Meeting Recap: 6/3/24

Mini recap of last night’s regular school committee meeting below. As always, opinions and observations are my own. Agenda here. Recording (time stamped to start post-executive session) here.

1. Consent agenda (past meeting minutes, spending reports, etc.) approved as-is.

2. Report of subcommittees - Strategic & Capital Planning (related resolution expected in a future meeting) + Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment & Accountability (this was a foundational meeting looking ahead to future work, no immediate action items for the committee)

3. Superintendent’s Updates - Pride, Special Olympics, Junior Olympics, the meeting ahead

4. Fine Arts Student Recognition by Coordinator of Fine Arts Suzanne Fee - Arts Month recap, photo awards, and scholastic awards

5. Announcements & remarks welcoming Ms. Nancy Sherman-Hudson as the new principal of Missituk Elementary and Ms. Cristina Luongo-Dudley as the new director of Kids Corner

6. Blumsack Leadership Awards - presentation of award and thanks to the donor by Director of School Counseling & Behavioral Health Stacey Schulman and presentation by student awardee Oprah Nkera re: representation in STEM

7. McGlynn Playground Update by assistant superintendent Peter Cushing & project co-lead Chenine Peloquin - showcased both the work that has been done and the community engagement process, with an eye toward future high school design process and updates to other elementary school spaces (plus a reminder that donations are still being accepted (https://www.mps02155.org/students-families/mcglynn-school-playground-fundraiser))

8. Student Opportunity Act Update - The committee voted to approve the district’s plan to spend $720,000 received from the Student Opportunity Act on early literacy screening and support, comprehensive support for early literacy programming/professional development, and the Saturday Acceleration Academy.

9. MSBA update (tabled from 5/20/24) - Member Graham provided an update on where we are the process, including document status for the Eligibility Phase, the 3 subcommittees (communications & community engagement, rules & onboarding, finance), the public website (almost ready), and timeline (currently ahead of schedule, planning to finance the feasibility study from the city’s “free cash” fund, and getting ready to talk to other cities who have done this work). Of note, the finance subcommittee had a preliminary meeting with the city’s director of planning, development, and sustainability to begin discussing the pros and cons of different locations throughout the city (but no decisions were made, of course). Friendly reminder that the meetings are public (at Bistro 469 and on Zoom). [Agendas and minutes can be found on the “subcommittees” tab here: here. 

10. Resolution 2024-28 to establish a policy on budget preparation and schedule - The full text of this can be found in the agenda, but basically, this outlines the stages of budget development and the role of various parties (administration, school committee, municipal government, public and staff) throughout the process. We approved the first reading with a handful of text clarifications and will have the second reading after the district reviews the timeline, etc. 

Next regular meeting June 10. Mayor’s budget presentation to city council on June 11. See you next week!