Boston School Committee: 10·18·23 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

Last night’s meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, in which we heard positive updates on transportation. Superintendent Skipper shared that on-time bus performance has dramatically improved since last year, with data from September showing 84% of buses were on time in the morning and 96% arrived within fifteen minutes. Bus times in the afternoon showed similar trends. The Superintendent spent the rest of her report providing an update on the exam school admissions process. At the last School Committee meeting, the Committee had a lengthy discussion about amending the allocation of ten bonus points. Last night, Superintendent Skipper announced that she is compiling data requested by Committee members on the timeline and rationale behind the new admissions policy and will share that memo at the next meeting. Members asked several questions about transportation, exam schools, and the recently released facilities condition dashboard, with one member pointing out that the confusing layout and lack of underlying data in the dashboard makes it difficult for parents to understand the condition of their child’s school.

Concern around the exam school admissions policy was also a major focus of public comment last night, with many students testifying that they feel they are “unintended consequences” of the new policy as it is mathematically impossible for them to gain admission to their first choice school. Public comment also featured testimony from numerous students and community members at the O’Bryant who expressed frustration with the proposed relocation of the school to West Roxbury.

The School Committee heard two reports last night, beginning with a state-mandated quarterly report on transformation schools, which are schools labeled by the State as requiring intervention. The Superintendent’s team highlighted concerning trends regarding certain student subgroups and showed data demonstrating low growth among students at transformation schools, leading members to question why the district is doubling down with more resources to its existing transformation schools approach.

The second and final report of the evening was on inclusive education in the district.The Superintendent’s team outlined a vision for every classroom to be fully inclusive, with special education students and multilingual learners all learning in general education classrooms alongside their peers. Concerning data was presented regarding students in certain subgroups who are disproportionately deemed to need special education services, but there was no discussion of the root causes of this issue or how it will be addressed. There was also no clear plan for moving to a full inclusion model, nor was there information about budget, staffing, or process for engaging families.

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