RESIDENTS' ADVISORY COMMISSION FOR WORCESTER SCHOOL COMMITTEE

By Scott O’Connell
Telegram & Gazette Staff

Posted at 7:55 PM

   

WORCESTER – The Worcester Branch NAACP is pitching an idea to create a residents’ advisory commission for the city School Committee, according to one of its members.

That proposed body, which would be comprised of representatives of local school advocacy organizations, parents and students, would have the primary function of requesting and reporting on data from the school department through the School Committee and making policy recommendations.

Gordon T. Davis, chairman of the Worcester Branch NAACP’s education committee, said the commission would also address some of what he described as the School Committee’s representation issues, from its lack of a clear, formal citizen input process to the disenfranchisement some residents have felt from district leadership.

It’s also a way to insert African-Americans and other minority groups into the ongoing debate over the direction of the schools, which he said has focused predominantly on Latino students.

While he could offer no example of such a commission at the school level, he said the city has a similar concept in its citizen advisory council.

“I think to a certain extent this is to ensure we get a seat at the table,” he said. “I know it’s a new concept ... but we all have a stake in what’s going on in the schools.”

In particular, the advisory commission would be concerned with what is colloquially known as the “school to prison pipeline” – the school policies and practices that tend to punish students, particularly students of color, rather than help them get an education. The commission consequently would seek data – suspension rates, dropout rates, testing results – relevant to that focus.

Davis said the Worcester NAACP is currently reaching out to other local organizations to build a coalition behind its proposal. It has also discussed the idea with Mayor Joseph Petty, who serves as chairman of the School Committee. Petty’s office confirmed those meetings, but the mayor didn’t have a comment about the commission specifically on Tuesday.

The group has yet to approach the rest of the committee, however, according to Davis – “we’re going to wait to see who’s elected” in next month’s School Committee election, he said.

The one current member who is sure not to be on the next committee, Dante Comparetto – he dropped out of the race earlier this year, while the other five incumbents are still running – said the commission “sounds like a good idea to me.”

Comparetto also floated the idea of a School Committee ombudsman – another potential way, he said, of giving the public some input into the committee’s work. While the School Committee isn’t necessarily supposed to be intervening in individual constituent issues, he added, he doesn’t trust the school department to sufficiently fill that role, either.

“If we’re not supposed to be dealing with constituent service stuff, then who does it?” he said.

Committee member Dianna Biancheria, however, said committee members already are accessible to the public – “we’re out in the neighborhoods, we’re out in the community,” she said. “They have access to call us, email us, speak to us.”

She also expressed more confidence in the district administration to present school data to the public, saying she’d rather have the school department, rather than outside groups, in charge of deciphering and delivering that information.

The school system is under increased scrutiny now to release its internal data, after several community groups raised concerns this past year about persistent racial inequities in the district.

Superintendent Maureen Binienda is required by a 14-point plan she agreed to during her recent contract negotiations to specifically create a “clear and transparent process to provide the necessary, student-sensitive data needed to do a thorough review of the suspension rates” in the schools, according to a copy of that plan.

The intent of the residents’ advisory commission, Davis said, is to put a “little flesh and bone to what that group looks like,” referring to the unnamed individual or organization that would review that data.

Scott O’Connell can be reached at Scott.O’Connell@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottOConnellTG

We Must Ensure All Students Are Accurately Counted in Education Funding Reform Debate

We Must Ensure All Students Are Accurately Counted in Education Funding Reform Debate  New MassBudget Report Examines Accurately Counting All Economically Disadvantaged Students Every child in Massachusetts deserves an excellent education. To turn this vision into a reality, our unequal public education system desperately needs to bee remedied with state dollars to help our most disadvantaged students succeed. This past Thursday, the State Senate took a big step in the right direction and passed the Student Opportunity Act. This legislation would revise the Massachusetts' K-12 education funding formula and provide significantly more aid to many districts and students most in need.   Among other changes, this act proposes shifting how a low-income student is defined, defining "low-income" as 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, rather than the 133 percent level that has been used in recent years. While the act would provide significantly more state aid to school districts, the challenge moving forward is this legislation does not specify the method for identifying this expanded group of students. In our latest report, Making Every Student Count, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) analyzes the challenged of counting children who come from socioeconomic backgrounds, and highlights solutions to ensure all kids get the supports they need. "Children from low-income and immigrant households in our schools are most at risk of not being accurately counted," said Marie-Frances Rivera, MassBudget President. "This challenge deserves a thoughtful approach, that includes family outreach and engagement in order to strengthen families' enrollment in public programs that inform the districts low-income student count."   Many of the challenges arise because the current system requires heavily on data matching students who are enrolled in public programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Transitional Assistance for Families and Dependent Children (TAFDC), foster care, and MassHealth. There are some key challenges with this approach: Mixed-immigration status households eligible for these programs could forgo them due to the chilling effect of punitive federal changes, which could directly affect their local school districts' funding; Not all eligible students being enrolled in all programs they can participate in; and The misalignment between school rosters and program data, potentially missing students. The good news is that Gateway Communities like New Bedford and Springfield have been able to mitigate the challenges of the data matching approach couple with the chilling effects. Both cities, while vastly different, have experienced an increase in low-income students over time. Through the dedication of resources, these communities have been able to:  Regularly update the databases needed to make sure students who qualify for school meals receive them; Collaborate with local institutions to manually track and certify students who may have been missed; and Identify and support children from families from migrant, military, foster care and populations experiencing displacement. Click here to read the full report and learn more about the proposed changes. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

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