WORCESTER—Highlights of the Worcester School Committee’s Jan 18 meeting include acknowledgment for the Worcester Vikings, the commendable performance of the Worcester Public Schools’ budget team, an analysis of ELA results, and a committee member’s request for statistics on drugs and weapons confiscation in the schools.
Superintendent Rachel Monárrez’s report consisted of a slide presentation on the multilingual audit currently underway, with Jessica Mandes providing much of the commentary. Mandes returns to the district as a director on the multilingual front.
“It’s great to be back in Worcester,” she said.
AIR researchers analyzed multiple data points in their work on the audit. During the presentation, testing data was provided for how English Learners (ELs) performed on specific subjects of the MCAS, which were ELA (English Language Arts), math, and science. These indicated a “wide gap” in the performance of ELs in Grades 3-8 compared to the district as a whole.
The consensus so far is that “we need to move the needle forward,” Mandes said.
Acknowledging this, the superintendent told members of the school committee “seeing single-digit outcomes, you should be outraged. I spent 25 years working with language learners. They can do it. If we do it, they will thrive.”
The development of a multilingual handbook is part of the progress that will continue to be sought in helping EL students get past “Level 3.”
“Why so stagnant at Level 3?” District F Member and Vice Chair Jermaine Johnson asked.
“That’s the magic question,” Mandes responded.
Several items up for discussion were placed on the agenda by newly elected At-Large Member and former Superintendent Maureen Binienda.
One involved a request for a report on the rental costs for all buildings, including the original fee for the bus yard and all increases and dates of increase. The request also includes a report on the cost for all additional buildouts at the bus yard for other departments and the cost of the gas station for the buses.
At-Large Member Susan Mailman remarked that the sort of questions Binienda asked were already addressed earlier on in the process. The item was filed.
Binienda also asked for a list of 2023-24 allocation requests from all principals and all department heads for 2023-24 funding. She asked, “What was unfunded from our principals?” The question prompted a discussion about whether the lists would be just for this school year, or beyond it. The item was ultimately filed on a 6-3 vote.
Binienda opened another issue with a request for a report on the number of weapons and drugs confiscated and the number turned into the Worcester police for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school year.
“School safety is very important to me, the police need to have control,” she said.
Mayor Petty immediately responded: “I, we, have worked really hard on this. I won’t have this become front-page news, we have made a lot of strides. I don’t want people to think the Worcester Public Schools are unsafe.”
District C Member Dianna Biancheria countered, saying, “I have seen this before, from twelve years on the school committee; it is not a major catastrophe to ask for this report. This is literally a simple request.”
Newly elected District D member Alex Guardiola agreed with the need for the report, adding, “There is nothing wrong with transparency.” Johnson expanded on the ask by also requesting a breakdown of the type of weapons and type of drugs confiscated.
The item was referred to the administration with a request for a comparison with Boston and Springfield numbers.
At the start of the meeting, the Vikings’ youth footballers were applauded for finishing their season as Central Massachusetts Super Bowl champions, Massachusetts state champions, and a New England regional finalist.
Also, Brian Allen and his financial blueprint colleagues Sara Consalvo, Mohammed Siddiqui, Ivanna Then, Nancy Blomstrom, Akshay Guru Rajkumar, Liam Young, Stephanie Carrasco, Kate Ota and Emma Kearney were commended for the recognition they earned recently from the Association of School Business Officers, International, for the eleventh straight time.
Allen thanked his team for their “hard work” on the $552 million budget.
In praising the group, Monárrez noted that “other districts use the Worcester Public Schools as their guide.”
Rod Lee is a career journalist, a veteran of the media scene in Central Massachusetts and the author of seven books including the recently published “Gil Cristopher,” a novel about the difficulties associated with aging. He can be contacted at rodlee1963@gmail.com
