Ep. 72, Last Night @ School Committee: 10/26 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

Last night’s meeting was four hours long, with the School Committee hearing only one presentation after deciding to delay their report on hiring and diversity to next week’s meeting. The Superintendent began with her report with updates on enrollment, transportation, and test scores. Superintendent Skipper informed the Committee that, as of this month, there are 48,734 students enrolled in the district, representing a steep decline over the past decade. She then addressed ongoing transportation concerns, acknowledging that the district is not meeting its state mandate of 95% on-time arrival. Superintendent Skipper also noted that her team is working to address concerns and complaints that were filed by two advocacy groups on behalf of students with individualized educational plans (IEPs) who are not arriving to school on-time. She concluded her report by addressing the recent results of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) in Boston, which showed steeper declines in performance than indicated by the recent MCAS data.

The only presentation of the night was an update on the BPS “Green New Deal.” Announced last year by Mayor Wu, the “Green New Deal” is a vision for improving BPS infrastructure and building modern, climate-resilient facilities. However, last night’s presentation did not go into detail beyond that vision and left many unanswered questions about the possibility of future school closures and mergers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices