them sometimes it's approvals sometimes it's working with the community sometimes it's recruiting teachers sometimes it's developing curriculum but we we are working as fast and as hard as we can to do those things so that as the capital projects that we've presented are happening the marrying of the building and improving the buildings and the marrying of the academic quality and student experience are coming together maybe I and I hear all of that and I I hope every time I ask a question it's it is by no means a dis it doesn't mean I don't believe that the labor is there or a a a commitment to doing right by kids I I guess like I'm thinking like that massing poll comes out it says 177% of BPS parents understand what's happening I'm here an hour in 20 minutes after the presentation I probably am not a going to be a great communicator of what's going on just being honest like I'm still confused at what is the plan I I am G to keep pushing like we can call it whatever we want like at one time it was like we have a decision-making rubric and like now we have decisions I never I don't understand how the decision-making rubric played into making these decisions what was part of the rubric conversation that didn't get on there so then we're like okay so now it's sort of like same old we're like doing the grade reconfigurations the way we used to I think what would be really helpful I'm going to just keep saying it and maybe we don't have to call it a plan maybe we call it a blueprint right like we can get jazzy with the words but like something that we can put in front of us and could be around seats and I appreciate this way that we're thinking about the creation of seats the existing seats and the ones we're creating these are the seats we need across particular grade bands this is where we need them geographically this is our excess capacity right now and in some way we're going to have to get there and this is our goal towards getting there year-over-year because then we start to estimate like what's the amount of proposals we're seeing like we want to attack 10% of the problem year-over-year 20% I don't know how I know how cuz that's what we we do it but like I don't know how we have like a really honest budget conversation without a plan for the future that is real we'll just keep approving the budget sort of like as you do in government but like if we're really doing it in a time of that we know the budget's only going to get Tighter and Tighter just based on the economics around us and we don't have a plan for where we're going I just think that that part is hard and so not a great question but I'm like fully in support and a cheerleader for the work but like we have to have a plan that's has goals aligned to it you know and I don't know if that is a possible thing member C Hernandez I I don't want people to walk away hearing this feeling like um nothing has been done because there isn't a long list of closures um uh in part of this we talked about the seats that were being created through um the new builds through the reconfigurations um through the consolidations um those are all in in service of the population of students that we are serving now I feel like multiple members on this committee highlighted um the bilingual education programs that are serving our um multilingual Learners um we talked about the advanced level courses that are serving um kids who haven't necessarily had access to those before and so part of this is we do have some we have open seats in the district um where we're feeling the tension though is they aren't necessarily the open seats that match our population of students and that's what I mean about the goal though so I'm not saying I think we're saying the same thing and we might just be saying it different I'm with you and I'm not saying the goal is just mergers and consolidations but if we're creating new seat capacity then we have to have goals around what seats we're creating and the same is true if we're closing we have to have targets around what we're closing and so like I like the like stuff and things like here's the new news of what's programs coming and I think that feels good but it's in service of what larger goal and without projections even of enrollment it's like what are we projecting this seat need to be for students with formally interrupted education or what are we projecting the seat need to be for students at alternative programs or what are and that means we're building those programs and closing other ones but that is I'm I really think you real talk like that is why the external world is confused that 17% is a real data point for us to be like what are we not saying that makes sense and I'm 100% over my seven minutes so I'm G to be done um I know that I think some of our Chiefs should uh start to go because we have early meetings tomorrow um but Jamie could you just take one minute cuz this issue of uh enrollment projections has come up a number times we actually provide enrollment projections we do long-term enrollment projections we actually work pretty closely with the city on this would you mind just addressing this sure good evening everyone um so we are in the process of refining and finalizing some internal long-term projections it's not something we've done historically internally the last time we did it we used some outside Consultants um it is something that BPS plans to produce ourselves um but we are in conversation with research team at bpda who we've worked with on this for a long time just making sure our approach is aligned um but a couple things we're still doing we're refining our methodology we're trying to test it against historical Trends um but a lot of the remaining work is thinking about how to contextualize this for people um as we make it public because part of the issue is that if we're looking over a longer time frame like 10 years really small tweaks in little variables produce a really wide range um and we would like to be able to produce something that says this is what we think will happen in 10 years that we can really build concretely around it I think that's kind of what people are expecting um but I think the best that we can do is provide range and explain what's coming out in that range um and what are the conclusions broadly that we can draw from that um and so I think that we're just trying to be really thoughtful about what they will mean and and what people should draw from them um so that's the the piece that's going on now uh I do think that a lot of the information that will come out from them is broadly available with if you look at the trends that have seen um so far so I think looking at the declines we've seen in elementary enrollment over the last several years we know that will likely translate to further declines in the secondary level so you know it confirms what we're all saying here and you all are saying here that we we need to address um what we don't know is by how much it will um Decline and that's why we'll produce a range to to try and think of what we can do with that elementary is a little bit more um hard to say we'll have to watch closely uh it depends on what happens with our kindergarten cohorts um there is a world in which those stabilize and we won't see that much more decline over the next several years or given declining birth rates we could see it decline further so I think um in that case it'll be less obvious what we do with those uh projections we'll just have to to watch um thank you yeah and the only other thing I would say is that we also are trying to watch like we see trends that throw off some of the projections relative to our youngest Learners post-pandemic particularly like our our three-year-olds and our fouryear olds particularly with special ed in multilingual Learners um given you know the migrant students that have come that we we are welcoming with open arms um it's been about 3,000 but that population also turns because sometimes they're moving so that's why it's often hard to also like factor that into the enrollments thank you Mr O'Neal thank you madam chair I'll I'll make this uh very brief first of all thanks for the whole team this takes a village to put this together and many of you are here late tonight and I want to thank um the interconnectivity the thought process on this so thank you all uh for your work on this um Chief great great work and uh Dr grer of course um I think like a lot of people I was expecting we were going to be moving forward with a with a list of closings and merges merges it's you know been talked about so much recently it's been expected from the state we talked about in in um budget process and everything and like many was surprised um till I had a chance to have a couple of heart to hearts with the superintendent about this about her thinking and it dawned on me the quote from the Spanish American philosopher George sanana I have to look it up right because like many people I thought George W uh Winston Churchill said it but it was this philosopher who said those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it and I think what the superintendent is bringing to the table someone who's been in the district for a long time and has lived through closings and mergers particularly at the high school level and we heard from a young man earlier tonight that you know one merger that did not go well or one closing that did not go well and I think the superintendent really stepped back and looked at when I hear you say you focused on the students and you can't move a student unless you have a high quality seat to move them to and you're focused on adult Edge um excuse me alternative Edge which is a subject I've always been intently interested in as you know um and career exploration and dual enrollment and um bilingual bilingual education and special education and having these pieces in place to then have a high quality seat to move a student to number one and number two when I read through this you know we get a lot of criticism about we're not transparent as a district and we don't know how decisions are made and the district makes it and then tells us when I read this you're laying out a pretty clear road map of how decisions are being made the questions you're asking the thought process you're going through even some of these last couple of slides I I noticed it is you are saying to folks these are this is how we're approaching it right you're you're improving transparency about how decisions are made and I applaud you for that so superintendent as much as I expected there were going to be a bunch of closes closures or um consolidations or whatever phrase you want to use and it was a surprise to me I have to applaud your thoughtfulness on this and I do think you have thought through what hasn't gone right in the past and what has been wrong to our students and how can I do this the right way and I see a couple of clues in here of you know the the Lyla Frederick school and I mean that's no surprise right we've been talking about for a while as far as getting rid of all middle schools but the commitment to the name the commitment to the community we're going to work with the community of what's at the commitment saying right up front there is going to be a Boston Public School building in there at Boston Public School in that building and we're going to work with the community of what's the right choice to use that building or the West Zone ELC which you and I tour together a few months ago and you know seeing geographically within the building how that can make sense but also the commitment to the Extended Learning time and that type of thing of what's you stop and say what's important to the families that are served by it and how do we commit to that I just I see a lot of thoughtfulness in this that I think it's going to take people some time to digest and understand and realize that in fact there is an a there is a different approach Within BPS to how we're in the city represented by Dr Granger and how we are approaching this and how we're trying to be thoughtful and build in time for the community to have input um for people to understand what you're trying to do so I'm sure there's going to be a lot more conversation I personally want to dig in more about budget and enrollment but not at this hour that would be at one of the future meetings but I thank you for the thoughtfulness on this and it's going to take some time to absorb absolutely thank you um thank you all for this and and thank you for the team who has spent a very long day here today I know a lot of you were here since 7 or 8 o'clock this morning and now it's um 10: and we're going to get you out in a few minutes um I've probably got five or six pages full of questions I am not going to ask any of them tonight um um but you will get them because I mean for me it's it's some it's sort of like the implied of the impact of a number of the changes that are being proposed so I want to know understand well how does you know if from building seats here where are those whose seats are no longer going to have students in and who are going to wake up one day and say oh my gosh I need 10 more you know we've been through this in the past and the issue is how are we helping every Community to understand that there will be impacts we say we want change we know we need the change but we can't be afraid every time any change is proposed that everybody's going to have an outcry I have a question is when we say community and we say it all the time who are we talking about amen and how does the community that needs to be part of any decision or conversation know that they're it so that the right people cuz often time I go to meetings and the people who claim that are the community look nothing like the children or the families who are attending our schools and so my question is how do we actually get to the heart of the she's gonna maybe she has the answer you know how are we going to get to the point where we can make sure School families Community neighborhoods whatever we defining really know that we mean them and make room and really listen to their concerns because we have lots of people who want to offer opinion that may or may not ever be um impacted by the decisions we make so that that's one big one for me is can we Define community and really work our engagement resources to make sure they know it's them and again to um Dr um alins point that they know and understand how it is that they can be part of the decisions that are are being made [Music] um my one question about the West Zone because it is an eec and we have several and those have been longstanding programs in our community long before we had upk which means now almost every one of our schools has three and four year olds in it but all of our schools do not have the wonderful extras that the ELC has and I get it there's a 100 kids in that building and and those families and right I mean I wish we could have that kind of programming for all of our kids but again we get to another Equity issue of the halves and the have knots and the wear and the wear knots so you know how does that conversation and what is that mean for the other elc's in the long term who are not physically engaged in being in a building but you know are freestanding so there're just more questions that continue to come up out of even the very small amount of programming we perceive that we're doing times 100 exact so I'm not quite sure what people think how quickly they think we can move all of this but again I'm I'm with Mr O'Neal around having dived into this over the last couple of weeks understanding even in the smallness there's so much work and the wanting to do this in a way that the families that may have in the past been impacted two or three times by poor decisions that maybe we can not do that again this time um but to hold ourselves to the fire to really work through the problems and not not do it in a timely manner either because we do have to make some decision and also I'm looking for numbers when we say we're something is leaving does it save us money or does it cost us more because we're double wiing holding that somebody harmless again while we're trying to make a change that that's my biggest concerns because as we're building new things we still have kids in the old things that we need to make sure we're fully supporting as well so I'll send you my list but thank you all so much for this evening and it's 10:15 I know you all have questions um I'm going to encourage you all to please attend your meetings with the the staff get them in writing we've got a lot of work to do just on this first phase of it but thank you all I do not want to hold you up anymore this evening thank you to all the staff awesome job thanks I know we have a couple of people for public comment and I want to turn it back to miss CarX thank you we have two people for public comment on report we have public comment so um EDI Bazil Bazil follow followed by suaso have the TVs you know like and Miss Bazil couple really sir we can't hear you sorry just a second we can't hear you Spanish hello yeah yes now can you speak a little bit louder please just a question of how much time do I have you have two minutes The Chronic obsession with protecting and Whit sizing the exam schools while ignoring the crisis at McKinley schools populated primarily with black males with disabilities is nauseating students at McKinley schools agreed with metal detectors cameras random searches within a rundown physically miserable space of racial segregation not surprising two-thirds of the students stopped attending chronic absenteeism is about 80% 40 years after desegregation and black McKinley students continue to be pushed into the school to prison pipeline at the highest rate what has this Administration done about it BP has placed legendary Leaders name on McKinley schools while maintaining segregation isolation and harsh disciplinary PL practices which makes the name change a cruel form of racial Mo mockery and Injustice where is the outrage I challenge each School Committee Member to spend a day in these dilapidated outdated lifeless buildings where BPS is now installing more cameras the city of Boston owes an education debt to black students and families of the McKinley schools and all across the district in the spirit of the legendary Melvin H King who fought against gentrification for racial equity and for disability rights at McKinley schools we will continue to fight on these issues there is no educational Justice and BPS without the long denied racial equity for black students so dust off the racial Equity planning tool that you've abandoned and conduct a national search provisionary leadership with a proven track record of results rooted in racial and restorative justice and healing thank you so much thank you very much M Bazil next speaker is suao um I was just quickly like to say two minutes is just not enough and no wonder right the rest of the district can get engagement right if the school committee is um doing the same practice so um you guys know me I'm Soo Southend now I want to address the um prent issues surrounding the facilities meant to be used by our students families and community members in the south then neighborhood the South 10 home to the mhk South Academy formerly known as McKinley schools and the Blackstone Elementary are facing significant access challenges to the high high quality student experience that need immediate attention I would just quickly also mention that it's disrespectful um to the Blackstone parents in the community that shows up here testifying um week after week about um knowing what is going to happen to their facilities um in slide 15 where there's the 11 new projects the Blackstone was not mentioned and um member card Hernandez asked for a report on this and again um you're being disrespectful not only to the community but to the school committee as well um so our South library has been closed since April of 2022 you've heard a lot of 2022 today disclosure has left the void in our community this especially problematic given that the mhk does not have a library and the library at the Blackstone is floating in a space without walls or doors making it anything but quiet and seconds to learning the neighborhood library is closed and the school libraries are adequate leaving our children without essential educational resources the pool at the Blackstone Community Center is also closed making um access um to swiming which we know it's a a equity issue for Black and Latino families um not available for those families that live there and I would just um want to add this is I'll I'll send in my testimony and writing thank you um you guys asked about the synopsis please let me finish there's nobody else signed up guys asked about the subn nois of family engagement um I would just quickly say those Community meetings which I attended each one of them for the new announcements were mostly attended by BPS staff especially the Hernandez um meeting there was over 30 BPS staff only like four families maybe two Educators that is just unacceptable you guys should not accept this don't accept it thank you okay thank you new business mam chair may I just say one quick thing sure [Music] um tonight was a real special night to me earlier because of um because of the green Garner award that we won last as a committee last uh October and we have known for a while we were going to be able to give out some scholarships and um the work that you Madame chair did and member Lima Barosa did it took an incredible amount of time for us the past two months to identify schools to identify a process to identify a application and a scoring system and work with school leaders and it was all worth it because of tonight and seeing the joy in the faces of the six students and um so I wanted to call out both of you and thank you for the amount of time and effort you put into it it was a joy to work with you as the three graduates of the Boston Public School on this committee it um was a learn experience and I'm so I'm walking out of here so happy because of the difference we made in the lives of six families and six students tonight and I also want to thank our executive secretary Lena parvex who worked incredible amount behind the scenes to make all of this happen as well so I just want to particularly call out the two the three of you and thank you for that it was a very special night and we'll walk out knowing we impact to the lives of students in a positive and I I I think it was an incredible experience for us talking to these students um from the six different schools and being reminded again of the amazing kids that we've had and the lives that they've had to get to where they are now um and all of the support many of them give to both the teachers the schools and the programs um that they've been involved in in the district and I know we never get enough positive um play in the media or anywhere else about the work that is going on but I think we had in listening to those six schools a good eye opening picture I I think we will honestly bless the three of us to talk with 16 students across six schools for 20 minutes each and to hear their stories and their ideas of how we can improve and what was important to them and how much there their teachers mean to them and I'd love to offer to the fellow members we have their written applications if you want to see them would love to share them and you read their stories and it was it was very very moving so thank you each thank you all too thanks great great for the kids okay this includes our business for this oh sorry oh for this evening and the next hybrid school committee meeting will take place in person on Wednesday June 5th at 600 p.m. here at the bowling building um is there a motion to close the meeting so thank you there a second thank you oops hang on Turn the page thank you wait a minute so any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the meeting is adjourned thank you all and have a good night good night e e e for