The Worcester School Committee addressed several items during its Oct. 8 meeting, including the state’s proposed graduation standards and recent calls for adopting a gender support plan.
The main subject of the evening was the state’s proposed graduation requirements and how Worcester Public Schools is preparing to align with the new standards if they are adopted.
A presentation led by Administrative Director of College and Career Readiness Dr. Emily Lehman and Administrative Director of Compliance and School Improvement Dr. Magdalena Ganias detailed the proposed requirements and indicated that Worcester is already well positioned to meet those standards.
In 2024, Massachusetts voters eliminated MCAS testing as a graduation requirement. The state’s K-12 Statewide Graduation Council has since proposed a framework called Strong Foundations for Bright Futures, which includes four pillars. The first is MassCore, a series of recommended courses and credits for high school students. Worcester has already been using MassCore for more than a decade.
According to Lehman, the district has an implementation plan in place should the state formally adopt the new standards.
“The proposed implementation timeline would be that this school year would be a planning year,” said Dr. Lehman. “The state will establish statutory and regulatory authority to support the new framework, and districts will conduct internal assessments and begin a shared understanding with stakeholders.”
Under the proposed timeline, the 2027-28 school year would mark the preparation and initial implementation of MassCore as a graduation requirement, with the current eighth-grade class becoming the first to graduate under the new standard.
Other components of the proposed framework, expected to be introduced in subsequent years, include end-of-course assessments, postsecondary planning and culminating experiences such as work portfolios or capstone projects.
The school committee also revisited an item from the Sept. 24 meeting of its Standing Committee on Teaching, Learning and Student Success: a petition calling for the district to adopt a gender support plan.
During that earlier meeting, an educator and several students spoke in favor of establishing a formal plan to guide how school staff handle students’ gender identities and protect their confidentiality. One student described being “outed” without consent by other students and a member of the school staff.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Marie Morse told the school committee that the district follows state regulations and works closely with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and its Safe Schools Initiative to train staff on handling such situations.
Morse said that while the district has not adopted a specific document such as the proposed gender support plan, it takes students’ comfort and safety seriously.
“We believe every student may come to us with different needs and may need advocacy and help navigating the very complex high school system,” said Dr. Morse. “The form has some great ideas we continue to look at and use, but we believe we are fully in compliance with what the state is requiring of us. More importantly, we are really hoping our approach to this has improved, and we have leveled up our game of how we support students.”
Morse also apologized for the experiences students described during the September committee meeting.
“The whole goal is that our trained people in schools can help our educators through the very complex task of being the support that our students need. It’s difficult to hear. We aim to be better, and we’ll continue to strive for continuous improvement,” she added.
In other business, the school committee approved a contract with Kristi Turgeon to serve as School Committee executive administrator and clerk through June 2029.
The committee also addressed an expansion of the district’s digital hall pass pilot program, which was introduced at Worcester Technical High School during the 2025-26 school year. The trial will expand to Burncoat Middle School, Burncoat High School and South High Community School during the current school year.
Finally, the committee referred two matters to its Standing Committee on Operations and Governance: a proposed policy prohibiting smart glasses and similar wearable technology, and a review and update of the district’s school choice policy.
