Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Boston School Committee. I'm Chairperson Jerry Robinson. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Because this is a remote meeting, I will ask Miss Pix to please call the role. >> Thank you, Chair. Dr. Alkins,
Miss Nor, Mr. Peralta. >> Yes. Miss Palano Garcia, Miss Torres, >> yes. >> Mr. Tran, Miss Garage, >> yes. >> Miss Robinson, >> yes. >> We have a quorum.
>> Thank you. Tonight's session is being shared live on Zoom. It will be posted on the school committee's web page and on YouTube. Tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's web page, bostonschools.org/schoolcommittes.
org/school committees under the January 21st meeting link. The meeting documents have been translated into all of the major BPS languages. Any translations that are not ready prior to the start of the meeting will be posted as soon as
they are finalized. The committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation in Spanish, Haitian, Cape, Haitian, Creole, Cape Verdian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and American Sign
Language. The Zoom interpretation feature has been activated. Zoom participants should click the globe icon at the bottom of your screen to select your language preference. I want to remind everyone to
please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. I want to remind members that you received an artificial intelligence memo last week. This memo is available in your correspondence and has also been
posted on the website website under today's meeting materials. We'll begin with the approval of minutes. I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the December 17th, 2025
and January 5th, 2026 school committee meetings as presented. Is there a motion? >> So move. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Hearing none,
Miss Parvitz, will you please call the role? >> Thank you, Chair. Dr. Alkins, Mr. Peralta, >> yes, >> Miss Polano Garcia, >> yes, >> Miss Torres, >> yes, >> Mr. Tran. Miss Garrett,
>> yes. >> Miss Robinson, >> yes. >> The means are approved. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to the superintendent's report. I present to you our superintendent, Mary Skipper. >> Thank you, chair, and welcome back to
everyone. Congratulations to member Torres and member Paralta. Uh, welcome to the committee. So, uh, my report is a little lengthy. Um, and I will go slow for the interpreters. Uh, so first of all, um, good evening. Welcome back. And I'd like
to introduce tonight Dr. Simone Wright who has joined BPS as a our new deputy superintendent of academics. Dr. The right is a leader with unwavering commitment to ensuring education is an effective tool to drive academic
achievement. We are so fortunate that she decided to bring that passion to Boston. Most recently, Dr. Wright served as the chief academic officer of the Denver public schools in Denver, Colorado, where DPS students achieved
notable increases in math and literacy achievement. This included the highest math achievement performance on the state assessment in the district's history. Dr. Wright also served as the executive director of universal school
supports and as an associate chief of academics in Denver. Prior to joining the Denver public schools, Dr. Wright served as a special adviser in the chief academic officer office at the New York
City Department of Education. There she spearheaded an ambitious curriculum reform and played a crucial role in shaping the systems long-term goals for teaching and learning. Dr. Wright also served as a high school chemistry
teacher and held various instructional leadership roles in Houston, Texas. So, please welcome Dr. the right. And I'd like her to be able to turn her camera on and say hello to the committee. Not there. >> Oh, okay. So, maybe she has not joined
yet. >> No, she's showing up, but her camera is off and so is her microphone. So hopefully >> Okay, we'll we'll give we'll we'll get her to be able to come back on in a second. >> Okay. >> Um so a couple of um a couple of updates. So, first of all, at the
December 17th meeting, the committee made a very difficult decision to close another course to college community of science and health, which we call cash lee academy, and to also merge the
Henderson K to2 inclusion school lower and the Henderson K to2 inclusion school upper into one prek to8 school community. These actions will take place just as a reminder at the end of the
2027 school year. I wanted to update the committee and the public that since the vote, we have been actively engaging schools to plan next steps. We have held meetings with all school leaders to develop plans to support their school communities through this transition and
we're in constant conversation to support with immediate requests and questions that come up. There's a crossf functional group including members across every BPS division that also has been meeting weekly. They're reviewing
student level data together and have started enacting targeted support plans. A senior project manager has been assigned to each school to coordinate district-wide efforts to manage things like highly supported student and family
transitions, supported staff transitions, community engagement, and celebrating the legacy of the schools, and the operations that go into the closure. We are serve we're surveying families to learn if families would like to
transition their students early since that was something we discovered in the last two sets of closures and mergers so that we can plan accordingly and support their choice. We're planning on-site high school fairs where students can
learn about their options and all of the other great schools that are in our BPS high school portfolio. The first fair will be held at the Henderson Upper School next week. And we're also actively centering our students with disabilities, which we'll expand on
during the spedpack presentation that will happen later on in this meeting. I also wanted to update the committee again on the budget. Um, and so I just building on the report, my report from last month. Um, I just wanted to update
first on the FY26 budget. So, as you know from that December meeting, the district is currently facing uh projected deficit of 53 million for the current fiscal year. While it's typical for um our district
with a budget the size that it is to manage a deficit at this stage of the budget cycle, the magnitude of this year's shortage, in our opinion, requires immediate and strategic action. As I explained at the December 17th
meeting, there are several operational costs, some out of the district's control, that are driving up the overall costs. Um, some of them are the increased health insurance, which we hear about and read about nationally, statewide, on a regular basis, the
increased fill rate for our full-time positions. Excuse me. elevated um inflation that we all feel at the grocery checkout uh with our bills and that's impacting particularly our out of district special education
services and tuitions, our yellow bus transportation and food service for students. As soon as we identified the deficit, we took immediate action and decisive action by implementing a spending pause
of central office positions, contracts, and stipens back in November. While our initial steps are moving us in the right direction, it's now necessary to identify and implement additional measures immediately to close the
remaining gap. Last week, we shared information with our schools about expanding the pause to school-based vacancies and discretionary funds. We're extending the spending pause to include more categories of spending across the
central office and elective spending at schools to protect our classrooms and instructional staff. This includes expenditures like supply purchases for next year, um professional development for managerial staff,
conference attendance, uh office supplies, not classroom supplies, but office supplies and stipens to increase administrative capacity by taking fiscal responsibility action now. These steps should address the shortfall and put us
in the best position to meet the challenges of FY27, which we know is going to be a difficult budget year. We never take these steps lightly, but it's necessary measure to prioritize our core mission and ensure
that we enter the 2627 school year with a stable budget. We're positioning ourselves to protect the most critical aspects of our work, the instructional programs, the highquality classroom supports that our students and staff rely on every single day. While the
fiscal environment is challenging, every budget decision that's being made right now is being weighted is being weighed against our commitment to inclusive education, equitable literacy, expanding dual language programs, and maintaining
long-term facility stability. The FY27 budget process officially begins with our preliminary FY27 budget presentation to the school committee on Wednesday, February 4th, and that's followed by several hearings and
meetings, all which are centered around the FY27 budget. Uh the budget hearing on school budgets is Thursday, February 12th. There's a budget hearing on central budgets that will happen Wednesday, March 4th. Uh there's a hearing to review our updated budget
proposals based on the feedback from this body uh and the community and that will take place on March 18th. And then we finally will ask for the vote for the revised proposal on Wednesday, March 25th.
Our budget is then sent to the Boston City Council for their view and appropriation. So, there's lots of opportunities for input from the community, from this body. Um, and it's a a constant process that starts February 4th and culminates March 25th.
I wanted to talk a bit about some of the bright spots that we have um we've been celebrating in BPS. Uh yesterday I attended the 2025 schools of recognition event at the Massachusetts State House where we celebrated uh in total 55
schools of recognition statewide. Um the these are schools that are identified through the state's accountability system. Uh and they share in common uh demonstrating high achievement, significant improvement and or high
growth. the six BPS schools and six is the highest that we've ever had in BPS. Um, but the six BPS schools that were represented at the event with me, uh, the Grrew Elementary, the former Philick Elementary, which is now part of the
Sarah Roberts Elementary School, the PJ Kennedy, New Mission High School, Boston Latin Academy, and Boston Latin School. Um, I also want to thank BTU President Eric Berg, uh, and State Representative
Adrienne Madaro for also being there to take pictures, to be there to celebrate with our with our school leaders, um, and to really honor our schools and our educators. We shared this news back with the committee in October of 2025 as part of
our DESIE update um when we released the 2025 accountability results for schools and districts across the state. Um and that is again based on MCCAST. But we're very proud of these six schools and um lots to celebrate there. Lots of great
work there as well as throughout our district at other schools. Last week, BPS held its 43rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at the Jaziah Quinsey School elementary or sorry, upper school. This feature dances,
music, visual art pieces from students representing eight of the district schools. Each year, through their talent and creativity, our students inspire and move us as Dr. King's living legacy and the embodiment of his vision. And I'm so
proud of our students for sharing the spirit and the meaning of the holiday and representing our district. So well, I want to give a shout out to executive director for the arts Amy Wedge, the BPS visual and performing arts department
for just another great celebration, and our students who captured the meaning and spirit of the holiday so beautifully. Congratulations to Elizabeth Talbett of the O'Brien School of Math and Science, who was
recently named the 2025 BPS School Counselor of the Year. Miss Talbbert is credited with helping guide many students with decisions about their life beyond BPS. Just this year, she supported three students in receiving
the most prestigious scholarships available to high school seniors, the Posi scholarship and the QuestBridge Match Scholarship. Congratulations again to Elizabeth and the entire O'Brien community. In early December, the
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced Tommy Simmons, a middle school English and history social studies teacher at the Yumana Academy, as a finalist for the 2026 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Tommy is a lifelong
learner who recognizes his students strengths and encourages them to learn from each other. He was nominated in January of 2025 and went through a rigorous process conducted by DESIE. As a finalist, Wellpoint, a health benefits
company, generously awarded the school $5,000, which can then be used to support student learning or school programming needs. You can view great videos about both Elizabeth and Tommy that were produced by the BPS communications team
at the BOS at bostonchools.org or or on social media channels um that we hold such as Instagram and Facebook. Last week, I joined Mayor Woo, former Red Sox uh pitcher Lenny Dinardo, and the kindergarten students and staff at
the Beethoven elementary school in West Roxberry for a surprise unveiling of all kids bike kindergarten PE learn to ride program. The Beethoven school received a donation of what they call strider
balance bikes or bikes without pedals which are designed to help children learn the mechanics of riding a bike and balancing. The bikes can then be converted into pedaling bikes once students are ready to learn a pedal bike. All kids bike is a national
nonprofit with a mission of teaching every child in America to ride a bike in kindergarten fizzed class. The program supports children in reaching a key developmental milestone while promoting fitness and they've also all kids bikes
has also been very active in region one in our district as well. Um I just want to personally thank them everyone that came to the event. Uh Lenny Donardo really spoke to the kids about the importance of physical well-being uh and the importance of exercise uh and just
having fun and playing. Um the students, we unveiled it behind the curtain. The students didn't the kindergarteners did not know what they were getting. They knew it was a surprise and uh the look on their faces when they saw the bikes was just priceless. Um and then I actually uh Mayor Woo and I actually
each got to ride a bike. Um and so it was uh it was just a lot of fun. And you can see uh Houdini, which is the owl that's in the picture. And I think it was a tossup between the bikes and Houdini in terms of popularity. Um but the but the students at the Beethoven um really really enjoyed themselves. With
spring training camp less than a month away, Boston Red Sox players, coaches, and of course, Tessy visited the Hernandez dual language K to8 school earlier this month and participated in group readalouds, coloring time, gym
activities, recess, and lunch. Earlier in the day, they visited the Curly K8 School in Jamaica Plane. Once again, just thank you to the Red Sox. They're such amazing partners to us and just they just have an ongoing commitment to strengthening connections all over the
neighborhoods in Boston and just really making great memories um especially uh you know Tess always shows up to these things um with our students. Uh, I'm also proud to share that the Special Olympics Massachusetts recently named Brighton High School, Mario
Academy, Troder Elementary, and Warren Prescott K to8 School as National Banner Schools for their efforts to provide inclusive sports and activities for students with and without disabilities. The four schools earned this
distinguished status as a result of meeting 10 national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect developed by a national panel of leaders from the Special Olympics and the education
community. This honor reflects our districts and schools commitment to creating inclusive environments where every student of all abilities can participate, lead, and thrive. Through programs like unified sports, inclusive
youth leadership, and whole school engagement, we move closer to building a more inclusive future across all of our schools. It is that time with winter athletics. We are fully underway in the season and I wanted to share some photos of some of
our players of the week um and standout student athletes that have been named over the past few weeks. I also want to just remind everybody about a few important upcoming dates in BPS athletics. The annual city championship on Thursday, January 29th, the co-ed
swimming city championship is held at Madison Park O'Bryant building 4 at the pool. On Wednesday, February 4th, the indoor track and field city championship will be held at the Reggie Lewis Center. And on Wednesday and Thursday, February
19th and 20th, the girls and boys basketball championships at the Mandela Complex at Madison Park gym. So, good luck to our students. It's been an incredible season. We're so blessed to have so many talented, dedicated athletes and coaches. Um, and just good
luck to everybody in the championships. Uh and with that chair, I will pass it back to you. >> Be before we move on, did you want to give um Simone a moment to >> Yes. If Simone is uh joined us? Simony, are you on?
>> It was a moment ago. >> We'll get We'll get her in there. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you, Superintendent. I'll now open it up. I'll open the floor for questions and discussion. I'd like to remind my colleagues about our agreed upon norm that we each have five minutes
per member per round, not including district response. Miss Prax will will remind us when one minute remains and when our time is up. Please make sure your questions are on topics related to the items in the superintendent's report. Other topics not related to the
superintendence report can be raised during new business later in the meeting. Also, please raise your virtual hand and I will call on you in the order I see you. DPS staff, please keep your responses brief and speak slowly to
support our interpreters. Thank you. Does anyone have >> And chair Simone did let me know that she keeps freezing. >> Okay. >> So, she's having a tech issue is the problem. So, once she gets that resolved, I'll I'll ask her to uh come back on.
>> All right. Okay, I'm checking to see if anyone has any questions or concerns or responses to the superintendent's report. >> Miss Garrett,
>> um I see Miss Palanco Garcia. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay, I didn't see your hand. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madame Chair. Thank you, superintendent, for the report. I think it's um I want to say thank you um to superintender for
uh talk to about the um suspend the money uh because it's important the parents the family understand exactly what happened and that because sometime um the family is a little confused
because um the next week it talk to about more the budget the the next budget right and Then if you receive the letter is normally the language the letter is very technical. It is
>> I think it's important that that the family exactly what happened because this comeo uh oh what happened for the my son uh um follow um the therapy the program is stop so thank you thank you
thank you so much appreciate that that part and the only my question is if you you say a little a little bit more about exactly what po what program is sus to spend in
in that situation now? >> Yeah. So, thank you very much member Palanco Garcia and I can understand where for families it can be confusing really anything to do with students studentf facing uh uh instruction the
classroom um field trips those are those are all continuing to go on. there's no issue. We're protecting those by making the pause in other areas that are not having to do with the student, the classroom, or their uh therapies or
their activities or any of that. So, those are all safe. There's no pause to those things. We've been very clear with school leaders so that they know. And there's also a process where if there's something that a school leader raises, we can handle that as well. So um there
won't be impact to classrooms and schools in that way. >> Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Anyone else? >> Mr. Peralta. >> Thank you so much. Thank you superintendent for explaining all this.
My question is related to we are starting a new funding model for schools >> and I would like you excuse me to comment a little bit what relation if there is any between these two things because again parents are going to be
they are hearing this like oh we are funding the needs of the school but there is also a a budget deficit. So if if is there is any relationship between these two or is just a coincidence that at the time that we are implementing a new funding model we are also facing a
budget deficit. Thank you. >> Right. So so thank you for that question member Palto. So uh really the model the reimagining funding model is much more active in next year's budget in FY27. I think the tensions we see on this year's
budget, which we're in, um, are very much what we can all relate to. Things cost more, services cost more, so transportation, uh, tuitions for out of district students go up above inflation, yellow
bus service costs more to do. Um, but really, health benefits create and are creating a major tension on the budget. uh those are not related to the new school, the new funding model, the reimagining funding. They're just elements that happen and they're
happening quicker than what was initially budgeted. So um we also were extremely um uh you know, we we we have a 95% fill of our full-time positions. Uh and that is amazing. Um but that
doesn't usually happen. And so as a result, we usually have some monies that when we run say over with transportation or over with food, we can redirect it. We don't have that this year. So it's because of these reasons, we want to be
able to end the er budget so next year's budget does not have these tensions. Uh and the best way to do that is to do the pause first at central and then to do the pause with the schools but not the classroom just the more the central
administrative kinds of functions. >> Thank you so much for being physically responsible. >> Thank you >> Dr. Alkins. not um thank you um for this this update and I have two questions. One is related to the the conversation
on the the budget deficit. The other one is um separate more or less asking for an update at some point. Um my my question is for I'm thinking of particularly with the the budget deficit that it will
affect sort of like a hiring freeze. I'm thinking about particularly our schools that are closing and those teachers that particularly this year or moving into next year are looking for new positions. How are we thinking about them
supporting them during what we know is a is a freeze at that point. Um that's just my first question. And then my my second is actually related to I know it's already January. We're thinking about February vacation and then April vacation where we do um enrichment
activities for for students. Just thinking about how our families are are already thinking about that. Um and if we have any um at some point to get some, you know, preliminary data for for for those types of programs. >> Sure. >> So I'll take that second one. Um just
>> none of the activities like academic activities and enrichment would be impacted at all by the pause. So, those all will run and continue and we can give school committee a list of the types of things we'll be running. I'll include those in my next super report uh just so folks have that information. Um,
in terms of the uh in terms of the hiring, so the the pause is for positions that are not uh currently filled, right? They're vacant. There's nobody in them. But it's only for the remainder of this year. So starting July
1st, the next year's budget FY27 kicks in and any positions that are budgeted will be hired. So the teachers that may be or like say staff that is in buildings that are closing at the end of this year or the staff that would be for FY27 closures, those staff are just
going to fold into a regular hiring process because all of those positions will be active come July 1st. So they'll start hiring truthfully uh we start that process February, March, April for the following year. So really the pause for this year is only on positions that
there's no one in. And it's for non-instructional positions. So if it's a par if it's a PAR position, it gets hired. If it's a teacher position, it gets hired. It's really for non-instructional positions. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome.
Thank you. Anyone else? I have just one quick question. I was It was fun to see the new all kids bike program start at the Beethoven. Will that happen at other schools or will it just be at the Beethoven?
>> Yeah. So, this is a great question. So, um it is go it has been going in region one in some of the schools and and I think we are looking at how we might be able to expand it um because the you know as you know the mayor's commitment is for all students to learn to ride their bikes uh nice and young and that's
our shared goal. So we'll be working with that organization uh along with some you know philanthropy and uh folks that want to be able to support BPS as a mechanism for figuring out how to expand. Great. >> It's a lot of fun watching the kids.
They're >> Yeah. >> zipping around. I was very slow on my bike, I will say. >> All right, Miss Noir. >> Um, first of all, thank you so much for the um updates and I really appreciate how you have a followup about the school
closures and the steps that were taken to make sure that the kids who are being affected by it are like getting proper um follow up on it. Um my question about the budget is that is there a specific like reason or specific thing that we
did before this year that kind of caused the budget deficit and if there is how can we prevent it for FY27 and later? >> Yeah. So this is this is a great question always from students right. Um so what we're what we want to make sure
right is that we are stable going into next year. I think what we're seeing different this year is uh kind of unprecedented health benefit costs nationally. So um we added a lot of FTEEs um like post you know in ESSER
from basically the pandemic on and when you attach health benefits those increase every year like the amount on top of that the premiums nationally are going up up and up. So you've seen this probably in the news, you've seen it in the state, uh, all districts are
struggling with this. Um, so that amount and that kind of outpacing. Additionally, our bus transportation, you know, as you guys know, we've put a lot of resource to the on-time percentage. We've had to add some routes. that becomes a tension point of
cost. Food and reimbursement from the government versus what we spend to bring good, healthy, locally grown food that creates um it. So, we're just seeing those tension points not resolving in the budget the way that they would in a
typical year. And for that reason, we need to be fiscally responsible. We don't want to have to roll anything forward. We want to address it this year so that next year's budget is very clean and we can move forward. >> Okay. And I also have another question
like for schools like um I know my school we were supposed to have like a renovation for our auditorium and bathrooms. So would the um budget deficit like affect those kind of processes like are they going to get
paused renovations and other things and get recontinued in 2027? Yeah. So, my guess is, and I don't I would have to check on on O'Brien's in particular, but my guess is those are all things we contract and bid out well in advance.
So, those would already be going and ongoing. So, my guess is no, that those would continue. Um, but I will make sure that we follow up on that one in particular. >> Okay. And lastly, so you said how like the budgets affect like schools in
general, not classrooms. So, does that also include like resources like computers and science labs and stuff like that or is it just like overall the school thing? >> Yeah, it really wouldn't be anything that's student resource, right? Like some picture like what a student would
use, you know, classroom supplies or things like refresh with technology. Like it wouldn't it wouldn't touch those things. >> Okay. Yeah, I was worried about that. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Those are excellent questions. Very good. >> Yep. I try. It's >> good.
I'm very much looking forward to um the upcoming budget meetings because it sounds like they're going to be um a lot of really uh insightful inquiries um and followup. So, thank you for the clarification, Superintendent, on the spending. I just want to echo member
Palano Garcia on how important it is for families to understand and the the the letter that went out was was very robust but not necessarily as accessible. Um, and so I think thinking about how we communicate those things um, just as as
clearly as we just did is really helpful. Um, also want to echo Miss Norris, thanks for the update on um, the students uh, impacted by um, the impending school closures. Um, would love that to be as much of a standing update as we can. Um, as I know um,
Chief Stannis Los and her team and um, the whole BPS community is really being thoughtful um, about that support. Um while you were talking about um you know other school options and and schools visiting the sites to um welcome
students, I was also just thinking that you know it's so important that that students are able to visit the sites as well and um you know to really get a sense of of the schools and I was I know I've talked before about our own websites and directories for schools and
I was very excited to see that there has been some refreshing of those pages and at least for high schools. Now, they all do link to their own individual website. Um, so that I just wanted to applaud that improvement. Um, there's just a lot more to be able to understand from
schools with the improved layout there as folks do some shopping. Um, and then lastly on my on on my end, um, just uh continued bright spots. Um, the MLK celebration for BPS looked amazing. Um, I was at a celebration at Fanuel Hall on
Monday, uh, co-sponsored by the Museum of African-American History and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and just wanted to do a BPS shout out, um, of the keynote speaker from that event who is the current Boston poet laurate and librarian at the Lee School um, Emanuel
Aangoa who um, was absolutely incredible at that event. Um, very very proud um, that he is part of our our faculty. So, thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Miss Torres. >> Yeah, I just want to thank
superintendent for being so clear about what the budget's going to look like. I'm looking forward to uh knowing and uh understanding a better way of what was cut on the budget and um what uh because
I can't speak to something that I don't know right now, but I'm looking forward to see what programs and what services will cut from the previous budget to this budget and how that affects our families and our students. >> Yes, the the budget process. Thank you,
Member Torres. That's it's an important point and um it's something as we go through probable orgs and those decisions get made at the school level and the district level we roll that information together. Um and that really that February 4th is really sort of the
kickoff to that. Um and then we separate out the hearings to the schools and central so we can really try to make that information as clear as possible. Um but you're right, you know, you know from all your years in BPS that the budget is um one of the most important
things we do and uh so we do spend a lot of time on it and are happy to answer whatever questions members will have. I'm sure new members like yourself will get a lot of um attention and time from the Chief Bloom and his staff as well.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. So, if there's no more comments or questions, I'll now entertain a motion to receive the superintendent's report. Is there a motion? >> So, move. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Thank you. Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Hearing none, Miss Pavox, will you please call the role? >> Thank you, chair. Dr. Alkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Peralta, >> yes. >> Miss Palano Garcia,
>> yes. Miss Torres, >> yes. >> Mr. Tren, Miss Garrett, >> yes. >> Miss Robinson, >> yes. >> The report is approved. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to general public comment. Miss Parvox.
>> Thank you, chair. The public comment period is an opportunity for individuals to address the school committee on school related issues. Questions on specific school matters are referred to the superintendent. Questions on policy matters may be discussed by the committee later. The
meeting will feature two public comment periods with the first comment period limited to one hour. After one hour, anyone who hasn't testified will have the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting. We have six speakers this evening. Each person will have three minutes to speak and I would remind you
when you have 30 seconds remaining. Please feel free to email your comments for distribution to the committee. Speakers may not reassign their time to others. The time that an interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from the speaker's allotted time. Please direct your comments to the
chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members or district staff. Please note the comments of any public speaker do not represent the Boston public schools or the Boston school committee. Please state your name, affiliation, and where you live. Before you begin, please sign into Zoom
using the same name you registered with for public comment. And be ready to unmute and turn on your camera when it's your turn to speak. Please raise your virtual hand when I call your name. To support interpretation, please speak slow, slowly, and clearly. We will need um our Spanish interpreter for this
first um public speaker. Um I will call the names. We our speakers tonight is Isabella Aidano Pores, John Mud, Cheryl Buckman, Courtney Phy Karp, Dedra Manning, and Sequoia Craig. Isabella Vano Porz.
And we if we have our interpreter ready, our interpreter, is he in the meeting? >> Uh, I am, but I don't know if you can Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Yeah, I'm ready. >> It's okay.
Go ahead. >> Uh, hi. Uh, my name is Isabella and Gracia. Um, we're here representing our, uh, classmates to talk about the following issues. >> Okay. school.
>> Uh during or our school's opening night where we have uh the presence of Mayor Woo and uh BPS staff, we were recognized as the future of Boston. Uh we feel that school should be a
priority and we are not um okay with uh classes and support being reduced and we losing benefits. We are saddened to uh see people staff that support us and has been crucial in
our development have to leave. >> Every student feels frustration when they're noticed the situation. We consider every person of the staff at BA uh as part of our family. They bring refuge to us, a sense of home, and it's
uh really important for the sense of community in the school. Why should we be asking for something that is a right? Why should we be asking for something that you had when you were on the public school system?
It's hard enough to be in this country and try to progress and um study and be professionals. >> If we don't have our teachers, how are we supposed to get to the place that you are right now?
They are our bridge to success. I just found out that there's going to be a $1 million budget cut from our school. >> And that means that 13 people from our family, our school family, it's getting
laid off. something that we don't want to see and we get really frustrated about. We demand that the budget be looked at uh because we don't think that there's a reason for 13 people between teachers
and essential staff to be laid off. As part of the Boston community uh and the moving part of the economy, we feel that we deserve the investment in our academic and human uh development.
>> Thanks for your attention. Thanks for listening to us. Uh have a great night. Thank you. Our next speaker is John Mud. John, please accept the prompt. you can start.
>> Okay. Sorry, I'm technologically challenged. So, uh, greetings and welcome and thanks to the new members, Lydia Torres and Franklin Peralta. As the committee begins a new year with these new members, I would hope that you would reconsider and revise BPS's
approach in two areas. First, home language instruction for multilingual learners. BBS has now assigned 90% of multilingual students into classes with Englishonly instruction with the SL through its SEI and inclusive education
programs. Less than 10% of students are in dual language programs. This strategy has failed to provide MLS with an opportunity to learn. Over 90% of multilingual students are failing to reach state grade level content
proficiency standards on MCCAST tests in reading and math. And the access tests show that the percent of students reaching English language learning targets fail falls off dramatically in grades five and above where academic
content and not just conversation is essential. Research shows that bilingual programs which use instruction in the home language have better outcomes than assigning students to Englishonly classes with ESL. Yet BPS still lives in
the outmoded question two era of Englishonly instruction for the vast majority of multilingual students. BPS needs to devise a long-term plan to provide bilingual education to its multilingual students to develop a cadre
of bilingual teachers in Paris and to encourage parents to use their home language in speaking and reading to their children. Building on the foundation of the asset of home language is a better way to learn academic English and provide the basis for
biiteracy for those students and families who want it, including multilingual learners with disabilities, which you will hear about later. Second, engagement with school communities in planning facilities proposals. No one who heard the painful testimony of
parents, students, and teachers about the latest school closings and mergers in the recent school committee meetings could say there isn't a better way to engage families in the process. It was heart-rending. In the current BPS approach, BPS staff develops facilities
proposals internally, brings them to the school committee, and only then involves school communities >> uh in the implementation of those plans. This is a form a formula that promotes mistrust. It is disrespectful. BPS
should involve school communities in the planning of proposals, not just in in their implementation. That is what the racial equity planning tool calls for. It has not happened. It should happen. Thank you for hearing me. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Mud. Our next
speaker is Cheryl Buckman. Good evening. My name is Cheryl Buckman. I'm a parent to a seventh grader at the Ruth Batson Academy, parent lead at the Denver and resident of South Boston. I'm here not only as a parent, but as a witness to what has happened to our
school communities over the past 11 months. Seven schools have closed. Each want a place where children learned, educators built trust, and families found stability. Parents, students, teachers, and community members fought fought to be heard. And yet, those
schools were still closed. I think of the students at the Deborah who struggled with reading and learning English but came to school every day because it felt safe and supportive. I think of those educators who spent years building relationships with families
only to see those connections severed. The closures are not just data. They are live disruptive trust broken and neighborhoods changed forever. So I ask of this question after witnessing the closures and seeing our
voices struggle to be heard. Does the voice of the community truly matter? If the answer is yes, it must matter in meaningful ways. Engagement must begin before closures are proposed, not after decisions feel predetermined. Families
and staff must be included from the start. The district must provide clear and accessible information in all languages, explaining not only enrollment and in finances, but how decisions affect ELLL supports, reading
interventions, and social emotional resources. Shared decision making must be done in real time with parents, students, educators, and community members having influence not just advisory roles. Before any closure is
finalized, co-designed alternatives must be explored to give schools a real chance to stabilize. And finally, communities need to need ac accountability to see how their input shape decisions and remain involved as
changes are implemented. These steps won't undo the past harm, but they are essential to rebuilding trust and ensuring future challen changing strengthening rather than fracturing our school communities. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Our next speaker, Courtney Filicarp is not in the meeting, so we will continue with Dedra Manning. Good evening. My name is Dearra Manning. I'm a Dorchester resident, a forerson
parent and single parent of two public school children. I want to start off um my testimony by saying how disappointed I am that the school committee voted to um close the Henderson upper school and the transition program. As a former member of that community, I am really
disheartened and disappointed that those families who really don't have other options find themselves left behind. Um, today I wanted to continue on my frequent testimony about exam school policy and equity to say that the changes that were recently implemented
um, no longer have a target on the back of non-title one students who previously were at risk of complete elimination and certainly had choices reduced. But this new policy will continue to suppress enrollment in tiers three and four. Um the reason why this is happening is that
they're the same number of seats per tier and there are many more applicants in tiers three and four than they are than there are in tiers one and two. So this change prevents non-title one students from being eliminated. But the likely result will be large drop of
title one school students being admitted. Um, I want the members of the public to be aware that if you are formerly a Murphy student or a Quinsey student or some other student, some other school from BPS that frequently sent a lot of students to exam schools, you are going to be very disappointed in
April. I predict that fewer than 40% of these students in three and four will be admitted and 80% or more in tiers one and two will be admitted. Um there are also adverse testing continue conditions that persist for nonBPS students and there have been no changes in the
implementation of the policy that rectify things like standardsbased grades um the GPA conversion. BPS fifth graders have a special process that converts their grades. This is not allowed for nonBPS students. I can say for my older daughter two years ago this
lowered her composite score by four points. This is ridiculous. all students should be on an equal playing field and this should not be allowed. This is something that could be changed tomorrow. Um I feel like there's
examples of of students who are maligned because they weren't BPS students and I can use the homes as an example. That's a school that's up and coming. Um they're on the agenda tonight for actually receiving um some money to change um the teachers room and that's
fantastic. But 10 years ago, nobody wanted to send their students to the homes. And for good reason. The testing um results for their students were abysmal. There were not very many options. There's a new leader there. And it's great. Um she's bringing lots of changes. There are lots of extracurriculars and programs for their
students and people now want to send their kids to the homes. But you shouldn't demonize a parent who didn't want to send his or her child um 10 years ago and say, "Well, they're not loyal to BPS, so they're not going to get a special process to get into an exam school." It's not right. Please,
school committee members problem. >> Your time is up. Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Seoia Craig. Good evening everyone. Thank you for allowing me to come forward and >> Good. Could you please start your video?
>> Yep. One second. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. So, my name is Sequoa Craig. I'm a parent of a disabled child at the Mckenley. Um, he has emotional needs also. And, um, I just want to say united we stand, divided we fall. And I have seen how
these children are absolutely crushed um by the closing of their schools. Um these are scholars, the these are creatives, these are young people who are trying to thrive in society and they are being uh targeted in ways that is
inhumane. And to say that, you know, you guys want to merge schools to have a greater number of enrollment, that's not going to happen because these children are so broken. And uh this is just a very disheartening,
discouraging, dismantling situation for children who are in need. They're in distress. They're neglected. They're rejected. They're overlooked. While everyone else in their respectful positions can say congratulations or welcome on board, they are getting
condolences and they're shedding tears and they're going home and they're in agony. They're in pain. They're just going through so much emotional turmoil and now their education is being stripped away from them and they're being forced to do things that they're
not aware of what the future holds for them. The future is so unpredictable for these children and they have no support. They have no love and they're bringing in so much money. They're bringing in so much for these staff and the people on
board to give them a proper structure. But I guess we're on, you know, these children, their foundation is on sinking ground. This is not a solid foundation. They're on quicksand and they're being sucked up. They're being devoured. And I hope you guys honestly can sleep well at night knowing that all these lives are
being crushed as you guys are just elevated being paid and doing what you have to do. Thank you respectfully. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you very much. Um chair that that concludes for public comment for tonight.
Thank you, Miss Carvex, and thank you to those of you who spoke this evening and shared your perspectives. Your testimony is very important to us. Our first action item this evening is the grants for approval to 1,72,323.50.
Now, I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments. >> Uh, great. chair. So, uh, thank you. So, there's eight grants tonight, uh, for the members consideration. As chair said, this totals 1 million $70,000
approximately. Um, the largest is a fair share earmarks grant through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, DESIE. Uh, these were earmarks from state legislators for particular Boston public schools as part of the state budget
process. These total approximately uh $412,500 and they apply for school years 2025 through 2028. These funds in particular will serve approximately 4,000 students at the Shaw
Taylor Elementary, the Henigan K8, the Holmes Elementary, Orchard Gardens, Up Academy, Holland, Munice Academy, Yumana Academy, and Warren Prescott K to8. This funding will reserve various earmarks
for educational projects to support students at every level of education uh ranging from affordable child care, learning to read and building innovation, highquality classrooms, capital improvements and equipment
upgrades, uh things like pool repair, playground equipment updates, gymnasium construction, new staging, seating. Um it varies. Uh we're really grateful to our state delegation for their support and for these earmarks.
Uh there's also a $390,000 approximate grant from Mass CC HVAC climate work critical workforce training grant. Um this will serve 60 BPS students and 40 Roxbury Community College students adult
evening students at Madison Park. The purpose of this grant is to increase enrollment in Madison Park's Chapter 74 HVAC program from 24 students to 60 students. It'll also expand
infrastructure, upgrade HVAC equipment, and accommodate the RCC program there. The remaining grants are totaling just over approximately $723,000, sorry, $273,000. Uh, one is a a mass fresh coordination
and optimization of resources and partnerships grant. Um, this is a new competitive grant totaling $85,500 serving 46,000 students districtwide this school year. It establishes a new
full-time farm school manager position uh to promote healthy eating habits and support sustainable food systems within the community. There's an $80,000 Massgrad Promising Practices Grant serving 380 students at Boston Adult
Tech Academy or what we call BA uh Boston International High School and Newcomers Academy to provide supplementary support for dropout prevention and re-engagement activities. Um it is designed specifically for high schools with high number of dropouts.
Um, it'll pay for initiatives such as afterchool tutoring, uh, alumni mentoring programs, and vacationmies during the school breaks. There's also an AMD computer lab funding, which is a new donation totaling $47,935
serving 100 students at the John D. O'Bryant School of Math and Science. This funding will support the purchase of laptops that will encourage STEM learning and digital literacy. The deeper learning implementation grant totaling $32,000
serves $950 students at Samuel Adams and Donald McKay schools. The funding will advance the school's deeper learning instructional priorities by strengthening systems structures and capacity staff capacity. Uh you'll also see the
Edvesters 2526 career pathway planning grant increase. This is really a continuation. It's a competitive grants continuation grant. Uh but it increases $17,800. So it brings it to a total of 35,300 in
the current school year. This serves 4,000 students and 17 staff and teachers districtwide. This funding supports a year of planning as a key part of the office of specialized services to support planning processes with
school-based pathway teams in CTE and early college. And lastly, uh the heart of America Haluman Darus Library Award. This is a new award totaling $10,000 this school year. It serves more than
300 students and 100 staff at the Henigan K6 elementary school. Uh this award will pay for library upgrades, materials, um such as new books, um and other kinds of materials in the library. It also will fund author visits and
replace any kind of damaged or lost furniture. Um you will also see in the packet an inind donation. Um, this is for $500,000 in kind from the Gensler Architectural Firm for a remodel of the
teachers lounge at the Homes Innovation School. Um, this would include architectural and design services, new furniture, appliances and fixtures, technology upgrades, cabinetry, and other enhancements. Um, so for all of these grants, we're very thankful and
appreciative, and we would ask the committee's affirmative vote. Great. Thank you. I'll now open it up to members for questions and comments. >> Mr. Peralta,
>> thank you so much, Sher Robinson. I I would like to know if any of those grants if there is any string attached to them in this in the the kind of um making BPS to buy any products or
services for any of these uh organizations making those grants or sharing students data with any of those anything like that. Thank you. Sure. Um I know Marcel is on
um but I in general uh we don't we don't uh have grant situation uh when we have a vendor. Um so the answer is likely no to that unless there's a disclosure of a sort which Marcela would know. Um and
then as far as the other in terms of us requiring purchasing um no other than what's laid out in the you know in the in the grant and then we would go through procurement as we normally would do. Um Marcela do you know we usually
vet this but do do you happen to have any sense of whether there's anything on here for which we are you know have a different kind of relationship with? Uh I think um you are talking about the MDA adm MDA donation. Um the this
organization is giving the school some funds to purchase computers because the ones that are in the school don't really support the learning of these programs. Um this equipment was um this the contract was vetted by the legal
department just to make sure that there is no strings attached like um to respond to your question and also the equipment that is proposed was actually reviewed by OIT. Um it was actually some um adjustments made to the when they
were the equipment they were proposing to accommodate to what the requirements of BPS in terms of um the the equipment itself and the uh software and all that. So that was all reviewed by legal and
OIT before we even accept this uh funds. >> I hope that your question. >> Yes. Can you spell out the thing that you are using initials for it? >> AMD is um the the donation AMD.
>> Thank you. >> Dr. Alkins. Um yes, thank you for for the report and um I'm particularly interested in the um the um mass grad promising practices
grant cuz I know that I think the the eligibility for that is you know some a percentage of your school have to have um or you have to have a particular percentage of either dropouts or um or a
particular number um not just percentage And I'm wondering um how um both like both Binka and and B are sort of headed toward that threshold like with this are we reaching a point where they may not
have to like apply for this grant or um is this something that we foresee for um you know multiple years in the future? >> Yeah. So I think um the two different schools um B is a alternative education
uh for our 18 to 22 year old um multiple uh MLE students. Um and you know what we see is often the students attending there are working or trying to work at the same time as going to school. There's just lots of family um uh
surviving kinds of tensions there of them needing like competing uh priority. and so they are more at risk for dropout. Um they also sometimes age out and sometimes that then requires referral to adulthad. Um it really depends like in any given year what the
population looks like for B. Um but they would be a school I would expect would be on there on a regular basis and though making good progress particularly with chronic absentism trying to work toward that um just by the the nature of the population that they're serving they're going to be uh susceptible to
the dropout. I think with Binka and newcomer uh newcomer Academy um it is uh it is similar right in the sense uh that uh they are serving our multilingual learners and but at younger age and then
newcomers to us. Um and this is a population that with everything that's going on right now, we're doing everything that we can support. Um it's a very unstable enrollment population right now. So I wouldn't Dr. Elkins be able to tell you like next year I think
that they would exit that because I think it's very situational yeartoyear for them with everything that's going on right now federally. Um but you know both of them much deserving um of the grant and I think will use the grant um as they have uh in the past to make sure
that they're it's not just the dropout it's also the re-engagement of the student um and sometimes that means attaching to uh mental health social worker needs um sometimes even the work component getting the students to stabilize with you know a work
placement. So they use this in a variety of ways, career development and so forth. Um as well as mitigation for dropout. Yeah. Any more questions? >> Okay. So this if there are no further
questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented. Is there a motion? >> So move Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Pravic, will you please call the role?
>> Thank you, chair. Dr. Alkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Peralta, >> yes. >> Miss Palano Garcia, >> yes. >> Miss Torres, >> yes. >> Mr. Tran, Miss Garrett, >> yes. >> Miss Robinson,
>> yes. >> The grants are approved. Our second action item for tonight is the inind donation with the total estimated value of $500,000. Now, I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments. >> Uh, chair, I don't have anything else
uh, you know, other than we fully support it and in what I said in the previous comments. >> Great. Thank you. I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee. Just want to say I think this is a great opportunity for the school and look forward to seeing the finished product.
Um if there's nothing further, I'll now entertain a motion to approve the inkind donations as presented. Is there a motion? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion or objection to the motion? Miss Pavix, will you please
call the role? >> Thank you, Chair. Dr. Hawkins. >> Yes. Mr. Peralta, >> yes. >> Miss Palanco Garcia, >> yes. >> Miss Torres, >> yes. >> Mr. Tran, Miss Garrett,
>> yes. >> Miss Robinson, >> yes. >> The in kind donations are approved. >> Great. Thank you. Our first report this evening is the Elliot K to8 school innovation plan. Let's aim to keep this presentation for six minutes. I'd like
to remind our presenters to speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. I will now turn it over to the superintendent. >> Sure. Actually, chair, could I just ask um if we could before we begin the Elliot, if Simone, Dr. Wright, if she could actually have an opportunity.
She's working on technical issues, but she should be on. >> All righty. Thank you. Welcome. Um, first of all, I just want to say I'm sorry, but we got the we got the Zoom to work. Um, I do just first want to say
thank you, Superintendent Skipper, for the amazing introduction. Um, and good evening, Chair Robinson, Vice Chair Scared, and the other members of the school committee. Um, at this point, I believe I've had a touch point with each
of you oneonone. Um um but I do just want to acknowledge how excited I really am to be a member of team BBS. Um it truly has been a great 13 days. Um and I have met with a number of different teams. I've been to 13 schools and I've
been able to engage with our educators through a number of different avenues. Um it is truly evident that our belief regarding giving each student what they need is more than a slogan or words. people are actually doing the work of
refining how we support our educators in schools to advance our charge around a highquality student experience where every kid is positioned to be successful in their life post BPS. Um I am excited
to be able to work alongside each of you um under the leadership of Superintendent Skipper to ensure BPS is truly the best district across the Commonwealth and the nation. Um, thank you again for just allowing me to say a few words. Um, I apologize for my techn
technological um, challenges this evening. >> Now, Dr. Wright, we're not going to put you on the spot, but there is a pretty important football game coming up Sunday. >> It does happen to be your alma mada hometown and uh, or not hometown, but
your most recent hometown in Boston. Just something to mull over, you know, like in terms of the support. Thanks, Thank you for acknowledging that superintendent. >> Absolutely. >> Okay.
Thank you. So, we are ready to move on to the Elliott Innovation School. >> So, um thank you. So, at this time, um I I'll ask uh school leader Tracy Walker
Griffith to put her cam camera on. She's going to be joining us uh for a presentation on the Elliott K8 Innovation Schools innovation plan renewal and that will cover 2026 to 2031. Hard to think about 2031. Um first of
all, the Elliott is one of the district's 25 autonomous schools which also includes pilot schools, uh innovation schools, and Horus man charter schools. The 2026 2031 plan is focused, as Tracy will share, on closing
opportunity gaps for English language learners, students with disabilities, and students of color. We are going to a excuse me, ask the members to support this plan at the upcoming school committee meeting, not at this one for a vote. Um, before I turn it over to
Tracy, I also just want to acknowledge that um she's going to be retiring at the end of the school year. Uh tra tr truth be told in 1997 when I came back into the BPS uh Tracy was a teacher at the time uh and I was
in OIT and I got to support her and she was um with her first child. Um and so we've had a long history of knowing one another and uh being able to see her amazing work throughout the district for years. um she's uh been with us in and
dedicated for 34 years in the BPS and she's led the Elliott uh in particular for the past 19. Um so that's pretty impressive in and of itself and you know she's just uh been a person with vision and consistency and dedication in all
that time um both in the district and at the Elliott. uh when she first began her principal ship uh the Elliott served just 150 students and it ranked in the ninth percentile on state accountability measures. Today the Elliot enrolls
nearly 800 students across three campus and it's reached the 90th percentile in schoolwide performance making it the highest performance uh of the large K8 schools in Massachusetts this year. Um, in addition to these remarkable results,
Tracy's also recognized as a pioneer uh in the use of generative AI, particularly in the areas of teaching and learning, and she's been sharing her expertise with her colleagues, with our district office, and we look forward to continuing to learn from her even in her
retirement. Um she also she's just a mentor for many of the principles particularly in their you know when they first come in and and for veteran principles um known for her creativity her leadership most of all for her student outcomes. Um that is what
Tracy's known for. So at this point I just wish Tracy all the best in this next phase of life and um I'll turn it over to her. >> Thank you so much Superintendent Skipper. Good evening, Chair Robinson, Vice Chair Scarret, again,
Superintendent Skipper, and school committee members. My name is Tracy Walker Griffith, and I am the proud principal of the Elliot Innovation School in the North End of Boston. Tonight I am joined by Jennifer Law who is an Elliott parent and an
innovation planning member uh as well as Jing Wu also an Elliott parent and a lead educator at the Elliott School as well as an Elliott innovation planning comm member. We are here to request your approval of our innovation plan renewal
for 2026 through 2031. So many of you know, many of you know, innovation schools develop plans to create ideal conditions for serving students using autonomies from standard policies. Every five years, in this case, this is
our fifth year, the school committee votes to renew these plans. This renewal keeps our current conditions in place with updates based on our learning and community input. Our 28 member innovation plan committee representing families, community members, and
educators across race and language groups met beginning in winter 2024 through this fall 2025 to revise our plan. Our faculty voted to approve this renewal in December and we now bring it
to your school committee for approval. This renewal represents the continuation of a transformational journey that the superintendent mentioned that began in 2007 when our school was state identified as underperforming.
5 years after that in 2012, we became an innovation school to reimagine what would be possible for our community. Today, US News and World Report ranks the Elliot School number one in Boston and number 13 in Massachusetts. proof
that innovation grounded in equity accelerates achievement for all students. Our 2026 through 2031 plan centers on three innovative practices that personalize and accelerate learning. AI as an equity accelerator,
unified multi-tered systems of support, and daily enrichment for every student. AI as an equity accelerator is woven throughout all six autonomies of our updated plan. As a national leader in responsible K8 AI integration, we're
using AI to keep all students moving forward at their highest potential while giving teachers back precious time for the human connection that we know matters most. Most critically, AI democratizes access to personalized
learning, ensuring that individualized instruction, previously available only through intensive one-on-one tutoring, is now accessible to every student every day. We are preparing our students and our educators for a future we're
building together. Unified multi-tered systems of support continues to gives give us a laser-like focus and our flexibility across our three building campus. Our learning specialists aren't siloed by grade level
or building. They're deployed where students need them the most when they need them the most. Real-time data cycles across all three campuses help us identify students who need support earlier and more accurately. Teachers and specialists review progress
regularly. When a student needs a support, we know within days, not months. The result, every student gets the right support at the right time to keep accelerating. Daily enrichment for every Elliott student happens through our Elliott play
innovate create philosophy epic which means that every student not just some experiences project-based learning computational thinking AI literacy and much more students are building transferable skills discovering the joy of learning and developing the social
emotional competencies that crosscurricular work demands this prepares all our students for futures we can't Yet imagine the message from our community was clear. Maintain our innovation,
expand what's working, and continue leading. Tonight, you're not just approving a plan for one school. You're investing in a model that proves innovation grounded in equity transforms outcomes for all students. A model ready
to scale across the Boston public schools. We have continued to do the hard work of iteration. We have proven the results and we are ready and continue to be ready to share what we've learned. We respectfully request your approval. What
we've built at Elliott shows what's possible for every student in Boston and we stand ready to continue to lead and support this vision across our amazing Boston public schools district. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Walker Griffith. I'll
now open it up to the committee for questions and comments. And I know before we begin, I think Miss Torres wanted to make a statement. Go ahead. uh due to my relationship with the Elliott school uh of abundance of uh cautions, I want
to recusing myself and will not engage tonight's report of future decisions. >> My daughter works there and my granddaughter works there. Okay. >> And Trace is my friend. Righty.
>> Thank you very much. All right. Questions, comments, Mr. Feralta. Thank you so much, Chair Robinson, and congratulation, Tracy, for your upcoming retirement.
Welld deserved. uh because we cannot clone you yet. We hope that you will definitely uh stick around so we can keep learning from you and the great place that that you are running with with your team. I
am um interesting I'm interested in learning a little bit more maybe with a concrete example from one of your classroom and one of your students about the AI integration especially as an
equity accelerator coming from like the two streams about AI and if you want technology in general but especially AI one stream will say this is the end of humankind as as we know it and the other stream will say we just need to replace
all the teachers and let the computers educate the kids. Obviously it has to be something in the middle. So if you can give us maybe an example of how you've seen that in one of your students
AI being being an equity accelerator. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for the question. Um we have been on a journey. Um as an innovation school um part of that title is we are committed to incubating innovative ideas
and the idea of AI for the last over 18 months has been our commitment to think of technology in service of learning not as the answer and I think when we are
identifying problems to be solved we're thinking about how can we accelerate ate the learning of our students with the use of AI. So specifically, I can say almost over a year ago, we were we started out in Denver with 11 other
schools across the country um working together and thinking about the ways in which we could leverage our instructional focus which was to continue to accelerate our learning for our most underserved students, our students with disabilities and our
multilingual learner students and how to use AI for our teachers. So specifically we recognized that our teachers were unable to get to say a hundred students writing and give them feedback. So we
work together with um our other schools and with these schools across the country to identify using AI to create feedback for students. And then we worked with our students to talk about
and and give them an opportunity to give us feedback on the feedback they were receiving. all the same time identifying through our data and our writing data because we recognized that we needed to accelerate all learning and so that
there was clearly a need for us as a school community to find leverage points specifically using AI to accelerate the learning. So our data over the past 12 months has shown that our students, all students, but particularly our
multilingual learner students and our students with disability are are accelerating at a pace that has been unmatched in years before. So we recognize that AI is not the solution.
It's giving us an opportunity to think about how can we create space for our teachers to be the lead learners as well as giving our students opportunities to feel like they are part of the process. In addition to that, I will add one more
thing. Um this summer we launched a program with our students using Play Lab which is an app creator um and looking at our community and problems to be solved and working alongside Cityear volunteers, leading educators and
recognizing that our students are the future and that they need the opportunity to be critical consumers of technology. And as a school community, we need to give our teachers that opportunity as well as our students. Um, and Dr. Simone Wright was here last
week, um, and she was meeting with a fifth grader. Um, and that fifth grader was talking about the ways in which they're also now using gems and writing tutors to get feedback and how to identify if that feedback is accurate.
And this is that ethicality and the AI bias. And um it's a very exciting time and it's also a very challenging time to ensure that we always say that the AI is not stealing your learning. Um and when Dr. Wright asked one of our fifth graders what should she be thinking
about, they said they she needs to be thinking about how all students can have access as well as knowing the dangers that come with using AI. And so we're we're really excited to leaning into that learning edge um as a school community and
sharing that with schools across our district. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Alkins. >> Yes. uh thank you for for the presentation and actually that was going to be my followup to to understand a little bit more about how uh teachers
and students are sort of understanding the the ethical implications around AI integration and how they are actually um able to articulate it um and just what like what have been some of the the takeaways that I think you all have have
have learned from that particularly probably the the older the older ages um of the student That's great. Thank you. Um I think part of it in in you know we are uh a K to8 school. So ensuring that we're thinking
of AI literacy and the ethicality of AI use not only for our educators but building out that family um work and working with or different organizations um day of AI and working with other organizations to continue to lean into
the challenges of our our current climate around using AI. I think our oldest students um you know choice and voice has always been at the forefront and the foundation of the Elliott school. So ensuring that students are
part of the planning. Um so the grades six through eight are really thinking about their responsible use and having you know like that stoplight and thinking about the guard rails and the guidelines that not only the district is putting in place but as a community what
does that look like? Um the idea of our teachers using AI has completely shifted how they're thinking about the work. Um whether it's reinspiring a teacher who's been teaching for 30 years or a brand new teacher that this is a newer way of
looking at the work. And I think that's an important piece to as we move forward as not only as a school but as a district to think about how do we ensure coherence and consistency around messaging around the ethical use of AI
um and that teaching students to critically evaluate the outputs and not accept them blindly. And that's part of education not only for our students but our families and our teachers. Thank Thank you. And and to follow up on
on on that, are you seeing that there's that teachers are feeling supported perhaps in the development of their lesson plans alongside of that like as they as they're using AI? Um because of course as as we're thinking about um I'm pretty sure all teachers are thinking
about like the the lack thereof that they have to develop um lesson plans even though they're given that time, right? but there's never enough time to to to do it. So, I'm actually very curious as to how um teachers have been able to start to integrate that into
their their their planning and their support. So I think what we have identified and I think it's it's showing up in our in our um mid-year map data is that our clear connection to lesson planning but
looking at data and using AI to create the targeted small groups to accelerate learning has has been unmatched. Uh it's it's clear to us that when we meet together and we as an innovation school, we do have a um a work election that
allows us to vote in for more professional development hours. um that clearly the time that teachers are spending together and thinking through the work has been so impactful that we're seeing it in both the the
formative and the more the qualitative but the quantitative data that we're we're getting. Um in fact today we had an instructional leadership team meeting uh right before this. Um, and teachers were looking at all of that data, thinking about, I'm going to go back at my grade level and we're going to use
Claude or we're going to use Gemini um to continue to grow that. Um, Play Lab, which is another app that we're using, um, our students are also learning how to create apps to support, but also for our teachers to continue to grow their
practice. Um, and we don't call it, you know, best practice, we call it next practice because we want to continue to accelerate the learning of our teachers as well. But we'd love to have you come over and visit. Um, our kids love talking and sharing their learning as
well as our adults as well. >> Thank you, >> Miss Palano Garcia. >> Thank you, volunteer. Um, I'd like to say thank you very much for director Tracy for that wonderful, beautiful job that you're doing in this
regard of uh artificial intelligence. I was actually able to look at the data and uh with regards to the performance this particular school had before 2007 the the Elliot itself that uh it was a school that was not performing
very well to the point that it was considering closing the doors. However, all it took is that you came to school with this vision, this transformative of innovative school. So the change is palpable. We see it.
I was able to see the teamwork that is behind this. You did not do that job by yourself. You involved families, teachers, the community, the teamwork to be able to have this product. So we have to see we have to see that
that that vision that you're bringing that way of thinking will unite us that transformative way of thinking that mindset of innov Innovation will transform everything we're doing. And that's something we have to all think about it.
supporting. >> It is very interesting uh how you were able to invent this vision, this innovation that requires multiple actors into the curriculum itself. So I have to say it is a very inspirational
story that require us to be united to be able to accomplish what you're doing. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for for your hard job. Um congratulation for you return.
Thank you so much for your hard job in this school. >> I would like to congratulate you on your retirement. I would like to wish you the very best and appreciate everything you are doing. You're very welld deserved retirement. I congratulate you and thank
you once again for what you're doing. >> Thank you so much. And it is all the team. It is. I'm sitting here, but there's there is a village behind me. Thank you. >> Welcome.
>> Um, Principal Walker Griffith, I just want to echo everyone's um, congratulations on the incredible acceleration and and journey of the Elliott. Um, and as a former leader, I can also attest to how generous you you and and your team have always been with your time and expertise. I know that
many other school leaders have you on speed dial um and that you um have open doors in terms of folks being able to visit the Elliot and learn from the Elliot. Um that's really my question uh today as I read the larger plan and I know there are a lot of um really
interesting elements of the AI piece but there also other things that we've been grappling with for a really long time like um curriculum implementation and you know um what that looks like and where extensions are needed from the curriculum and where like high fidelity
is needed and um inclusive practices uh for students with disabilities and um real authentic discourse course experiences for multilingual learners, things that you talk about in your plan. Um, you know, superintendent mentioned that there are a lot of schools with
autonomies, there are a lot of other innovation schools. I'm just wondering your thoughts on uh formalizing ways to think about scale um and to think about um really concrete learnings that have come out of the Elliott journey. Um, and
I would add to that list um, something that's been really key as well, which is just securing resources, um, from community partners and business partners and just really strategic fundraising. Um, that is not something that school leaders always have the the the time or
or availability to do, but um, can really be a gamecher for schools. So there really are so many lessons and wondering how um how they can be spread more um more strategically and at scale um at the district. >> So that's a that's a question that and
continues to drive the work uh that we do at our school. Um, as it was mentioned in 2007 and um, member Palano Garcia mentioned, we were one of the schools that was on the closure list and you know was considered at that time.
Um, and my first day was April Fool's Day in 2007. So I often think about when I came into the Elliott School that it was most important that our school felt like a community. Um, and I can say
member Torres was I started in April and she came on after I called her and told her where I was. Um, that this was literally a journey. And so your question often does keep me up at night that you know I've been here so long
because I'm committed to growing. It's not just the Elliott. It is this is the way schooling should be for every student in Boston. enrichment, a clear sense of how we look
at data. Um, and so when I think of going to scale, I think specifically about what are the tools and resources any school needs, whether they're in a small school of 150 or they're in a school of 800. that it was clearly too
like for us it was making sure that that the systems and structures that support the adult learning and the student learning were always at the forefront of every conversation and every decision that was made whether it was made by a school site council when I started it
was not an innovation school to a governing board so school governance all of these pieces are in our district and I think thinking about meeting schools where they are We talk about when a student comes in they need to be accelerated. So when we look at our
schools and we think about where they are and where they need to be. I think some of the ways in which we have clearly committed to the adult learning looking at data and also leveraging AI as another tool in service of learning
both for the adults and the students can be brought to scale. So I think um you know obviously people are talking about that I'm retiring and and no one will ever retire once you're an educator you're an educator forever that I'm
clearly committed to thinking about the ways that the Elliott school and systems and structures at the Elliott that we've taken from other schools and that other like there has to be a sharing of next practice um and that the system can
continue to grow and and push on that way. Um, and I I do I do want to say that our commitment as a school community has been for the the years that I have been here and you've talked about, you know, being a mentor that I think that there
is a a commitment from our school community to continue to think about ways in which we can support the the resource development, the fundraising that that's something that we I didn't have to do at the very beginning because
as an underperforming school, they fund all of that work, right? So, as a transformation school and that once you become performing that money does go away. So, thinking about the strategy and structures that need to be in place
um that you know, you talk about knowing and that that's something that has to be committed to by the district and certainly by our school community as well. Um but it's it there's not one answer. Vice Chair, I think it's an
ongoing dialogue that we can continue to have, not in past June because this didn't just happen. We there are ways in which we can think of scalable items that could turnkey something in a school that could then lead them to that next
practice and accelerate learning. But it's all we'll find it. You'll find it in our data, whether it's in our school climate data, how our kids are feeling, that there's so much rich data in our district that I do think that there's ways for us to scale the work that we're
doing um within the the structures that we have. >> Thank you for that, Principal Walker Griffith. I think there is definitely a balance between um that important point around meeting schools where they are and that individualized support and
thinking about how to make things more systemic as a system and what our professional learning for leaders looks like uh districtwide and what the right vehicles and and groupings are for those. Um and so I think that um that that both are really important um and
there are a lot of potential learnings there. So thank you So, Miss Walker Griffin, I I want to join my colleagues and saying thank you for your number of years doing this work. Um, I've had many opportunities to
visit the school, um, to be a reader, to see kids who perform, etc., and have always been struck by the joy, um, the inclusion. And when I think about your work, um the fact that you are an innovation school says that you really
live up to that title and name and um look forward particularly with my colleagues of particularly learning more about AI. I know very little about AI other than what I know of chat GBT. Um and so um would like to hear a little
bit more about what is the AI literacy in particular when you you mentioned that as a particular piece of the AI work and wasn't sure you know how many different facets of AI are at work at
this moment within the work at the school. So I think it's really important for us to think about AI as uh not replacing teachers or not replacing the learning and thinking about AI literacy
specifically whether we're talking to three and four-year-olds about you know you've you've just picked up your mom mom's phone and you're using um you know you're swiping or you're watching a show and then it shows you another show that that's AI it's learning about how you're
learning right So this this way that students don't even know that you know even when we think about confidentiality and privacy that's all AI literacy and the ways that we're thinking intentionally as a school community but as a district as well that we need to
think about from you know we say prek to gray right what's the ways in which we're intentionally engaging with our community from our youngest students who are you know coding bbots and kids building robots to kids creating writing
tutors and and thinking about that is then also thinking about the comm the way into which we communicate our expectations and the district has done a really great job in working with us as we've kind of thought about what this looks like last year as we were really
racing towards we're going to try this, we're going to try that and going slow to go fast um is something that we know that if we we need to make sure that we don't widen gaps that we close gaps. And
so what's the accessibility that every student needs in our district? Um and I've heard it on school committee with kids talking about this like that our students are the voices that we need, our teachers are the voices we need. Um and as I said, we're working with lots
of different organizations. I've mentioned Day of AI because um it's a it's an organization that you know has free resources um for community, for families, for teachers um and we we are excited to continue to think about what
that looks like. We're working with the Boston Compact um with private uh parochial um charter and public schools and hosting next week um with Day of AI. Um, and so we're continuing to think thoughtfully. Um, it's not a
one-sizefits-all. Um, some teachers are super excited. And so it's thinking about the predictability and the ways in which we engage hol holistically with our community, not just at the Elliott School, but as we think about Boston has done, you know, a great job of of really
turnkey with Zoom and with um virtual learning. How do we ensure that we're ensuring that our students and teachers and our families have access to the AI literacy that is available um nationwide at the moment?
>> Again, thank you so much. Um if there are no further questions, I just want to say thank you and that the committee will vote on this matter at a later meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you all so much. Our last two reports this evening focus on
special education. We will start with an update from the office of specialized service followed directly by a Boston special education parent advisory council also called spedpack update. Let's aim to keep the first portion of
the presentation to five minutes and the second to 20. I will also like to remind our presenters to speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters. I will now turn it over to the superintendent. >> Wonderful. Thank you, chair.
Um so in a few minutes, uh as chair said, um we're going to hear an update from Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council, what we call Spedpac. Uh we will be joined by Chair Edith Bazil and Chief of Specialized Services K. Seal who will each give a
presentation. Um, as you know, the state regulations requires Bedpac to advise the school committee on matters that pertain to the education and safety of students with disabilities. The presentation tonight is meant not only to fulfill that, but to actually go
beyond that. Um, its purpose is to really uh share Spedpac's goals for the year and the important work they seek to do in partnership with the district to achieve these goals. I want to recognize Bedpac's leadership, their advocacy on
behalf of the stu district's students and their families. Um, Spedpac really empowers our BPS parents and caregivers through support and education. They provide a valuable sounding board for me and members of my team on issues related
to special education, particularly at our quarterly meetings. I also want to thank Chair Bazil and the entire Spedpac executive board for your collaboration. We look forward to continuing our work together with Spedpac on their strategic
goals which we will hear about shortly. Um before we hear from Chair Bazil, uh Chief Seal will provide strategic updates of from the office of specialized services on how we are serving our students with disabilities. She will highlight the district's
progress as well as some of the challenges. Uh also, as we said in our presentation on inclusive education in December, we are in our second year of a 4-year phased in plan following an initial planning year. As a reminder,
inclusive education is built on four pillars that require BPS to shift its practice to meet the needs of all students as they learn alongside their peers. The implementation of inclusive education was an important part of the
systemic improvement plan or SIP that we had with DESIE. The SIP concluded in June of 2025, but our plan and our commitment to inclusive education continues. And as we continue to implement and manage this shift, we
appreciate Spedpac's feedback and commitment to our students. The presentation will also address concerns we have heard from families in public comment and community meetings about where their children will attend school following upcoming mergers and closures.
Families want to know that their children will have access to the appropriate programming especially for students with disabilities from our closing or merged communities uh schools uh from those communities. And as I mentioned earlier in comments
about our long-term facilities planning, this work will be student centered and coordinated directly with receiving school leaders. Uh, our office of specialized services will work individually with students and families to support their transition to a new
school. And we're working on the secondary landscape overall to ensure they're prepared to welcome students from closing schools. We'll maintain instructional continuity by moving programs intact where possible and ensure full implementation of students
IEPs at their assigned schools. At this point, chair, I will now turn it over to Chief Seal and then to Chief and then to Chair Bazil. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm just Good evening. Thank you. Good evening, school
committee chair Robinson, Vice Chair Skirit, school committee members, and our families. I want to thank you, Superintendent Skipper, for framing my presentation for tonight and the opportunity to co-present with the Special Education Parent Advisory
Council Chair, Edith Brazil. My name is Caseil and I'm the chief of specialized services. I'm excited to provide some insight into how BPS is supporting students with disabilities in partnership with the special education
of parent advisory council tonight as I share the next slide please. It's all about our partnership. >> Sorry, but I can't hear. >> Uh, she's muted. Chair. >> Oops. Excuse me.
>> Yeah, we're sorry. We lost you, Missile. >> Okay. At which part did you lose me? We lost you from the beginning of the presentation. >> Oh no, >> no. Just when you put up the slide. So just start about the slide. >> You said it's you said it's all about our partnership and then went mute.
>> Oh, okay. Sorry about that. So it is all about our partnership. And I just wanted to go over our objectives for the presentation. And I first I wanted to um acknowledge that our partnership with Spedpack is grounded in the statue. Our work together reflects both a legal
responsibility and a shared commitment to equity, transparency, student centered decision-making. So tonight's presentation will provide an overview, as superintendent skipper shared, of the office of specialized services strategic
initiatives, including the district's commitment to leveraging resources and supports for more than our 11,000 students with identified disabilities. Sheer Brazil and I will discuss our partnership in supporting families and services for students with disabilities
in Boston public schools. And Miss Brazil will also share the goals of the sped parent advisory council for the school year for this school year. Next slide, please. In in looking at our shifts, I want to acknowledge the connection to the inclusive education plan and the
critical components of these shifts. We've seen this before in previous presentations. which I also shared in December. Our work remains grounded in ensuring access to accelerated learning for students with disabilities. Continued priority
for which is a continued priority as stated by our superintendent. We're also committed to providing every BPS student with learning experiences that are intellectually engaging and academically rigorous while we're fostering meaningful connections. Our school's
infrastructure supports students with a sense of belonging, student agency, and ensures unfettered access to reach their full potential. In short, we're focused on ensuring that every student in BPS has what they need to succeed both in
our classrooms and beyond. Next slide, please. The district has taken several actions to strengthen educator de development, ensuring that every student with a disability receive the supports they need through specially designed
instruction in the most appropriate least restrictive environment. I want to highlight two areas. The breadth of the professional learning for educators that we've provided across the variety of roles and our ongoing commitment to root cause analysis.
While every strategy on this slide such as professional learning, assetbased instruction, and universal entry and exit criteria has been important. It is the combination of sustained capacity building and intentional data inquiry
that has truly strengthened our collective work. Next slide, please. I also want to reflect on last year's DESIE accountability system. for 2024 2025. As you look at the data, you see that our students are making
progress, but our work is not finished. Last year's data shows early gains in strengthening inclusion and support for students with disabilities. The district made progress on 10 of the 16 Desi accountability indicators that you're
seeing tonight. We exceeded targets in dropout rate, meeting chronic targets in chronic absenteeism and improving in graduation. And we celebrate the accomplishments that we have made for our students in access to advanced
coursework and also science. Another bright spot is our growth for multilingual learners with disabilities in 10th grade MCCAST. Last year, for last year, our ELA score, we had a growth of 6.3%
increase. In our math score, we had a growth of 4.3 increase. In summary, the data shows that students with disabilities are making growth in several areas, particularly in ELA and math at the non- high school levels.
However, when we're looking at our high schools, we continue to understand and prioritize that our continued attention in ELA and math and science that we must expand access to advanced course requirements as well as coursework
opportunities. The district will continue to prioritize comprehensive data analysis to align resources and prevent professional learning to ensure that students with disabilities have equitable access to
high quality instruction in the least restrictive environment. Recognizing that with targeted interventions that our students can achieve at grade level is a focus and guides us in the work that we will be doing this year and
throughout the year to come. Next slide, please. When we talk specifically about our strategies in accelerating learning outcomes for students with disabilities, our district crossunctional teams have strengthened systems, staffing, and professional learning to ensure that
students with disabilities achieve every day in every school. Schools are supported in delivering full continuum of services from substantially separate to fully inclusive settings to ensure access for students to learn in the least restrictive environment. Through
the regional responsive teams, we've initiated IEP teams are bringing the vision of life through the responsive teams professional learning series and advancing student centered standards aligned with IEPs to improve access and
outcomes districtwide. We have engaged 800 educators to date um as of the end of December through this professional um learning series. Professional development expands our inclusive staffing models and targeted
in investments in our literacy, our assisted technology and multilingual learner supports are increasing access to our highquality instruction and addressing opportunity gaps, particularly in the secondary level. Together, these efforts ensure that
students with disabilities and BPS are included, that they're supported, that they're challenged, and providing meaningful access to highquality instruction every day. Next slide, please. The Office of Specialized Services is
very committed in working in close partnership with SPEAC, our SPE special education period advisory council, and our families, and we'll continue to share our student progress. We will track implementation milestones and monitor equity impact. Most importantly,
we recognize the importance of responsive communication given the diversity of our families in their home language. In the coming months, through family surveys and community events, we'll continue to create social opportunities
for students and families to keep them informed about the resources in our schools that support access to ensure that our students receive a a continuum of services. As we consider families and students perspectives regarding school closures
and the district's long-term facility plans, we'll continue to hold community meetings and listening sessions to engage families as partners in every aspect of their child's transition. Students will also have opportunities to visit our schools closer to their homes
while IP teams will work with parents to explore options and ensure that services are implemented with fidelity throughout their transitions regardless of any school changes. I want to thank you again for the opportunity to speak about how we're supporting families and
students with disabilities here in BPS. And I will now invite Spedpac chair Edith Bazil to share the goals of the special education parent advisory council for the 2526 school year. >> Thank you so much K. And also thank you
Superintendent Skipper for that introduction. Uh good evening Chair Robinson, members members of the school committee, families, collaborators, and interested parties. I want to thank you the committee for giving me more than two minutes tonight. If I speak a little
too fast, it's purely muscle memory. And I also want to thank um I want to lift up principal Tracy's presentation because it reflects what strong systems make possible. This is the kind of work students deserve across the district,
particularly black, latino, and multilingual learners with disabilities who are too often left behind. So, I want to start on a human note. The images on these slides are not stark photos. They are real BPS students, our
students. And that matters because every decision lands on young people who come to school every day ready to learn, belong, yearning for hope, and dreaming about their future. They are hardwired to learn. BPS's collective responsibility is to make sure the
system they walk into is worthy of their trust. Tonight starts with what is working, moves into data we cannot sugarcoat, and ends with clear evidencebased recommendations. We will stay grounded in solutions, but
we will not soften the truth. Next, SpreadPac is not an informal advisory group. We are a statemandated advisory body to the school committee and the district. We represent families of more than 13,000 students with disabilities
across every neighborhood, grades span, disability category, language background, school type from ages 3 to 22. Our charge is to advise on policy, programming, service delivery, and
systems, identify systemic gaps and equity barriers, and elevate the lived experiences of students and families. We collaborate in good faith. We show up prepared. And we maintain independence driven by our bylaws because families
need a voice that is honest, datadriven, and grounded in student outcomes. We're not guests in the process, but required partners in ensuring every student with a disability in BPS receives the free and appropriate public education they
are entitled to under law. Tonight, we fulfill that responsibility to present the status, the data provided by the district itself through the lens of families, caregivers, and students who live those numbers every day. And a line
we return to often is this. Collaboration does not mean silence. Next, so what is working? We want to name what is working and this slide captures it well. Spedpack board members and
school-based reps across the city are doing real leadership work, convening families, translating policy into plain native language, and partnering with district teams. This photo on the slide reflects that collaboration. We were
proud to welcome Superintendent Skipper, Chair Robinson, and now Vice Chair Scarret, district leaders, BTU members, and families at our recent family resource fair. Brazil, hold on one second. I think we I think the presentation came off.
>> Um, just give us one second. >> We can see it. >> Oh, you can. >> I can see it fine. I can see it fine. >> Okay, I can. Okay, >> I can see it. >> Well, sorry about that. >> And this was not just a meet and greet. We had 30 community vendors on site sharing realtime resources with
families. Everything from immediate access to educational supports, community services, and tangible things they walked away with. Parents left with information they could actually use the next day, not just brochures to put in a drawer. It was a great time had by all
and proof that when we come together with shared purpose, good things happen. These spaces matter. They build trust, transparency, and real relationships. And this matters just as much. There is
still significant work to do. Families should never learn about school closures through the media. This is not partnership. That is not transparency. And it undermines trust at the exact moment families need stability.
If decisions affect students, families and students must be part of the conversation before decisions are made, not after. Next, this slide is where the conversation gets real. School closures are not
neutral operational decisions. They are equity decisions. And for students with disabilities, they are especially lifealtering decisions. Cash, ACC, Henderson 9 through2, and Lee Academy serve high concentrations of students
with disabilities, many of whom are black, Latino, and multilingual learners. Many have already experienced the greatest instability in our system. And here is the central problem we must name plainly. BPS is using a problem to
create as they it created as a justification to close schools instead of fixing the system that created the problem. Cash and ACC already served many multilingual learners. Binka, a school for multilingual learners, is
moving into the cash building. What we propose as families is that cash is a building large enough to accommodate all three school communities, keep students in their cherished and familiar neighborhoods,
and stabilize learning environments rather than fracture them. This is not hypothetical. It is feasible, practical, and educationally sound. With intentional planning, CASH could become a hub of excellence, integrating
multilingual education, special education, and inclusive practice under one roof, filling seats, maximizing input, impact, and strengthening outcomes for all students. This is what
innovation looks like. Not disruption, not displacement, not dismantling. And as a wise carpenter once said, "Measure twice, cut once." What we are seeing instead is the opposite. There is no
clear plan for inclusive practices, facilities use, or long-term program alignment. A real plan would include a strategy, a timeline, and a budget. All three are missing. And worse, there are
numerous examples of district the district moving in the opposite direction. Instead of expanding effective inclusion models, the district is closing them. Henderson 9 through 12, a nationally recognized inclusive high
school is being dismantled. A successful school, not a failing school, an exemplar. Mary Lion was closed before it. These schools were proof points that inclusive education can work when it is resourced and protected. So, let's be
honest about the pattern this signals. BPS is closing schools that work while claiming it cannot fix the inequities that the district itself created. Families offered solutions. We asked for meetings. We asked for dialogue before decisions were made. We were received
instead with silence initially followed by decisions and families learning about closures through the media. And it is not consistent. This is not consistent with the district's racial equity planning tool which is designed precisely to prevent this kind of harm.
The tool requires decisions to be slowed down, impacts analyzed, and families engaged before outcomes are finalized, not after. Spedpack asks for two very clear things. First, a real plan. One
that includes a strategy, a timeline, and a budget for inclusion, facilities, and student stability. Second, stop dismantling school communities without such plan. Because disruption is not a strategy. Displacement is not
innovation. Equity cannot be achieved by breaking apart the very communities that students depend on to thrive. That is the work in front of us and it is urgent. Next, Boston Public Schools has an inclusion
plan with strong language, compelling values, and citations to research. What it does not yet have is a coherent operating structure system for inclusion. A plan without implementation guidance, progress monitoring, and
corrective mechanisms is not a roadmap. It is a rhetoric statement that lacks the teeth of implementation. Inclusion is not a placement decision. It is a district-wide instructional staffing and accountability strategy.
And the data tells us that inclusion in BPS is currently inconsistent, fragile, and highly dependent on where a student happens to be enrolled. Let's start where inclusion either succeeds or fails first.
literacy. Equitable literacy has been a decadesl long failure in Boston public schools. This is not a moral judgment. It is an outcome reflected clearly in data. MCCAST ELA results show that students with disabilities have not recovered to pe to preandemic levels
across elementary, middle, or high school. Recovery efforts have not reached the students who need them most. This is not because students cannot learn. research is unequivocal. With strong tier one core instruction grounded in the science of reading,
explicit FMIC awareness, decoding, and systemic phonics, at least 80% of students should succeed in core one instruction. And up to 95% of students can learn to read on grade
level by first grade when instruction is explicit, cumulative, and supported by early intervention, including students with significant cognitive impairments. So the question is not can students learn. The question is why our system
continues to fail to teach them early and well. What BPS continually and currently operates is not a prevention model. It is a wait to fail model. Students struggle in weak tier one instruction. They fall behind and then
they are referred for intervention or special education not because they have disabilities but because the system failed to deliver effective core instruction early. That is how inequity becomes embedded. That is how special
education becomes a workaround for systemic instructional failure. Highquality materials HQM are not are a starting point are a starting point not a solution. Right now BPS measures progress by how many schools have
highquality materials. This is an input metric. Materials do not teach students. Teachers do. Without sustained professional learning, mentoring and job embedded coaching, even the best materials failed to translate into
outcomes. Focusing on possession rather than impact caps ambition and limits accountability. The problem was compounded when BPS dismantled its central literacy and content departments, weakening coherence,
expertise, and districtwide instructional alignment. Fragmentation is the enemy of equity. A coherent inclusion plan requires a strong tier one core that reaches and accelerates at
least 80% of students, a robust MTSS framework, which Tracy talked about for the remaining 20% with clear progress monitoring and a cadre of certified reading specialists deployed strategically across the grade span
focused on early intervention and early intervening services, not remediation after years of failure. Failure. Reading specialists must function as part of a systemwide architecture aligned to core instruction and integrated into coaching
and classroom practice. This is where budget and staffing decisions become equity decisions. The district is facing a $53 million shortfall. BPS must prioritize studentf facing and teacher supporting roles,
reading specialists, interventionists, therapists, and coaches, and critically examine central office structures that do not engage students or families or produce measurable outcomes. Right now, the district operates a twotrack system
steeped in scarcity. Some schools are resourced to succeed. Others are asked to compensate for systemic gaps. Inclusion cannot thrive under those conditions. An inclusion plan without evidence-based instruction, aligned professional learning, adequate
staffing, and accountability for outcomes is not an inclusion plan. It is a promise without a delivery system. And this is why decisions about schools like the Henderson matter so deeply. The Henderson is not simply a school or
configuration. It represents decades of disciplined work grounded in research, evidence-based practice, and thoughtful innovation. Work that produced real results for students with disabilities and lasting impact on families and
educators. For those who experienced it, the Henderson was an oasis of educational excellence. A place where inclusion was not aspirational, but operational. Dismantling part of this institutional history of success is not
neutral. It erases knowledge. It disrupts proven practice and it sets the district back at the very moment when we should be scaling that work, not dismantling it. Policy without movement is not progress and inclusion without
infrastructure is not equity. Next slide. When we look at outcomes, especially literacy, disparities become impossible to ignore. Students with disabilities show persistently the lowest reading
outcomes across the district. This is not about student ability. Research is unequivocal. What varies is access. Access to certified reading specialists, access to structured leader reading literacy interventions, access to consistent
district-wide MTS frameworks. Next slide. Transportation is not a side issue. It is a gatekeeper to education. When students arrive late, miss rides or
experience inconsistent transportation. They lose instructional time. and students with disabilities bear the greatest burden. We requested outcomebased transportation data. What we received focused on compliance and
training descriptions. Families are telling us something different. Reliability, safety, and communication remain unresolved. Here is the bottom line. If a student cannot get to school safely and on time, access to education
is already compromised. Transportation must be evaluated by outcomes, not asurances. Last slide. Evidence-based recommendations. What must happen now? The path forward
is not abstract. The research is clear. The solutions are doable, scalable, and within district control. First, build a district-wide MTSS infrastructure with fidelity. Tier one instruction much must
must reach at least 80% of students. Universal screening, progress monitoring, and clear decision rules must be nonnegotiable. Second, guarantee access to evidence-based literacy intervention in every school. Deploy
certified reading specialists and structured literacy interventions strategically. Measure success by student learning, not material adoption. Third, standardize inclusion quality, not just placement.
Define non-negotiable components of highquality inclusion and intervene when data shows students are not making progress. Fourth, redesign autism program using evidence-based models and family partnership.
It's great that there's an autism a audit that the district is conducting independently, but the audit must result in concrete program models, staffing expectations, fidelity monitoring, and shared accountability with families.
Fifth, stabilized schools serving high need students instead of closing them. Research shows closures harm students with disabilities. Equity requires investment, not displacement. Finally,
institutionalized family partnership and systems as a system function. Families are not an afterthought. They are essential partners in design, implementation, and accountability. Students with disabilities are entitled to highquality
programming, meaningful inclusion, and outcomes that reflect their potential. This is not aspirational. It's a civil right spaces ready to work with the district to develop a coherent system that reliably delivers outcomes for
students with disabilities regardless of school, neighborhood, race, language, or zip code. Thank you so much for giving me the space to share the full my full message tonight uninterrupted. no
countdown clock flashing or no wrapup signals from the side. I'm looking forward to answering questions and walking through the district data that we received together. Thank you. >> Thank you both Chief Seal and Mr. Zal.
I'll now open it up to committee for questions and comments. Miss Balano Garcia, Miss Brazil, your your camera is off. We've lost your picture, so you wanted to turn that back on. Thank you. >> Oh my goodness. I'm not sure what happened. >> Yeah,
>> I don't have video. Did someone turn my video off? >> I don't know what happened. I apologize. I'm trying to get it back and I don't see it. >> Okay, your video is on. We're not sure where you are, but it is.
>> I I'm here. I promise. >> I promise I'm here. Sorry. Sorry about that. I don't know technical problem, I suppose. >> But I am here. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Palano Garcia. >> Thank you. Thank you, Madame Chair. Um,
thank you for the presentation. Um, thank you Miss for your comment for you. Um, Thank you very much uh missile for your advocacy and I was trying to understand
study a little bit spectac the the members of this particular group. >> So thank you for that question. No Boston public school. >> It is my understanding that it is the
parents that have a a direct opinion on this the particular programs that Boston public schools have. It is the the parents supervising the the process as well. So we can say also that the parents are the first recipients of this particular
programs that are the the special need population is getting the parents should be or are the first recipients of this particular programs directed to this particular population of special needs. I have to say that I do uh and know a couple of members of this particular
group, the pet pack that is and they always have the same concern or concerns. So what is commonly heard from this parents they say we are somehow an advisory board an advisory group right here an advisory body we are formulating
different suggestions and advice and the district is not hearing to what we're saying sometimes the programs are not working. They're supposed to sometimes. etc., etc. So my question becomes how can we foster a better a deeper type of connection and
collaboration with this particular group and with the district. I had the opportunity to hear what I had spoken with Miss Kay heard about her vision and the challenges particularly regarding that evaluation the 10 out of 16. So how
could we better collaborate with this particular group to better understand their needs in this case? I am so excited by this question and again I apologize for my video because I have reached out and I would love uh to have
our board members. Um first of all let me just say that every parent in Boston public schools who has a child with a disability is a spedpack member. We have spedpack reps in each and every school
in the same way that you have CPC members. They are elected. They are part of our executive board. We are an advisory group to the school committee and I have done outreach hoping that the school committee would come to our
meeting see what we do. We have a general meeting tomorrow. Dr. Kevin Simon will be there talking about therapeutic supports that are available in the city of Boston and within schools. One of the things that parents are concerned about because our role as
an advisory council to the school committee is to share the concerns that parents have and that's what I just did but also to present recommendations solutionoriented approaches that would ameliate these
issues. when we look at across the district, what we know for sure, and I'm going to give you a couple of data points if that's okay. Um, uh, member uh, Palanco Garcia, it's the one of the biggest challenges
across, uh, populations of black, Latino, multilingual learners, students with autism. BPS data shows the same pattern. The identity of these students often predicts placement. And if we look
at the data and and this is BPS data uh where it it predicts where the system produces the same outcomes year after year. For example, I'll give you a couple of points in diff for different groups if that's okay. Black students
are 28% of the population. But if you look at specific disability categories, for example, intellectual impairment of all the students who are enrolled in special education, black students comprise 44%.
So if you look at that's disproportionality and if you also look at who is placed in concentrated restrictive settings which we call substantially separate which means that they are educated with
students with disabilities and they are not in general education. If you look at sub substantially separate placements, for example, black students comprise 42.3%. If you look at multilingual learners
with disabilities, multilingual learners are not um outside um they they also they're not outside of special education. They are deeply inside of special education. So if you look at substantially separate settings for multilingual learners, they comprise
38.5% of those who are placed in restrictive settings. Um, Latino students, for example. Latino students are disproportionately identified in specific categories such as
communication impairment. So that raises the question, do we have bilingual, bicultural uh assessors? uh do we have a cadre of bilingual teachers who are bilingual and uh bicultural who can assess these students and determine
whether this is a language dominance issue or is it a disability? And so what we have for Latino students in terms of placement in substantially separate uh programs 41 42.1%.
If you look at um if you look at um okay so uh if you look at so what my point is that black multilingual learners uh Latino students have the
highest restrictive placement in substantially separate classrooms and if you compare them to white students only 8% of white students in BPS are in substantially complete separate programs. And so when we look at the district's inclusion model, we have to
interrogate who is being provided opportunity and who is remaining in these substantially separate programs. The reason that that's important is we we have to look at outcomes. We have to look at, you know, who is disciplined and, you know, I don't know how much information you would like on that, but
I do have the data on that. We know that black, Latino, multilingual learners and students with autism are disciplined at the highest rates when they are in substantially separate classrooms and they are often in these classrooms and
don't have an opportunity to move towards inclusion. So this is the work that has to be done in BPS. And so parents obviously who are at a school like the Henderson that is what I call an oasis of
excellence and have the opportunity to not only be with typically developing peers but get invited to birthday parties. They um see their peers in the neighborhood and they pick up social skills and other um um skills because
it's not just the teacher who imparts skill development for students. The placement with peers is important so that they develop these social skills and make friends and that sort of thing. I I would just like to add thank you um
member Palanco Garcia um for recognizing this very important question. I also want to add that as I stated in my presentation, we are making significant impact in in making sure that we're providing services to the whole child.
When we look at our data for inclusion, we do see that for full inclusion, we have 31.9% of our students, our black students are in inclusion learning environments. We have 47.3% of our Latinx students that are in full
inclusion and 13.3% of our white students that are in full inclusion. And the same with our partial inclusion. We have for our black students, we have 30.7% of our black students. But when we look at the numbers, we might look at the level of services. And when we look
at our Latinx students, we have 55.6% of our Latinx students that are in partial inclusion classrooms. Although um through the data that um um Miss Brazil has shared, we do see that and we saw that before that there is a large number of our black, brown, and latinx
students that are insubstantially separate. But our data for 2025 show that we're making impact. That through our initiatives, through our equitable literacy, the fact that we have over 2,000 educators in the city of Boston that are trained in specialized reading
to address and to close the opportunity gap for our students who do have a reading disability is remarkable. So, we are making shifts. We are making changes. We are working strategically to address the gaps that we talked about today. Um, but we understand that there's still work that we need to do
and we're willing to do that and we're committed to do that through the leadership of our superintendent and also for our school leaders who are invested through their quality school improvement plan to address the areas that we're talking about today. Equity literacy, our outcomes for our students with disability and for multilingual
learners. And in previous data that we saw from MCCAST, we see that our L students are making significant progress in achievement as well as in growth in access testing. I I think I just want to add if I may very quickly to give you a 35,000 foot
uh view of what the challenge is. Boston public schools educates 22% of its population in special education. The national average is around 15 to 16%. And so if you look at that data, the
question is raised, why are there so many black and brown students in special education? And what are we doing to directly interrogate the inconsistent access to evidence-based tier one literacy, uneven early intervention, and
particularly insufficient bilingual evaluation capacity for uh Latino students, but also uh for black students, it matters because across multiple CA categories, the population of students in Boston public schools in
special education is overwhelmingly male, meaning the burden lands heavily on black boys where black students are already over represented uh in segregated settings. So, it's not just identification, it's
also where they are placed once they are identified. And these are the population of students who are in these placement. And yes, while those numbers are, you know, are accurate, I just want to um emphasize that those are composits. And
so when we look at who is in these restrictive placements, we looked at the percentile of students and they fall around black, Latino, multilingual learners and the data and the outcomes
are consistent with the lack of progress which has not reached the preandemic rates. Dr. Alkins. >> Uh, sorry. Uh, member Palano Garcia, are you done with your questions? I don't want to. >> Yeah, just
>> Oh. Um, so thank you both um for your presentations and I'm actually appreciative of seeing the collaborative structure that you all have um up here and I'm just wondering have you all
discussed any other modes of collaboration um in terms of how you all are um sharing data with each other, how you all are interpreting it um and the types of recommendations that are meant to
come out of that. Are we foreseeing as a body as a body? Are we seeing us are we expecting to see a set of joint recommendations? Are we expecting to see individual presentations from Spedpac
perhaps like annually? Um uh and I guess I'll lean more to um uh um Chair Brazil on this. um what do you foresee as sort of your particular cadence with us as
the school committee in terms of uh presentations or just updates? How do you how do you sort of see that? >> Well, my proposal to the superintendent and OSS was to have quarterly meetings with the school committee members to talk about the data. And we currently do
have quarterly meetings with the superintendent. We just had one on January 12th. I we meet with um Chief Seal on a monthly basis and talk about what is bubbling up in terms of the concerns of families. And I think that
this is really urgent. I'll give you one specific example of collaboration. Right now there is an independent autism uh audit going on in the district and uh we would love to be directly involved and
have conversations with those individuals who are conducting the audit because students with autism uh there's a that it it's the it reflects the clearest policy versus practice gap in autism placement. So for autism
enrollment um is racially concentrated. 38% of Latino students um are are identified with autism, 37.3% black, and 13.4% white. But then when we look at the
placement for students with autism from the district's own data, 59.1% of the students are in substantially separate placements. Um and 38 34.8 are
in full inclusion, 1.9 are in partial inclusion, 6% are in public day, uh and 3.5 are out of district. And so one of the things that we hear from parents is when they
go out of district often students lose access to their community. They have to get up early. They have long bus drives rides and they get to get home very late. Uh what we would like to see the district do is replicate some of the programs that our students with autism
go to that are out of district. The out of district budget right now uh for special education is over $40 million. So if you look at that budgetary item uh the question is what can Boston public
stu schools do to replicate some of the successes and what is driving students with autism to go out of district? because when a student goes out of district, it's not just the cost of tuition, but the transportation is
usually a higher cost. And so as we look at budget constraints um how do we move towards excellence and ensure that we have in district placements that are working for our students that's where Bedpack families can partner with the
district in terms of what needs to be in place what kind of services what is the frequency how can we develop these programs effectively in partnership with families. So that's that is a hot topic right now in terms of um collaborating
with the district uh on the autism audit and we would love to have the opportunity to be involved in that work and perhaps have a working group uh that addresses uh that audit. But uh most importantly, what comes out after the
audit in terms of effective evidence-based approaches and programming for students with autism and more opportunities. Um I have to admit my granddaughter has autism and she's out of district. I didn't want her to go out of district, but it was the district's recommendation
and that is not on Superintendent Skipper. It happened with the prior administration. Um and uh often there is uh there there are restrictions. I'd love to have a longer conversation in terms of why are students going out of district when they really want to stay
within the neighborhood and uh go to afterchool programs with friends and and and and parties and not get home so late. So thank you for that question. >> I would just like to chime in if possible. I I just want to address um the comment about the audit. I do want
to say that part of the audit included us to also be independent because it's an outside evaluator that's looking at the district in terms of making strategic recommendations and our priority for the audit had to do with analysis of our data. We recognized that
we had a high percentage of our autism students receiving ABA services and we recognized the fact that as we listen to our educators, our evaluators that we look need to develop a continuum of neurode divergent services for our students who have an autism disability.
So we have not yet received back the findings for that audit. Our parents were also involved in the audit. There was a questionnaire. There was also listening sessions for um district um parents as well to get feedback, constructive feedback that will help shape recommendations from our autism
audit. And that's so important in regards to your question around partnership. I think this is exactly a a true testimony of the partnership that OSS has with Spedpac. We do meet monthly in talking about families and we also have met also to look at the data that
has been shared with you today. There's ongoing work that's needed. Um, as a matter of fact, Edith and I had spoke recently about also having a conversation with ODA joining one of our monthly meetings to unpack some of the data that we're talking about. But we also have to understand that we have to
be mindful of furpa and identifying information of our student data. So there's some metrics of data that we cannot share um because of that requirement. Um we we work in transparency and also on behalf of our students and families. And I also want to add about the relationship with our
families. This new IEP has provided a new landscape for us to really work on making sure that our families are at the center of the table and understanding the implications of what does it mean for your child to have a disability. And that's part of the reason why we're having this intensive professional
development by reason by region for every single member of our teams because we want to make sure that we have high leverage practices but we have consistency. We also want to look at the fact of our over identification of black, brown and latinx students um with
disabilities and that's part of our evaluation modules of trainings around assessments. We also use an assessments that are not normed and we cannot look at identification for students that are that assessments that are not norm for students that have a second language. So
we have various tools that our our behavioral health department are using. Our speech and language services department has evaluators that speak a second language and we're mindful in also looking at identifying and evaluating students in their native language as well. So there are practices
that we're working on in in strengthening our capacity to evaluate our multilingual learners to make sure that we're not overidentifying them into more restrictive placements. >> And I just want to um add to that that if you look at autism and BPS, it is a
gendered equity issue because 77.9% of students with autism are male. So when black and Latino students comprise the majority of students with autism and autism is largely male, the lived impact falls heavily on black and Latino boys.
Uh and so there are there's nearly six and 10 students with autism who are placed in substantially separate settings. So inclusion cannot be treated as guidance. It must be built in the system capacity and measured by
outcomes. And so we know that that can be done and we did ask for specific data. We got some data in terms of placement and identification but the multiple approaches that are used for
students with autism and other very specific questions that we had were not provided. And that's a conversation that um I've had with uh Chief Seal um in working with ODA and really getting transparent information because we don't
want to go by what we think. Yes, we have parents have lived experiences but we want to see specifically where the trends are, where the patterns are. We know where the patterns are in terms of identification who is in this category where they are placed in mostly
restrictive settings and outcomes are poor. uh but we want to go beyond that and move towards what are the solutions? What can we do in order to integrate more effective methodologies and treatments approaches and instructional
uh um methods for students with autism. And then I don't want to lose sight of the fact that we often have students whom we call twice exceptional. So, a student may have a disability, but they also may be gifted and talented. And autism is a perfect category to talk
about that because many students because of their sensory issues um or their self-regulation issues if they don't have the correct intervention and right now what's used in the district is ABA primarily and we wanted to know what
other methods are being used. That's something that parents have asked about. Um, without having these uh therapies for students with autism, they may not be able to express their gifts and
talents. And so, I'll give you an example. I former teacher in the district. Uh, I had a student who um with autism who loved dinosaurs. And you know with MCCAST you have to show your work back in the day and the student
wouldn't show his work. So I said what would Tyrannosaurics arrest Rex do to show his work in this problem? And a student was prompted to uh demonstrate showing your work. So there are methodologies, there are approaches to help students and to un uncover, unveil
their innate gifts and talents that they may not otherwise show without really having um clear methodologies and approaches that target the areas where they struggle. >> Thank you, Edith. I just want to quickly
say that we recognize that autism is a disability category that is a national crisis. We know that one out of 31 students or children are diagnosed with autism. So this is something that is a a national crisis that we are also looking at very clearly and that is part of the
reason why we did move forward with this independent audit to really give us some advice and also some processes in place that we need to address given the the number of percentage of our students that we do have with an autism disability which is aligned with the
national average but also with as Edith did share that we recognize that ABA is not the only level of services that we will be providing in BPS and we're moving forward to look at other options as well. Thank Thank you both. And I I think like
um and perhaps at a on a separate um in a separate conversation, I'd really love to hear um you know, Chief Seal um specifically as you all are going through and I I really appreciate the work of
reevaluating like the IEP process um and really looking at that and just very curious on sort of the the the mechanisms of cultural responsiveness that are integrating into that um and how it's how it's manifesting. I mean
not just across racial lines but you know we just heard of course like it it is diagnosed more in in in males. Um however we do know that the manifestations in in young girls are it's very different. Um, and so I'm very
curious as to how um you are including the cultural responsiveness and in in that in that sense um as well and that can be for a later a later conversation uh separate conversation. Um but thank you thank you both. >> I I can say something about that quickly
if it's okay. So, as uh chair of Spedpac, I also serve on the special ed advisory um panel with the state and we had that conversation just the other day around ensuring that the new IEP has a
culturally responsive piece. We are making clear unambiguous recommendations as a panel to Desi because that language currently does not exist. We know that students around cultures have funds of
knowledge, ways of knowing, bodies of information that are not reflected in in the curriculum and how do we focus on what the student brings to the table that is culturally different and allow
that student to express themselves in that way. Um quick example uh a student who um whose family is here um and doesn't speak English and um has
a a vending business. We we there has been research where these students are doing mathematical calculations by doing all the banking um you know making transactions keeping books. How do we take that lived experience and translate
that into our math curriculum and and acknowledge that students gift and ability in communication, negotiating, keeping records, doing mathematical work? Uh so if the that cultural piece is something that we discuss at the state level that needs to be injected in
the IEP so that we're acknowledging all of the students gifts, talents and abilities and not just looking at the disability because the only pathway to strengthening the students skills and knowledge is to build on their schema,
their background knowledge, what they know well and create a bridge to what we want them to express in the way that um models their competence and and so that that that's a teaching strategy that's a that's a that's a pedagogy um that needs
to be aligned with with content. >> Thank you Edith. I just want to quickly just elaborate um Edith had mentioned earlier about the national average of 15%. I just need to make sure that we also understand that our Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has
over identified as well the number of students with disabilities because in Massachusetts there's a 19% um of students with disabilities that is the average in Massachusetts. So when we look at where we are as an urban district in comparison to other in other urban districts, I'm not saying that
that is justifiable, but that's also something that we must also think about. The other thing I want to also recognize is that we have when we look at also the state average, we have the lowest percentage of students with autism disability that are placed in out of district. So we have built the capacity
to service our students in BPS as opposed to moving our students with significant disabilities to an out of district placement. So that's something that I think that we need to recognize and also we do recognize the fact of the importance of of having program evaluations for certain disability
categories as well, >> right? And we retain them but the outcomes are very poor and the data is very clear on that that it needs to be improved. The ability to teach literacy and to ensure students have access to
the curriculum and can demonstrate outcomes is a huge body of urgent work that needs to be accomplished. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Ferala. Thank you so much, Chair Robinson, and I
would like to thank Chief Seal for your presentation and especially Chair Basil for your presentation and for your many years of advocacy and for pushing hard for the district to become better every
day and serving our students. Uh my question uh to to chair Vasil without any intention of victimizing our wonderful different ability students but it has
been said that a a society the level of humanity of a society can be measured by the way he treats his most vulnerable members and that could be said of a a school district too. Um
given the fact that unfortunately we are going to be facing tough years regarding the budget for for the district for the many reasons we have heard. I would like to know what would you say are the
highest priority in terms of funding this work of supporting our students with multiple abilities. I think that is a phenomenal question and it really starts with understanding
from the context of st of the students who they are as a learner. And so if you look at we often respond to environmental conditions such as poverty, homelessness, we know that students who
are in the custody of DY living in group homes have a higher uh uh uh risk of being placed in some of these special ed education programs that do not work for them. We know that they are subject to
higher suspensions. And I'm I'm talking across the board. and I have the data uh around black, Latino, multilingual learners uh who have disabilities. So yes, you're right that these students
are highly vulnerable and dependent on districts as a life raft and an opportunity to create a pathway for their learning. We have to stop and pause. And what I when I talk about using the racial equity tool as a uh it
really is a tool that's used in partnership with community uh to say what skills, strengths and talents does this student possess and we have to believe and uncover that they exist. And
so it really has to do with discarding the deficit mindset of this student because we create this learn helplessness is incapable of learning. We have to embrace that first and we have to pause and not focus on intent
but impact. The impact of what we create as systems is not working in BPS for our students. That is clear by the data. The data shows that. And so it really has to do with how do we create programming and
services that work? First of all, they have to be evidence-based, not just research. Researchers out there, some of the research is junk. But when I talk about evidence-based research, it means that if we do this, we will have this
outcome every time and it will be replicable. So we heard from principal Tracy. We heard about systems. We heard about structures. We heard about assessment. We heard about teamwork. We heard about multiple methods and
pathways to ensure that we are creating an arc, a bridge of success for students. And that is what is required under special ed individually. And so it really is impactful work. It's listening to teachers who know these
students best. It's really creating a plan. So when I was in the district and um you know, Superintendent Skipper was there also when the initial inclusion model was designed with Bill Henderson
uh at the O'Horn. What we did is we first of all gave teachers space, professional learning, mentoring, time to plan. How do how are we supporting our teachers around professional learning? What tools are we giving them?
If you have one tool, if you if you think, you know, if you have a hammer, you think everything is a nail. So, how are we diversifying support based upon direct evidence-based research of what works? And it is a process where uh
collaborative planning, building a professional learning community is is is is critical and that takes time. I've sat with the teams at Henderson back in the day when I was in the district and at the Manning where
they had subsparate uh classrooms for black students, black males for emotional impairment where they were totally segregated. And so it really is, you know, how is the district supporting studentf facing work and I always say that because it has to do with is what
you're doing supporting teachers in the classroom, school leaders who are struggling and to who don't have equitable resources and is it student facing and are you data driven? So it really has to do with creating a an
intentional process uh a structure and in fact an infrastructure where you know that when a student struggle you can identify not one tool but the right tool and maybe you don't have it
and you can create it but you have to create it as a team. So how are teachers collaborating? What space are we giving them to collaborate and to create pathways for students? Our inclusion models when they
were constructed were teacherdriven. the principal was important, but it was a model that regardless of who um was the leader, the teachers were the ones who created the model and if a new
teacher came on board, they went to lunch, they they met, they had this professional learning community and that is what is is is needed and that is what happened. It's intentional and deep work. It is not just looking at data.
It's having conversations. It's recording. It's looking at student work. It is a process of continual improvement and conversations. It's taking one teacher and saying, "Oh, well, you know, this teacher over here is excellent um
with students with autism. I'm going to find a a I'm going to get you a substitute teacher so you can go to that classroom and spend the day and see what that teacher is doing." It's building capacity. and then you release that teacher who is a master teacher to go
with a new teacher and partner with them and do co-eing. So, it really has to do with how do we get a school like the Elliott, which is is is somewhat of a unicorn, right? Uh because these, you know, and
and and say what are the practices that we can take that we can apply to other school communities and scale them and what is the one thing we can do that is going to make a big difference and how do we support teachers where they are?
And and so it the the original model had to do with all of those components. And so Boston public schools has done this work successfully, highly successfully. And I I I have to be honest and say that I see that this is a period of
unraveling. And so we have to really get back to being student centered, focused on outcomes, looking at student work, driven by data, progress monitoring, all of that. All of that counts. And again,
I apologize for my video. I have no idea what's happening with it. Um I I would just like to add quickly um I I want to acknowledge your question um um member Peralta in that that's such a critical question when we talk about our whole child and our whole student. I
also want to acknowledge the fact that um in the in the spring you will hear more details from Dr. arose around the intensive work that we're doing around our opportunity and achievement gap policy and also looking at the work that we're doing around the also the work
that we're doing in terms of culturally linguistic practices across the district. I also want to acknowledge the fact that several of our schools have done exceptionally well in meeting the needs of our students. Not just students with disabilities but all of our students. We see that in our data through our walkthrough tools. We see
that through our um visits and through our PLC's. We see it through our schools quality schools improvement plans. Our school leaders are vested in improving outcomes for all of our students and we're working strategically to close that opportunity gap. There is progress
that we are making and we recognize the progress. We also understand that we've done strategic training through our emergent literacy professional development for educators. We've launched over 281 educators across 59 public schools um to really focus on
literacy. So there are lots of instrumental things that we're doing across the district to close that opportunity gap for our students in literacy. When we look at the QSP, we know that our students the first priority the schools are looking at is making sure that our students feel a sense of belonging. Our school leaders
are taking that seriously because in order for our students to be engaged in their learning, they must feel welcomed. Um, and it's not just the Elliot that's rocking it. We have so many other schools in this district. And if you ever have the opportunity to be part of one of our walkthroughs or attend one of
our PLC's, you will see data. You will see outcome data. You'll see areas of growth. You'll see areas that we need to focus on, but you'll see our students learning and our students doing well. And our school leaders are rocking it across the district and making sure that they're taking their commitment to educate our students very seriously. So,
I welcome you the opportunity to visit, be part of one of our PLC's, attend some of our walkthroughs, um, so that you can get a firsthand understanding of what's happening in our classrooms with our schools with our students. >> One of the things that I want to add, which I think is really important, is
that when we first built these inclusion models in BPS, we did a survey of readiness. And so a school we may have raised their hand and said I want to be an inclusion
school. We went in as a team uh not just special ed but also content departments and uh behavior specialists. We uh itinerants and we assessed their readiness not just in terms of their
student population but you know the environmental spaces and some were ready and some were not and we helped them to get ready and we were transparent about what needed to be in place technology spaces set up for sensory rooms all
kinds of things and so that's where intentionality is um comes in and you know we always focus on failure as a district. We pay attention to schools who are failing and we say get better,
but we don't show them how. And so what we did is we partnered schools, one school that maybe sort of along the way partnered with a a school that was stronger, not a school that was exceptional, but a school where the
progress was achievable. And so partnering schools. So you take a school like the Elliott for example, exceptional. Uh what can we do? What are the lessons learned here that can be
scaled? And what are other schools that may not be at that status but are uh accelerating in other ways doing good work? we in Boston there are robust uh inclusion um uh opportunities whether
they're isolated classrooms I'm not sure about whole schools but there is robust opportunities of inclusive practices in BPS islands of excellence is what I like to call them how do we replicate them uh
we often focus on the schools that are failing but what do we what does BPS do and guidance and saying the these students with autism in this placement are doing very well and sometimes it's traveling outside of the district to say
yes we have similar students from urban context and we need to bring those examples back and implement them but understand what they are doing in their pathway to success so th this is a lot of work this is deep work and and it's
teamwork it's not just doing I know that we um back in the day walkthroughs, but the research on walkthroughs are not just are not supportive of improvement. It's it's just it's a different motto in a different time. Uh so I think that
yes, how do we uh acknowledge islands of excellence uh support those schools to sustain their growth and then replicate that across the district? I I would also add Edith I think it's
important for us to represent that teachers learn by other teachers and that's part of the work of our walkthroughs is educators learning from educators in direct instruction and looking at what's happening in the classrooms. I also want to add that as we partner we also have a partnership with DESIE because I know some of the
questions were around substantially separate and this is a new initiative. Dusty has a network for substantially separate programs network. That is the program network that we're working on for this year and it's really focusing and reframing substantially separate programs looking at flexible
instructional strategies. So those are some of the things that we're looking at in terms of how do we develop pathways to better understand and to help our student experience and identify what key initiatives are necessary within our schools. Um, I I want to say that we can't keep thinking about the past
because we have to move forward for the future and in your experiences that you shared, I I really appreciate, Edith. But I think as we look at what we're doing in our current state and as we build the capacity of our educators as well as we look at the infrastructure of our schools that we are positioning our
students for success by being very strategic in what we're doing as well as looking at the data and making informed decisions as well as using evidence-based practices. We have investments with Mass General, with Linda Mubell, with Wilson. As I said before, we have over 2,000 educators
that are trained in evidence-based practices to close the opportunity gap in reading and literacy. And that's not that's something for an urban district. That's a huge huge win for us. And we're learning, we're working on leveraging those resources to really make sure that we're providing targeted intervention.
when we look at the implication of our multi-systems of support and I talked to the division of academics and teaching and learning recently I found out that almost over 75% of our students with disabilities are getting tier one interventions so in addition to what
they're getting for their IEP services they're also getting tier one interventions and some of our students with disabilities are also getting tier 2 and tier three so we're being very strategic in terms of what we're providing for students with disabilities is beyond the IEP but also looking at
that alignment of tiered interventions especially in the area of reading and math and that's something that's happening very successfully within our schools and I'd love love to just add that institutional knowledge and history of success is really important regarding
lessons learned and that's where the uh replicable success occurs from evidence-based practices and the and is there and we have to pay attention to that and sustain that there new buckets of knowledge. Yes,
absolutely. But lessons learned from the past successes um is is important and it's not useless information. It is critical information. And just to um reiterate to you um
member Alkins, I would love for Spedpac to have more conversations and andor presentations with the school committee on these areas because I believe that the partnership with the district as well as um with this body um should and
and could be strengthened around uh parents having conversations around what works because I always say that parents are our experts. You have students six hours a day. Parents have them 18 hours plus the weekend. And so
having that collaborative conversation is really important. And I I just want to reiterate parents as knowledgeable partners, as equal partners, as deciders in decision makings and providing their input is critical. We have a great um
council. We have leaders. Um I I will name one school when I uh who gave feedback and they're doing surveys. I had one school um that did a survey of of what the parents concerns were which was integrated in this presentation with
pie charts. Our spedpack leaders are doing amazing job and we take their input seriously. We represent the families of 13,000 students with disabilities and and I'm not here for myself. I'm here representing them and
this is this is their voice and I would love for to come back and and bring some spedpack leaders with me to have this collaborative conversation with the school committee. So, thank you for making that inquiry. >> Yeah, Miss Torres.
>> Yes. I wanted to thank Sher Seio and Shia Brazil for all this wonderful information and also I like the uh one of the things that really caught my attention was the IEPs and how you want to train the families to be part of that
bigger picture. one uh as we talk about the Elliot yes there are many other schools they have like good stuff in place that we don't see because we don't go and we don't know but I seen a lot of
other schools that the community is very important and the families are very important because the family is the key to everything and also you also talked about having like students be advocates for themselves >> yes >> I have I had a uh one student at the
school where I was that uh she wanted to be part of her IEP because she wanted to advocate for herself because she was leaving the school. they wanted to take some of her um uh needs in uh that she had in place
for reading and writing away and she decided that they couldn't do that because she was going to need that now that probably she was going to a a place that nobody knew her and she will need those uh resources and for somebody to
be able to help her and so she can be successful. So I think including the families and the parents is an excellent idea and if I can be come and watch when uh parents are trained because I don't
know how these trainings are. So my my question is who will be training the parents to be part of the bigger conversations? Who will be >> we we do that once a month and I did send chair Robinson an invitation to our general meeting which we have once a
month which is tomorrow and all are welcome. I don't know if that was shared with you but absolutely we are an open book. We are eager to collaborate with the school committee. Uh, by the way, students are an integral part of the IEP process. One of the first questions is
what are the parent and student concerns? And we hear from students as young as possible, but they're required to participate and get their separate invitation when they turn 14. And it's because this process has to be driven by
student needs. We want our students to know and to talk about and alert us to what accommodations and specialized instructional strategies work for them and what does not work. And that's where student voice is really important.
Students need to know about their learning profile, what their um metacognitive process is um and their ability to get into that what we call zone of proximal learning where they have an aha moment in science or math or
history so that they understand what they need and can advocate for that within the classroom. And so student advocacy even in kindergarten, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you love? what color what what is your
favorite color? We need to really empower students about who they are so that they can advocate for what they need. So, thank you for that um question. >> I I I agree member TZ that is an awesome question and I want to also add
everything that Edith said is very um very authentic and also a reality. I want to add that this is also happening at our IEP process, right? especially if you're a new parent and you're finding out that your child has a disability. I also want to add in part of my presentation I talked about student
centered IEPs, individual individualized educational plans. That's where it happens also right through at our schools through the team process. Our coordinators of special education, our assistant directors of special education works closely with our families, especially for a family who now is
finding out that their child has a disability. But most importantly, that's why the Department of Elementary and Secondary Ed changed the IEPs. They changed the IEPs because they wanted to make that connection between the student centered learning, the student profile,
the student vision. They also changed it because they wanted to make sure that parents can understand what they're reading and that it's meaningful. And there's also a section of that IEP that also talks about English language learners and making sure that they also have access to culturally responsive
learning opportunities. So that IEP is the roadmap for our students with disabilities and that's how we are also providing support. Uh, and part of our next level of work is really working more strategically with our families to do family sessions around the new IEP,
especially for families who are now finding out that their child has a disability. We're seeing in our data that now that our youngest children um where our data before had them going into more restrictive placements, but because of all of our targeted interventions, we're seeing that our
students K0 K1 now have more inclusive pathways. So, they're now in general education. So, it's also important for us to work with our general education teachers to help them to understand how to provide those accommodations, how to differentiate instruction because a
special education IEP is targeted to a disability and not all of our students have disabilities. Some of our students learn differently. We all learn differently and we want to make sure that we provide the targeted training and supports to gened teachers as well as our special education teachers. But
to answer your question, it does start with that student's individualized education plan. And we need to make sure that parents get the support that they need so that those plans are meaningful for their child as well as teaching our students, especially our high school students, those self- advocacy skills.
>> And I just want to add that the presence of a disability does not trigger the need for special education. >> It may trigger the need for special education. It is a process of identification so that students are not unnecessarily labeled. You could have a
disability and not require an IEP. You could have a disability as a student and require a 504 plan which is general education. Uh so I that really goes back to the disproportionality and identification. And I I just have to
bring up one piece where the demographics and disability labeling show racialized segregation and that's at Mal King Academy. I don't know how many school committee members have visited. I would encourage you to visit. Um and that's where we see the
significant over representation of black students in particular followed by Latino students. And we do have some multilingual uh learners at this site, although not very many. And the primary disability for this public day school. And the reason that it's a public day
school is that all of the students who attend the school, this school site, have an IEP. So there are no general education students. Uh this is a uh situation where spedpack board members
have have um been engaged in conversation around what is happening at these school sites. We have three public day schools. We have the Carter School for students with multiple disabilities. The Harris man for students who are deaf and heart of hearing. The largest
population is Mel King Academy where these students are labeled with emotional impairment. But I just want to point out that the attendance outcomes are the alarm bell that really should that require in terms of what's
happening in special education uh some attention. Um what we know for sure from the data is that when students are chronically absent that is a data point that needs to be looked at because chronic absenteeism leads to dropout. It
leads to higher rates of suspension. Um the chronic absenteeism at this school, the Mal King Academy, formerly known as the McKinley, it uh in 2024 23 24 was 84.5%.
It's currently 66.5%. This is not about student engagement. This is a system that is failing to create conditions for consistent attendance. and it's the most intensive population who require therapeutic
services. We have appealed to the district to address the issues at Mel King Academy. Spedpac was involved in a working group a couple of years ago. Um sadly not much came out of that data. Um
the instability and push factors have to do with disenrollment. uh um students who just drop off the radar um the students who do not report and the pattern the pattern reads like
churn. Uh these students don't have a stable therapeutic pathway and we hear from the families we and the students themselves because many of these students are 18 or over up to 22 years old. This is really a stark equity issue
and it's important uh for the district to address this because that's where at the Mal King Academy we see uh data that is defined by racial concentration uh near total emotional labeling and
extremely low attent attention attendance and extreme chronic absenteeism. So I would would invite and and and and uh ask for a conversation uh to address the issues for this high
needs population where they are not getting the supports that they need uh where there are majority black males uh followed by Latino males um in these schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I just think it's I just think I just want to respond really quickly. I'm
sorry. I just think it's important for us to understand that DESIE has not flagged Boston public schools for racial disproportionality. So although we do see some significant increase in percentages by ethnicity, we have not been flagged by Desi for
disproportionality, there is there is language in terms of our improvement in terms of students placing substantially separate but not in the area of disproportionality. And I have to I have to mention at our panel meeting that we had that was raised in
terms of how do you acknowledge that there is racial dispa dis um port disproportionality in a district that has a high population of black and brown students. And what Desi admitted is that the metrics that they use are do not
lend to that calculus as opposed to the lack of the existence of disproportionality. So when I spoke with uh Toby, I don't remember his last name who works for Desi, he's the actually the consultant
um on this formula that is used um that needs to be recalculated because Boston public schools certainly has it but doesn't show it because of the metrics of how that formula is utilized within districts. So the
formula is the problem and we see that in data. We also see that in I just have to give you one data point in BPS where BPS in the data that was provided to SPEPAC said 10% there was a 10%
reduction in suspensions but the district redefined the definition of suspension so that in school suspensions were not included. The reality is the data did not go down.
the definition was recalculated and didn't count the inschool suspensions. So data notwithstanding needs to be interrogated in terms of what are the metrics that are used that may skew
uh the data because of in this case the definition changed. So I I would argue and this is a conversation we've had repeatedly with the special ed advisory panel that disproport the disproportionality formula that is used
needs to be recalculated and that's a continuing and ongoing conversation with Desi. So, I' I just want to acknowledge um and and really express some appreciation for the collaboration between um OSS and Spedpac and I appreciate the thoroughess uh with which
both um Chief Seal and Chair Bazil um want to make sure that every question is is clarified. Um, I think the fact that this has been such a wide-ranging conversation does speak to the importance of us having these venues and I think um, you both have made those
points very clear that there's a lot of ground to cover um, that some of it are very far away from the questions that we've asked. And so um, as I ask my questions, I'm going to actually just um, direct them to chair Brazil because we I have not been on school committee yet where Spedpac has presented. So, I
just want to make sure to prioritize that. Um, and I just I just have a couple because my colleagues have have touched on so so many already. Um, but thank you so much for for the presentation and I just wanted to um just double down on the appreciation for
the family resource fair in November. Um, it was wonderful to see so many organizations come together um and for families to um um to take advantage of that. Uh, Chair Bazil, I was interested. I know that this presentation was also
to speak to some of the goals of Spedpack itself um as well as the goals for the district's improvement. Um and I was interested in um are there specific goals that uh we as a school committee and also at the school level school
leaders for example could support around parent engagement in spedpack. Um I know that you represent you know the 13,000 families. Um, but in terms of active participation in your monthly meetings or taking advantage of the resources that you offer, are a 100% of the
schools represented with representatives? Would love to know what your measures and t targets are around that and how we can support. >> I so appreciate that question. U members Garrett, uh, vice chair. Yes. So I think one of the first priorities is really
solidifying our positive proactive collaborative partnership with the district and also with the school committee itself. Without really having that partnership we cannot move towards addressing all of the issues that we
discuss in terms of improving outcomes for students with disabilities. Our priority is to look and use the data to drive systemic change and in some cases
like the Mel King Academy restructuring and to have a collaborative approach because we absolutely have a wealth of information to share. Yes, we need to solidify our membership in terms of um
one of and these I know that these are kind of lowball but they are uh working uh priorities that we have to ensure that we are in communication and contact with all spedpack reps across the district. Um we have asked for the names
of spedpack reps because the direct involvement of parents as much as and more that we >> hear from parents um we can uh get them involved. Uh we have about >> maybe 50 out of the 110 schools
>> identified and that's a that's that's a collaborative effort in doing outreach with Anna Tvaris and her team. And >> how does that compare to other years? Is that a typical um >> It's a struggle. It's a struggle. It it
has been a struggle. It honestly it has been a struggle and so even getting the data that we asked for has been a struggle and I have reached out to Chair Robinson regarding that. Um I think that we cannot accomplish our goals unless
the district is providing us with transparent data because we don't want to say we think we feel we want to make sure that we understand the landscape the carton landscape. Um >> no I understand I think chair Brazil my question was about the uh data that you
all have specifically around families participating in the monthly meetings and you know the representatives. So, it sounds like you're you said you're at about 50% in terms of schools represented. And then do you all um how are you all feeling about um you know
engagement at those monthly meetings where um families get that support with understanding IEPs etc. Um we want to improve that and I would say past years the collaboration has been very strong. We would like to get to that. Um our
priority is to ensure as I indicated that all students with disabilities are provided with quality um educational services and outcomes and in order to do that we the inclusion plan for example that is a huge priority. School closing
is a huge priority. Uh we >> we >> go ahead you you go ahead. >> We struggled with um I I just have to be candid. our first quarterly superintendent meeting because we wanted to center parent voices and the
districts resisted that and you know I we believe that you know parents are excited to have this conversation even if they're difficult this work cannot be done without our families and our families need to be at
the table so for example with or school closings we have to it it is not us speaking for parents. Um, our bylaws require that we invoke whatever uh methodologies, approaches are necessary
to get parents' voices elevated to the uh leadership when decisions are being made and in this case >> and yeah and I think that you know this presentation too has really done a strong job of elevating those
perspectives. Um, and I know that there are meetings that Spedpac convenes for parents and then there are meetings between BPS and Spedpac where there are representatives from Spedpac and they're not open meetings and they're different levels of those. But I I appreciate your um information about the current um the
current engagement because I know that your role to advise on policy and programming and service delivery while elevating family and student perspectives. was kind of focusing on that family and student perspectives piece in terms of whether you feel like you're getting enough of that um
representation from across schools. So, thank you um thank you for that information. And I just had one other quick question um which was you know as you talk about um some of the proof points and islands of excellence and and I'm I'm absolutely with you in terms of as you described some of the practices
at the Elliot that we should think about scaling and and other places. I'm curious what specific um student outcomes um that Spedpac um as an organization feels should be most prioritized when determining that a
model is successful. Um I know that Chief Seal shared um like that you know the district made progress in 10 out of 16 indicators from DESIE. just interested if um if any of those specific metrics uh resonate more than others. What's contributing to the
definition of excellence? Um as you know, as Spedpac is identifying classrooms and and instruction types that are strong, what what are the student outcomes that feel are most reflected um as you know evidence of success? I would land on literacy
because literacy is learning and access to literacy and developing a student who can access um meaning directly from printed text is the most impactful um skill for learning because literacy
opens up the entire world and because we know like I cited the research that 95% of students regardless of cognitive impairment ments or intellectual impairments based on the research and evidence can read on grade level by
first grade. How are we using universal evidence-based screening tools? And then when we determine students need intervention, how are we providing that intervention? Regardless of who the student is, a student being able to interact with text, drawing meaning, um
making decisions, solving problems, predicting, analyzing, critiquing, all of that is critical. That is how you function successfully in schools without a base of literacy and the ability to communicate ideas and to dream and
imagine, you know, and explore the world. That is a piece that BPS and and and equitable literacy I believe needs to be interrogated. the focus curriculum has not worked for our young learners and I
>> so when you all are look sorry I'm so sorry Chief Pil when you all are looking across schools um and so the that literacy goal are you looking at ultimate um like literacy proficiency rates are you most drawn to like student growth um rates I know you mentioned
that the walkthrough data um is not particularly resonant for you so just interested in terms of um defining a school in trouble versus a school that's doing well. Is it the is it the is it the proficiency or just the direction of improvement? Um
>> well, I think both are important. We want students to reach proficiency, but when we look at the data around, you know, how do you teach a student with a disability to learn or why is there so many students in special ed, literacy is the one piece that bubbles up and if you
so it really is about how do we develop early literacy uh with students and how do we um take them from that phmic and funological awareness stage to actually writing which is the the end product
that I can read a text but MCCAST requires I know it's not a graduation requirement but it requires students to demonstrate their proficiency through writing because that's the end goal right uh I can take a text and I can develop meaning and answer questions make inferences and all of that that's
the comprehension so it really is you know uh schooling is about developing literacy math literacy uh you know it's just it's not just narrative it's expos repossitory text too. And so once students are able to access literacy,
then they can level up and we don't know what their their potential is, you know, perhaps they can go into an accelerated learning. But if they struggle with literacy, which is the it it is the benchmark for success in school. It it it is what students need. even if they
are using technology um to augment they may need interventionists and we don't have reading specialists in every school. We know from the research that one out of five students, 20% of the population will struggle with literacy at some point. And so if we're not
preparing a cadre of educators and I the the um the co um funds er funds was a perfect opportunity to rescale and think about how we can infuse that support um
delivered to these students early early intervening services. Then what what happens when the student is unable to read? Frustration kicks in. There may be behaviors for boys. We know that that peaks into, oh, he's a problem. Let's get him out. Often referred to special
ed. So, if you look at why do we have so many students educating special >> I understand. And so I and I and I appreciate that emphasis on literacy and it does again feel very aligned to um the district's focus and it seems like
there's a good opportunity for that to be a place of of synergy for spedpack and the district to collaborate on best practices there. So um so I I I appreciate that. Um and the combination of um proficiency and growth as the ways
to evaluate success I think is something that as a school committee we are also very drawn to in terms of really identifying um successful schools by outcomes and direction of growth um as well as anecdotal data but also um that
concrete um those concrete metrics. So thank you very much chair Brazil. I'll turn it over to the chair. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, first of all, I want to thank both Chief Seal and Miss Brazil for this conversation this evening. I
think we've learned a lot about uh what's going on in in special education and recognizing understanding all the hard work that the district has been going to the district has been doing over this past several years as we've
tried to become um more inclusive across the board. and understanding also uh what's been going on with parents and through spedpack. Um what I'm hoping I don't have a a question at this moment because I feel like my colleagues have
asked lots of questions and we've learned a lot this evening, but I'm much more interested in where do we go from here? Um what I'm hoping that members will be able to tune in to one of the sped pack meetings. I know I'm going to
go to the one tomorrow night. really want to be begin to understand more what is FedPac in terms of how parents are interfacing with the information they're having but how can we also make sure
that we are hearing from parents um in ways that it can impact the outcomes and the experiences of their students. I think you know we've heard a lot Miss Mazil from your perspectives that bring lots of experience over many years um
for the district etc. And I'm sure that you offer wonderful opportunities to help parents understand both what has gone on and hopefully what can go on. But as we're moving forward, particularly right now with what's going
on in special education and the push for inclusion, wanting to be clear about where where are the spedpack goals that we can be looking at for this particular year um as it is working together with
um the office of Miss Calin um in terms of I always forget what it's called now. I want to call it by its wrong name, but um that office, how are we making sure we are working as collaboratively together towards these goals and that we
are bringing parents along both in partnership but also in understanding of the both the limitations and the responsibilities of the district. Um because sometimes all of those things, you know, cannot be what everyone wants.
But we need to be able to have these continue to have these kind of conversations, but to also hear parent voices in these conversations as we all work together with our existing resources um to do what we can for all students.
So what what is our next step from here? I would love I would love it and I um to as I indicated um previously to have a le liaison from the school committee um whom we can meet with regularly and uh
really outline our goals and share them and collaboratively think about how we can get this work done. And that liaison could be a rotating individual that may come to some sessions and maybe you don't have time to have that single
person. But because we are an advisory board, advisory council, sorry, to the school committee, that I think that would be a great starting point. We already have on the table our quarterly superintendent meetings and maybe some
um members would like to attend those meetings because they're already set. So that would that I I believe that would be a starting place to learn more about what we do as a as a council and then um
so that this work um is is clear in terms of our role in the district. >> Okay. Thank you. So we can start by you will make sure you can send to Miss Parvex the information. I know there is a meeting tomorrow night.
>> Yes. Would you be able to would you send the schedule for the rest of this school year's um open meetings, the SPE pack evening meetings, and then that can be a place we can start and then we can have a further conversation with you and Miss
Seal to figure out what is appropriate. >> Absolutely. That sounds amazing to be able to follow up and I know we will have another presentation um from you later in the school year. >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Chief. >> Yeah, thank you.
I I just wanted to add absolutely we we have to create a flyer. So um the the next meeting is February 26 on decoding and dyslexia and March 26 is a meeting on inclusion matters. We'll make sure that we also and and Edith we can
forward the flyer um to um make sure that Spedpack has a copy of the schedule for meetings. We're also um in OSS, we are also through our community forums and also with some of our schools um coordinating um some professional
learning as well as listening sessions with our families, but also looking at doing more outreach in terms of and I really appreciate member Torres's comment around the new IEP. So, there will be some forums that we will have for our families as well. And when we put together those dates, we will share
the dates of our um trainings and also professional learning that we will do for families because we're also going to be putting forward a training on transition planning because we know that um it's so important for our kids from age 14 to 22 to make sure that they understand what that means. So we'll
make sure that we put together a schedule and send out of some of the trainings that we'll be doing in Office of Specialized Services as well. >> Great. Again, thank you both. And um we will now return to public comment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, chair. We don't have any
public comment. >> All righty. Thank you. Um, is there any new business? >> No. All right. All right. Thank you all. That concludes our business for this evening. And our next meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 4th at
5:30m, at which time the superintendent will present her preliminary fiscal 27 budget recommendation. Um, if there's nothing further, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a motion? >> Second.
>> Second. >> Any discussion or objection to the motion? Hearing none, Miss Pavves, will you please call the role? >> Dr. Hawkins. >> Yes. Mr. Panto, >> yes. >> Miss Pango Garcia,
>> yes. Good night. >> Miss Torres, >> yes. >> Mr. TR, Miss Carriage, >> yes. >> Miss Robinson, >> yes. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a good night. >> Good night. Thank you. Good night. Night.