Worcester School Committee Meeting - 05-21-26

001Let's call the meeting to order. Just welcome everybody here. >> Reporting in progress. >> Sorry about that. Call the meeting to order and uh welcome everybody to the West School Committee. Uh if you can please stand for the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. Uh national anthem we sung by Lauren Church, grade 11 Dory Memorial High School. Perform the national anthem. >> I pledge allegiance 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. By the dawn early light, what so proud we held at the twilight last gleaming who broad stripes and bright stars through the fight. Or the weed were so gallently streaming. And the rockets, the bombs bursting in gave proof through the night,

002that our flag was still there. Oh, say that star spangled yet wave for the brave and the home of the brave. That was amazing. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez >> here. >> Member Biania >> here. >> Member Venenda >> here. >> Member Guardiola >> here. >> Member Johnson >> here. >> Member Mailman >> here. >> Vice Chair McCulla >> here. >> Member Roy >> here. >> Mayor Petty >> here. >> Recording in progress. Roll call. >> We have the consent agenda. Everybody all set? So, we'll do a roll call on that. >> Member Alvarez, >> yes. >> Member Vancaria, >> yes. >> Member Benenda, >> yes. >> Member Barola, >> yes. >> Member Johnson, >> yes. >> Member Mailman, >> yes. >> Vice Chair McCulla, >> yes. >> Member Roy, >> here. Yes. >> Mayor

003Petty, >> yes. Okay, we have recognitions. H the to formally recognized Herd Street discover academy fourth grader Holly Rose Figureroa for creating Holly's kind kids club making her artwork and designs into shirts, bracelets, etc. to raise money to bring awareness to always remember to be kind and to include others. Money she raised went to the local horse rescue farm and the horse horses are trained to be used in the therapeutic therapies for children and adults who have suffered PTSD and other traumas. Uh member Roy. >> Thank you. Holly Rose is as um our chair just said goes to her Discovery Academy and she's in fourth grade. Harley created Harley's Kind Kids Club after she experienced her own hardships and she saw how other children felt like they weren't included. So, she decided to do something

004about it. She took her talents of design work and drawings and with the help of her mom, she had them made into t-shirts, sweatshirts, and bracelets. She brought them all to a fair where she sold her wares and she raised $210. She in turn made a donation to the Field of Dreams therapy farm for rescued horses. The horses are utilized in therapy sessions for children and adults suffering from PTSD and other traumas. Haley's message is very simple. Whether it be horses or people, all should be made to feel needed and included. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is Holly here? >> Oh, come on down, Harley. So how we have a recognition uh from the wisdom public schools creating how's kind kids club encouraging kindness and raising donations towards therapy the therapies for children and adults

005suffering PTSD and other traumas signed by myself the superintendent and the school committee I'll come down here you guys want to Okay, Next, we're on public comment. Any member of the public may address the committee regarding any item before them for two minutes. Just your name. I see your residence and the item number you're speaking on. My name is Fienna Jatan Singh. I'm a resident of district 3. Um the item that I'm speaking on is the budget which is GB um six. Uh I can't I can't really see it right now. >> That's okay. We got the >> Anyway, um I'm concerned about the doubling of the um so I've heard there's been schools that are being closed. So schools are being closed. At the same time, the budget for technology has moved from over

0062 million to over 4 million. So we're doubling our technology budget. At the same time, there's much research showing the harm that technology causes to our children, especially the early ones that have no option of opting out. Right? currently in our the way our school policies are from the technology that they're being forced to use. So why are we doubling our technology budget to over four million and closing schools and so many people are losing opportunities especially for special needs. The children that need more help are losing their opportunities because you're putting more money into technology into these big corporations instead of the teachers that are working in these schools. It is not right for you guys to take that money and put it into that technology. Thank you. >> Thank you. GOOD EVENING. >>

007We're going to we're going to do the petitions in a minute. I was just keeping for open comment. So, unless you have a people speaking with you or >> What was that? >> No, go ahead. >> That's my petition. >> Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Do your petition. >> Yeah. I have to pick up my son at 70. >> Okay. So, my name is Nelly Medina. I'm a resident of district E and I want to express my support for item CMP68 Heather Stannic, CMP67 Marlini Rodriguez. So I ask that the committee and our city's residents listen but also hear what I'm about to say. After a long-term suspension, students cannot return to their schools. Those sent to alternative schools do not get a chance to reintegrate with dignity and cannot return or graduate from their home

008school. Wister public schools has a history of viewing black and brown students with behavior issues not as students who are worthy of a second chance but as if they were adult offenders when they are children. Without an education, students disengage, drop out of school, and become involved with juvenile justice. Worister public schools is a major contributor to the schoolto prison pipeline. WH's dropout rate exceeds the state's average with the high need students who are more likely to be placed in alternative school programs due to additional needs for support at Worester public schools that are not being met. Dropping out at more than one and a half times the state average. So that's 3% versus 1.8. Students who drop out of school are 3.5 more times likely to end up incarcerated. Latinx students. DC have involved

009youth from Wester make up nearly 50% of all the youth incarcerated throughout the Commonwealth. Central Mass Collaborative doesn't have the resources to support these students. Closing these alternative schools without a defined plan for where these students will go or how Wister public schools will address their social, emotional, behavior, mental health, and academic needs is irresponsible. A few things offered to students at the Wister Alternative School that they will lose are semesterbased classes allowing students to have who have missed extensive school time, catch up on credits, and meet their graduation requirements. Fullyear classes taught by well-known community involved Worester artists, fullear music classes with access to a recording studio, and most importantly, weekly collaborations with the Wister community action council on job opportunities for students. The lack of planning and disregard for students well-being will create

010short and long-term consequences for these students and the city at large. Our superintendent is knowingly taking away their stability, their resources, and their hope for a normal life without even blinking. Alternative students are not one-sizefits-all. Some need specialized programs for students with IEPs and others need programs for regular education. Students who have system involvement and trauma without an IEP. These are not the same population. claiming a million-dollar loss and intentionally shifting $1.4 million in funding from alternative schools to tablets is bolstering wellto-do students and pushing vulnerable students off a cliff. A budget is a snapshot of the district's values. We demand that outside providers be allowed back into Wister public schools to support students social emotional needs, a pathway into trade programs for students who work hard to re-engage into their district school and smaller

011class sizes. And we demand that that Brian Allen not close the two alternative schools. And we demand the district meet with our educators who deserve a fair contract now. Thank you. >> This your name res item number. Good evening, council members, chairman. My name is Marlenni Rodriguez. I am a parent of district E and I am here to speak about item CP67. I am a Whistle Public Educational School parent and a member of the parent advocates for special education. I'm here to address a serious issue with my child's education over the past year. My child was a student with an individualized education plan for social emotional learning. He was an honoral student was a good kid who needed more support and was placed in the ACT alternative school program. The first sign that something was

012wrong came when he finished 8th grade at Central Mass Prep. He wasn't allowed to graduate from his home school even though he performed well. After he completed junior high, we were excited for him to attend South High School and I was told the reintegration process would be gradual, allowing him to apply for a vocational program. However, transitioning from Central Mass Collaborative to a high school has been tough for him. The class sizes were larger than expected and he was stigmatized as a difficult student rather than treated as one who earned his place at South High. Under Wisto Public Schools, students with low junior high attendance who returned from an alternative program, regardless of how hard they've worked to come back, won't be eligible for chapter 74 programs. This made my son feel discouraged. He faced

013serious challenges, including chronic truency. The adjustment to a new school was incredibly difficult for him. He was so disappointed when he didn't get into the chapter 74 program he so badly wanted to get into. The smooth transition we were promised never happened. This past school year, it has become painfully obvious that my child, like many others, hasn't received the supports he needs from WISA public schools to manage smaller class sizes or meet his social, emotional, and educational goals. My question is, what will be different? Specifically, what resources, specialized programs, and staffing will be provided to help truant and disengaged students re-engage with their education and address their unique social, emotional, and academic needs for Wester alternative students transitioning out of alternative school. Thank you to the educators and the parents here in solidarity and to

014the committee for your time. >> Thank you. It's your name and uh this head is this yours? >> Nope. No. >> Okay. You speak on something. Okay. This your name is your residence item number. >> Go ahead. >> Hello. My name is Will. I am speaking on item number C and P68. I am 12 years old. I'll be 13 on Sunday. I am a sixth grader at Nelson Place Elementary School in Worcester. I went to Tatnik Magnet from kindergarten to third grade. I left Tatnik because kids were bullying me. Nelson Place was great in fourth grade until I started to get bullied again. I told my parents, my teachers, and the school adjustment counselor about name calling and people trying to make me feel bad. I don't know if anything happened to anyone, but it

015hasn't stopped. I would like to make more friends and have them be nice to me. I would like people to sit with me at lunch and play with me at recess. I love to sing. I sing all the time in the car, the shower, and sometimes at school. I'm in the chorus and it makes me so happy to sing. Last week, the boy who has been bullying me said that people hate to hear me sing. that made me so sad, mad, and upset. My math teacher made me empty my pockets of my figures that I bring to help me focus and feel calm multiple times. She took away my entire recess each time. I felt sad and embarrassed in front of my whole class. I love people, being happy, and making other people happy. The

016bullying in general makes me feel lonely. I want to have more friends and have people be nice to me and more respectful. I would like for you to take complaints of bullying seriously and help people who bully stop. I think when kids are bullies, they need to have eyes on them at all times so they can't keep bullying, especially at recess. And don't let kids who are being bullied be alone in the classroom with their bullies. I want to be safe at school and have people protect me and help me figure out how to stop the bullying. Thank you. Thank you. >> There's your name in the city residence item number. >> Okay. Um, so my name is Andrea Peak and I live in Worcester and I am here regarding uh petition CP6-8 and I

017know that several for the past several years families have heard many discussions about improving um school climate and strengthening supports, implementing new programs and addressing bullying more effectively across the district. Um, and I do want to say clearly, I do believe there are people in the district who are who dare who care deeply and are trying to create uh trying to create meaningful change. But I also think it's important to acknowledge the reality um that while systems are slowly evolving, there are children living through these experiences right now. Not someday, not theoretically, right now. Tonight you heard a child speak publicly about being bullied for five years. Five years. Think about how long that is for a child. While adults plan, children carry the emotional impact with them every single day to classrooms, cafeterias, hallways,

018buses, and playgrounds. And when children repeatedly ask for help, but continue to feel unsafe, isolated, and misunderstood, eventually they stop believing adults can protect them. I think we also need to be honest about something difficult. Some families are told to uh follow the proper channels to talk to the teacher, the administration, trust the process. But um unfortunately, what happens when the adults responsible for protecting the children are also part of the problem? What happens when families leave meetings feeling dismissed, blamed, intimidated or unheard? Because children are deeply affected not only by peer bullying but also how adults in power respond to their vulnerability. And when students feel emotionally unsafe with the very people that are supposed to trust that damage can be even greater. No child should have to become resilient simply to survive school.

019And I think many families are exhausted from healing hearing that meaningful change is coming while we watch our children struggle. In the meantime, childhood is happening now. The damage is happening now, and these children deserve support. I'm asking the district to continue the long-term work. I believe the strategic plan is um with meaningful progress, but I also need to see how can we help these children faster. >> Thank you. My name is Maggie Casey. Today I'm here to speak on CP65. I've been a special education teacher in Worcester public schools for seven years and at the academic center for transition for the last four. I'm here today to respectfully disagree with your decision to close the Academic Center for Transition and Worcester Alternative School. This decision will be affecting the most vulnerable population of students

020in the district. I'm unsure of what you know about ACT, but I wanted to share some of our accomplishments. ACT provides students with emotional and behavioral disorders, a structured therapeutic educational setting with small class sizes, and highly trained staff. We provide students from kindergarten to sixth grade with the Worcester public school curriculum. We have taken students who have not been available to learn and they have learned how to read. Our students have formed positive relationships with staff and peers for the first time in their lives. 100% of our students have received direct social emotional education and support every single day. Last year alone, we stepped down 11 students to their least restrictive environment and allowed them opportunities for inclusion within a general education classroom. That was 18% of our students. Talk about a success story.

021This has become more than just a school. This is a family. Closing a school that has been so successful for a population of students with very high needs is wrong and inequitable. >> Thank you. >> What's your name in city name and city of residence item number? >> Angela Moore from Worcester speaking on item CP65. Westall's alternative school provides a safe, structured, supportive environment for students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges who often struggle in traditional school settings. The smaller setting allows staff to build strong relationships with students, helping them feel safe, regulated, and ready to learn. Many of our students have experienced repeated struggles in other placements, including students who were previously terminated from the Central Mass Collaborative for failure to make progress. At Wester Alternative School, those same students have found stability, support,

022and success. So, how is sending them back to a place where they failed to thrive in their best interest emotionally or academically? Our school's strength is staff's experience working specifically with students who have significant emotional and behavioral needs. We know that behavior is often communication, and students are met with empathy, consistency, and accountability rather than termination. The structured environment and supportive relationships help students develop emotional regulation, coping skills, conflict resolution, and confidence. Many students succeed because they finally feel respected and supported by adults who refuse to give up on them. Closing this school is detrimental to our students. Many of them struggle with change of any kind. Removing them from trusted staff and routine risks increasing emotional dysregulation, absenteeism, and behavior. Progress that has taken years to achieve will click quickly be undone. Our school

023is more than just an alternative placement. It's a community built around understanding, stability, and belief that every student deserves an environment where they can succeed. Equity does not mean every student receives the exact same setting. It means every student receives the setting and support they need to thrive. Increasingly this year, I've heard the statement that this is an administration that does not care. I've really tried to give the benefit of the doubt, but the decision to close this school along with the level of disrespect shown to the staff, the students and families throughout the process had has made it impossible to see it any other way. >> Can you wrap up? >> For me, it feels like the process has have has confirmed those fears and I find that deeply disheartening and frankly, it's the

024most shameful part of all. My name is Deborah Re and I'm um talking on CP65 CP65. Yesterday I stopped by Worcester Alternative School and saw the proud, happy graduating class in their caps and gowns. I was very happy for them, but also sad for the students that will not have that chance due to this unfair school closing. My 17-year-old grandson has finally made it to 11th grade this year. Since preschool, school has always been a trigger for him due to behavioral problems from trauma, anger, anxiety, ADHD, insecurity, and more. He has been in many different placements, including CMC and other programs, but nothing is fit. nothing except Worcester Alternative. For the first time, he has a school he wants to attend where he learns and feels safe. When I asked him if there was something

025I should say tonight, he said he likes the compatibility. I didn't know what he meant by that initially, but he explained it is because they do whatever they can to help us. He's not a model student. He recently had a day that didn't end well due to an angry outburst. But no matter what, this school doesn't give up. With fair discipline and guidance, creative thinking, and teachers and staff that support all students, he has had a school with that he wants to be in. Some of his friends have said they don't know what will happen to them. They don't know if they will still graduate in a different setting. There are kids there are kids with real anger, trauma, and struggles who still deserve an education. Worcester alternative is the reason the children who go

026there are succeeding. I am also angry about the disrespect the staff and the principal experienced by the way they found out about the closure. The school superintendent does not care about special education. He does not understand that not all students will fit in other schools. But that's okay. Who cares if 11th graders drop out as long as the budget is balanced? Good evening everybody here from school committee, our superintendent, our distinguished leaders. My name is Alana Delimus. I'm the coordinator of the academic center for transition. I'm here to say that I am heartbroken over the closing of our school. Naturally, it is a community. It is a family. Uh it is individuals who have tied together to bring highquality tier one instruction to kids who have suffered the ultimate traumas, losses because of l lack

027of housing, food insecurity, um abuses of all types, traumatic experiences and losses and losses in school where they have transitioned from school to school and finally found a home in their early elementary school years. Our goal has always been to transition students to provide tier one instruction modified and set um differentiated at tier 2 so they can be accessed. Most of our kids come who are below grade level and we work really hard to get them to align and regulate. We use strategies like collaborative problem solving, crisis prevention, intervention and all embedded first with tier one instruction. It is a loss to me to lose this opportunity to provide this for for the students. Doc Moren Bernando was superintendent when I was hired and I said to her, "This is my dream job. I want

028to do this. I want to help the most disenfranchised." I am grateful for everything that the school has accomplished. It's been 30 kids that have stepped back down to least restrictive areas over the last three years. Um, our kids have had some amazing successes in their reading, in their math. We were the wildcard winner of the STM math district challenge. Like not to be underestimated. I am very proud of our accomplishments and I want to say I thank Worcester public schools for offering me this opportunity. I thank our partners like Joseph's projects who for endlessly provide meals, food cards, and help our families stay together so that they can provide for their student. I am grateful to the Marines who every year have brought beautiful presents to our students and I am grateful to our

029community of parents, staff. Um, and that's that. >> Thank you. >> Your name res Nathan Worester. I'm not sure what number this is on the agenda. However, um I think the city needs to find the money. They always seem to find the money when they really need to. Well, I think you need to uh for the uh alternative schools here. And I'm going to give you a pilot program. You got to think out of the box. We always talk about getting the colleges to give something back. You have three colleges that are within a mile and a half to two miles at the most from city hall. They are, of course, WPI, Clark, and Holy Cross. And each of them have an endowment of north of a billion dollars each. I think they can step

030to the plate. Will they dare step to the plate? Will you, Mr. mayor or the city manager or the superintendent approach them and say, "Hey, what can you do?" >> Thank you. >> Use your name to your residents. >> My name is Katherine Holmes. I live in Worcester, Mass. Um like Mr. Nathan, I'm not great with numbers, but um I try. Um I think his point is correct. Where do we get the money? Because it seems like we're having no conversations about the $4 million that we're going to put to instructional technology next year over the 2.6 that we're already putting in this year. And the $4 million it's going to cost for the Chromebooks and the iPads alone every single year beginning in 2030 just to sustain those leases. We're talking about prek, which

031I mean preschoolers. Some of them are three in Worcester. They have to be four by the end of the year. most preschool four five six we're talking about $400,000 a year for iPads beginning in this year it'll be 100,000 next year it'll be 200 then 300 then 400 then that 400 will stay as long as that amount doesn't continue to increase but it will increase because we already took a lease for 6,000 do 6,000 Chromebooks at the quarter 1 of 2026 and then again in quarter three of 2026 another 6,000 so we're already 12,000 deep. By 2030, we're going to be 30,000 deep in these leases. $4 million a year minimum because costs again will go up. That's just the hardware. So, the software on top of that is going to cost in your budget.

032It already says we don't know how much exactly for each platform, but it's continuing to go up. I've asked for um itemization of that through a public records request because we need to see where that money is going to because it's not going to our schools. It's not going to our teachers. It's not going to our libraries. It's not going to our afterchool programs. One budget line is not going to solve all those problems. But you're not listening to the people that are saying this is what we want. We want human connection. All of these people are saying the teachers are the ones that make the difference in their children's lives. The money should be going to the people that work with our children every single day or the services that support our children, not

033to technology companies. You're going to have to figure out a plan that's sustainable for the district, that makes sense financially for taxpayers, and that actually supports our students and teachers over the long term. >> It's time to start getting creative. Take it out of prek and and kindergarten at first and go from there. You got to we got to work together. Thank you so much. >> I know we can do it. Hi, my name is Francis Anths. I'm a longtime supporter of the Wester public schools, although my children have graduated. What strikes me as I hear the words of these parents, which I think are very touching about what has happened in their children's lives, is how can we afford not to do this? When we think about prevention, we know early intervention works for

034younger children. this kind of program helps kids graduate. And if we don't put the money in at this point, we know that as taxpayers, we're going to be paying more later on when kids are not okay to to operate as citizens in our society. So, I would just encourage you to think of the long-term costs um before you get rid of programs that are working so well for kids that aren't have not been served well in other spots. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is your name sized? >> My name is Louis Darden. Um, I live in district 4. Um, I'm here to talk today about GB6-56 and C-P65. So in regards to technology usage in schools and the budget going up and losing other stuff in regards to alternative schools as well as long as

035with the information that is given to these technology companies about our children that we don't even agree to and where this information is being um who is getting this information of our children. On top of that, I'd like to bring up um like the bullying stuff like that. Um, as a child, um, I had a pretty bad accident in Dreer Valley in 2001. So, I ended up having to go to alternative schools. I went to Hartwell, now known as the collaborative. And, um, I got bullied a lot. And, um, a lot of it was because of a speech impediment, which I gladly don't have to due to all the amazing teachers that helped me growing up. With that being said, I ended up in the Phantom building where I got bullied even more, but I

036behaved myself in that school. So, I ended up backed into the regular school system. But if it wasn't for bullying, I would have been able to benefit from the teachers at Hartwell. But instead, they missed the bullying and I got put into alternative schools. Um, so I think there definitely should be something done about the budget, the bullying, and the schools that's being closed. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to go to petitions. Are we all set? Then we go to petitions. I'm sorry, we have two people on the line. Okay. DVKI. >> Oh, she left. Okay, we have David Webb. I'm I'm sorry. Dina, you back on. going to go with David. >> Hi, can you hear me? >> Yep, we got you. Go ahead. >> Okay. It wasn't letting me

037unmute. Thank you so much. Um, good evening. My name is Dina Tedeski. I'm a Worester resident and I'm the parent of a Wester public school graduate and a current eighth grader. regarding ROS 6-10. This is exciting data and information about our multilingual learners and dual language programming. Thank you and kudos to all the scholars graduating with a seal of bi literacy. This district-wide support is greatly appreciated. I invite the multilingual department folks who work with ELPAC to consider connecting with the other family and parent advisory council leaders to offer more opportunities for families and caregivers to connect and support one another. I wholeheartedly support all the public petitions tonight. CMP6-4-5-6-7 and especially 6-8. Regarding CMP6-8, families want and need to be part of the BPIP renewal process. We know the district has been working on

038bullying prevention, yet many scholars have still fallen through the cracks, and this includes the children subjected to bullying and the children doing the bullying. All of these kids need support and skills. Additional and focused social emotional learning matters and can have impact on this issue. Research shows that as a beneficial this as a beneficial outcome as indicated in a January 2026 published research article in the open psychology journal along with quote adequate teacher training and addressing contextual challenges and ensuring adaptations as essential for sustainable and impactful implementation across diverse settings. End quote. And kudos to Will Stannic for his speaking tonight. Thank you. I'm sure that took a lot of courage regarding GB6-56. I share the concern with other caregivers about Chromebook use, especially for our preK2 scholars. Were things were things going so badly

039before Chromebooks that this is the only option? I don't think so. It's easy to see the tangibility of a device and the cost associated and think this is the best route when in fact often the lack of a device and more hands-on learning with games, creative play, and manipulatives are excellent ways to learn. And I'm pretty sure there's a high number of folks in this meeting tonight who today who has had the bene did not have the benefit had the benefit of hands-on learning because devices weren't an option. >> Can you wrap up still? Yep. And these folks still learned how to use technology and computers. I understand how it's hard to decide on and see these options as less. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Excuse me. And difficult to put I'm almost done. I

040promise. difficult to put a price tag on and see the data im immediately. I urge the district and the school committee members to give more thought to this item beyond just a yes because it's just an easy opin option. And and last thing, a quite a shout out to Harley Rose Figuara and her kind kids club and congratulations. Thank you. Hey, David Webb. >> Yes, David Webb, City of Olympia. Uh, first and foremost, I am in support of Nelly Medina's petition for socioeotional health supports and specific alternative programs in light of the closure of current programs that meet those needs. In regards to CP65, the decision of this administration to get rid of act will have long-term ramifications and the impact on the structure of Worcester, especially since you all just got rid of the

041CHL in Queen Street and don't have any shelters. Along with the police budget, these Trumpian priorities are streamlining filling nearby jails with mentally ill poor people since the ones who come from families with money will just end up in private schools that actually provide the services they need. So, this is a blatant failure in equity as well as accessibility. I'm also in support of CP68, Heather Sanx's petition uh to implement a bullying prevention plan. I think this is very much needed for community safety, especially in light of the recent issues with the former principal of Nelson Place Elementary School, Principal Cely. When kids are bullied, they needs eyes on someone earlier said when kids are bullied bullies, they need eyes on them at all times to stop them from being bullies. But you know, when

042adults are bullies, it's again up to the responsibility of other adults to hold them accountable. So, I need to ask you all to do your jobs, which which brings me to uh 66. I'm calling into this meeting rather than just counsel on behalf of the numerous parents and teachers that reached out to me with reports of intimidation from former principal Mary Sely, her husband James Sely, and their relatives. >> Please stay with us issue. Yeah, >> it is. This is 66. Teachers and parents alike are worried about retaliation against their children's in school, and Worcester works the way it does because of its bully culture. So this agenda is such a great example of how that's facilitated because you're going to go into a secret session later to discuss giving Tim Murray's wife more power.

043So centralized power is good for bullies but bad for the people and Worcester needs to stop streamlining that. Someone else said eventually they stop believing that adults can protect them. You're there. The people of Worcester know that you can't protect them and the schools are just another way you're showing it. The note no child should have to be resilient simply to survive school and neither should teachers. That means it's up to the administration to stop the bullies that are working for them >> in the police and schools. Thank you. Do your job. >> Okay, we'll go to petitions. We already had a couple of them done. Uh Mus Veria, there you are. Mr. Melissa Vera, president of the EAW, will speak on behalf of the EAW membership and the closing of the Wister Alternative School

044Academic Center for the Transition and New Citizen Center. Melissa, >> uh, good evening, Mayor Petty, Superintendent Allen, and school committee members. As president of the Educational Association of Worcester, I've come here tonight to voice my own disappointment and the disappointment of the membership at large with the way Worcester public schools went about shutting the doors to three schools who serve some of our highest need students. closing the Worcester Alternative School, formerly and lovingly known as St. Casmir, the Academic Center for Transition, more commonly known as ACT, and the Dr. James Cardonio New Citizen Center or NCC, at the end of this year will de will generate disruptions to not only students and their families, but also to the dedicated educators now working at these locations. If these closings were indeed inevitable, as the district administration

045is claiming, then at the very least, all of the stakeholders connected to these successful and essential schools for special education students should have had more involvement in how this process was to occur. The relationships between staff and students are crucial to the successful implementation of highly detailed education plans that students in the alternative school and act have. Likewise, the NCC has been a model for supporting English language learners and providing those who had little formal education with a nurturing environment. These schools currently serve 132 students and their families with 57 educators supporting the students in these specialized settings. Wester public schools would have benefited from a transparent and extended conversation with these educators as well as the affected families and students to ensure successful learning continues in the new setting students are moving or being

046moved to. EAW members who worked in these schools are understandably frustrated. They are being forced into different assignments though I have no doubt they will remain fully devoted to the success of their students that they are working with. decisions to close schools and move programs affect more than the people um that are working in the central office. In the past, the EAW and the Worcester public schools have been able to work collaboratively even on non-contractual issues. This has helped foster a greater understanding amongst both members and the district administration. Moving forward, we urge the Worcester public schools to treat educators, students, and families with more respect respect when it comes to making big big changes in how we educate the students in Worcester. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, our next uh petition is from

047uh Kron Mcrell. Review of the district voluntary transfer policy process and decision-m criteria. Okay. So, okay. I think we got the message on that. So, all set. Okay. And we have our next Oh, had to stand. Oh, >> we heard so far. Make the recommendation refer these to the administration. All those in favor? Post. So ordered. Okay. Headers down to hold the W public schools accountable for implementing their bullying prevention and intervention uh plan as currently written. holding back public meetings and soliciting caregiver feedback within the BPIP is up to the for renewal and having a procedure in place to make sure that the plan is implemented equitably and consistently across the district to be transparent with caregivers during bullying investigations to help the student doing the bullying understand why they are bullying and how

048to get the help underlying issues and how to restore community and safety. Five to amend comprehensive mandatory bullying education including cyber bullying supervision on district devices and improving the climate and culture with the west public schools. >> Yeah. So um I just want to just clarify that Laya Pope and I um submitted this together. Um so uh I'd like to begin by saying thank you for listening to our petition tonight. Thank you ahead of time for understanding and internalizing the str the struggle of hundreds but more likely thousands of Worcester public school families and more importantly their students on a monthly, weekly and in some cases daily basis. I have struggled to get help from my son who I am incredibly proud of for speaking here tonight um through three superintendencies, one of whom felt

049wholly unapproachable because of their toxic nature. two different elementary schools, three different school administrations, five years of general education teachers, including the last two when there were three teachers for each grade, three school adjustment counselors, two school psychologists. I feel like I'm doing a partridge in a pear tree. Two special education teachers and innumerable staff pared educators and administrators. I can count on three fingers the number of teachers who have graciously supported and attempted to shield my son from the incessant bullying that he has endured and two who have directly compounded the harm that has been done to him while he has been in the care of the Worcester public schools. I would like to re reiterate that I'm talking about teachers. There have been many other staff members who have helped us. I am

050eternally grateful to those staff members and educators who have reached out, protected or attempted to protect my son from those who have harmed him. Thank you. But I am also an outspoken advocate who has used my many layers of privilege to uplift student and caregiver voices to this body over and over and over again. I am speaking tonight first and foremost for my son who deserves to feel safe, respected, and included in his school community and deserves not to have to be so resilient. But also for the hundreds of other students who deserve the same and also don't get it. Policies are great, but if procedures do not exist to back them up or are not implemented consistently and equitably across the district, they are worth no more than the paper they are printed on.

051WPS families deserve transparency and communication at a minimum for their students school from their students school when faced with bullying, conflict or any investigation thereof. Currently, we are met with obfiscation and delaying tactics. Every one of these students represents numerous adults, caregivers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, family, friends who are your constituents and to whom you owe answers for not upholding these policies. The bullying prevention and intervention plan is up for renewal. According to DESIE, districts are responsible for holding open meetings for families and community members before adopting a new plan. When are these meetings taking place? The new plan is supposed to be in place by next school year. That doesn't leave much time for coming up with a new plan and getting feedback on it before implementation. However, I will note that I have some

052articles with me about the Amherst Pelum district who hired a new director and came up with and implemented a new bullying prevention intervention plan in one month. I understand that that the district is taking steps toward implementing new policies and potentially a social emotional curriculum which is sorely needed. But this does nothing for those students and families struggling now. Bullying has real victims and real consequences. Your response to this epidemic is life or death. Do not leave those students currently being targeted behind. All students deserve better yesterday, today, and tomorrow. How will we help them now? >> Thank you. Did your name? >> Yep. My name is Laya Pope. I'm a resident of Worester, Mass. I'm speaking on the same petition. On March 13th this year, my daughter received a death threat by email from

053another student who used his school Chromebook at 2:15 p.m. on a Friday. My daughter told her father at dismissal. They got home. She showed me the email and she immediately sent the principal an image. The image enlisted multiple incidents that happened during months between her and the other student before this email. On Monday, I couldn't send my daughters to school because I didn't know if they would be safe. The school told us they would investigate and hello. And that's okay. Fair enough. Sorry. We're um investigation took the investigation took nine school days. Um, my daughter was in a classroom with the other student for two of the school days and five she was kept home because I wasn't sure how she would be kept safe. The district the administration could not tell me how she

054was going to be kept safe in the classroom while she was with the other student. Once the investigation was complete, we had a meeting um to hear what had happened next and admin gave my daughter a plan to keep her safe. Within hours, the school called me to tell me that the student was switched to another classroom next door because he couldn't follow the safety plan. Within the time of the investigation, admin said to me, I quote, "This is stressful. I don't understand restorative justice practices." And after the investigation, I heard an admin say, "The staff weren't trained on how to handle the incident." I sent an email to the executive director of the quadrant, the superintendent, my school committee member, and the director of positive youth development. No one um it was the only

055person who um responded was the executive director of the quadrant. Furthermore, I received a document incident report on May 19th, which is 45 days after the incident, 10 weeks later after the incident occurred, and I wrote three reminder emails. This report does not include language that my daughter was threatened. The bullying prevention and intervention plan, BPI, is up for renewal. Review, sorry. take action to hold a um a meeting to receive caregiver feedback on the BPIP before the end of the year. Review the plan um before the end of the school year and um prepare for next year. Procedures and documents need to be added to the um district website to be accessible for caretakers. Incident reports need to include language around threats and define terminology so it isn't up for interpretation. Visual aids need

056to be um added into schools to support student learning of social skills including conflict resolution and brain responses to trauma. Students need support regulating before they can access curriculum. School committee needs to model restorative justice tools. For example, they could hold a school committee meeting with restorative justice circles to sh set an a culture for the whole district. Also, please share the SecondStep curriculum with caretakers and educators so we can use a common language to talk about emotional regulation and social skills. Also, lastly, I'll just say I support union educators and we all deserve a school committee that will lead with excellent and teamwork. Thank you. >> Thank you. So Ly and Heather, I just want I just want to say they know every child that has the fundamental right to feel safe when you

057walk into the school building and that consistency across the district is important and that uh communication needs to be held with the families. So they're not left in the dark for investigations. I do agree with that. And uh and to the uh the people who came in to talk about the alternative school, I just want to acknowledge and direct to acknowledge the families and community members who brought forward these petitions tonight. You know, structural assist are difficult and uh doesn't mean we're going to abandon these services. This administration is hyperfocused on ensuring that students with specialized learning needs and those struggling with chronic absenteeism do not fall through the cracks. I look forward to the superintendent's uh detailed report on this. We have a discussion during budget over this. I'm sure this will be a

058long discussion so as we move forward. So I just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and that item motion is to send to the administration. All those in favor opposed. Okay, we're going to take an item out of order 6-5-7. You want to say something? Oh, okay. Uh 6-5-7 to accept a grant from the Executive Office of Education amount of 3 3.750 million for the West Technical High School HVAC and plumbing motoriization expansion initiative. >> You want I guess do I have a choice? No. to the chair if uh principal uh way and his team can come up just for a brief presentation on uh this substantial grant that's made to was a technical high school. >> Do I have to put the timer back on? No. Oh my good. I'm sorry. U

059through the chair. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on uh this grant and pulling it out of the consent agenda. We appreciated the opportunity to present some backup in advance and we have our team here to provide some insight to the vision of how we're going to spend this 3.75 million. We'd like to thank the governor for continuing to include this in her budget. The executive office education for granting Worcester Tech this opportunity and ultimately uh our director of technical education Patricia Sumula who spearheaded uh the grant application and the acceptance process. With me tonight are HVAC and plumbing teams. And we want to briefly speak on the vision of the uh two programs and how we're going to spend 3.75 million on both construction and training materials. And with your permission, I'd like

060to turn it over to our plumbing department head uh Richard Swear. >> Hi there, >> Richard. Go ahead. >> Well, I start off by push this button. >> I got it there. Okay. Yep. First of all, I start off uh tonight just uh being very grateful. We're super excited. Uh this is a great opportunity for us to take our shops. Our school is 20 years old now. It's uh taken some um you know, bumps and bruises along the way, but we produced some amazing um contractors, I guess. Uh our students are are great. Uh our our areas are in a situation where they just need to be updated, a lot more modern. Um things have changed over the 20 years with our um heating systems, our plumbing, everything has changed. So just being able to

061have a safe space and the upgraded situation um benefit us greatly and it's all our our investment is right here in front of us. Hello everybody. Nice to see you guys again. Uh my name is Michael Jagger. I'm the department head for the HVAC department at West Technical High School. And I want to start by thanking you guys for considering this grant. It's really going to help and change the lives of our students. I know it is. Um, in our shop, we have a pretty simple philosophy. We don't just want our students to graduate and get a job. We want them to thrive. We want them to dream big and be able to realize their dreams, whatever they may be. So, every day we're teaching these young students technical skills for sure. That's a given.

062But we're also teaching them professionalism, how to deal with people, how to solve problems, and how to believe what they're capable of doing. But the reality is it's a much different world today than it was 10 years ago. Uh there's a big call for green energy, clean air. These type of things are the reality that they're going to be dealing with in the future. So we have to set them up for success in the future by tackling this stuff now. So what are we planning to do in HVAC? We have a very strong commitment with outside employers and with outside industry leaders that are helping us to narrow the most effective places where this funding can be spent. So we're looking at creating next generation lab spaces where students can work hands-on with modern high

063efficiency systems with environmentally friendly refrigerants. That's one of them. Uh we're also expanding our introduction and aligning our curriculum with manufacturer certified training so they can leave our program certified through manufacturers some of the biggest in the country to be honest with you and they would be able they would have that next level to get a job. That's what we're looking to do. Um we're also looking to bring in virtual reality training. um trying to get them engaged in the lessons. So, we could take this virtual reality and we can set them up on commercial systems and they can do it right inside the lab without having to actually go out and experience the stuff. Um at the end of the day though, our goal is very simple, right? We want to give our students

064the most options and the best benefits that we can give them while we're teaching them. And this grant will go a long way in helping with that, right? I mean, we're all in this together. You know what I mean? Nobody sitting here isn't going to be affected by what happens to these students. So, I thank you for your consideration. Um, I would like to I would like to introduce one of our shining stars from our department here, >> Xavius Molina. He is in our HVAC department. So, Xavius, why don't you give us perspective from a student? >> Good evening. My name is Xavius and I'm a grade 11 HVAC student. I'm here with my classmates, Briana, who's also an HVAC, and Dariel, who's in plumbing. We just want to say how thankful we are for

065the $3.75 million grant that's going to improve our programs and our school. This funding is going to help us get new technology and better equipment that people actually use in trades today. For HVAC, that means learning with modern energy efficient systems, updated refrigerant equipment, and better diagnostic tools. For plumbing, it means working with updated piping systems, water saving technology, and more hands-on equipment that prepares students for real jobs. These funds will give us the chance to learn the same kind of tools and systems professionals use every single day. That means when we graduate, we'll not only have certifications, but also real experience that can help us stand out in the HVAC and plumbing industries. This grant is more than funding. It is an investment in our futures. It strengthens our skills, increases our career opportunities,

066and ensures we are ready to meet the workforce demands of tomorrow. On behalf of all the students in our programs, thank you for supporting career and technical education and believing in our success. >> Thank you. >> And thank you to the chair for allowing us the opportunity to speak to this. We're happy to take questions if there are any. >> We're going to approve this. I would think council council member being carried. I don't have a question. I just want to say that uh this is what we talk about all the time. This is how we want to do it. This is success. This is amazing. Thank you very much for coming tonight and taking the time because everything you talked about is what we have worked towards for a number of years and that's

067success for every student. So, I am delighted to hear that you will be certified. And you talked about real jobs in employment. That's success. That's how you become an adult. That's how you support our community, support your families. Thank you and congratulations on being here. >> Member Neil, >> just a quick comment. Um you guys are awesome and thank you for being here tonight and listening and learning a lot. Right. So good evening for you to be here and um through the chair I just have I'm totally supportive of this and um just want to ask um principal way how many students are on the wait list at Worcester Tech this year? >> Mr. Leth through the chair. Uh, I don't know the exact number, but we have over 700. >> Over 700. Thank you.

068I just think that those are we we need to consistently understand what families and students are looking for. So, thank you. Thanks for being here. >> Thank you. Okay, we'll do a roll call on this. Congratulations. Both job well done. >> Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancaras. >> Yes. >> Member Venenda. Yes. >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola. >> Yes. >> Member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Member Mailman. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair McCulla. >> Yes. >> Member Roy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Pett. >> Yes. Okay. One other item out of order 6-64. The vote to execute the contract point between the Wister School Committee and Tammy Murray for the position of director of special ed intervention services for the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. So motion to execute

069the contract of employment between Mrs. K school committee and Tammy Murray for the position of the director of special ed intervention services was held in executive session and the summary of the contract includes duration July 1st 2026 to June 30th 2029 salaries 190,000 increases for fiscal 28 and fisc 29 will be the same increases granted to non-representative employee groups as approved by the school committee. It'll be a full full-time 12-month work year. Good cause protection throughout the contract term. May resign with 90 days notice. Certification required. Corey fingerprinting. Member of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System. 20 vacation days per contract year and 15 sick days per contract year. Family six days are 10 extended leave can be up to 18 months. Bereavement is 5 days for most relationships, five PTO days, 11 holidays. Eligible to

070participate in insurance benefits. the same level of contribution as others. Longevity consists of the benefits paid to non-represented administrators. Reimbursement expenses members and associations. Opit contribution be expected in the event that such contribution is expected for all non-represented employees of the city of Worcester. Okay. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancaria. >> Yes. >> Member Veninda. >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola. >> Yes. >> Member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Member Mailman. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair McCulla. Yes. >> Member Roy. >> Yes. >> Mayor Petty. >> Yes. >> Okay. Going back. Reporting of super uh attendant vision to action multilingual learners best practices and action. Mr. Superintendent M. Thank you through the chair. So we're pleased to present uh uh this meeting's report of superintendent which is multilingual learners best practices and action.

071I'll ask uh just Mandes to start the presentation um and then we'll take any questions that you have. Thank you. >> Hello members of the school committee. My name is Jessica Mendes and I'm the director of multilingual education and I am accompanied today by Ashley McPartland who is a um district ML coach for the south quadrant. We are glad to be here today to share an update on our team's um work. Next slide, please. Today, we'll be discussing three specific focus areas of our district strategic plan. Equitable resources, family and community engagement, and acquire and retain talent. The vast majority of our of the work that we do in the multilingual department falls under these three um strategic areas. Next slide, please. During the presentation, school committee members will learn about the specific instructional strategies

072and trends our department has implemented this school year. We will also review key actions, milestones, and supporting data to support um to help us consider next steps and future plans for our upcoming work. Next slide, please. The upcoming slides will take a closer look at analyzing our multilingual learner progress and current enrollment trends. Next slide, please. Currently, we have 7,740 English learners. Please note that this number does not include our preschool students. We also serve 2,314 students who are considered former English learners or FELs. These are students who have successfully met the criteria to exit the program and no longer need to take the access test, but we are required to continue to monitor their progress. This means that in total, we are actively supporting or monitoring over 10,000 current or former English learners. Of

073those students, 567 have opted out of direct ESL instruction. Those students still take the access test. If you look at our historical trends down below, our enrollment has been trending upward for the last three years, followed by a slight dip this year. However, this year's data um excludes preK students. Next slide, please. Among our multilingual learners, specifically our English learners, there are more than 70 native languages represented across the district for our students. Next slide, please. When analyzing these languages, we have observe observed some district ch trends over the years. As you can see on the chart, Spanish, Portuguese, and twe continue to be our top three languages, while many other languages continue to fluctuate. Haitian creole has been the fastest growing language in our district over the last four years. And these are the

074languages of our English learners only. Um, next slide, please. Earlier I mentioned FELS which stands for former English learners. Desi previously used use the term fle but that means formally limited English proficiency because um but because that carried a negative connotation they transitioned from uh from fle to fell which is former English learner. So you'll hear me say that um throughout the presentation. There are students who have they are students who have successfully passed and met the exit criteria on the access test. As you can see by the historical data, we continue to trend up in the number of students meeting exit criteria. Please note that our 2026 numbers have an asterk. Um these are our internal numbers as they have not been posted by DESIE. These figures will change slightly um once post validation

075takes place and scores are finalized for students who were exempt from specific domains on the access test. Uh next slide please. Continuing our look continuing to look at our fells and exit trends. We are seeing steady upward growth across the district. Over this past year, our elementary and middle schools have shown the most significant growth. High school trends have dipped slightly, but I'm feeling really hopeful about next year. Um, we'll be we'll be implementing a new curriculum as I mentioned um in a previous meeting and um we have more details coming up of that curriculum. Next slide, please. I also wanted to share some key insight regarding the access assessment this year. Um, a new speaking and writing rubric was used for scoring. The standards were updated to align with the 2020 EL standards and

076the kindergarten access test was completely redesigned to be much more age appropriate. So, as a result, this year's data reflects a new baseline that accounts for these updated changes. So, we can't compare this year's scores to last year's scores because it's a completely different test. Next slide, please. In addition to our upward trend with FELS over the last three years, our students who take the alternate access have had the ability to exit the program. And this data display um the data displayed here highlights the progress for students taking the access alt. Next slide, please. Another incredibly positive data point is our seal of bi literacy and pathway trends. Many of you were able to join us at the seal of bi literacy celebration. Um and you saw firsthand it's inspir it's an inspiring celebration of

077language culture and and student pride. Seeing our numbers increase over the years is a point of immense pride for our coordinator team and myself as we put in the work all year long to ensure students benefit from this opportunity. For anyone who may not know, um the seal of biiteracy allows students to formally demonstrate that they're fluent in a language other than English. Students who earn it receive a physical seal on their diploma. um it's officially indicated on their transcripts and 13 universities currently recognize the seal. This achievement grants students of the 12 credits in college. Um so it's a really big accomplishment and if you look at our our trends, our numbers, the way that they're rising, it it really just warms my heart. I'm really proud about this. Um next slide, please. I

078feel incredibly grateful for the data and the positive trends we are seeing. It's clear that as a district, our teachers, our coaches, building administrators have placed a deliberate focus on our multilingual learners to help explain what is driving these positive numbers. I would like to share our key priorities and the strategic actions we took this year around uh rigorous instruction and recruitment and retention specifically. Next slide, please. I thought it was really important to include this slide because one of the core mantras that we've been living by this year is that every teacher is a language teacher. Um it's not just the responsibility of the ESL teacher. Our English learners belong to all of us. So that's been our mantra all year. Um, we've been working hard to embed multilingual strategies and practices into every

079single content area, ensuring that all educators are focusing on language acquisition alongside the specific subject matter that they're teaching. Next slide, please. To dive deeper into our work around rigorous instruction, I would like to turn the presentation over to Ashley McFarland. Next slide, please. >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, last year the district introduced five essential practices to strengthen instruction for multilingual learners. This year we focused especially on discourse protocols and building background knowledge. More specifically, the work around discourse protocols has been embedded through prof professional development, MLE Academy, principal and coach meetings, liaison presentations and PLC collaboration. The goal is to create more opportunities for students to speak, write and engage in meaningful academic discourse. This focus is grounded in our access data which identified speaking and writing as key areas for growth. By

080strengthening academic language instruction across classrooms, we're supporting students overall academic success. Next slide, please. Another major priority has been supporting access to highquality instructional materials across content areas. In collaboration with content curriculum specialists, we embedded scaffolds for multilingual learners into the curriculum maps for all content areas um including resources that support the five essential practices. We also partner with them to develop and deliver PD to building based coaches. At the elementary level, coaches and teachers have collaborated over the past three years to develop and revised curriculum maps aligned to CKLA. This work has taken place through ESL professional development days and ongoing collaboration with teachers. We're moving into a new phase of this work by incorporating additional visuals, scaffolds, and re resources that better support multilingual learners while maintaining grade level rigor. A team of

081elementary teachers and coaches will continue this work over the summer to ensure strong teacher voice and classroom relevance. At the secondary level, our data showed a need for stronger instructional materials to support language development alongside content learning. In response, we adopted the new curriculum impact and lift from National Geographic and Senage. We're currently working collaboratively to develop curriculum maps and resources that align both content standards and WETA language standards. This work will continue throughout the rest of the school year, throughout the summer, and be ongoing in the 2627 school year through teacher feedback and revision cycles. Next slide, please. So, this year we began the launch phase of the secondary ESL curriculum. Since March, teachers have received access to digital materials and we completed our first district training. We're also partnering closely with National Geographic

082content specialists to ensure that the imple implementation is aligned, rigorous, and responsive to student needs. Importantly, all secondary schools are represented on the curriculum mapping team so that teacher perspectives are driving the process. Professional development will continue through district PD days, department meetings, MLE Academy, professional learning communities, and drop-in session supports. Next slide, please. Okay. Now, I'd like to just share a few of our highly impactful practices through co-eing, instructional rounds, PLC, content partnerships, and modeling. Coaches help embed language instruction in every classroom. This work supports teachers in scaffolding complex text and grade level content so that multilingual learners can fully participate in grade level instruction. Coaches also support instructional rounds through Q team collaboration, department partnerships, co-planning and co-eing. In addition, we continue to expand our teacher hub which provides vetted highquality instructional resources

083for educators. Finally, we continue to strengthen our collaboration with special education to better support duly identified students. This partnership helps ensure that multilingual learners with IEPs receive appropriate and aligned services from both departments while also seeking to reduce the overidentification of multilingual learners in special education. Next slide, please. One of our really big initiatives this school year was the creation of district level task force specifically for multilingual learners. Um the goal was to collaborate intentionally across all teaching and learning departments so we could brainstorm ways to truly impact our multilingual learners from our various lenses. This team brought together leaders from college and career special education teacher and learning sup teaching and learning supervisors um adult building leaders, curriculum specialists, MLE coaches, equity, research, and accountability. Um, together we analyzed multilingual data, explored researchbased supports,

084and discuss how to scale this work across the entire district to improve student outcome. During our data dive, we identified two key findings. First, we have a significant number of long-term English learners. These are students who have been English learners for six or more years. And second, there is a critical need um to better inform all educators about the access test. Too often, the access test feels like it's solely the responsibility of the ESL teacher. But going back to our mantra that every teacher is a language teacher, we believe it's vital that everyone understands this assessment and sees how their everyday classroom lessons positively impact the students language acquisition. Based on these findings, the task force broke into two strategic subgroups. From there, we backwards mapped a plan for next year to drive districtwide initiatives

085and awareness for both of these areas. Just this past Tuesday, we held our final meeting of the year where we dove into the data to provide insight from our respective department lenses. At the conclusion of the meeting, every department leader wrote an individual commitment statement on our virtual commitment wall um pledging to improve the experience of multilingual learners through their specific work. So they could they pledged to do one thing more deeply and more strategically for multilingual learners. Um, we are excited to continue this work next year and look forward to bringing even more representation into this task force. Next slide, please. Another one of our key focus areas is recruitment and retention. We we all know that recruitment can be challenging in education right now in general, but it's specifically challenging recruiting and retaining

086high quality ESL and dual language teachers. Um, next slide, please. To address this, our coaching team focuses heavily on finding innovative ways to support our teachers through targeted professional development, capacity building, and strategic partnerships. First, we have our strategic partnerships which we hope to expand. But today, I want to highlight our collaboration with Worester State University. Together, we provide graduate level ESL courses to our educators. We also partnered with Wester State's ESL department to endorse a proposal for them to offer the bilingual endorsement certification. We're still waiting to hear back from Desi on that. And this is huge um as there are currently no other colleges or universities in Worcester offering this certification. Beyond higher education, we've collaborated with local afterchool programmings like Girls Inc. We conducted um building walkthroughs to provide actionable feedback on

087how they can also and after school programming best support multilingual learners. We also provide support through MTEL preparation workshops specifically hosting um workshops for the ESL MTEL and the communications and literacy MTEL. But for that one, we do it bilingually to support teachers working in the dual language setting who feel more comfortable in Spanish. Um, for our brand new ESL teachers, we provide dedicated onboarding through our new ESL teacher academy. Finally, for our dual language programs, we have partnered with MAB on um, project SMRAD. This is a mentorship initiative where our veteran dual language teachers mentored new dual language teachers. All of these layers of support ensure our teachers feel valued, prepared, and motivated to stay right here in our district. Next slide, please. Next, I would like to provide an update on the current

088state and the future expansion of our dual language programming. Next slide. Currently, we offer a two-way dual language model in grades K through six at Woodland Academy. We're also excited to share that the Worester Dual Language Magnet School is now expanding to a preK8 model. Previously, we were seeing high numbers of student attrition during the transition to middle school. And we feel that establishing a strong preK8 model um will help strengthen the program's continuity and encourage students to remain committed to their dual language pathway through 8th grade. For our dual language students at Woodland Academy, they'll now have the opportunity to enroll into this expanded middle school program at the Magnet School. Um, our high school dual language program is currently at Bernote High School with dual language classes available for students in grades 9

089through 12. We are seeing really low enrollment at the high school level and we're actively working to address this and make our high school model much more robust. Our strategic plan for expansion includes collaborating with local colleges for dual enrollment opportunities. This will allow the dual language courses taught in Spanish to count for college credits, providing a powerful incentive for our students. My goal really is to have a comprehensive plan by the fall of 2026 to be reviewed by all of you um resulting in full implementation in the 2728 school year. Next slide, please. While we celebrate the amazing strides we've made this year, we recognize that there's always room for improvement. So now I'll share some strategic next steps. Please keep in mind that these are just a few highlights from a much larger

090body of work that our team has already backwards mapped to ensure our momentum continues. Next slide. So we have lofty goals in place for next year. First, we will continue prioritizing our dual language programming by strengthening the high school model. It is of the utmost importance that we improve our prek through 8 pathway. We provide it by providing a nth grade program that is robust, rigorous, and competitive enough to stand alongside all the other specialized programs students can choose from. Right now, it's not as appealing. It is do I dance? Do I go to this really cool program? or do I take two additional rigorous courses in Spanish? So, we've got to make it a little more attractive than that. Um, while we also we will also create um dual language maps that clearly reflect

091the language allocation which we didn't have previously. Um, next we will launch a year-long professional development plan to support implementation of the new ESL curriculum. Um, this includes new assessments that will allow us to progress monitor students in real time throughout the year. Up until this point, we've really heavily relied on access scores to determine what to do next, and now we really think that it's it's important to have u more robust progress monitoring throughout the year, which we will have through this curriculum. Another major initiative is the transformation of our life and newcomer programming. We're moving towards a comprehensive support system by bringing a cohort model to our neighborhood secondary schools. The hope is to bring that warm NCC feel to the comprehensive schools because we all know that's life and newcomer students are

092there already. So, we want to bring the programming to them. teachers will receive specific um PD to support newcomers and they'll be a dedicated coordinator and a coach to ensure um and so and support the strand from elementary all the way to high school. Finally, we're um collaborating with the family and community engagement department and families to co-f facilitate LPAC and cafe, which are parent advisory councils in hopes of strengthening the parent um advocacy for our multilingual learners. And as always, we remain committed to recruitment and retention of our ESL and DL teachers because we know that teachers who feel supported stay and and grow with us. Next slide. Um, thank you for your time today. The presentation is just a fraction of the intentional work that our department is leading. We remain deeply committed

093to the daily ongoing efforts to ensure every multilingual learner in our district has the opportunity to succeed. And I have to say I'm just really proud of my team. We are small and mighty and everyone is really committed and we we're really here to do the hard work. So, thank you for listening today. >> Thank you. do >> member B and Caria followed by member Alvarez. >> Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. A couple of things I wanted to mention that um I was there Monday night for the biiteracy award evening. It was well organized and very impressive in the fact that there were over 200 students. And the great part about it was every time they said a name, there was a crowd there for the that student and they were cheering them

094on and they were very proud of what they were receiving. I'm glad to hear that it's an actual emblem on their diploma. I think that's really nice. >> Just had a couple of quick questions. I understand the scaffolding um piece of it. I'm not quite sure if you could give me an example or maybe we could do it in a Friday letter, whatever is easier, but the curriculum maps, it's so small, I can't figure out exactly how you're working it, but it seems to be a vital part of what you're doing to get this to be successful. So if we could have an example so we can take a look at how how it actually affects what's going on. Um but that was one piece. And then um as I I look to see um

095the the recruitment not so much on the staff but how do we get kids involved? How do we make this appealing to to our students so that they want to participate? They we want to grow this. We want it to be successful. >> Is this something you'll be You mentioned you were going to be working on it. I didn't know if you had any new ideas off the off >> um ideas on what specifically. I'm sorry. >> How do we get our students more enthused about it supportive in in wanting to be wanting to participate in this? >> How do we how do we bring that up? So, in our um dual language design plan that we presented, we have a lot of really great ideas in there and that is our ideal state. There's

096ideas in there for internships. There's ideas in there for like having um field trips, but marker field trips that get bigger and bigger as you continue on to the program. Okay. >> Um we want students to be in the community for their internships, engaging in in community with community partners where they can utilize their Spanish. We want to do all of those things, including um having their courses bear credit for college. So, these are things that we want to do that makes it comp that makes it competitive with the other program. I mean, if it's not fun, I mean, we have to remember these kids are 14, 15, it's got to be a little fun, right? It has to be appealing. So, those are things that we want to grow to and it is outlined

097in our our um dual language design plan. >> Okay, this sounds like you're going in the right direction. Um lastly, I did want to say that um strengthening the model that we have I think is a great idea and looking for participation in this. Uh I think we can get more kids. I think what do we have 170 ways of translating what we are saying in English across the board and we have all the equipment to use it. So, it's nice to actually see a program that is not only benefiting our students but benefiting the people that are coming to hear the success of our students and see the success of them. Lastly, uh the comment I had out of curiosity, why would anybody want to w opt out of the program? We have 567

098as a number which is low compared to what they're actually recruited. But why would they opt out? >> Um that number has decreased greatly since I've I've come in. We were in the thousands before. Okay. >> And now we're only at 500. There are various reasons why families and students decide to opt out. The most common reason is for our secondary students. when you um are in ESL instruction, you have two one or two additional courses. >> So that takes up your free elective course time. >> So a lot of times students will say, "I don't really want to do that. I want to go into this really cool class." So it's again that competition thing, right? But >> um we try really hard to like >> teach the families the benefits of it, but

099sometimes they do just decide to >> All right. Understandable. I was just like I say a little curious on >> why once you've made the commitment you would then back trail on it because >> um it certainly looked as though we had a number over 200 kids the other night that looked pretty enthusiastic about what they were doing. >> So thank you again for the presentation. Appreciate it. >> Thank you member Alvarez followed by member Benendo and member Johnson. >> Thank you for the report. It was very informative. I enjoyed reading through it and then seeing you guys present on it. Um you something stood out to me that you mentioned earlier. You said that we're monitoring about 10,000 kids. Um these 10 these 10,000 kids are connected to the multilingual education in some way.

100The multilingual population is linguistically diverse. The report says there are 70 plus native languages among current English learners. That means Worester is not serving just one bilingual community. It is serving a highly diverse multilingual population that are likely requiring many interpretation or translation supports, different language specific resources, differentiated instruction, newcomer supports for students arriving with very difficult schooling backgrounds. This is This is big. It It's telling me that in our district, multilingual learners is like a core competence. See, that's big. There's so many thoughts that run through my mind. So, I'm going to try my best to stay organized because that has been my long-term goal. Um, this is the clearest sign that multilingual learners are not mar are not a marginal subgroup in Worcester. They represent a major part of the district's educational work.

101This matters because a major indicator of because it is a major indicator of linguistic diversity. We um also talked about the significant number of long-term English learners which really stood out to me because uh you mentioned that we are grounded in access data. Can you please explain to us very briefly uh what an what access is like what type of testing that is? >> The access assessment is done in January and it is a requirement by federal law that every student that is an English learner has to take that assessment and that assessment assesses um the four domains reading, writing, speaking, and listening. And it's for grades K all the way to 12. And the students that are well they're required to take this um and during in between when they first start and until

102they take that test in January, are they receiving any pullout services? >> So when a student is designated um to to get ESL instruction, it depends what their proficiency is in English. That'll determine how many minutes they get and if they have to get pulled in or pulled out. Um, if you are a student who's at an EPL 1 or two, that means your English is a little more limited. So, you would get two blocks, two 45 minute blocks of ESL instruction, whereas students EPL3 and higher only get one block of 45 minutes, >> right? And that's really special that they're able to get those pullout services. Um, and you said it's from K to 12. >> Yeah. Um what are your thoughts around our K let's keep it within elementary our K through six.

103Do you feel like how do you feel we are doing and how we're servicing these minutes? >> So there's been a really big push this year and a really big initiative in our team to provide professional development for co-eing to really embed it especially and we only do this at the elementary because it's important to keep them in the classroom. So we would previously give a co-eing professional development in September again in October and for a very like small niche crowd. Now um we have a little more flexibility to provide um co-eing in all elementary schools. So the team has figured out a way to deliver this at at PLC's at Monday meetings through the principal meetings and various different ways. There's also instructional rounds that take place. So if you take the co-eing PD,

104they ask you to also sign up for and visit someone to see you and so you can observe teachers co-eing. So that's how we've really been trying to push supporting our elementary students. >> Okay. And that's separate from them receiving minutes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Well, it depends. So some the the co-eing could be for those push-in minutes, but then like your students who are at an EPL1, we do we do ask that one of those blocks be pulled out. So then it can be specific to their needs on language. >> Okay. And what are we currently doing to track that >> like track that we're servicing those minutes that um that we're continuing to support our educators who are doing the pushing >> but specifically for the minutes. So we have compliance

105reports on the on the back end of WODU that can be run to ensure that every student that is opted in has is engaged in these courses their course numbers for them. >> Okay. Thank you. >> The reason why I mentioned that too is because it concerns me that uh if we're we're very grounded in access and I don't oppose it at all. Like I think that we should be functioning in a system and that a system is there for a reason, but it's also really important for those who are um within the system that we're doing what we can to be able to be there for those kids who are multilingual learners, right? Because the report I'll just you know what I'll just read exactly what I wanted to say um as my last

106comment. So again, thank you so much for uh doing this presentation. I want to start to I want to start by acknowledging the superintendent's report and the important information it provides on multilingual education in Worester public schools. The report gives the committee useful data on multilingual learner enrollment, access participation, exit trends, seal of bill biliteracy, uh biliteracy, excuse me, growth, and the district stated priorities around rigorous instruction, um multi- MLE coaching and support for multilingual learners. At the same time, I want to note that the report does not appear to include data on the intersection of multilingual education and special education. We do not see data here on special education referrals, evaluations, dual identification, bilingual evaluations, or disability patterns for multilingual learners. And I know that we have spoke this about this in the past

107and we've received a lot of data around it, but specifically for tonight, I would have loved to see more on that. Um, and the reason is because I think that it is a significant gap if we are trying to understand the full picture of student needs, service delivery, and district accountability. I raised that concern because many educators and families continue to report to me that in grades K through six, multilingual learners do not always consistently receive actual ESL services in a meaningful and documented way. And if students are not receiving consistent language development support, then it becomes much harder to distinguish between a true disability and the effects of second language acquisition, interrupted education, or limited access to services. That concern is reinforced by the district's own joint guidance from multilingual education and special education,

108which recognizes that bilingual evaluations must be considered in certain cases, that multi-ingual teachers should participate in IEP meetings uh for dy identified students receiving ESL and that teams should use ML input and language development data. Those are important safeguards, but those safeguards only work if students are actually receiving the services um the services the process assumes they have had. So through the chair, I would like to ask I wanted to ask if we're able to report on K through6 multilingual learner ESL service delivery and its intersection with special education. identification >> to the chair. The administration can provide a report on that subsequent tonight. >> Can you say that again? I didn't >> We can provide a report. >> Okay. >> That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you, member Benenda. >> Thank Thank you for

109the report. I've always um wondered about long-term English learners because, you know, that there are students that receive our services, you know, from when they first enter our district and they get to high school and they're they're still not passing the access test. So, that has always been a question for me. So, I I appreciate that you focus on that here. And I wonder like what extra there going to be like extra supports like what is the plan actually to help with the long-term English learners >> through the chair >> when during the task force we did a lot of research and reading on long-term L's and that's we were working together right like right now we have 1,847 long-term English learners >> that's 1,847 students who have been in the country for more than

110six years who can access they they've accessed language for more than six here. So, what we're trying to do is figure out why, >> right? And really look at the data. And while we want to look at the long-term L's, we also found a way where we can track when they're in the yellow zone and how we can prevent them from becoming long-term L's because right now we do have a critical issue with long-term L's, but we also have to get to preventing preventing it. So, um that's what we're going to be strategically um planning for for next year. And it we want to talk about how can we cohort these students. How can we have specific um um professional development around it to teach people this is what they can do, this is what

111they're able to do. You have to really lift the rigor for them because they can't access it. They if they've been here more than six years. >> I'd be really interested in seeing how how that works out because it's always been something, you know, yeah, >> we try to figure out. Uh the second uh part was I think it's also good um when you show the success of the program kind of intersecting with LA last school meeting about there are so many um MLS that take advanced placement classes right you know first of all they would take AP Spanish lang and comp right because they're they speak Spanish so I I think that's another good data point to show that um you know this is that they're going to these two dual language programs then

112you know where the middle high school but and the result of this is uh they are getting proficient not only in English but also they're taking national exams and they're ranking this high I think that's an important story um also to do with this and then my third part is um at a future time you did mention the new citizen center and we know that that model is going to change and they're going to be integrated into uh for the older students the high schools. So like how what is you know not today but if we could have a plan on how is that going to happen you know what is the support for language going to be h how are they going to be integrated into the um curriculum because the challenge for us

113always was that we would get um students that never went to school before and they now are high school age and some of them would be it would be a stretch for them to get enough credits to graduate. So that's how we connected them to the adult learning program or the ger evening program. But still, you know, when students come to us from other countries, newcomers, they want to graduate from high school, right? They they want that high school experience, the fun part to the proms and they al but they want to get that graduation. So I think now that we're going to take them from a place where they were trying to catch them up on credits back into the regular high schools, it has to be very specific, structured, and supported so that

114we can offer those opportunities. So at a future time, it would be great uh to talk about that structure and then the success of it. Thank you. Thank you, Member Johnson, followed by member mailman. >> Yeah, thank you. I'll be quick. Um, thank you for the report. Really appreciate this. Appreciate the work that you guys are doing on this. I would actually echo what member Benenda um talked about in regards to uh students coming in who from other countries um and in that transition now that they're not going to be at the um new citizen center anymore. So, I I think that is going to be key and I'm just I'm very interested in seeing the that the work that you guys do with that and I'm actually very very interested on um the dual

115language program um the high school level and I know as a major focus. I'm glad to hear that you're coming back with a report in early fall because I think that's going to be a process and a big a big thing that we're really going to need to be able to discuss and figure out how we're going to improve that. Well, I know you guys are going to work on improving that program, but anything that we could add or whatever because we do hear a lot of things out there in regards to um losing out on that transition from after um elementary school kind of middle school, whatever. We have lost numerous students over the course of the years in in the high school level. So getting that back cuz I I know in speaking

116with parents and and things from the um what's to do language school that's a major focus of of theirs over the next few years to ensure that that could continue. Um and we know how important that is um moving forward. So thank you for the report. Um looking forward to the work that you and your team do moving forward. Thank you. >> Thank you member mailman followed by member Roy. Thank you. Um, I liked I liked member Alvarez's c this is a core competency. 40% of our kids are English learners and um shifting our mindset to that's something that we have to fix versus something we have to celebrate is massive. So I think the whole um every teacher is a language teacher is super important. Do you have any idea? So you talked about

117your small but mighty staff. What is the what are the numbers in your department for staff >> right now? >> Through the chair. How many? >> I um we have eight MLE coaches, multilingual education coaches. So it's two per quadrant and then an assistant director and then for next year we'll have a coordinator for the NCC programming. >> So your department is 10 people. >> Yeah. And this is 40% through the chair of our students. >> Yes, we have 10 about 10,000 English learners or former English learners. >> And through the chair, how many um how does that compare with other districts? >> I don't have that >> for the chair. We're not counting teachers though. This is just the administrative and coaching structure of the department. So, >> okay. So let's add our ESL

118teachers through the chair. How many? >> Yeah. >> 20 28. >> Okay. Okay. Trying to do the math in my head. Do I still the ultimate question is what is the comparison with like districts? >> Do we know do we know are we staffing to the level that other districts are that have the population of students that we do? So through the chair at the teaching level, we are because we're meeting certain requirements in terms of recommended best practice case loads for our teaching staff. In terms of uh co every district does their administrative or coaching staff differently. I mean, I've been looking at uh Springfield's table of organization most recently, and they just it's hard to compare apples to apples for districts because we we may call something coaches, they call it supervisors. So,

119it's hard to exactly identify the uh comparisons when we're looking at that level of granular detail. But we can we can show for example, Springfield is our closest comparable district in terms of total number of students. we can show what their English language structure looks like in comparison to Worcers in a report. >> Okay. Thank you. And through the chair um I was at a meeting at Worcester State one night this week um and it was the governor's council on Latino Education and um Commissioner now I get confused if they're commissioners or secretaries but whatever. Commissioner Martinez, I think, and the commissioner of um the secretary, the new secretary from Springfield, um not Springfield, Salem is the secretary of K12 education. And then the higher ed secretary of education, although I have those right through

120the chair, are um all Latino leaders. And it was a very it's powerful and they the three of them stood up after a great presentation by the um council and said this state needs to recognize to member Alvarez's point this core competency in our state and we haven't done as much as we should and through the chair it was um they talked a lot about dual language and so I get a little competitive through the chair to the superintendent about a place like Framingham that has done far more than we have. And I want to see us um and I hope with our work with redistricting and the magnets and and our whether we're going to refocus with Woodland to improve these programs. Um I also know that the staffing that we're going to need

121to do that is pretty intense. But it was um it was very clear to me that this is um a focus of the state through the chair and um those leaders are not going to. So I hope that we take every effort through the chair superintendent to engage in this process to push DESIE because we want to fund vocational education. Let's let let's let DESIE know they need to fund dual language programs as well. um this is if it's our core competency, let's have as much excitement about those kind of investments that going to be made in HVAC to dual language programs because we have the student base that can really um benefit and show us the way and I just um thank you for your work. I want I just let me take a

122quick look. Oh, last question through the chair. um bilingual endorsement at Worcester State. What's holding us up >> through the chair? >> Um through the chair. We're waiting for We're waiting for Desessie's response. >> So there's like a The proposal went through. Um Dr. Margarita Perez submitted the proposal and then was waiting for Desi to respond and she submitted the proposal months ago >> and this is this through the chair if I understand this would be like the only central mass program where we would have the um endorsement is that correct do I understand that right >> through the chair correct we previously would partner with Boston College >> right >> and um Framingham state >> right >> but we don't have anything local >> okay and so the through the chair is there if

123there's something that we can do to maybe write letters to Desi or whatever you would suggest um I'd be open to those suggestions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Member Roy the chair. I'll be succinct. I'm very impressed with um your report and everything you're doing for our students and all the importance of um them and their classes to learn English as a second language. Um it can't be easy. it just can't, you know, it's it can't be. Um, I'm very impressed with the roll out of the secondary ESL pilot in adoption and I'm really looking forward to August and your report in the fall. Um, one of the questions I I noticed because this intrigues me. Could you explain the National Geographic's impact in Lyft? Could you give a brief synopsis about what that curriculum

124entails? I'm sure it's a lot, but could you just give us a brief over overhaul? And I again, I'm looking forward to hear what you have to say after the program rolls out >> through through the chair. I'm going to turn it over to Ashley who's been doing a phenomenal job working through this pilot and being collaborative. Um, so Ashley, take it away. >> Um, so impact is for middle school and lift is for high school. It's through National Geographic and Sungage. Um, it is a full ESL curriculum. Um, that is aligned with both common core standards and the Wita language standards um as well as international language standards. Um it's a really exciting curriculum. During the pilot we had um middle school teachers talking about the middle school students saying that they were excited

125and having fun. It connects um through National Geographic. It connects each unit to an explorer that you can real explorer that you can follow through Instagram. Um, and a lot of real life experiences. Um, everything is grade level appropriate and age appropriate. Um, so it's going to do a lot for our students and it's going to do a lot for our teachers in terms of find like finding that really comprehensive grade level. >> Thank you very much and again I look forward to hearing how the program is going as the next year progresses. Thank you so much for all you do. Thank you very much. Approve and file. All those in favor? Opposed? So ordered. The next item is item number Oh, sorry. It's the approval of grants and finance items. A roll call, please.

126>> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancaria. >> Yes. >> Member Veninda. >> Yes. >> Member Guardiola. >> Yes. >> Member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Member Mailman. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Mulla. Yes. >> Member Roy. >> Yes. >> Mayor, >> the next item is GB6-55 filed by myself. Requests that the administration provide a comprehensive update on college and career readiness efforts across the district, including the current status and impact of AVID programming. The report should outline how students and families are informed about high school offerings, including college preparatory pathways, CTE programs, and other specialized opportunities. Additionally, include an overview of current advising practices and how the district is supporting more thoughtful indivi individualized guidance to ensure students are selecting pathways aligned with their interest, strengths, and long-term goals. Include any relevant data, outreach strategies,

127and recommendations for improving awareness, access, and alignment between student interest and product placement as it reads. Uh, refer to TLSS. All those in favor opposed, so ordered. The next item, GB5-6, filed by administration to authorize the administration to enter into a 5-year lease agreement to replace 6,000 Chromebooks in accordance with the district's technology replacement program uh schedule. Member Johnson and then member mailman. >> Thank you. Um to the chair or I'm going to go through the chair to administration. I have some questions um in regards to this. Um f first question I have is actually probably is going to be in regards to the upcoming budget and and the the budget line in in that book with the increase in in technology costs. Can I get kind of a understanding on what what is contributing

128to that um for this year um through the chair to administration? >> Thank you to the superintendent >> through the chair. I'll ask Miss Conso to answer that question. uh through the chair, that line item is recommended to be increased by $1.6 million. Of the 1.6, it's approximately $1.1 million of replacement devices, the leases, of which is the one that you see on tonight's agenda for $728,000, which is a 23% increase from our last lease of Chromebooks, essentially due to tariffs. um and some of the computer chips. I do have Bob Walton on the line for any specific questions on devices. >> Okay. So, thank you for that. Through the chair, I guess two administration on who who's going to answer this question. So, I I guess I do have a question in regards to

129that. So, I remember last year we we we did I think 5,000 or or maybe we did 6,000. I don't know what we did. And I believe the number of Chromebooks at the time we had was like 28 thou 28,000 for the district based on the amount of kids we had. And I think that's what prompted me to probably ask some questions about technology. And now we're back again. So that's why I'm I'm talking about this. So, so with the five-year lease and the 5-year plan of 6,000 Chromebooks a year, is is there major are we still having serious issues with breaking of Chromebooks being lost or is it just upkeep of or new techn not not new technology coming up but you know newer models or whatever? I mean every year I mean I

130think we did that I did that with my kids um growing up as well. So just wondering kind of what the thought process is around that through the chair. >> So chair so I'm going to defer to Mr. Walton but by saying I'm going to start by saying so the 30,000 I think you actually asked two separate questions there and one of them is the 30,000 is to accommodate um enough to have sufficient number of devices while some are in repair um and so forth. So if we have 24 25,000 students, we have enough um to handle um things that common breakage um severe breakage and so forth. Um okay. But in terms of the plan, the overall plan to maintain the 30,000 Chromebooks in a um a way that we can afford them is

131to break them over a 5year period, the expected useful life of the Chromebook, the 5year period, and to chunk them out. So every year we'll be replacing 6,000. We had the benefit through um other funds during COVID to purchase them. So we were leasing devices, then we purchased devices. Now that those devices are aging out, we have we're back on the replacement cycle of a 5-year lease um for the uh 5-year period for each of the Chromebooks. So I'll if I can just I'll ask Mr. Walton if he wants to add anything to what I said. Mr. Walton. Sure. >> To the chair. So, Superintendent Allen's correct that we um in 2022 we received funding through the um emergency emergency connectivity fund that purchased 23,000 uh Chromebooks as well as other technology devices. Um so

132those are now four four years old. Um you know they're aging out. So, we have this plan to bring in leases every year to replace these devices as well as um next year the MacBooks that we got for the teachers um and then the iPads that we have at the lower grade level. So, we have a plan so that these, you know, we don't have a day where we suddenly are six years into Chromebooks that um just don't function well and and we're coming to the uh school committee asking for a tremendous amount of money to replace those. So, it's a it's a plan to step in uh you know, gradually step in replacements for these. Um, in terms of your other question about breakage, um, we were having a big, uh, breakage problem at

133the middle school level. Um, and so the last lease, we addressed that by devoting the entire last lease to the middle school level. And, um, we have those in carts. Um, we've had lots of meetings with the principles at those schools. We came up with a plan to reduce the breakage. Um, so we partner with the schools to get the teachers involved, to get the students involved. Um, and we went from middle schools having 30 to 40 Chromebooks broke in a week, uh, if not more, to uh, you can count them on your hand, you know, we I've heard even down to two two a week. So, it's been a huge change at the middle school. So, I think you heard a lot about breakage and I hope you don't hear too much about breakage

134anymore. I have not. Thanks for that. That's that's that's good to hear. In regards to this fiveyear, so you talked about the Mac MacBooks for the teachers or whatever. Is that included that's included in this 5-year lease? Is and is that included in the cost in the through the chair to the administration >> to the chair. So, it's included in the budget, but it's not part of this lease that we're looking for right now. So, this is one contract we're looking for the school committee to authorize us to enter into. But the cost, as Miss Conso mentioned, the cost increase for next year is for these Chromebooks and for the MacBooks. >> Yeah, that's including the MacBooks, right? That that hu that >> Yes. >> That that cost isn't just Chromebooks for students that we're

135we're shelling out over. That's that's for everyone within the district that >> Correct. >> including our educator >> the MacBook educators. Correct. >> Correct. Okay. Uh I have no other questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, member mailman. >> Thank you. Um through the chair, um so if I think I understood this, we're going to go each year renewing leases for roughly 6,000 over five years. That's the 30,000 that we're looking for. Have we through the chair um thought about if we were to think about being uh because it's happening every day. I'm reading it on my um MASC newsletters about all the districts that are going um technology free and K2. What is what like how many Chromebooks is that? How what is through the chair? I guess I would make a motion to um

136have an understanding of if we were to do that, what is the savings with either um software and hardware. So I make that in the form of a motion. All right. So then the motion is to approve and file with member mail's motion to get that information in a Friday letter. All those in favor opposed so ordered. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize because it is the money. I apologize. So, roll call >> member. >> So, I I I I just forget. >> Roll call. I go ahead. >> Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancaria. >> No. >> Member Vaninda. >> Is this This this is to approve the 6,000, right? >> I was taking them collectively. If you want to do that separately, that's up to you. The first one is to

137approve the $6,000. Roll call. >> Member Alvarez. >> What's the second one? >> It will be member motion. >> So this is just >> this is just the approval of the item itself to approve the money or approve the agreement lease agreement and then the motion is next. Okay. Yes. >> Member Vancaria. >> Yes. >> Member Venenda. >> Yes. >> Member Vardiola. Yes. >> Member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Member Mailman. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair McCulla. >> Yes. >> Member Roy. >> Yes. >> Mayor. >> Okay. And then the second item is member mailman's item to receive that information back in a Friday letter. >> Member Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Member Vancaria. >> No. >> Member Venenda. >> Just to receive the information back. Yes. >> Member Guardiola. >> Yes. >> Member Johnson. >> Yes.

138>> Member Mailman. Yes, >> vice chair ma. >> Yes, >> member Roy. >> Yes, >> mayor. >> All right, so then our next item that we have is the to request that the superintendent or designate be granted the annual authorization to make the final year-end transfers necessary to balance surplus and deficit accounts for the fiscal year ending on June 30th, 2026. Recommendation is to approve and file. All those in favor? Those opposed? Oh, member mailman >> through the chair clarification. Um, >> wouldn't that wouldn't this be handled through the um finance committee? >> No, this is a standard item that occurs each year that gives the superintendent or designate their annual authorization to make those final year end transfers. Member I mean Mr. Superintendent if you'd like to >> through the chair but we'll uh

139provide the final report to the school committee in the finance committee. >> Okay. But we're so we're preapproving those transfers. >> It's it's to allow us to make transfers in order to close the fiscal year out without reverting funds back to the city and to pay to move funds to pay all the incumbrances expenses that we have as of June 30th. >> Okay. So um our through the chair we just had a meeting this week um and for the for so for the last quarter we are preapproving those um transfers or only what would needed to be expended by June 30th. >> Correct. It would be what we would need to close out all the the accounts since the third quarter report to close out the fiscal year on June 30th. And my last question

140through the chair and I am aware that we do it every year. Um the last question through the chair is then do we even have a finance meeting for that last quarter >> through the chair? It's the final report that we provide you that last quarter is usually during the summer once we actually close out the accounts. We come back and give you a final report of all the accounts >> and through the chair that's justformational only at that point. Is that correct? >> True. Uh I mean you can answer any ask any questions but it is informational at that point. Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. So then it's to approve and file. All those in favor those opposed. The next item is to consider approval. Sorry GB 6-59. To consider approval of the

141Worcester public schools FY27 budget. The recommendation is to approve and hold. All those in favor? Those opposed? GB6-60 administration to review and conduct a public hearing on the FY27 Worester public schools budget per MGL chapter 71 section 38N that is to approve and that meeting is scheduled for May 28th. So all those in favor um >> yeah we set the date so it's a file a proven file because the date is set. So that is on May 28th. So all those in favor those opposed. Next item, GB6-61. Member Guardiola requests that the administration provide an update on the status of school bus stop arm camera enforcement technology for Worcester public schools, including whether the city of Worcester and Worcester public schools have opted into the Commonwealth's recently authorized school bus camera enforcement program, the timeline

142for implementation, projected costs and revenues, vendor selection process, and how the program would improve student safety. Member Guadiola. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, as most may know, the Commonwealth recently, as of January 2025, authorized municipalities and school districts to opt into the automated uh school bus camera enforcement program designed to deter drivers from illegally passing stopped school buses with activated stop arms. Uh these violations create serious safety risks for students entering and exiting buses uh each day especially in a city like Worcester with the topography and the density number of vehicles on the road etc. Uh given Worester given Worcester's large student transportation network and the volume of traffic throughout the city, it's important for the school committee and the public to understand the district's plan regarding this program, including implementation logistics, enforcement

143procedures, privacy protections, and any uh anticipated safety outcomes. An update from the administration would allow the committee to better assess how the technology could support student safety initiatives and help prevent dangerous traffic violations around school buses. Um, now so far, Chapi is the first and only city to officially launch a full-scale citywide automated school bus stop arm uh stop arm camera program. uh a pilot was uh actually done in puberty at only track 10 buses between September 2023 and May 2024. Those buses recorded approximately 3,400 illegal passes, roughly two per uh 2.3 per bus every day. Uh furthermore, the first week of back to school was by far the worst with about 3.8 violations per bus per day. uh sim similarly Salem has kind of run a a pilot and they found the same pattern.

144So, you know, as we approach the end of the year, it'd be helpful to know the current timeline in the hopes that maybe we can get this in by the beginning of next school year or the beginning of 2027. Uh but this information would be helpful. I know that there's a lot of moving parts with this uh especially on the city side uh in conjunction with our buses. So, I know there's a lot there, but you know, just a an update would be uh greatly appreciated. Thank you. believe the superintendent could give some information on that >> to the chair. Uh so there will actually be a a longer update planned for the June 8th um operations and governance meeting. There's already items within that committee to give it um an update. But just for

145tonight, as you u kind of ended your comment, this is uh a lot of moving parts. It's actually not a contract that we would enter into. It's the contract the city, the police department enters into. This is actually a law enforcement contract. And so we are working very closely with um the sergeant and traffic uh division with the whistle police. They are exploring the uh Chapi contract. Um there are some issues and concerns that the whistle police have about this enforcement that they're working through their issues and once we're all on the same page, we would anticipate um going out for bid for a service. >> Thank you so much. And uh with that being said uh madame chair then I would just uh ask to file this and wait for the operation governance uh

146meeting and hear that full report then. >> Thank you. So the motion is to approve and file. All those in favor those opposed. The next item GB GB 6-62 member Johnson for administration to work with all schools on wellness week in the West public schools which should include assemblies and speakers and if possible incorporate into the daily educational curriculum for the week. Member Johnson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um again, as um we we know um through the course of the past few years, we've had some concerns and issues regarding um mental health issues with um many of our students and continue to try to add support um for them. Um, I say we always do a very good job. Um, you know, schools do a very good job on different theme weeks like spirit

147week and things like that where you could wear your pajamas and all those other good things or whatever. I think it's very important that we start to focus on some wellness and and mental health and and and incorporate um speaking engagements, assemblies, different things like that. We could also um as part of this look to see if we could incorporate some wellness around eating habits and sleeping habits and different things like that um because I think that also contributes to our kids well-being in the in the in their mental health um in schools. And we could kind of um piggyback that with um what we do um with um um what's the Red Sox on um wellness week and stuff like that down at Polar Pocket. we could do some conjunction, kind of make it

148a big big deal, spread the word, get it out there. I I really think this is important for our kids to be able to talk about this and talk about what's what's going on um and and and really highlight highlight this and and make this part of um a big thing within within our school district. Um so our students know that we are really thinking about this and and really care about their mental health and their well-being moving forward. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you, U. Member Roy. >> Thank you. I just want to through the chair. I just want to say I'm very happy about member Johnson's um motion and item. I think it's really important that we have our students uh learn about wellness, nutrition, uh safety, how to cross the street

149even um you know, how to recognize signs of like if they're not feeling well. So, I just want to say I'm really happy that this is on the agenda and um I hope look forward to hear how it it's going to go. Thank you. So the motion is to refer that to administration. All those in favor? Those opposed. Next and last item GB6-63 from administration to formally recognize and honor the retirees of the Worcester public schools for their years of dedicated service, commitment, and contributions. And that is to refer to administration. All those in favor? Those opposed? The motion carries. And that brings us to the close of our meeting. Thank you very much, everyone.