Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Boston School Committee.

I'm Chairperson Jerry Robinson.

We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I'm going to ask everyone here in the chamber to please turn off the volume on your laptops or other devices so it does not interfere with the audio for tonight's meeting.

Thank you for your cooperation.org.

For those joining us in person, you can access the meeting documents by scanning the QR code that's posted by the doors.

The meeting documents have all 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 meeting will be rebroadcast on Boston City TV and posted on the school committee's webpage and on YouTube.

The committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean, 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 a language preference.

I'd like to remind everyone to speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters.

Due to a family emergency, the superintendent will need to transition to virtual part way through the meeting.

We may be flexible with the agenda tonight.

Throughout this service, they've shown exceptional leadership and have been strong voices for their fellow students.

We are very proud of them and the work they have accomplished, and we know they will go on to do great things for the Boston community.

At this time, I'd like to invite my colleagues on the school committee and Superintendent Skipper to join me on the floor for the presentation of citations.

From Boston Latin School, Saeed Saeed.

The Boston School Committee extends its deepest appreciation to Saeed Saeed, President of Brothers, Boston Student Advisory Council and Boston Latin School Class of 2026 for providing a strong consistent voice for his fellow students in the Boston Public Schools.

The chairperson and members of the school committee of the City of Boston join with the superintendent of schools and extending their appreciation to Mr.

Saeed for influencing and assisting students to effectively form, evaluated, understand the district policies that impact their daily lives and wish his continued success in all future endeavors.

May 6, 2026, signed by Jerry Robinson, Chairperson of Boston School Committee, and Mary Skipper, superintendent of Boston Public Schools.

Diaz Catalina.

From Boston International High School Bacon, Hala Anzana.

Um, Dr.

Holland Tech Academy, Janea Myrie.

Julieta Martinez.

From Community Academy of Science and Health, Nyla Hicks Fernandez.

So I'm gonna go down the line again, although you all are there and like to take a moment to quickly go down the line.

You can say your name and and tell us what your postgraduation plans are.

So just go straight down.

You can stand up, tell us your name again, and tell us where you're going.

What your plan is for next year.

Hello?

Hello?

Okay.

Hello, my name is Julieta Martinez, and for uh postgraduation, I plan on attending Northeastern majoring in bioengineering.

Hi.

Uh my name is Janea Myrie and her post uh graduate plans.

I plan on going to Simmons University in Boston for communications.

Um hi, my name is Ismara Diaz Catala, and I'm playing on attending master for nursing.

This might be the same over here.

If you're in the back, come close and please.

So we hear you.

I don't know what we want to see.

Just bearing.

All right, a big smile.

You know, you want me to close it?

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one, three.

That's fine.

Three.

I don't know.

That's great.

And also, thank you very much for the least.

Good.

Okay.

Oh, we're going to be able to do that.

We can put the for the school committee.

Oh.

You need to take the school committee.

Oh, so what do we do?

Same thing.

Come on.

You all come to the right.

I don't know.

You know what I'm saying?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

That's like order.

Yeah.

I don't care if you want to go.

Yeah, you can use the open then.

All right.

I'll back up and then close that the way we're going to go.

And then a step back.

And a step this way is one.

Oh, that's just one.

No more.

Right now.

Okay.

All right.

Three.

No.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

You know, yeah.

So I'm going to go on the place.

Uh no, or do you see it?

Um, okay.

I mean, right here.

Three, and two, uh, one, three, and two, three.

Oh, well, that's very funny.

No, I feel you.

That makes sense.

Okay.

I got what they mean.

Oh, I think it's all the first one.

You know what I mean?

If a mind if you want to go on the back.

Literally, do I agree?

Okay.

Okay.

The committee will begin will continue this evening by con holding a hearing on the Massachusetts school choice program for school year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty-seven.

Under the state law each year, the committee must vote by June first whether the boss school committee will admit non-residents.

Do we have any speakers to testify on the school choice issue, Miss Parvits?

No, we don't have it on.

Thank you, Ms.

Parvix.

The committee will receive the superintendent's recommendation on this matter and take a vote later this evening.

I will now entertain a motion to adjourn the hearing on the Massachusetts School Choice program for school year twenty twenty six twenty twenty-2027.

The committee will then move into our regular meeting.

Is there a motion?

So move.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Would you please call the roll, Miss Comics.

Provex?

Thank you, Chair.

Dr.

Alkins?

Yes.

Mr.

Peralta?

Yes.

Ms.

Polanca Garcia.

Yes.

Miss Torres?

Yes.

Mr.

Tran?

Yes.

Ms.

Garrett.

Yes.

Miss Robinson.

Yes.

The hearing is adjourned.

Thank you.

We'll begin the meeting with the approval of minutes.

I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the April 15th meeting.

Is there a motion?

So move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion?

Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent?

Hearing none, the minutes are approved.

We'll now move on to the superintendent's report.

I present to you our superintendent Mary Skipper.

Thank you, Chair Robinson, and good evening to everyone who's here and on Zoom on the public side tonight, listening remotely.

So first I'd like to begin by thanking Member Torres for joining me on a visit to the Kenny Elementary School in Dorchester on Monday.

We visited to gain a better understanding of how inclusion is being implemented in our schools.

There's certainly great work going on at the Kenny, and I really appreciate it as I know we all did.

School leader Sharika King taking the time to show us around and explain how the model is working in real time.

For all of our members, you're in receipt of a memo updating the BPS Transportation Department's on time performance data reporting, or what we call OTP, one of the primary measures of our performance.

As a reminder, at the conclusion of the systemic improvement plan or SIP, at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, the district committed to providing quarterly updates on transportation on time performance.

Our last update was provided to you on February 12th.

Over the past four years, we've made great strides in addressing some of the structural issues that have contributed to our measurable and sustained improvements in on-time performance.

In February, morning AM, or what we call morning OTP, averaged 85%, and the afternoon, what we call PM OTP, averaged 81%.

Both of these times were significantly impacted by the ongoing effects of the two major snowstorms, which made streets very narrow and sometimes inaccessible and created increased traffic congestion.

Overall, the morning OTP averaged 93% in March and 94% in April.

The afternoon OTP averaged 88% in March and 89% in April.

This represents the highest morning and afternoon OTP on record for the month of April.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Dr.

DePina in the audience.

It actually deserved a big round of applause.

As we noted in our last memo, uncovered routes saw an increase starting in December.

We responded by consolidating routes, working with transdev, our vendor, to address staffing vacancies, absenteeism, and bus maintenance issues, which were contributing to uncovered buses.

Morning uncovered routes saw a continued decline from 0.9% for AM trips in March to 0.6 for AM trips in April.

We did see a slight uptick in uncovered PM routes from March to April, but overall a reduction since December.

We have Deputy Director of Transportation, Jacqueline Hayes, who's here tonight, if there's any questions at the end of my report.

PPS seniors are making a strong progress toward a key college planning milestone.

As of the end of April this year, 2060 students, or about 53% of the senior class have completed the free application for federal student aid or what we call FAFA.

To give you a sense, that's an 11 percentage point increase from the same time last year, when only 1708 students or 42% of the seniors completed that application.

Led by the BPS Office of College Career and Life Readiness, this growth reflects a coordinated effort across schools and partners.

Students and families benefited from in-school completion sessions, targeted outreach, myCAP financial literacy lessons, and expanded family support with multilingual resources.

The district also engaged the Office of Data and Accountability to support the periodic collection of student rosters from partners throughout the academic year, helping schools identify service gaps and ensure that more seniors receive the support they need.

On April 23rd, during the spring recess, families registered for an on-site FAFSFA or MASFA support session and met in person with advisors from USBIR or the Higher Education Resource Center at the Bowling Building, while others were connected to additional support.

This work also includes ongoing collaboration with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Advancement and the Cultivate Pathways Organization to ensure all families, including those navigating tuition equity, and the Massachusetts Application for State Financial Aid or what we call MASFA, have access to clear information and support.

Quick update on the cell phone policy.

So, in December, members received a memo outlining our actions this year to draft a personal devices policy.

Since then, we've been engaging with the community.

We continue to gather input from stakeholders, including students and school leaders.

We're currently tracking the state legislative actions on this topic, and we expect to receive further guidance from DASE sometime this fall.

We will continue to keep this body and the public updated as we finalize that policy, which we clearly know is really important to our students, to our families, and to our staff.

Couple bright spots.

So last week I had the pleasure and privilege to visit fifth graders at the Harvard Kent Elementary School in Charlestown as part of the school's careers in the community enrichment class.

This is a program designed to introduce students to various career paths and inspire them to become leaders.

Students ask questions about my path to becoming an educator, a teacher, and a superintendent.

I just want to thank Teacher Mora McDonough and all of the students for inviting me as they were really thoughtful and insightful questions, really just engage in conversations with the students as the topics ranged from careers to cars to pets to family, just really an opportunity, like a really wonderful opportunity to get her to know our students a bit more.

And our teacher Maura McDonald has been doing this for years.

So I just want to really give her a shout out.

Ben Russell, the principal, also sat in on the session as well.

It was just a really wonderful time.

Last week I also attended Ed Vestor's annual education showcase, which is an opportunity for more than 100 educators, nonprofit partners, civic leaders, and supporters to come together to discuss creative solutions happening in our schools and to explore key issues in education.

The showcase provides a platform for educators to share and spread some of the good work that's happening in BPS.

I was proud to be joined by representatives of several schools to spotlight the district's work, our schools, and our students from the broader community.

There that evening were the representatives from the Madahunt Elementary School, Boston Green Academy, the Haynes Early Education Center, Principal Carney from the Bradley Elementary, was there, the Bradley was the 2025 School on the Move winner, Boston Day and Evening was represented, as well as the district's visual and performing arts department, the Office of Family and Community Advancement, and the Office of Career Life and Readiness and Hub Schools were all there.

BPS is really appreciative of Ed Vestors.

I've held them up a couple times as just an example of a strong sustained partner in the work for decades.

They're best known for school and the move.

We call it kind of the Oscars of the BPS as the opportunity for the last 20 years to really recognize some great work that's happening academically in our school communities.

It's also, though, a partner in other key district initiatives.

So just a big shout out.

It was it was uh it was just a wonderful event.

Chair Robinson was there as well as she always is.

Um I also wanted to thank uh Edvestors photographer Annalie Camargo, who's a BPS alumna, and she attended the Edison K-8 as well as Boston Arts Academy.

Uh the pictures came out uh spectacular, and it was just wonderful to see one of our own BPS graduates uh so deeply involved in the event.

This very room was full of excitement on Friday night as the Office of Community and Family Engagement, what we call AFCA, hosted its second annual It's My Night prom event for BPS students.

The event continues to grow in both the reach and the impact, with more than 400 students from 19 schools participating this year.

That's more than double last year's attendance of over 200 students from nine schools.

Across the two years, more than 700 students have been served.

This was created uh by AfCA leaders Amy Martinez, who works uh from our BPS helpline, and Masika Gadson, who's uh our community engagement office, and the event really brought together a whole dedicated staff of volunteers from across BPS departments, which included AFCA Mentoring, Student Support, as well as community partners such as Modern Mentor, Hub Schools, Blackmail Advancement, Family Affair, Project Schools, and dresses for success, dress for success.

Students selected items from a wide range of prom essentials, including dresses, tuxedos, shoes, accessories, all at no cost.

I also want to thank Gisette Williams for serving as an engaging and uplifting MC, as she always does.

This event really does reflect the best of our community and how our shared commitment can make such a difference to our students.

I think all students left really feeling celebrated, uplifted, supported, and certainly ready to shine on their upcoming prom nights.

And the National Federation of State High School Associations, a national organization that advocates for high school athletes as well as arts programs.

The Spirit of Sport Award annually recognizes high school athletes, coaches, or administrators who exemplify the ideals of sportsmanship, courage, resilience, and highlights individuals who overcome significant adversity or make extraordinary contributions to their community.

Edgar was diagnosed with stage three cancer when he was young, and he overcame physical challenges to fulfill his dream of playing football with the help of a prosthetic leg.

He played guard guard and tackle, and he played all four years at Tech Boston.

Here are some photos of Edgar taken in the fall when he was featured on the BPS social media stream for his determination and perseverance.

He'll be presented with an MIAA plaque and NFHS certificate later this spring.

Congratulations to Edgar.

We're all incredibly proud of you, and we know that you're headed for great things as a TBA grad and as a BPS grad.

Spring City championships in outdoor track and field, volleyball, softball, and baseball are all coming up in May.

And we're also looking forward to the spring all-star game coming up in June.

We'll report back with highlights at the next school committee meeting in June on the results.

Last week I also visited a Boston Pre-K community program for mixed-age three to four-year-old, looking at a classroom at the village preschool in Rosalindale.

This was part of a two-day early learning champion summit, learning in action, which was hosted in partnership with the Gates Foundation.

And I was glad to be there as with Chair Robinson as well.

In this picture, you can see that I'm with teachers Doris Vincent and Carol Ogbamo and Robin English.

The summit brought together early learning educators, leaders, funders, researchers, and partners from across the nation to learn from BPS's nationally recognized focus on early learning curriculum and engage in bold ideas, powerful practices, and collaborative strategies shaping the future of early learning.

Participants had the opportunity to learn from experts, foster collaboration, and share innovative ideas through school visits and specialized sessions.

I had never been in the village preschool, as I was telling Chair Robinson.

It was just an amazing trip to see there's over 70 early learners in that in the building, which was an old church, and to just hear uh from the director and some of the teachers the importance of the partnership with UPK and being able to learn from our trainings, our curriculum, and our coaching uh was I think just really reaffirmed it was a good affirmation of the work that we're doing in the early uh learning space.

Before I close, I just wanted to also share that BPS recently launched the Beyond the Headlines newsletter.

Uh, a new communication that lists up stories of our students, family, staff, and community partners who make our BPS Village strong.

You can subscribe to our new Beyond the Headlines newsletter by visiting Boston Public Schools.org forward slash newsletter.

Beyond the headlines is one more way that our award-winning communications team with Chief McKinnon in the back is sharing district highlights, accomplishments, and progress.

You can also follow us on social media, including Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, and LinkedIn.

I don't know if you do want to do a big clap, Chief Communications back there.

So with that chair, I will uh turn it back to you.

Thank you, Superintendent.

I'll now open it up for questions and discussion.

Please remember our norm of five minutes for member for round, not including district responses.

Please keep questions related to the superintendent's report.

Other topics can be raised during new business.

BPS staff, please keep your responses brief and speak slowly to support our interpreters.

Thank you.

Anybody?

Just a wonderful story in the recognition of Edgar and just a great extension from starting our meeting with the recognition of our Visa graduating seniors.

Just wanted to say congratulations again, and it's wonderful to hear your future plans as well.

Also great to hear the increase in FASA completion.

And I think we said it would be a 30%.

So it's interesting because it very much mirrors the percent most recent data we have on the percent of students who enroll their first year.

Uh would be interested in the future to hear whether we've crosswalked the students who completed FAFSA.

Is that the exact same group?

Are we missing students?

Are there students who complete and don't enroll?

Are there students enrolling without having done the FAFSA?

And just to see where that number intersects because they're very similar right now, which is interesting.

Great.

Yeah, we we can definitely uh we can definitely cross-track.

The other thing is May is very active for us and actually summer school to be honest with you where we continue to work with students who during the summer are making up credits and then make the decision they're ready to go.

So it this number will grow but I think these are good questions that we can um we'll delve into I mean I think along that lines actually I was going to ask about where we are in terms of like ESY preparation and things like that.

Yeah I think the summer the summer programming is going really well I know Magali uh Chief Sanchez is here.

Our numbers are coming in will exceed last year's numbers in terms of participation.

I think ESI and ESY are two that we're really focused on right now making sure that those because we expanded capacity in ESI.

We were actually just speaking about that the other day so we're feeling really good about the summer.

I also think the new registration system has been really helpful for parents making it a bit easier um but we'll give an update certainly in June after the matching's been done and we actually have the full sense of the numbers anyone else I just want to say too that I um spent the two days at in Cambridge with the folks from the Gates Foundation and really a good shout out to our early childhood department particularly Marie and Octi and the team that put together all of the work and made possible visits to 20 schools 7 30 in the morning getting those business from Cambridge over to see everything from K0, K1, K2, first and second grades I went to the Russell school and got to see all of the grades and um it was amazing the the hard work that people were doing and and how well the kids were adapting to the work that was going on in the curriculum.

So we're really happy to see how much they have done to really continuously be improving the issues of the um the curriculum but it was also good to hear with the um not BOA what is it now called meeting um BOA.

What we did on Thursday the the report that came out well the Boston opportunity agenda oh yeah yeah it talked about oh yeah the earlier talked about the improvement in kindergarten readiness and so I think a lot goes out to our early childhood teams about the work that they've done both in BPF schools but also community based providers also in creating very strong curriculum for our youngest yeah we should we should actually make note to get the committee members copies of the VOA report yes.

The chair and I were here and we we launched it uh along with Aisha uh to really I think it highlighted the work that's happening for our youngest learners and we truly are leaders there but we're really just starting to see the um the evidence of student outcome I think on the other end similarly at the secondary level with all of the rigorous coursework students are taking and then how well they're doing with all of it including college enrollment and persistence we again are starting to see it the area that we highlighted that we're working really hard on is that three to eight that create three to eight uh in the benchmarking in there but even within there were a lot of bright spots but just things that we are going to build on so we'll make sure committee members actually get copies of that report thank you for reminding me that chair all right thank you all right thank you all I'll now entertain a motion to receive the superintendent's report is there a motion is there a second is there any discussion objection to the motion is there any emotion any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the superintendent's report is approved we'll now move on to a BSAC update.

Let's try to keep this presentation to under 10 minutes.

I'd like to remind our presenters to please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters.

And I want to invite the superintendent to give introductory remarks.

Ah wonderful thank you chair so I I know that school committee member Noor, a member of the who's a member of BSAC, will present the group's end-of-year report.

This year BSAC's work focused on professional development series of youth-led workshops for adult allies that focused on shifting power dynamics.

BSAC members presented to the adults and spoke to their unique experiences and outcomes as BPS students.

BSAC members worked on essential skills like teamwork, collaboration, public speaking, while sharing their opinions and lived experiences as students.

Students also continue to advocate in both BPS and City Hall on important issues, including our proposed strategic plan, our code of conduct policy, and the proposed AI policy that you'll hear later on tonight.

There are 38 active BSAC members representing 21 BPS high schools.

I'm incredibly proud.

This has been BSAC has such a rich history in the district that I feel very proud and privileged to have been a part of in a lot of my career.

And so the fact that our BSAC representatives are taking the time to really serve and really get out there what youth are thinking and needing in the BPS is a huge service to all of us.

So I just want to really say thank you.

I also want to remind the public that BSAC is going to be holding its annual showcase tomorrow from 3 30 to 6 30 in this room.

It'll feature interactive presentations and student performances.

It's fun, you learn a lot, and you really get to interact with the students.

So you know, if you're able to, please please stop by.

So that uh with this, I'll turn it over to Member Noor.

Um, but just also a big thank you to Denise Rory, who's um been at this for a while and doing such a great job with our youth, um, and uh Tio Auto uh Hammina, who's uh also was here.

Um, but I just wanted to say thank you for um for also supporting and helping with BSAC.

So with that, I'll turn it over.

Um good evening, everyone.

As you may all know, my name is Mahnoor.

I am a junior at Brian High, and I serve as the student school committee representative.

I'm joined today by Denise Rory, director of the Office of Youth Leadership to share some updates on what BSAC has been up to this year.

Next slide, please.

As the school year programming comes to an end, we will end our school year with our annual BSAC showcase.

It is tomorrow, May 7th here at the Bruce C.

Bowling building from 3 30 p.m.

to 6 30 p.m.

The evening will feature tabling and resources from student governments and Aspen Talent, performances from students, updates from BSAC president and vice president.

Um please join us.

It is open to anyone in the BPS community.

Next slide, please.

One of our major focuses of BSAC this year was our student-led professional developments.

These PDs were youth created and youth facilitated.

We shifted power dynamics in the BSAC space to where we were the experts and the adults were there to learn from us.

We shaped our skills and teamwork, collaboration, facilitation, public speaking, and more.

Thank you to the staff who came and supported our PDs.

Next slide.

BSAC continues to grow our partnership and understand the importance of mentoring young leaders in BPS through working with organizations like OneBead, BSAC students visited middle middle school classrooms, and we shared with the students about our experiences in high school and how balancing all the expectations and staying true to yourself.

We also attended their annual high school resource fair and gave students and their parents a firsthand look into our high school experiences.

Thank you to Reynold and the staff of OneBead for your continued support.

Next slide, please.

As you know, BSAC is seen as a vehicle for student voice and decision making in BPS.

We were able to bring our valuable insights and feedback to many departments.

Sorry, to many departments at both BPS and City and Beyond.

We gave feedback and workshopped around the district-wide strategic plan with Stacey and Tunji.

We met with the Office of Information Technology on the student acceptable usage policy and the AI policy.

We also met with the Office of Multilingual and Multicultural Education on their department strategic plan.

There is much more but all to say, we want to ensure student voices, thoughts, and lived experiences are the center of decision making.

Next slide, please.

Our advocacy continues.

Even yesterday, many of us were at the city hall giving testimony to restore the proposed budget cuts to school year programs.

Unfortunately, programs like BSAC are in serious jeopardy.

So our fight for equity continues.

Lastly, we would like to thank and honor our seniors who are moving on, but we'll be connected to BSAC.

Thank you so much for your time, and we will now take any questions.

I have a few questions for you.

Thank you for your presentation.

I'm so honored to be here listening to you as a high school kid.

Uh, one, you mentioned the bridging of disconnect.

Uh, as a topic of your youth-led PD.

Can you say more about your biggest disconnect you presently see or experience between students and school leaders?

I personally feel that the main disconnect between students and teachers are building relationships.

I feel like if teachers are more like they work more on building a relationship with the students, it makes the high school experience more easier for a student because then you have an adult that you can trust and talk to.

So if you have any work to catch up on, or if there's anything going on, you know that there is an adult in the building who can help you with your high school work and everything.

So, yes, we're good.

Have you thought about what supports you is needed or you need to like what supports is going to be a cover?

So cute.

I think that social workers and people who help support like mental health for students, they'll be crucial in that.

Very good.

I have another question on community and engagement.

So you said that you went and presented to middle to middle school.

About your high uh high school expectation and what your high school um expectation and what was one piece of advice or information of wonderful middle schoolers were most surprised about.

Something that the middle schoolers were really surprised about was the early college program.

They did not know that you could go to high school and then by your sophomore year or junior year you could take early college credits and possibly graduate with an associates if you've taken enough classes.

So that was something that they were really like interested, and they didn't really know about it.

So yeah.

One last thing.

Thinking about your end-of-year reflection.

When you reflect, you think about the goals you set, the expectations you set, and the work you did, and how can you do it better?

What is one skill you developed while being servicing as a representative that you didn't expect to learn?

I definitely learned how to work with adults and how to work like collaboratively with other students and BPS because yeah.

And I also learned how to be more presentable, like present.

So yeah, that's pretty much it.

I think you've done a great job with like your scheduling.

You're she's uh she's almost done with her associates, you guys.

So um and she's and she's just a junior.

Um she also runs track, um, and is an active member of her mosque.

So just watching her balance everything and sometimes being like, hey, I can't make it.

I think to me is like a huge thing that our young people can kind of learn from and take from is that sometimes you can't do it all, and it's better to just let me know up front so we can plan.

So I've seen big growth in you there.

Thank you.

So one final thought.

Yeah, okay.

So I want to encourage you to think deeper and reflect on all the work you have accomplished this year, and how you will advocate for other friends of yours to be part of this what you do, the BSAC.

So for me, I've always been the person who spreads the word out about BSAC, because I just love being a part of VSAC.

I remember doing it my sophomore year, and I just knew that I belonged there and it was a place for me.

And I love advocating, and Visa gave me that opportunity to advocate for others.

So I'm always out there telling all of my friends.

I'm like, sometimes I meet random kids from like other schools and like the bus or like BPS events, and I'm like, do you guys know that VSAC does this?

If you guys are like interested in advocacy, like make sure like you guys look into VSAC and everything.

So yeah, I'm like I spread the word out for PSAC.

Thank you very much.

Of course, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

Just to follow up on the uh bitching the uh disconnect.

My thinking is uh the uh the the disconnect uh is pretty much the result of the teachers' uh lack of uh emotional intelligence in my mind, you know.

They they the disconnect should not be uh initiated by the students, it should be initiated by the teachers, and teachers have to be trained on how to acquire or how to express their emotional intelligence in dealing with students.

So the question I have aside from this, I have other questions who would just how how how did you in in that in that endeavor in bitching the disconnect, have any kind of uh ideas, suggestions, uh applies even for our teachers.

Yeah, I got you.

So just to like orient folks, there were three different professional development groups.

So Ma Nor wasn't in which one were you in?

I was in the student experience one.

So um each of all of our students broke out into different professional development groups.

They ideated first about different issues that they saw, then they kind of went through a group process over multiple weeks of creating the workshops.

Um, but I'll just share that some of the solutions that the students came up with, um, were definitely around, you know, building better relationships, but so um, solutions to take back from the students were ask before reacting, do a check-in before a lesson, or um starting like a youth meeting, build a ground of mutual respect, ask for feedback as educators, um balance grace and accountability, and acknowledge the power and balance in the classroom.

So those were some of the um kind of solutions that came out of the different activities that the young people did during the professional developments with the adult allies who joined us.

Thank you, thank you.

Just two more very uh, uh, outside of uh the context, and yeah, those kind of questions.

I thought I have two short ones, first of all, your testimony before the city council regarding um the budget, right?

In your how many were you there to testify or were from VSA?

I think we had about five or six of our youth um testified yesterday, but there were hundreds of youth there yesterday.

So at least five did come up to the podium and some of them their first time, yeah.

Uh that's a political process.

That's pretty much a political process.

How do you feel?

Do you feel that the city council with their straight face uh one way or another listen to you?

I personally did not testify, but I heard my peers testify and I hope they hear us because I personally love working for VSAC and we are paid through this.

So yeah, I hope they listen to us.

I do hope that they take you seriously.

Yeah, thank you.

They should.

That's how I see it.

They should not they show it.

I use a better term, they must.

Thank you.

Um last question.

Your advocacy regarding uh job for students, was it successful?

Well, the students uh job uh doing it somewhere.

Like was our were we successful with filling our jobs?

Yes, in terms of data in terms of uh yes, I think we received 40 slots from Success Link paid positions.

I think we filled 38 of them, or 39 of them, but then we did have some attrition at some point in time.

So some students did either decide they couldn't complete the school year or you know, kind of had to step away and come back.

Um but we were given 40 positions and we filled 38 of our 40.

Oh good.

Yeah, thank you.

No problem.

Good job.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madame Chair.

Uh, when I say uh thank you for the presentation, uh Bizar tiene una muy buena representación con teniendo anor con nosotros.

Thank you very much for the presentation, uh Ms.

Norman.

I would like to say that Bizak is very well represented, having a representative like you in charge.

I like to talk a little bit about slide number five, which talks about advocacy, and I would like to speak on regard in that regard regarding the power, the power that we heard coming from the youth talking about specifically in advocacy itself.

We might think that only a few people showed up, but those few are representing a great amount of youth and many people.

More than a question is a recommendation, I recommend that always try to work in partnership with the parents that is critical and essential.

If we have the children and the youth uniting with the parents, we have a very unique representation power and partnership.

Ustedes son unicos.

Tienen la fuerza.

Tienen la juventud.

Because you have the power, you have the youth, you are the voices, and you are the ones whom can represent Boston Public Schools very well, being on the front lines.

I can see to what it waits.

I can wait to see what is going to happen in the future.

I can't wait to see how successful you guys will be in the future.

So that is my hope.

Keep moving forward.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Rafa.

Thank you for the presentation.

Currently, I think you all are standing somewhere around about maybe just over 25 schools were like represented.

So one of my first questions is did this year see either an increase in representation from different schools, or how are you all faring with that?

I don't remember the exact number from last year.

I'm sorry.

Um, but I do know that we continue to struggle with our alternative schools.

I think you know, we've talked about this many times.

Um, and I think you know, it's just it's a struggle um to also continue to keep young people civically engaged in what's going on.

Um, but I think we've done, you know, a fair job of getting schools that we didn't have representatives before.

So we have a representative from Charlestown High School, Julieta, who we struggled to get students, you know, just kind of from that side of town coming this way is really difficult two days a week after school.

Um, you know, especially our kids in East Boston, they're always talking about the train and you know, getting all the way across town.

So I think those are still things that we're working on and we're still trying to build those relationships.

A lot of those um, you know, communities they require trust, right?

To trust us with their young people to allow us into their spaces.

Um, and so we've been, you know, working to build relationships with those students, but we always like to prioritize um schools that we didn't have representation for over the school year during our summer six-week leadership program in hopes that they'll want to continue over the school year, or you know, we have some young people that just come to us for the summer, um, you know, kids that want to come back um and missed us through the school year.

So we try to balance out and have an eye to target those schools that perhaps we didn't have representation for before, um, give them priority for the summer, and then if um and try to maintain those relationships during the school year as well.

I mean, I appreciate that just attention to trying to broaden the participation of just our students across the district because um the wealth of programming that you all just did in this year alone, you know, speaks volumes to the impact that um that you all have, and along those lines, I'm curious as to how you all are thinking about communicating the like the results.

So I'm thinking about, you know, I'm looking at the the BC social work research study.

So in my first set, I'm like, when is that coming out?

When will like when will folks have access to that, or even thinking about how BSAC is represented even on BPS's websites to even draw attention to like y'all did four episodes of a podcast, and I'm thinking, like, alright, so where do I go to actually listen to that?

And so for families to be introduced to B SAC very early, I think it also starts with how the partnership exists between you all and how the district is actually using its resources to amplify the great work that you all are doing.

So I'm actually very curious as to how you all are getting all this great work out and how can the district better support amplifying it.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, yeah, I think you know, part of it is like we move so quickly, you know, like everything is happening all at once.

So like we were at City Hall yesterday, we are here today, we have the showcase tomorrow, and you know, I have countless pictures in my phones of things that we've done that we just haven't had, you know, the time to tell that story, and I know that um the communications team, they're always reaching out to us if they see us post something on social media, like we had a resource fair a couple weeks ago.

Um, RJ from the team was super ready to be like, hey, I want to cross pollinate this with our other newsletters and get this information out to families.

So I will say they are very like actively trying to support us in that.

I think it just takes, you know, me kind of sitting down or tea sitting down and like taking that time to your point to tell our story.

We do do a pre and post-survey, so kind of just pulling that data out too to share with you guys kind of about um how students feel they've grown over their time with BSAC.

So the information exists, I think it's just about getting it out there.

Um, we're very active on Instagram, which obviously is pretty popular with the the younger generation.

Um, but we'll welcome any parent followers that want to to come and follow us at at BSAC Buzz B-U-Z-Z.

Um, but I will say the the communications team, they they do a good job of trying to be like, hey, you don't forget about us over here.

Um so I think it's more so just our capacity and things are moving so quickly.

Um, but you're right, we do need to do a better job telling our story for sure, and um, you know, representing all the great work that we do.

So no, this that's that's great to me.

It actually I'm I'm thinking about sort of like what the um uh trying to think our like our facilities team that has interns like during the summer and things like that.

I mean, to me, that even what you just described also sounds like who better to know how to market than the students themselves, right?

So that even sounds like an internship opportunity or just a uh an employment opportunity directly, so you know, be able to pay a team of students actually to sort of do some of that work.

Um, but yeah.

Yeah, definitely, and our our college our college students, our junior staff, Josiana Cologne and Nijim Vitel, they're always helping us with the social media piece.

I mean, I'm even a generation away from or two away from our students, so I need help all the time.

They're like Denise, we can always tell when you're posting, because you know, it has certain caption or certain song or whatever.

Um, so you know, us millennials, we get a bad rap on the on the Instagram front.

But the kids have been um active about it as well, and so yes, definitely a space we're just trying to step more into around our storytelling.

Um, and BSEC has done storytelling work in the past as well, so maybe revamping some of that.

Sure, thank you.

And um, I just have one line, sorry.

This um one last question, just particularly on the heels of um what we've seen in the past year, just particularly with school closures and things like that.

Just wondering how BSAC has been faring um in terms of its support for um those student communities, um, yeah, that's I think that's more so on kind of the student support front, like with Chief McCarthy's kind of side of the house.

But um, we have students from ACC, we have students from Henderson, we have students from Cash on our council, our vice president is a senior at Cash.

Um, and so we've been just checking in with them.

Um, you know, how are things going at school?

Are you just you know, do you have you made any decisions about if you're gonna transfer, if you're gonna stay?

Do you need any advice around that?

Um, I've connected with a few parents too, and kind of just given my ideas and perspectives.

Um, we have two sophomores in particular that I'm, you know, thinking about and concerned about.

So just thinking about what are their options.

Um both of them love their school communities and want to stay for as long as they can, which um obviously makes sense, but I think they are feeling the effects um of the closure in that last year, especially um perhaps losing some things that you know maybe they had in the past and the numbers dwindling.

So I think it's important for us to, you know, share those memories.

And I know the community engagement team has also been doing some work around kind of memorializing our schools that are closing.

Um, I think they're gonna be doing some of that work this spring.

So I think it's also about like honoring our schools that um you know may no longer exist, um, but the memories and the experiences and the love and joy that we had there um can still live.

So, thank you.

Thank you so much.

I just want to say I'm amazed about all the work that you've done uh this year.

So, my question is for my and for the older students too.

If you want to share your your thoughts, because living in a very individualistic culture where the youth, I we can feel it-that this this skepticism with the democratic process and for good reasons, and here you are, uh doing so much, in some cases, things you are fighting for things that you are not gonna see the results is for the people that are coming after you, the students that are coming after you.

So what motivates you?

What what give you the the desire to do things that go beyond you and beyond benefiting your person?

What motivates me is definitely seeing that even if I'm like fighting for something that I won't see resulting during like my time while I'm in high school, but when I look at the other kids that are in middle school or like lower classmen, what motivates me is seeing that there will be an impact someday and that we will see results some days, and there will be students out there who will know that the advocacy matters.

And I really look up to Denise and T.

They both motivate me a lot.

I remember I wasn't really this confident advocacy was my thing from the beginning, but I was more like the quieter side, but then T and Denise, these Lillian grads, like push me to be a better person.

I look at them and I see how they're involved so much, and I generally want to grow up to be adults like them and support high school students like me so they can advocate for themselves.

Wonderful, thank you so much.

Yeah, I would agree.

I would say, you know, just like the people that look up to us and like are behind us, like the middle schoolers, elevation school, schoolers, you know, I have a little brotherhood, yeah.

So I when I speak, I always speak for myself, but I also speak for them, I speak for my classmates, my peers, the council members.

What motivates me is the leadership in it and seeing how far that the advocacy can go, not just for myself, but for others, it really has an impact.

And I'm just so grateful to be able to be the vice president for this year and be able to represent such a great council.

The work that we do is really quality, and the work that we've been able to bring in other young people as well.

You know, there's so many other councils in the city, but when we connect with them, they're like, oh, VSAC, where are you guys?

Now we have more of you, I can advocate.

It's just it's just great to see how far the advocacy work is.

Um, thank you, member.

Can you hear me on the microphone now?

Okay.

Um, thank you, Member Nora and Ms.

Rory for the presentation and to all the PSAC members for your contributions.

Um, it is really impressive to see how much work you've done this year, and I wanted to offer a particular thank you for the work you've done to advise BPS departments as things are in process, as things are in deliberation, you're getting that opportunity to participate in that front-end input uh is really valuable and and so eloquent the way you all described that it may not happen in your moment, um, but you're seeing the investment is is really special.

Um, I also appreciate Miss Rory, your you're talking about the time commitment of BSAC and and the investment that students are making and even just getting themselves to where you're meeting with the transportation across the city, etc.

Um, and I just wanted to give you all the opportunity, um, in this space to talk a little bit more about the funding challenge that you mentioned and and what that means and how it usually works and what's later to happen now, and just for the benefit of folks who may not be as familiar um with that.

Yeah, yeah, I can do it.

Um so the there was a proposed budget um from the mayor that proposes um about a six million dollar cut for school year jobs.

Um so that's about eighteen hundred positions.

Um, and the reality is that it would affect programs like BSAC, our students are paid for their time.

Um, and as the superintendent in the chair, no, that was something that was essential for me to put in place when I came into this role, um, because our students deserve to be paid for their time, for their advocacy, for their thoughts, for their innovation, um, for their advice and for their feedback.

Um, and so the reality is is that we could be one of the many programs, hundreds of programs that receives funding to pay our young people um minimum wage at that, fifteen dollars an hour.

They max out at 10 hours a week.

So that's the maximum that they can work.

We also employ two college students who attend Northeastern and UMass Boston are both uh BSAC alum and both uh BPS alum.

And so they can they make $20 an hour.

They can work a maximum of 15 hours a week.

Um and so you can imagine that our young people rely on this money for their phone bills to support their families to support themselves to be able to go to the movies to be able to go out on a lunch date with a best friend.

Um, and it will um it will seriously change the the way in which we can function as a council if we're unable to pay our young people.

Um so those are things that we're you know, contingency planning on our young people have been tremendous advocates, um, writing letters, calling their city counselors, showing up at the city council hearing yesterday.

Um they were there for upwards of three hours.

Um so kudos to the young people who continue to keep fighting in the community organizations that are also doing the same.

Um, and we're hoping that the funding can be restored and that um the city can find the six million dollars to reinstate youth jobs for the school year, um, because summer jobs are great, but they're not gonna meet the need for everyone.

Thank you for that explanation, appreciate that.

My last comment is just that um, you know, to to build off of the curiosity of the other members in terms of the content of that professional development that you all worked on, those three different sessions sessions that you presented to allies, uh, if it's possible to share any copies of that information.

The titles alone um feel like they would be valuable information for us, and I'm sure particularly interested in the um what's that?

Or give the training tools or give us the whole training, but yes, um, but the BPS student experience especially.

Um really interested in how that came together because I imagine that answer varies a lot by student and so just particular interest in that and some of the others as well.

So if there's any material to share, we would love that follow-up.

Absolutely happy to share that.

Thank you.

I just want to say um how proud I am of all of you.

Um I don't know if all members know, but umce every other month I spend an hour or two speaking to the leadership of BSAC via Zoom, and it has been a wonderful experience getting to know Nyla and colleagues and um hearing firsthand of the the critical thinking that they do and also the thoughtfulness around the preparation of the trainings and the inclusion of such a vast array of voices.

Um proud of how they have worked to expand BSAC over these past years, and some of well, many of you were not here through some of the tumultuous times that we've had with BSAC in the recent past and to see them grow into such a thoughtful and respectful group of young people just makes me very proud.

Um, and one of the things is that since you have all of us sitting here, are there other thoughts that you want to share with us of things that you would like us to think about or things that as school committee you think we need to be looking into differently as things go on?

I know we talked somewhat about the impact of school closings on young people and the kinds of things that um we might need to be thinking about differently.

You know, what are what are some of the things that you've learned through your professional development or other work this year that you need to sort of tell us something about something we should be thinking about?

Is there anything there?

Stick on the mic to the phone.

Come to the mic.

Um, so I was in the future of the I was in the future of the future PD.

Um RPD was essentially about um the extra the co the careers and college um opportunities for graduates of BPS.

Um, like myself, you know, I'm a you know BP I'm gonna be a BPS alum.

So a lot of us are kind of forced to go to college, so we want the teachers in the classroom and the staff in the classroom and BPS and the school leaders to kind of help us give us extra other opportunities aside from college, like trade school, cosmetology school.

We want that to be addressed more in school.

We feel like we're kind of like just pushed and forced to go to college, and there's not other resources and um opportunities for us.

Um so I really enjoyed being on that PD just being because I'm you know going through it, um, because you know, teachers they don't always believe in us.

When you're G when your GPA is low, they tell you you can't go to this college, you can't go to that, and there's just not really a lot of opportunities for or or options I would say for BPS students right now.

That's probably why you know we're seeing that high percentage of you know the the the fast vote because you know we kind of all feel like we're forced to go to college because we want to be something, you know.

So that was kind of what that PD was about, the future of the future, because we we are the future.

Yeah.

I would just say to Nyla's point that that exact conversation came up.

We were doing an early college at Tech Boston, um, the mayor and I, and we opened it up to conversation, and that was probably the number one thing young people talked about, was having more exposure to actual career and then option for like if they didn't want to go to Madison and they knew they wanted voced, but they wanted to be able to get that skill and to work potentially in a field.

How could they do that if they were going to a different high school?

So that that definitely resonates.

So it's good.

Anything else, Wanda?

I just wanted to thank you all for um listening to the presentation, and I really appreciate everyone's questions, and that's it.

Great.

So we just I just just on the funding.

Um I I think it it I think the this has been like in BPS and the city just some really stark difficult choices, um, but I really hope that we find a way, whether it's fundraising or restoration for us to find a way to continue to pay for our BSAC representatives.

I think I I was here at a time when we didn't, and I saw the difference because if you were not getting paid, you m you would need to work somewhere else.

And so like that trade-off is just extremely hard for our young people, and the value added is worth so much more than just what you're paid, actually.

So my hope is that there's a creative way to figure this out and potentially some fundraising things like that.

I know on the BPS side we're like all about trying to support and to figure that out.

So just want to say thank you, and there's lots of champions to try to make sure that it BSAC is preserved.

You know, as are other youth jobs, but I think BSAC is a very special type of youth job.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Um, and we're happy and open to work um with anybody who um wants to work with our young people and support our young people.

Um so thank you.

It's great.

Yeah, so we just want to say again thank you for the presentation and thank you to all of the BSEC students for the work that you do representing your peers and amplifying their voices.

Thank you.

So with that, uh I just wanted to say thank you to the committee for the flexibility.

You just have a home situation um that I need to attend to, and so I will be listening to public comment on my transition, and then I will be logged back in probably within about 20 minutes or so.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So we'll now move on to um general public comment as far as 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.

Question on policy matters, maybe discussed with the committee later.

The meeting will feature two public comment peers 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 11 speakers this evening.

Each person would 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 a 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 take your name, affiliation, and where you live before you begin.

Please sign in on Zoom using the name your register 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 slowly and clearly.

I assume you haven't forgotten, but for the record, my name is John Mudd.

I'm a resident of Cambridge and uh the grandfather of a student in the John F.

Kennedy Elementary School.

With the new opportunity and achievement gap policy and the simultaneous development of the strategic roadmap and strategic implementation plan.

The school committee has a unique opportunity at its retreat scheduled for May 20th to rethink its strategies and ensure the kind of alignment, coherence, and coordination of policies and practices that everyone seems to agree is necessary to improve student outcomes.

I would suggest the following key areas deserve priority attention.

First, develop, implement, and monitor SMART goals to reduce achievement gaps.

The school committee and BPS say they are student outcomes focused.

In the retreat, the school committee should make clear that it expects to see SMART goals with annual targets for improving student outcomes in the strategic implementation plan that will be presented to you this fall.

Second, educator diversity.

Teacher and para, racial ethnic, and language diversity is a top policy priority of the school committee and the OAG task force.

But it is not clear from the summary strategic roadmap how diversity will receive focused attention in the strategic implementation plan.

The school committee should again be explicit that it expects to see specific next steps and goals and timelines for increasing teacher and paradiversity in the implementation plan.

And third, increased bilingual education for multilingual learners.

The OAG task force policy is clear about the need for native language instruction and bilingual education.

The strategic roadmap also lists expanding access to bilingual education.

Yet the roadmap also includes the commitment to inclusive education, which assigns multilingual students to English only instruction in SEI or Gen Ed classes with SEL.

This is a fundamental contradiction.

This misalignment should be resolved.

The school committee needs to make the goal of bilingual education with home language instruction clear with a requirement that the development and implementation of a long-term plan with goals and timelines for bilingual education must be in the strategic implementation plan presented this fall.

This is a North Star goal, not the inappropriate inclusion of multilingual learners in English only general education classes before they are ready.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mudd.

The next speaker is Ginger Brown.

Thank you.

I'm Ginger Brown.

I'm also a parent at John F.

Kennedy Jr., John F.

Kennedy Elementary School.

I'm the co-chair of the family council there as well.

I live in Dorchester.

I'm here tonight to advocate on behalf of JFK Elementary for schoolyard improvements that are necessary for the safety of the students there and will allow accommodation for our students as an inclusion school.

As you may know, JFK is part of a pilot program to install geothermal heating and cooling in the building initiated by the renewed Boston Trust program.

This cumbersome project has put our school on hold, destroyed our blacktop, introduced new dangers, and aggravated the neighbors.

While we appreciate that the contractors and the environment department have been working to alleviate these problems as they occur, we're still effectively left without with a situation that lacked foresight, planning, and initiative.

In a year where budgets are being slashed left and right, the parents with JFK had hoped that we could appeal to the city's sense of financial prudence and use the geothermal project as a launching point to improve the school yard next year.

But as it turns out, it's being treated as an afterthought and relegated into the hands of some future administration.

Unfortunately, it is our students who will pay the consequences today.

It is still in the playground on top of wood mulch that's probably older than the students themselves.

The mulch has to be assessed regularly also because they have found needles buried in the mulch.

The play structure needs to be removed entirely, and the mulch needs to be replaced with rubber surfacing.

In addition, that playground is surrounded by a black top, which has a chain link fence around it.

The chain link fence has separated from its foundation, leaving a gap at the bottom that drops to an alley six feet down.

The fence has been compromised by the geothermal drilling and worsened because of it.

It's unsafe for the kids to play near, and it needs to be replaced as well.

My colleague on the family council has urged you before to leave it better than you found it.

This is your job as stewards of the educational system in Boston.

I urge you to appeal to the city's environment department, their facilities department, and the office of budget management to do right by our students and secure the funding to make our playground safe and secure for our children.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sheila Brooks.

I don't think Sheila Brooks is in the meeting.

So we will transition to testimonies on Zoom.

And we will start with our two speakers that require Spanish interpretation.

So our next speakers are Laura Lara Soto, Kenneth Francisco, Julia Morales, Robert Jenkins, Travis Marshall, Joanne Freeman, and Aid Brazil.

Laura Lara Marshall, John Freeman, and Edith Basile.

Laura Larasoto.

Laura Larasoto.

If you can unmute yourself and to your camera.

Laura Lara Soto, you can start.

Laura, pues Laura, pues empassar.

Buenas noches, mi nombre is Laura Lara, soy Leader Juvenil de Programization Community Latino.

Valeria.

We can't hear you.

Can you please interpret?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, sorry.

You know what?

Maybe Juan can you please come up and interpret?

Yeah.

Juan, could you please come up?

Because I think it's easier.

Valeria, so our interpreter Bernard will interpret because we can't hear you for some reason.

It's easier for me.

Laura, could you start again, please?

Laura Puerto Vaya Spacio Interpretar.

Okay.

I am part of a social latina part of the youth program and my name is Lara Soto.

I am a leader there.

I learned part of the classes you pausa for.

I am here to testify on behalf of the Teams and Text Campaign that we are improving that we are having there on behalf of the teachers and in particular it has to do with the use of artificial intelligence.

That is the purpose of my testimony today.

Adelante.

So that the teachers themselves are not getting involved directly in the learning process, a learning process that will provide the fundamentals and the basics that will enable learning.

The teachers are not getting involved in that process.

Which leads into a very high loads of the students themselves, and it does not allow the ability for the students to be able to progress and to develop themselves in the academic part because of the workloads given.

I have to say that it's very demotivating for the learning process.

It is a process that demotivates them for learning.

So you have to consider as well that artificial intelligence is redesigning the traditional methods of learning.

That's what artificial intelligence is doing at this moment.

So I have to say as well that the students are not developing solid academic skills because it leads for the student to compare themselves with the results that artificial intelligence leads to.

So what unfortunately is going to happen in the future is that we will the students replaced by machines if we are not able or capable to achieve the levels at which this machines are artificial intelligence is producing.

So I'm very concerned that the current generations and the future generations are not developing the necessary critical thinking that has to be part of the learning process.

So you have to say as well that there's a level of inability because they're becoming very dependent of any tool that has to do with artificial intelligence.

So we were able to Society Latina, it works as a Latina and everything regarding artificial intelligence, and we were able to identify changes and the modifications that could be implemented at BPS.

Because people couldn't see you too much.

Our next person is Kenneth Francisco.

Kenneth Francisco Japer almost interpreted Kenneth Francisco.

I will not need the interpretation.

Thank you.

You can go ahead.

And tests in the schools.

Personal experience I have is from 12th grade.

When I was studying at Margaret and Mies around the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the use of AI became more prevalent, and consequently, several students began using it to complete their academic work.

No longer after the teachers found out about this and to contract the use of AI.

They began using artificial intelligence detectors like GPT zero, etc.

The one of the main issues with this is that sounds good, but because it prevents students from plagiarizing, but the downside is that since it's not very precise, it could make mistakes and mark something done 100% by a human as having been done by artificial students to some degree.

And unfortunately, I was like a victim of this once.

I had to write an essay about a book.

Was like uh for a final assignment.

We like spent like a whole month reading the group, and then it was time to write the essay.

I was able to complete it on time.

It was a hundred percent like my work.

This is entirely on the book.

It took me about three days to do it.

When the teacher called us individually to discuss the assignment, it was great with a zero because I was easily says that it was a a generated.

Well, was like a two percent AI generated, but yeah.

I wonder why this happened and when I tried to check the source.

30 seconds.

30 seconds.

Uh well, after check the source basically came up with uh link uh direct link for the book.

Fortunately, I was able to discover the teacher and fix it.

And yeah, that's it.

Um I'm attending I maintain that the professor should not use AI to create assignments because while artificial intelligence can be useful in many cases, it's not such a Mr.

Morales, Mr.

Francisco.

Your time is up.

Yeah, okay.

Julia Morales.

Hi there.

Hi, you can start.

Good evening.

I'm Julie Morales, and I'm here on behalf of Sosa Latina, as were our other two at this office.

I'm here to propose the creation of a technology advisory committee, TAC, which would be a standing body with formal recommending authority.

The TAC would include parents slash caregiver seats alongside students, educators, administrators, along with disability and IEP representation built into its composition.

It would meet quarterly and report transparently to the school committee.

Its scope would cover device policies, social media, classroom screen use, AI tools, any other emerging technologies and education for parents in our community.

Another key function would be classroom technology transparency, which is regular reporting on how devices are actually used during the school day across all of our grades.

This would protect the district as much as our families.

Without a formal reporting structure, there are gaps in student internet controls that will go undetected.

The TAC would also play a proactive role, developing shared community norms around technology use and supporting families on emerging issues before they become crises.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Robert Jenkins.

Mr.

Jenkins.

Please accept the prompt.

Okay.

And we will continue our next speaker, Travis Marshall.

Hi, you can start.

Good evening.

My name is Travis Marshall.

I live in Rosendale, and I'm the proud parent of students at the English High School and the Bates Elementary School.

I was pleased to hear skepticism at your last meeting over the application of a for-profit school that relies on AI and tech for instruction in lieu of actual teachers.

This critical eye is especially important after BPS spent time and resources this year working to support families from a different private equity backed for-profit school on the verge of financial collapse.

I ask that the district brings that same critical lens to our own increased reliance on expensive ed tech in the classroom, to say nothing of the recent push for an AI curriculum based on a donor's priorities.

I'm old enough to remember when BPS left to break up large high schools at the whims of Bill Gates, only to later close the resulting smaller high schools when they were deemed unsustainable.

There is certainly a role for technology in school, but education is a fundamentally interpersonal exercise.

The relationship between students, paras, and teachers in a classroom community can make or break a student's engagement.

That connection, slowly built on trust and respect, is what so often leads to what education scholar Mike Rose dubbed moments when the light goes on.

We should be investing in the personal relationships between staff and students, not cutting the support staff positions that foster them.

I hope that as we continue to face strained budgets, we take a serious look at the cost we pay in both dollars and student engagement when we rely on ed tech to supplant the personal connection between educators and students.

While we're being introspective, it's worth noting that aside from the considerable cost barrier, the private AI school claimed to accept and service students with disabilities, which is something a few notable BPS secondary schools largely do not.

And lastly, on the topic of secondary schools, I have to say just that I'm a parent of a sixth grade BPS student, and it is May, and BPS sixth graders have received invitations from several special application schools and exam schools over a month ago, but they won't receive open enrollment lottery assignments until almost June.

This staggered timeline harms students, and it reinforces a hierarchy of value for both students and schools.

We can't keep doing this to our students.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Joanne Freeman.

Hi.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chairperson and Superintendent and the members of the school committee.

My name is Joanne, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Citywide Parent Council leadership team that consists of Thelma, Ajay, Betsy, Yoshima, and Pam Leans.

First, we want to acknowledge and thank the family engagement office and other district offices that have partnered with CPC this year.

Meeting with the Office of Data and Accountability, the Budget Office, and other district leaders have helped strengthen the communication in transparency with families across Boston.

This year, the CPC has continued organizing monthly citywide parent meetings, connecting families to district information and leadership and supporting engagement across school communities, largely through volunteer parents leadership and limited operational support.

Boston Public Schools serves more than 49,000 students and families, speaking over 100 languages with a budget approaching 4 billion.

Strong family engagement infrastructure is essential at that scale.

As the district undergoes restructuring, we are specifically asking the family engagement office to maintain and strengthen several supports that have allowed CPC to operate more efficiently effectively this year.

Continuous assignments of designated family liaison to support the CPC.

Coordination and communication meeting logistics and connections across the district.

Continued translation interpretation support for CPC meetings and communications, continued district-wide promotions of CPC meetings and families' engagement opportunity through communications channels such as the Beyond the Bell newsletter.

A consistent process, each FARFA CP CPC to receive update CPC representative representatives, excuse me, and or family liaison contact information across schools.

Structured quarterly meetings between CPC and the superintendent's office with questions submitted in advance to support productive dialogue and accountability.

With strong operations and financial support, CPC can move beyond simply sustaining meetings and beginning expanding parent leadership.

Develop an improvement outreach accessibly, increasing school level representation, strengthening district-wise communications systems and elevating family voice and more consistent impactful ways across Boston public schools.

Thank you, and we hope to receive a thoughtful response to those requests and continue building this partnership together.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Edith Bazil.

Thank you so much, and thank you, Joanne, for her comments.

My name is Edith Zill, SPEDPAC Chair.

SPEDPAC's state-minute mandated role is to advise the district on matters impacting students with disabilities, elevate family concerns, make recommendations and offer solutions to improve outcomes.

Too often our diligent efforts to strengthen collaboration with district leadership and school committee have required repeated requests and multiple follow-up emails, which often go unanswered.

While we appreciate presenting to the school committee once this year, state guidance requires two presentations annually, but this is not just about scheduling.

The district cannot effectively serve students with disabilities without meaningful, consistent, authentic, and respectful family engagement and supported SFEDPAC leadership.

And we are concerned about the district's move away from authentic family engagement.

SPEDPAC works to strengthen partnerships through joint OSS FedPAC meetings focused on collaboration and problem solving.

We organize monthly joint district family meetings, family resource fair, winter family social and quality parent trainings.

School committee members have attended some of these events, and we are thankful for that.

SPEDPAC is concerned about, however, the deep cuts to family and community engagement staff at a time when the district lacks a consistent, reliable system for family outreach and communication.

As a result, many families report that they are not receiving notices about SPEDPAC meetings and events.

So I am first announcing our next event will be on Thursday, May 28th.

SPEDPAC will host a town hall panel discussion on inclusion led by families, and this is open to all.

We encourage school committee members to attend.

Second, we ask the district to schedule the promised joint meeting with parent organizations.

All three to establish reliable consistent communication, collaboration, and support for parent organizations, especially now in light of the family and community engagement staffing cuts.

Third, SPEDPAC asks the school committee to schedule our required second presentation before the end of the school year.

And I just want to remind you that we are volunteers who use our time to do this work on behalf of families in the district.

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So that's all.

On public comments, thank you, Ms.

Farbex, 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 totaling 1,455,426.

Now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for final comments.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Chair.

So tonight there are three grants, as Chair said, with a value of $1,455,000 426.

This is a continuing rebate totaling an additional 1.1 million dollars for the school year 2026-2027, and it will help to support our 46,000 students district wide.

This rebate is offered by the state for the purchase of electric school buses and will pay for additional electric buses and/or the continuation of the BPS bus fleet electrification.

The uh two other grants total 300,000 or 150,000 each.

The first is the Special Olympics, Massachusetts Unified Champions School Grant.

This is a continuing competitive grant serving between 800 and 1200 students district wide.

The grant supports meaningful social inclusion by bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities to create accepting school environments, utilizing three interconnected components.

The funding will support engagement activities, game days, and youth leadership opportunities.

The final grant is from the Kendall Foundation, New England Food System Grant.

This is a competitive grant totaling 150,000 in the school year 26-27, and again we'll serve all students district wide.

The purpose of this grant is to provide funds for farm to school program development and implementation.

It will pay for farm to school manager compensation and marketing promotion and equipment.

So, Chair, we would ask for an affirmative vote from the committee for the grants before you.

Thank you.

I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee.

Just um I think the superintendent explained this, but just for the clarity as transportation budgets get so much attention, and we have cheap bloom here.

Um what bearing, if any, does this rebate have on our transportation budget, or is this um allocation separate for the distinct purpose that Superintendent Skipper discussed, or does it affect the budget overall?

It uh largely reimburses the cost.

Oh, no.

Not working better.

Yeah, it's better.

Okay, sorry.

Um this grant largely reimburses the cost of buying electric vehicles.

So it affects the program and that it enables us to buy more vehicles than we might otherwise be able to afford, but it does not um offset operating expenses um or anything like that.

So it's really about helping us afford uh the more expensive electric vehicles.

What is the cost of an electric vehicle bus?

I apologize, I don't have that with me, but I get that pretty shortly.

They are quite expensive.

I don't know the exact dollar, but it roughly each electric vehicle is roughly three times the cost of its gasoline comparative.

And is it expected to last three times as long as in a regular vehicle?

I mean, unfortunately not, we don't know.

It doesn't last longer, it has significantly lower maintenance costs.

Uh-huh.

Um, because there are fewer moves moving parts, engine issues, and then we also spend a lot less money on uh propane or diesel or any other fuel.

So I don't think that makes up for the cost difference um in the short term, but um it does uh make the buses smell a lot better, I'll tell you that.

No fumes.

Okay, anyone else?

Wait, so say that again.

The sort of lifespan of the buses the lifespan of the buses is similar to similar okay uh to a uh diesel or propane bus, yeah.

Okay.

Uh but with lower maintenance.

Yeah.

And I know David that we are um supposed to by the year two thousand and thirty.

Their goal is that all electricity electric, we on a base stuff.

Um I think that goal is gonna be pretty ambitious for us to achieve with our current pace and with the um current federal climate um towards electric vehicles.

When we set that goal, we had a more um electric vehicle friendly federal environment.

We were getting a lot of support from the EPA and other federal organizations that is that are now winding down.

I have one more question on the um the 150 uh the new um grant, the New England uh the Kendall Foundation.

Um I heard the uh superintendent talk about farming um grant.

Yeah, it's uh farm to school um it's the idea is getting uh more foods from local uh farms into our into our school lunches.

So my question is do we have a planning bridge of how we're going to motivate our students to participate in you know have these meals?

Yeah.

Um well I can tell you I can tell you what works for my daughter.

Uh, she gets she gets really excited about um uh different school meals.

And I I have to say, as someone who ate a fair number of school meals when I was teaching 15 years ago, uh these look like a significant improvement to me.

Um so I think the main thing that uh seriously though that they're the team is working on is really about uh pairing this with uh culturally representative foods uh from our students' backgrounds and experiences so that you know it's not just the motivated, yeah.

Yeah, it's not just the one slice of turkey and one slice of cheese on white bread that we used to get, uh, but instead I know their empanadas and other um delicious options for my daughter.

I w I want to get her to not just choose the sun butter and jelly every day, but we'll we'll work on that too.

And my other question is around the um the Special Olympics, and um do we have any data on um the qualitative outcomes of the um the re overturning stereotypes and uh reducing bullying?

So I'm I'm very excited to say that in the fall we'll be debuting our new grant outcomes report structure.

Um special thanks to Dr.

Alkins, who's been an unrelenting advocate for that reform uh and improvement.

Sorry, couldn't help myself with the shout out there.

Um so I will definitely make sure that this is one of the grants that we prioritize for your review and feedback as we sort of are able to show a little bit more about the outcomes we're getting from the grants.

So this will come, it'll be coming soon in the fall.

We actually presented we actually presented nationally uh for the work that we've done with Special Olympics Massachusetts.

Uh the National Special Olympics asked us to present um around very specifically the Unified Champion uh school initiative, and um this has just really been very successful um in a number of our uh secondary and middle school grades um of creating unified sports teams.

So we actually have the league.

Um, in fact, we can send out the dates and the locations for school committee uh to be able to go and see some of the games.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Okay, thank you all.

If there's no further discussion, I will now entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented.

Is there a motion?

So is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion?

Is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent?

Hearing none of the grants are approved.

Our next action item is the superintendent's recommendation to withdraw the Boston public schools from the Massachusetts school choice program for school year 2026 to 2027.

You'll recall that this recommendation was presented to the committee at our March 25th meeting, and we held a public hearing on the school choice program at the beginning of today's meeting.

I will now invite the superintendent to offer any final comments.

Wonderful, thank you, Chair.

So um as we presented on March 25th, each year, the Boston School Committee must choose whether or not to participate in the Massachusetts interdistrict school choice program, the upcoming school year, and this has to take place by June 1st of each year.

Uh we're here tonight to ask the school committee to vote in support of our recommendation for the district's continued non-participation in the school choice program.

Uh the rationale for withdrawal from the school choice program has to be shared uh with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education or DESI.

If the school committee members do not vote to withdraw from the school choice program, excuse me, then it means the district agrees to allow non-resident students to attend BPS schools starting in school year 2026-27.

If members decide the district should participate, they must also decide whether to restrict enrollment to certain grade levels, or it's assumed that all grades will be open for enrollment in the fall.

Since this law was enacted in 1994, the Boston School Committee has consistently voted not to participate in the school choice program in order to ensure that Boston residents' students have priority access to all BPS schools.

During the 25-26 school year, none of the communities surrounding the city of Boston participated in the school choice program.

These would include um cities such as Brookline, Dedham, and towns, Dedham, Needham, Milton, Somerville, and Revere.

Um in other words, based on the decisions of past years, Boston we should not reasonably expect reciprocity from any of the neighbor neighboring cities and towns.

We we though having analyzed the interest in allowing students who do not live in Boston to attend BPS school choice program, we don't believe that's the actual right forum for that discussion.

But we do think that there may be some other avenues that we could pursue.

Um we've been able to detail that some districts have language in their collective bargaining agreements, which are known as CBAs, that allow non-resident staff to have their children attend their district schools, but have specific guardrails.

We think this is one idea that's worth exploring, and that is something that we're in intending to do to be able to update the council in the fall.

We do know that anything we do on this particular topic is going to require a robust community engagement process in very specific guardrails to make sure that Boston residents have priority to attend Boston schools.

This is a conversation we'll continue to engage in with the committee.

We'll come back in the fall with some of the lessons that we've been looking at from neighboring districts around us that have anything in their CBAs.

But this again would be outside of the school choice process.

And she's here to answer any questions.

But again, we would in encourage the committee to vote not to participate in the interdistrict school choice program.

Thank you.

I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee.

Excuse me, can I just interrupt?

Could you all members please remember to speak closer to the to the mic?

Okay.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Well, I I'll take the first crack.

Um the superintendent did just mention that uh there are other avenues including um the process of uh allowing uh students of uh out of uh you know uh of teachers who live outside of uh Boston uh who then could attend.

That's what um I are we still following up with that?

Yes, that's exactly what Superintendent Skippers just said.

First of all, good evening, everyone, Madam Chair.

Thank you for having me this evening.

Um this is something that we're actually going to be exploring.

Um we need to uh actually take a deeper dive into data as well as looking at what other um bargaining agreements have, which is what the superintendent just mentioned and other different avenues that may be available uh for us to to take the opportunity to be able to share what that data looks like probably in the fall time um and come back here.

But as Superintendent Skipper said, it'll take a robust community engagement process along with other um deeper dives into data and how other districts are currently doing it for us to present here.

So that process will take a couple of years or at least um a year.

I would say at least a year, yes.

I see.

The other issue that I other issues that I heard was had um if we open this kind of program allowing students from other communities to attend uh our uh Boston Public School, uh maybe on different grid level.

So if there are certain grades that we have such a low level of students attending, is that something that we are also uh that you know that that may be open for open up for students outside of it's definitely something that we would consider um around the decision making um and the processes that we would present to you all for the part of the decision making, but it's definitely one of the data pieces that we would be looking at.

So we're looking at that uh in a year uh also uh ahead of time.

Within the process, yes.

I see.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Um just for the the sake of reiterating, I think the the financial implications of something like this.

Um so opening our district up in terms of if our students are deciding what in theory if another district was to allow for that reciprocity, um the cost that it would be for our district to support that student being placed at a seat outside of the district versus what we would gain from a student coming into our district.

So really difficult to put the exact costs right because it really depends on the needs of the students that we would be welcoming.

But in terms of the interstate, the Department of Education puts pretty much a cap of about $5,000.

And I know is Chief Boom here.

Oh, yep, he is.

Because he can actually talk a little bit more specifically in terms of numbers.

But when it comes to us actually putting a number on what the benefit or the cost would be for students that we welcome into the district, it really depends on the needs of the district that end up coming in.

The needs of the students, pardon me, that end up coming in from other districts.

I understood.

Yeah.

Yeah, I I'm mostly coming up because you called on me, but you actually answered it about as well perfectly.

I don't think I have much to add.

Um if we if students who join us were had disabilities or other costs, that cost would be borne by the district and would be higher than any revenue we receive.

If it's a student who is not an English learner, is not a student with disabilities and is filling a seat that would otherwise be empty, the marginal cost on the district is is actually pretty minimal, and so the additional revenue would be um more than what we receive.

So it is the financial argument is uh it was very much depends on the needs of the individual students who were who would participate.

That's fine.

Just to put that in larger average cost context as well, the five thousand dollars is still a lower average per pupil amount than any Boston public school average at this time, correct?

Even the most efficiently used dollars per student exceeds five thousand per student.

Correct.

Um and that is over five thousand dollars per people.

Well, just I I let me uh ask uh uh following up uh questions.

Just because we are saying that uh the budget allocated per student, let's say 25,000 dollars per student or 30,000 per student, you know, for school year.

Does that really mean that each student will on each student will spend $35,000?

Or is is that that does include costs that are that are absorbed by other uh, yeah.

Okay, it's a great point.

Not necessarily it'll really vary.

Um, and I think um, you know, this is the financial argument is is just one of of several um that we need to review uh before we would consider something like this.

Just also to clarify the pilot again um that the has been brought up in previous years of this discussion in terms of testing the waters around this.

It sounds like the superintendent um and chief you were describing that DESI has a set way that they define allowed pilots that are different from some of the suggestions that may have come from the committee in the past.

Is that correct?

That pilots for the state would be at a grade level with no further restrictions versus by uh a role type such as staff members would be through a different process.

That is absolutely correct, yes.

Yep.

And so as we consider our options over the next year, are both still being considered, or is it more that we've deemed that the DESI provisions for a pilot are unlikely and that we're looking more at collective bargaining and other things, or are both still being explored?

I mean, I think that um we we want to be able to diversify and really generally understand um what our options are.

Um so I envision a process where we're involving the community, we're trying to really deeply understand what are the options, right, in order to open it up, um uh along with cost and other things that we need to consider to make a most informed decision.

Yeah, I would also say that the the examples of um what we've been able to sort of track down with the CBAs are districts that don't use the school choice program.

They instead use the collective bargaining of the of their uh units and they build the guardrail language into those CBAs.

And that guardrail language can be as flexible as needed that they just have to negotiate it.

That's different than the school choice which is actually a set of policy and somewhat binding in terms of uh the cost of reimbursement how you approach it the reciprocity all of that so I think at this point we're really looking more toward uh what this would be like to get it into uh collective bargaining uh as opposed to going the school choice route at this point of time.

And do we have a sense from the districts that use that um method what that funding reimbursement looks like.

Is it more favorable, less the same or is there no fun or I I don't have that at this time but we would do the research for sure.

It's gonna be their chat it's gonna be their chapter 70, right?

It's gonna be their foundational funding.

They're not getting anything on top of that.

So um you know we're we're still we're in the beginning stages of really kind of dissecting the CBAs of the districts that are doing this.

Many of them have guardrails around special education transportation um you know the things that would add in layer cost uh on to us as well as um you know the seat being available only while the employee is an employee of the district so if the employee stops being an employee of the district uh that seat then gets uh taken away so there's a range of ways that districts seem to have approached it uh for the ones that have this but that that's the gonna be the work of doing some good and analyzing this summer um through Chief Sanchez's shop um certainly looking at it from the fiscal standpoint since we fund so much more than the chapter uh seventy foundational funding uh per pupil and um again these seem to be much more leaning toward um staff retention strategy uh and enrollment stabilization as opposed to any kind of uh triggering of uh funding yeah and given the nature of our chapter 70 state aid we would need to have thousands of new students correct before it made uh much of a difference in our state aid so I I wouldn't anticipate this being any way to raise funding for the system.

Yeah this could just be it it it's really enrollment stabilization and uh you know in particular grades and schools and staff retention.

Well okay yeah no I was gonna say that looking at that as a retention strategy does make sense um I'm thinking particularly for um many of our um are our teachers from underrepresented backgrounds and and just you know as an extra added incentive um to diversify the district um as as one reason um also and just you're you're at the the very beginning stages as you said so I understand that um is there any sense across the district that there might even be interest in this from staff or that would be part of the process because we would yes of course yeah we would definitely actually seek um you know through surveys and conversations and and be able to understand the interests right but that would definitely be part of the process for sure.

And I assume that data on how many of our teachers and other staff leave outside the city of Boston is also part of the reach.

That's correct.

Yes.

Okay.

So just to be clear a yes vote means that the district hereby degrees not to participate in the school choice program.

So I will now entertain a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation to withdraw the Boston public schools from the Massachusetts school Choice Program for school year twenty six twenty seven as presented.

Is there a motion?

So we'll thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion?

Ms.

I do.

I like to abstain from the voting.

When we get there, okay.

We'll let you do that in a second.

All right.

Uh Ms.

Pridex, will you please call the roll?

Thank you.

Dr.

Alkins.

Yes.

Mr.

Peralta?

Yes.

Ms.

Polanco Garcia.

Yes.

Ms.

Torres?

Yes.

Mr.

Tran.

Well, just saying a uh uh a little short remark.

The reason why I will upstain.

My limit and my definition of DEI extend beyond just a city.

And I adhere to that principle as a civil rights lawyer for the last 30 years.

I do understand the hardship of the financial hardship.

I do understand the uh the kind of uh issues that we have we will face regarding this, but not until I do see all the information that are secure in the sense that we tried everything and we cannot do anything about it.

Then I may switch my vote, but at this point, I'm not going to go against my my colleagues, so I will abstain.

Thank you.

Ms.

Garrett?

Yes.

Ms.

Robinson.

Yes.

The motion passes with six years and one abstention.

All right.

Thank you.

Our final action item this evening is the fiscal year 26 supplemental appropriation request for 22 million 845,672 to Boston Public Schools in support of a balanced budget.

As you might remember, that this was presented at the April 15th meeting.

I will now turn it over to the superintendent for final comments.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Chair.

So the district uh continues to address uh fiscal year 2026 budget deficit due to several factors, including significant cost increases related to health care premiums in their historically high, as well as inflation, uh out of district special education costs, yellow bus transportation, and uh student food service.

As we've explained in previous school committee meetings, the team has saved 26 million dollars by reviewing and managing the cost of our most expensive programming like transportation and through school and district wide spending pauses.

However, these actions alone are not enough to close the gap.

Our current projections show a remaining FY26 deficit of 28 million due mostly to health insurance and utilities costs.

Tonight we're asking the school committee to approve a supplemental appropriation request for fiscal year 2026 from the Boston City Council for a total of 22.8 million dollars.

This funding will cover the projected overages in health insurance and utilities.

Both of these are areas that are budgeted in collaboration with the city and have seen unusual and unexpected cost growth.

The remaining projected budget gap will be closed through the continuation of our own cost management strategies and use of available grant funding.

The matter requires an affirmative school committee vote before it is sent on to the city council for its review and consideration.

As you know, Chief Bloom is here tonight if you have any questions, um, but we would ask the committee's support so that we can move this appropriation request on to city council.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee.

I have one question.

Thank you, um Chair.

Thank you, Superintendent and members.

And thank you, Chief Bloom, for your presentation on the budget and about the budget.

There's uh the memo uh says that there's a deficit of 28 point million dollars.

The request to this city is 2.8.

What is the plan for the five to 1 million?

Yeah.

Um thank you very much for that.

Um when we so all of this data is based on our um projections as of the end of March.

When we looked at those projections, we felt um confident in first that we would not be able to make up the gap uh of the health insurance discrepancy, but that with the remaining three months in the year, we had sufficient time with our current spending controls to solve the other about five and a half million dollars that's remaining.

Um, and we believe that's sort of the that sort of the overage that we can manage um within our own spending controls that we have in place, and then we also will probably see a little bit of available grant funding as some grants are sort of underspent towards the end of the year, we'll be able to spend them down using um appropriate expenses from the general fund.

Thank you.

That was my question.

Yeah, I think I think my question was more like are there any complications there between the last time we heard an update and now um with our ability to manage that.

I think it was like like five point five.

Yeah.

No, um, I mean, yes and no, there are always some small complications.

We had a couple of utilities come bills come in slightly higher than we were expecting.

Right.

Sort of the tail end of our cold winter and price increases.

We also got some good news on some other spending.

Um, so sort of we're we're still on track very much.

Um right now, I feel very confident that we'll be able to close that five point five um million and and we'll um certainly be able to give the committee another update before the end of the school year about where we are on track for that.

But I I can't I do not anticipate any any bad news, additional bad news coming uh for the current year.

And just as a reminder to school committee, so in the FY27 budget, you saw an initial projection um and budget that we were we were uh allocated, and then the city re ran the projections and realized that even in that short amount of time from the original budget allocation to the spring, the cost of health care went up dramatically.

So as a result, they actually before you voted the FY27 budget, they added in a very large amount of money to ensure we did not run a deficit next year.

Unfortunately, last year for the FY26, that same process didn't happen.

So we were given the projections, you voted a budget, the summer and the fall came, and those projections to everyone's surprise were much higher than what had been projected.

So there was not an opportunity to add dollars into the FY26 budget, except for right now.

So that is the difference between FY26 and FY27 to give you a sense.

Both years show just the historically high instability of the health care benefits, um, and we thank the city for this year having done that for the projection before you voted the FY27 budget.

What the superintendent just shared connects to to my question around looking ahead to next year's budget cycle, and just in light of the overages and some of the projection um corrections midway that we've had to do.

Um what can you walk through maybe some key markers that you are hoping might be present next year?

Whether it's um, you know, communication with the city or reevaluating projections or reevaluating spending at key moments, just in case the um extra provisions that we built in that the superintendent describes are still off in some way.

Are there moments that we as a committee should be looking for in the calendar to do any checks around that?

Yeah, so um in a in a typical year, my answer would be I'll be back before you in December, and that will I'll give you our first update on the budget then based on October projections.

My guess is given what happened this year, we will want to give you an update earlier in the cycle with projections.

So the the big moment for us is usually either the last payroll in September or the first payroll in October, because that's when our um uh teacher count uh is the most steady right in our employee count because many of our employees are hired for a September 1st start date.

It also is the end of our first month of transportation expenses, and we have a good sense of our routes and our ridership costs and other things there.

So, really, that sort of middle of October data is our um best way of knowing for certain.

There's some early indicators we'll be looking at.

Um, so we get some summer indicators around health insurance rates.

Um last year that was our first flag that something was off.

Um, but this year I think the adjustment we didn't that the superintendent was mentioning should have adjusted for that.

So I'm not anticipating um much news news until the until October, um, and then we'll just be continuing to monitor every month with the committee um uh as we get our run rate.

Any other questions?

Okay.

I will now intermit a motion to approve the fiscal year twenty-six supplemental appropriation request.

Is there a motion?

So, thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion or objection to the motion?

Miss Parvix, will you please call the role?

Thank you.

Dr.

Hopkins?

Yes, Mr.

Peralta.

Because I was in here in the last meeting and because personal circumstances has prevented me from thoroughly review the materials.

I will abstain from this vote.

Thank you.

Miss Polanco Garcia?

Yes.

Miss Torres?

Yes, Mr.

Tran.

Yes, Miss Garrett.

Yes, Miss Robinson, yes.

The motion is approved with six years and one abstention.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now transition to our reports.

Our first report is the fiscal year 27 interim salary and non-personnel payments on external funds.

Committee members will recall this is an annual request the finance team makes to the school committee to keep our district moving smoothly.

Let's try to keep this presentation to under five minutes.

Welcome back.

You want to invite the superintendent.

I forgot this one with me too to give introductory remarks.

And then we will hear from Chief Pooh.

This is the Chief Bloom show tonight.

Yeah, I know.

Okay.

So uh so thank you, Chair.

So tonight we are asking uh this body to vote to approve the FY27 interim salary and non-personnel payments on external funds.

Each year the school committee authorizes the district to make interim salary and non-personnel payments on external funds while we are awaiting formal grant awards.

This vote applies to grants that are projected to be awarded for the FY27 and will be submitted for approval at a future school committee meeting.

Approval will allow interim salary payments to be made for personnel paid from external funds as well as encumbrances for non-personnel.

We make this request annually at this time of year for grants like title one that we receive every year, but formal approval doesn't come until the fall.

But we obviously need to hire the staff and the positions to ensure we're ready for the start of school.

School committee members are in receipt of a memo on the topic, which is available at Boston Public Schools.org forward slash school committee with tonight's meeting material.

So at this point, Chief Loom is there.

I will turn it over to him.

Uh thank you, Superintendent.

I think you um covered it.

I'll I'll give my five minutes back um and look forward to answering any questions.

Alright.

I'm now opening up to comments, questions, I have, yeah.

So thank you, uh Superintendent, chair, and members of the committee.

Uh back to you, David.

You're thinking about the two largest grant, the title one, which is forty million and the uh circuit breaker, because this is my first time on you know listening to this.

In the previous year, has there been an instance where the grants included in this interim, the request was not awarded?

Uh no, we have not had that situation happen.

They're uh often awarded for a slightly different amount.

So um the most recent projection I just received from Dassie suggested it might be forty million and eighty thousand for Title One.

So the amount will often vary um somewhat uh, but not significantly enough to impact our ability to uh fund the positions that are being requested.

For most of these grants, the positions only represent a fraction of the amount listed, but we're we are giving you the full amount, so we don't spend all 40 million of Title One on positions.

Um and then for circuit breaker, that's another great example of um we get that reimbursement, we bring it back for the committee in the fall, but that pay that funding pays for a bunch of our out of district uh special education contracts.

It is a legally uh obligated state aid.

We know we're going to get it, but without this vote, we wouldn't be able to contract with the providers of those services until the committee was able to formally approve the reimbursement, which wouldn't happen to the fall, which could lead to a delay in services.

So this vote allows us to take that procedural step.

Um and the commitment that um the committee is making is that any positions on these grants that are not uh funded that the committee would fund them temporarily out of the general fund until we were able to find other funding sources for them.

Question four, nothing.

Do you have a question?

Oh no.

Um just out of this just out of this list, like that like that said how many of these grants do you anticipate perhaps not being funded?

Uh I anticipate 100% of these grants being funded.

Are there oh well I guess my question is more are there any that you feel are more at risk?

Um so most of these grants uh come with a uh many of these grants come with a legal obligation of funding, so Title One we have we legally have to be funded.

Right.

Um the uh Boston children's hospital pilot funding program, uh, they are not legally obligated to give us, but we've already been talking to them about it.

They've assured us it's coming, we know what it's for.

We're just sort of negotiating the final details of what that grant will be.

Um they've been uh uh amazing funder through this program for a number of years.

I have no doubt we will receive this funding, maybe not this exact amount, but enough to fund the positions in the next year.

Um, but so I guess those are technically slightly more at risk because uh it's not like legally binding, like circuit breaker or Title One.

Okay.

Thank you, Volunteer.

Thank you.

Um again, Title One.

Um, fundos del Titulo 1 que algunas colas que no usaron, no utilizaron.

Is my understanding that there are some funds that belong to Title One that were not used by some schools?

Correct.

So, as families, the question is how can we measure the impact of this funds of Title One if there are schools that are not using this funds?

Because there's some uh families that might be interested in using this uh this finances this funds how can we measure the impact?

Exactly.

Uh, families realmente put them as a mere uso, because of ellos.

So it is my understanding that uh did fund this funds are for for the families too to be used.

What is the uh plan ahead in order to be able to convey to the families that those funds can be used by them is if there's any plan in the losses the students are the ones that need those funds yes so our um our primary use of any funds that aren't spent is through um expanded summer school programming um that's our main sort of way we push the money out to families but I would say one of our main priorities is helping schools spend all of their money um it is a it is a repeated comment of mine at schoolweater PD and whenever I talk to leaders of sort of make my job harder and spend all of your money um and so the main thing we do is we've identified schools that uh have had more issues with spending and asked them to create spending plans um specifically proactively so we could understand every plan for every dollar and work with them to get those spending um items and procedures in early in the year so that families are receiving the full benefit of their title one funds evidence in tutoria para los estudiantes ayudando a las familias canesita medible para una rendicion is there any data is there any evidence is there any data that shows uh the give that provides you details regarding this spending how much money was allocated for families that needed this for uh tutors etc that allocation of money is there any data that speaks about the allocation of money that took place regarding this funds yes we could certainly provide you data on on what the spending was by school what what they actually bought yeah insisto much uh I much have to study the nuestra family utilizando los fundos we have to be very cognizant because this is a question that we repeat all the time this uh allocation of money we keep answer asking this question regarding how are we spending the funding that is available to title one we talk about uh schools not spending this funds and that is a question that comes very frequently that's why I'm always emphasizing it how are title one funds being used I appreciate that thank you for that yeah the last question is um I know the McKinney Homeless Dickey van a tener 702 milfondo este is a fundoque study singular it is my understanding that the McKinney funds they claim or they do have 72 thousand dollars available which is the smallest fund available for homeless students that it is my understanding correct is sufficient for las necessidades reales de los estudiantes inogar in Boston is that is is that no it's uh is that the amount itself doesn't you can say that does not cover many students is that sufficient to cover the needs of homeless students in Boston 72,000 it's uh it is a it is a drop in the bucket um but it is the maximum available in that particular funding stream we spend many millions of dollars on top of that in support of our homeless youth from other sources um but that that one grant that is the size of that grant I agree it is uh it is uh unbelievably low amount for the thousands of students we have experiencing homelessness.

And so that's why we are proud to commit additional district resources to support the work is the fundo is especially we talked about title three right now.

We are talking about the availability of uh two million dollars, particularly for English language learners.

So considering our previous conversations regarding the gaps that exist for English language learners.

How is it that this funds from Title III are being allocated to be able to have a measurable impact and impact that could be measured?

Yeah, so um Title III funds are used primarily for three types of supports.

Um first is high quality teacher professional development and supporting multilingual learners, both through literacy instruction and differentiated content teaching.

Um there's also funding used for extended learning opportunities, uh, summer school, after school, um multilingual programming in those times, as well as um parent literacy training and engagement um through community-based practices.

So those are the three main initiatives that are supported through Title III programming, and it is on the list for a grant um summary report uh in the fall, and so we'll be able to give you some more data on that.

A ground outcomes report, I should say.

Thank you.

Thank you, David, for sharing all this information.

Um what I know is about adult education as the first thing there.

So it's it says eight hundred seventy-seven thousand dollars.

Is that a grant that comes from DESI to BPS?

Um it does.

I believe it's actually a I'll have to double check that one.

I think it might be federally funded through DESI, but I can double check that.

All right, so I I can tell you uh if it comes through DESI, that is the money that the state of Massachusetts in combination with federal funds put together for adult education.

Uh and that's around sixty million dollars every year that then is allocated to different school districts and non-profits and other organizations doing adult education.

Mostly that money goes into English classes for adults.

And I think it's the same here, that money will go into English classes, some um high sets and some workforce um workforce development.

Um, I know that out of these sixty million, the the state of Massachusetts contribute around 40 or 45 million, and the other ten or fifteen uh million come from the Federal Government.

Giving this administration, who the this federal administration who has declared English to be the official language of the United States, and at the same time is actively trying to cut any money that they put into English classes for adults, just putting that out, that beautiful contradiction there of yes, English is the official language, and no, we are not gonna give you a dime to help you learn the language.

If that happens, and there is a lot of advocacy trying that that doesn't happen, but let's say it happens and we ended up with 15, 20 fewer million dollars for this grant.

What will happen?

Will that mean that BPS will have to cut the English classes for adults?

So in the current year, we received about 170,000 of federal funding through that pathway.

Um it would put that at risk.

What I would say our typical approach is with this um sort of ongoing entitlement funding at that scale is we will often try and find a way to continue it for one year so that we can return to the committee as part of our budget cycle and make a plan for 28.

So let's say we um let's say we we don't receive that 170,000 for adult education, what we will we would work with the adult education team and with uh the superintendent and leadership to try and maintain programming as much as possible for the current year, and then work together with you and the committee to determine if we can then sort of provide an offsetting general fund contribution um for the in the upcoming budget cycle thank you all right thank you chief bloom and we will take a vote on this issue at the June 10th meeting.

Thank you.

Our second presentation tonight is the Dudley Street neighborhood charter school renewal application.

Let's try to keep this presentation to under seven minutes.

I'd like to remind our presenters to please speak at a slower pace to assist our interpreters and I want to invite the superintendent to give introductory remarks.

Great thank you Chair so tonight um Elijah Heckstall who's the principal of the Dudley Street neighborhood charter school and Jesse Solomon who's the executive director of the Boston Plan for excellence they're here to present on the Dudley Street neighborhood charter schools charter renewal application.

The school's requesting votes on four items the first is the approval of its application for renewal of its public school charter the second is its approval of its accountability plan which outlines its intended outcomes and metrics.

The third is the approval of the MOA or the memorandum of agreement between the school's board of trustees and the Boston Plan for excellence which serves as the school's educational management organization.

And the last is its revised expulsion policy which aligns to updated guidance from DESI.

According to DESI Horace man in district charters are independent public schools that operate under five-year charters granted by the Commonwealth's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The board is required to conduct an ongoing review of charter schools and by the fifth year of a school's operation decide whether its charter should be renewed.

Renewal of a school's charter is based on academic program success on organizational viability and adherence to the terms of the charter.

Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School has been very successful and I have appreciated the partnership between this school Boston Partners for Excellence and the BPS.

We recommend that a charter be renewed the team here tonight can speak to its academic progress and student outcomes.

We are aware that one barrier we know the school has experienced is that the school's current K-5 align uh grade structure does not align with BPS's K6 and 7 to 12 models and we're working with the school on resolving facilities limitations related to the grade configuration this issue is not related to the charter or the actions that we're asking the committee to take I just wanted to make sure that we acknowledge that and assured that we are working you know with um Elijah and with Jesse.

So at this point I will turn it over to uh to both of them thank you thank you Superintendent Skipper.

Okay.

Good evening my name is Jesse Solomon I'm the executive director at Boston Plan for Excellence.

We serve as the educational management organization for the school I'm quickly gonna uh talk about the history of the school and kind of how we got here and then turn it over to Elijah who is our wonderful school leader to talk a little bit about the last five years and performance and where we're going.

Okay.

So the school was founded in 2011 uh in collaboration with the Dudley Street neighborhood initiative um and really the idea was uh to try to craft uh ultimately a pre-K-12 pathway in what that point was the Dudley square neighborhood and now is a Nubian Square neighborhood uh of sort of quality seats and quality options for young people and families all the way through without having to sort of get lucky or know what comes next, but really being able to count on a pathway um and so that began with Dudley Street, and then um in 2015 uh we became the EMO for the Dearborn STEM Academy, which obviously grew up to 12th grade uh I want to give a quick shout out to the Dearborn, which as you know is coming out of turnaround this year and is a level one school.

So I think in many ways that original vision of a quality K-12 pathway is is uh alive and well.

Uh the the school was founded with a three-part mission.

Um the first, obviously, and most essential to provide a high quality education for all students, but also to serve as a driver for human capital development in the city.

We run the Boston Teacher Residency program and prepare uh new Boston teachers in the school and to serve as a partner in improvement in the Dudley neighborhood schools so really to work closely with community agencies, D S and I and others and other schools in the neighborhood and really think about a kind of coalition approach to good schools and good options in the neighborhood.

Uh I'll turn it over to Elijah now.

Um you don't need me to tell you this, but uh I can't actually imagine a harder job than a school principal.

Uh and Elijah came in uh in the middle of pandemic.

I don't think we met anyone in person for the first like 11 nine months, uh, and it's just been an incredibly steady positive presence, able to combine vision, uh love for kids, and just the kind of uh steady approach to implementation that schools need.

Good evening, everyone.

So um Jesse gave a little bit of the history.

I want to talk a little bit about the last uh five years and then kind of what we're looking forward to uh moving after the with this chart of renewal, um, just first by highlighting some of the the accomplishments I think we've made.

Um one is just moving from tier four to tier two uh in the BPS school quality framework.

So we're proud of some of the work that has happened there.

That's a lot of our family information and kind of their feedback, but also like the school's um strives and growth.

Uh additionally, we've moved our accountability percentile from 10 to 16 um throughout the last few years, and then some of our key kind of uh subgroups that we've looked at.

We've looked at their percentages, excuse me, overall accountability percentiles.

Um you see in the slide deck, our high needs, our low income, and our um L's and former L's have done substantially better, and so we're we're excited that to serve the population that we have and that some of the progress that we've seen, um, like any other school, we have a lot of ways to grow.

We'll continue to do that.

But um want to share some highlights and shout outs to the staff who have who have done a lot of that work to make it happen.

Um, you know, we're in we're in region three, so like a lot of the schools in Dorchester and Roxbury, we have similar demographics.

Um, when I got to the school, we spent a good amount of time thinking about what our autonomies were, but also how we were aligning to the district, and so we did put an emphasis on literacy in the same way that the district was, so that we could capitalize on both the district resources and supports, but also think about what strengths and things that we had in the building.

Um, some of the highlights in terms of our progress there is just around especially our foundational literacy.

Uh, we spent a lot of time with staff in terms of professional development, thinking about um what we could do at the lowest levels to ensure that our kids could get to um grade level on reading.

Um a couple highlights I want to share out loud just in terms of our K2 students.

We spent a lot of time um looking at their map data, looking at core phonics data, um, and from you know, the last couple of years we saw a big increase of about from 54% to 83% of students who were meeting or exceeding expect expectations in phonological awareness, which is a big focus in our professional development.

Um, we saw a reduction in a lot of students testing below grade expectations in first grade.

Um, 24% to 3% at the end of the year last year.

Um, and then we saw, especially in our grade two, um, a lot of our reading skills improve significantly for our students throughout, and so um we saw that in our focus areas that we were seeing growth and our teachers were really using that momentum to kind of continue to propel our students.

Additionally, I think uh outside of like kind of the lower school.

If we look at the upper school, our science has done really well, we're right on par with the state average in terms of our achievement, um, and have been just right around that for the past few years.

And then uh we also feel like we've finished really strong, and as a superintendent skipper mentioned, although we want to move into a sixth grade, we have some positive work with our fifth grade and highlighted that as well.

I'm gonna talk pretty quickly because I'm cognizant of the clock that is in front of me as well.

Um, one of the big pieces is that we've uh really focused on internal coherence, and so I think when I got there with COVID, there were so many different things that people tried.

Um, but we also had a lot of different autonomies, and I think that we weren't completely aligned as a school.

So we spent some time really making sure that vertically and across that we were doing the speaking the same language and having the same data systems.

Um we've uh adapted adopted a couple curriculums, so we moved to Illustrative Math, high quality curriculum that Dusty suggests, but also that is used in the BPS.

Um we used to move to focus in our um early ed grades.

We also had every teacher letters trained and all of our special pops teachers Wilson trained so we spent a lot of time making sure the infrastructure and supports for staff were there to make sure that we could do some of this work.

I want to continue to do that and capitalize also on making sure that we can do the right things for our kids and use some of our autonomy but also set them up to be successful in any school in the district.

And I think the most important thing to know is like what are we focused on over the next five years.

Obviously we're a school so our number one job is academics we will continue with this literacy focus, making sure that we align with some of the district priorities so that our staff has the opportunities both to get developed internally but also um throughout the district opportunities, making sure that our highest need students are students with disabilities which we see gaps in our school as well as within the district um making sure that they can catch up to their gen ed peers and that we're serving them really well.

So we continue to think about inclusive efforts.

Superintendent mentioned the facilities fees we want to make sure that we have a sixth grade because that's going to support enrollment I think across the board but also help our students align and have less transitions after they leave us and then continue to support our families holistically through a variety of supports and that's the buzzer.

Thank you.

Okay thank you.

And I'll open it up to members for their questions comments.

Well I'm going to start I know my relationship with the school and the administration with the abundance of question I am going to recuse myself.

Oh well thank no thank you for the presentation it's um it's great just to see the uh the amount of progress that you've had particularly during the pandemic um and just you know kudos to you just for coming in I can only imagine what that's like for a new school leader to come in like during that time.

Um I did have a question um as it related to your next five year slide um you were specifically talking about improving attendance and chronic absenteeism could you speak a little bit to where it is currently and just you know what are the mechanisms that you all are using.

Yeah absolutely so I think when I got there we were somewhere you know the COVID times are really high but somewhere else closer to 30% of the the student population we reduced that um down to around like I think we stand around like 20 21% but obviously that's still not good enough and we're still close but not always meeting our targets each year um from an accountability perspective.

And so we want to make sure that kids across are are obviously continuously going to be in school.

And I think that starts with uh the family support especially at the elementary level and so what is the what are the barriers that are impeding that and then how are we supporting families around the born to school how that anything that they need in order to make sure that they can get their kids there consistently.

That's my question.

Okay.

Just a quick question how many students do you surf every year?

Uh during my time we've been anywhere between two sixty five and two ninety in that range.

And are you seeing uh enrollment decline like the rest of the these it's been relatively stable this year in particular we're uh probably 10 to 15 like we're on the lower end of that um that range that I gave you but overall we've been pretty stable throughout the last five years or six years that I've been there.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you for the presentation and am I down again.

Yeah.

And congratulations on your um congratulations on your successes in um improving outcomes over time and using instructional coherence as a real um anchor to do that.

Um just a clarifying question about some of the um improvement data at the foundational literacy stage and those grades are those map assessments is that per per map yeah um is that from BOI to EOI or is it year over year in terms of like the 54 to 83 that's comparative year to year.

So at the end of the year so that's what we've been looking at.

So like not the same necessarily co-order students but the same grade level.

That's great thank you.

And um was curious also on the five year timeline um as you look ahead have you all um set any kind of measures or targets um at the multi-year level to kind of build on the progress you all are making with proficiency and foundational literacy et cetera are you and your school team kind of setting a uh a target for the next five year process.

Yeah so I think we've done a few different things.

So we've always tried to we have a a variety of metrics.

So I think there's the accountability ones and there's like an internal metrics and so internally we've just tried to improve every single year.

I think when we look at like our family climate surveys and things like that each year annually we're thinking all right how what can we do over the next two three years to get to X mark.

And so it may in some places be incremental like we just want to improve by five percent or whatever the case may be each year.

I think for our um we'll see where we land uh at the end of this school year in terms of like map map assessments and like the some of the academic core data and I think that that will kind of help us determine what it looks like over the next few years.

The the good thing I think is with the layered accountability is that our accountability plans are due in the couple like every couple years anyway.

And so we have to look a couple years in advance on top of what our our charter renewal is each five every five years.

Um and then I think I think my last question and this may be more um for the superintendent or someone um in the space just might be helpful to um narrate um familiarity with the school quality framework for folks who may not be as familiar in terms of how um schools move from one level to the other and you know that accountability system being more specific to our district um having some different criteria and ways to assess what tier a school is just for greater understanding holistically I can certainly add in and I'm I think monitoring Togan's headed headed this way too superintendent.

But yeah I mean in general this is and as you know this is an area that we're beginning to undertake some look at but um you know this the because the variables are fluid year to year um it does mean that there is a changing of tier for our schools um and Monica can kind of go into what specific elements go into it um but what we're looking to do in in some of the revisioning is to create a little bit more of stability um among the tiers so that it's easier for the public and parents choosing to be able to understand what it represents.

So Monica hi everybody um so the school quality framework is a BPS tool that assigns a tier from one to four to every school in the district um so tier one being the highest tier four being the lowest um these tiers are calculated annually and used as part of the assignment system to help determine which schools show up on the assignment list for students across the district.

And so 75% of the school quality framework um is based off of student achievement.

So that's a combination of MCAS access um one of the distinctions between the school quality framework and the state accountability system is that the school quality framework um emphasizes growth over achievement.

And so schools essentially have a different uh a long list of metrics um and we look at progress on those metrics between years to determine and then aggregate all of that together to determine an overall score that score then determines the tier um we can provide some more background information to you all and sort of how that co how that calculation works um but I think another piece of the school quality framework that's important to call out is that every school could be a tier one school.

And when we think about the state accountability system and we talk about percentiles, percentiles um are a ranking comparing a school to every other school in the state.

So every year there will be schools in the bottom 10% of the state.

Because as a normative calculation, that will happen, right?

As opposed to the school quality framework if every school is meeting all of their targets, every school could be a tier one school.

So I don't know if there's any more that's true that you were thinking about thank you.

I appreciate that.

And I did have one final question um not not for Miss Hogan um for the Dudley Street team.

In the current context with the grade configuration being um you know misaligned due to a variety of constraints.

Curious where most often your students matriculate after um and what that looks like knowing every family's journey is different but what are the what are the typical patterns of pathway that you see right now especially being off cycle with the um with most other schools.

Yeah so I'd say uh probably 50% are headed to other district schools and so then depending on um you know most are kind of in the neighborhood so they're they're staying relatively close by um but others may consider other options I think we've seen others go to different charters uh some of the commonwealth charters um and I'd say that's another good 25 to 30% of the students um and then we I think we have a much smaller percentage that may consider like a private or some some other um or MECO or something along those lines.

So I think the I think the I think about half are going to BPS schools would be I guess and the a good another 30, 40% are added to charter schools like Commonwealth charter schools that are not that are independent of the district.

And then there's a like 10% of outside are doing other options.

So that's a a really large loss of like percentage wise as of BPS students.

So I'm just I know it's in the five year plan but um wondering if maybe the um district team or someone can just share and I know this is separate from the charter uh authorization but what is the timeline to try to um sync um the K six versus K5 um knowing that 50% of our students are making choices outside of the district and that has to be some contributor to that.

Yeah so it's a little bit complex I think with Dudley um we had uh if you guys recall Dearborn um actually began in the sixth grade and it was intended um because Tier 1 also fell under um Jesse's portfolio he can speak to but um the the challenge was we were not seeing the students matriculating from Dudley and actually choosing Dearborn.

We see sometimes with the industry course man's uh parents gravitating more toward the idea of charter um as opposed to um uh traditional BPS um so I think there's several schools that we have to solve for that in this space that are a combination of um pilot um or autonomous or in district um we solved the the Russell as you remember they were an off cycle and we were able to reconfigure the grade uh in the classrooms to be able to carve out um sixth grade for them the Mason would fall into this category um as another school that's off cycle um the Alice where we have an interruption at the third grade so this is certainly one of those that we're looking at and looking at that area of the city as well to sort of see what um we might be in the next cycle of uh long-term facilities to address um the difficulty is is Elijah knows I always tease him that he is the world's smallest office he is the smallest principal office I think of anyone in the BPS um but there really is no other room there.

Uh there was an addition done to the building shortly before I came in to add kindergarten space um and at that point, we probably could have and should have thought about addressing the sixth grade, but that construction was completed, you know, five years ago, and um it gave them kindergarten space, but not the ability to expand.

So um long story short, uh member scared is it's an active conversation.

They are uh one of several that we need to address where we see that same flowing out of.

Um, but I do think Dudley is slightly more in the direction of other kinds of charters um or privates as opposed to uh BPS schools.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

This is one more question, I'm sorry.

Um, what is your teacher retention rate?

And can you speak of what kind of support your teachers receive in terms of professional development and things like that?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's actually been very strong.

Um year to year it's arranged, and during my tenure, uh somewhere between eighty-five and ninety-five percent of teachers staying at the school.

Um, and those obviously the heavy majority, I think, who leave or just you know go to another BPS school.

Um, I think in terms of training and support, we've done a couple different models because we've been able to experiment with our schedule in a different way than I think um traditional district schools had, but we embed professional learning in the day, and so uh teachers have their planning, they have a coach, but now we have uh an enrichment cycle with students and teachers at the end of the day.

Our lower school twice a week has uh professional development with um the coach, and our upper school has two days a week where they do that collectively.

Um, and then we still align also to the district half days um so that we can have additional time with the whole staff.

Um, and there's a couple other days that we have abbreviated days that we can shorten that.

And so to be honest, I think our teachers get the best of birth orals because uh they're able to attend some of the district-based professional learning, and then we have our own internal um uh PD that's led by our coach uh throughout the every day, or excuse me, every week.

Great, thank you.

Most of my questions were answered.

I just have one question for you, knowing that this was developed by D S and I and the Dudley Street neighborhood.

What percentage of the students actually live within the D S and I Dudley area?

Uh I would say the heavy majority are, you know, Roxbury Dorchester, I think.

If we're talking immediate neighborhood, um it's probably a I would have to guess a little less than 50%, but kids aren't that far away.

Like 60% of our kids get picked up every day.

Um, so in a lot of them, you know, we can see them walking from their house, right?

Uh so I it's it still feels very much like a neighborhood school in a sense that people are in the community and hanging out there and living there.

Yeah, yeah.

Also I want to say I'm glad to see that you all decided to choose to work with the focused curriculum and excited to see the outcomes of your kids too.

So thank you for all of your work.

And um, we look forward to taking a vote on this at our next meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time, I wrote.

Okay, so our last presentation tonight is a report on the artificial intelligence policy.

Let's aim to keep this presentation to under fifteen minutes, and now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments.

Okay, thank you, Chair.

So, um, I already collect.

All good.

Okay.

Um so in a few minutes we'll be presenting uh on the district's proposed AI or artificial intelligence policy guidelines.

Um, AI is here, and it is quickly being incorporated into our daily lives and our students' learning.

Members of my team are here to walk you through the thoughtful and comprehensive framework and guardrails that we've developed for its use for students, teachers, and families.

This work actually started over three years ago with the release of the district's initial AI guidelines, and this year we've conducted a thorough community engagement process that included more than 20 feedback sessions with over 500 students, educators, school leaders, and community partners, like social lab Latinid, as we've developed this draft policy.

Um we've also heard from students and we've heard from um the community uh many times at public comment about AI and really the yearning for uh a policy that provides healthy guardrails.

Um, this is certainly what the team is proposing a comprehensive policy.

It provides clear guidelines for safe, responsible, and ethical use of AI.

It includes strong student safety protocols and protections.

Uh it has clear expectations for academic integrity and the requirements for AI training and literacy for both students and staff.

The policy defines the boundaries and the guidelines to show how to work effectively within them.

And together they're designed to work as one system.

So here at PPS, we've been using AI to improve how students learn.

As part of the presentation, you'll see a short video explaining how AI is being used at the Elliott K8 Innovation School to support and enhance student learning and outcomes, not replace human interaction or instruction.

And I think several of us attended, you know, the Elliott to be able to see and participate in that walkthrough, and we had an opportunity to be able to talk to students directly and see how they were using it.

In fact, the student that's in the video was actually the student that was in my group, and so you'll hear from her shortly.

We will ask the school committee to vote for the approval of the policy at a future meeting.

But at this point, I think we should just get into the content.

And so it's my pleasure to introduce Lisa Ira, who is our chief technology officer, and Tony Beatrice, who's our deputy chief of teaching and learning, and they will lead you through the presentation.

So Lisa and Tony.

Thank you, Superintendent Skipper, and good evening, members of the school committee.

My name is Lisa Iri.

My pronouns are they, them, theirs, and I am the proud chief technology officer for Boston Public Schools.

I'm joined this evening by my esteemed colleague Tony Beatrice, Deputy Chief of Teaching and Learning.

We're here to present the latest draft of our AI policy, which has been developed with feedback from teachers, staff, students, and families, over 500 members of our BPS community.

This evening, we'll share our current thinking and key updates, and following this meeting, we'll continue to refine the policy before returning next month with a final version for your vote of approval.

This policy is grounded in a simple idea.

AI must serve our values, not define them.

We must protect student privacy and be clear about the benefits of AI while ensuring students have the skills to think critically.

As we prepare for the future, all members of RBPS community deserve the opportunity to develop their AI literacy skills, not so that they are required to use it, but so they can recognize it, question it, and make informed decisions about it.

That is the work before us this evening.

So when we talk about artificial intelligence or AI, we mean systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.

This is not new technology.

We see it in tools today like Google Maps predicting traffic or Amazon recommending products for purchase.

There are two types of AI that are new and talked about and especially relevant today.

First is generative AI or Gen AI.

This is artificial intelligence that can create content.

Tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot can generate text, images, video, and code.

Second is agentic AI, which goes a step further by taking autonomous action, such as scheduling meetings or completing multi-step tasks.

This technology is evolving quickly, and what we're seeing now is just the beginning.

So why a policy and why now?

Generative AI is something that has been in our lives for about three years.

In 2023, BPS published our first AI guidelines and then released version two just last summer, which you can see here on the left.

AI is evolving rapidly, and this is something that we are constantly reviewing and updating.

You can see a more detailed timeline of this work in the appendix of this slideshow.

These guidelines include things like a list of approved AI platforms and tools that have been identified using a set criteria approved by our technology department.

On the right, you will see our proposed AI policy, which, thanks to significant community feedback has also seen several iterations.

The guidelines focus on implementation, providing practical strategies and examples of how AI can be used in classrooms and daily work.

The policy creates the structure that makes that use safe and consistent with clear expectations for ethical use, student privacy, and data protection while ensuring all students and staff build AI literacy.

In short, the policy defines the boundaries and the guidelines show how to work effectively within them.

Together, they are designed to work as one system.

We heard feedback from our sessions from families and staff that since AI changes so much, we really need to look at these guardrails often.

And that's why this policy states we will review it and update it regularly.

As we developed our policy, we work from a core set of values that were informed by our extensive engagement process that you will hear a little bit more about later.

These values are human-centric approach.

We want to ensure AI supports human decision making, not replace it.

Educators and staff remain at the center of all instructional and operational decisions.

Equity and inclusion.

We're intentional about ensuring AI expands access, not perpetuate gaps.

This means designing with and for multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and all communities that we serve.

Purposeful and responsible use.

We use AI when it adds clear value to teaching, learning, or operations.

We also take responsibility for checking accuracy and using it in ways to support not shortcut learning.

Safety, privacy, and security.

Protecting student data is a non-negotiable.

We only use approved tools and ensure sensitive information is handled appropriately.

Transparency and explainability.

We're clear when and how AI is being used.

Students and staff should understand both the benefits and the limitations of such tools.

And continuous learning.

This is an evolving space.

We're committed to ongoing learning, feedback, and improvement as the technology and our practices continue to grow.

It is these core values built by our community feedback that will ground our work in AI at BPS.

We're now going to see these values play out in our next slide.

So we're now gonna watch a short film featuring Annika, a sixth grade student at the Elliott K8 school, alongside her ELA teacher, Tara Korea.

They are using an AI AI tool created by a team of Elliott educators.

In this clip, you will see how student-facing AI can support feedback loops in new ways that build confidence and collaboration, serving as a thought partner rather than replacing the development of foundational skills.

My name is Annika, I'm in sixth grade, and I go to Alliett K Innovation School.

My name is Tara Korea.

I am a teacher.

I teach reading and writing.

We use AI as thinking partners.

We do a lot of oral rehearsing, which is like what are some of the things that you're thinking?

What would you do if you're gonna create that project?

Once the kids kind of did the work, we're like, okay, this is when AI kind of like serves as this great tool where students can get the feedback they need to make those improvements.

I was focusing on immigration and ice and how it has affected many because their identity matters, and some people just strip that away from them.

It gave us like reliable sources to use as articles, and it also gave us more information on it.

It doesn't say like, oh, this is good or this is bad.

I think it really helped me understand all the depths of this topic since it is a really challenging topic.

One question I asked was like, what are the specific things that I could do to enhance my writing?

It told me to improve my explanation, and instead of explaining how the evidence matters, why the evidence matters.

And it like kind of unpacked that for me so I understood it.

Students have improved dramatically.

Even when we were just teacher facing and giving students real-time feedback, we saw really huge growth on students' writing.

And now that we switched it to student facing, we're seeing students collaborate more.

We're seeing students have a little bit more confidence in being able to say, this is what I'm working on, this is what I'm growing, but we want to remind them the benefits of using it as a thought partner, not to use it to do their work and take away or strip away their foundational skills.

I think it's a really good push to have teachers use it for their teaching practice, but also use it to teach students how to use it to best serve them.

I think it's really important because there's going to be more and more AI incorporated to our daily lives, and I think if we start as young people, then we can be more prepared for the future.

So earlier you heard about our commitment to a humor-centered approach to AI, and this chatbot that was used at the Elliott was intentionally designed by educators to promote critical thinking, reflection, and student voice not to bypass learning.

So its purpose was to strengthen strengthen teaching and learning by supporting human connection, not replacing it.

And as you heard from Annika, the AI tools we used, uh did not simply give her the answer, it engaged her in a back and forth exchange that stretched her thinking.

Thank you.

As we take a look at the actual policy before you, you all have a draft of our latest iteration.

We've organized this document into the following sections based on our stakeholder feedback.

One is our vision, core values, and guidelines, right?

This section sets the tone and clarifies that AI is a tool, and it's our people, students, staff, and community, who will remain the focal point.

Two is data privacy and security.

This section responds to the feedback around data privacy concerns and ensures we have proper control over what systems and tools are being used across the district.

Three, AI and teaching, learning, and professional practice.

This is the section where we stress the importance of keeping the human decision made about AI outputs at the forefront.

Four, prohibited uses of AI.

This section is where we address cyberbullying and harmful content generated by AI aligned to newly released state guidance.

Five, student use and expectations.

This section sets clear, developmentally appropriate AI literacy and access for our students.

Six family engagement.

We included this section directly in response to family feedback.

Our families want AI literacy training to remain informed and transparency about how AI is being used at BPS.

Then review and updates.

We acknowledge this is a constantly moving target and evolving technology, so we will update our policy and guidelines regularly based on feedback.

Now you'll hear more about the rigorous engagement process we use to inform and refine this policy.

So this policy has been shaped through extensive feedback from students, families, educators, staff partners, as you've heard.

Over 500 folks have really been part of this process.

Each time, every week that we've been through this, we've had meetings to discuss.

I think this is version eight of the policy that we're on right now.

So it's been an iterative process.

We want to thank the BPS Office of Family and Community Advancement and the Digital Learning Team, who have been part of this the last few months as we've been engaging with all of our partners.

We've had um within these engagement opportunities, been meeting with uh students from the Boston Student Advisory Council, the Academic Mentoring Program.

We had over a hundred students from across eleven BPS high schools who met two weeks ago at our first ever BPS AI hackathon with uh MIT D Day of AI.

We've met with the Citywide Parent Council, special education multilingual family groups, school leaders, partnership leaders, including City Year, Society Latina, Boston Debate League, Boston University, and we're not done.

We have upcoming engagement sessions uh with our family liaisons, BTU leadership, Parent University, Boston Compact, and students with the Boston Debate League.

I think after hearing public comment tonight, we should also reach out to Society of Latina and meet with the students from that organization as well.

Um so we can jump to the next slide and and hear some of the feedback that we've heard um from the stakeholders, and that there's a strong support for a thoughtful values aligned AI policy that keeps human judgment at the center while also recognizing the importance of addressing concerns around privacy, bias, environmental impact, and also maintaining critical thinking.

For policy and procedures, stakeholders are asking for clarity, specifically around guidance on when and how AI can be used, expectations for disclosure and strong guardrails around student data and appropriate use.

Um during one of the feedback sessions, a family member, a parent shared that uh the expectations weren't really fully clear to them, but then we showed them the guidelines, and they were like, Oh, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Um so that was an example for us where we need to be a little more clear that the guidelines and the policy sort of go hand in hand.

We should always make sure that we're we're publishing those documents together.

So that's something that we're taking note as well.

And for training and capacity building, there's a clear need for consistent system-wide training for not only staff and students, but also for families, and we're going to be spending a lot of time this summer to build the resources out for our families that we're going to launch in the fall.

So professional development will not just be for staff and students.

We'll be doing a lot for our families.

So what do next steps look like?

Um we are going to continue collecting feedback in the coming month, refining the policy before bringing it back to you this June.

Um over the summer, we're going to act on what we heard.

We're going to be launching new resources for students, staff, and families, um, so that as a city, we build a shared language of understanding around responsible AI.

Seems like every week we're seeing new platforms, um, new use cases, and this is just the beginning.

We look forward to your questions and feedback tonight and over the next month.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So now I will open it up to questions, comments.

Uh, thank you for the presentation.

I love when you say about the community, the listen the community voice.

It's very important.

Uh today uh public speaking talk to about the people noise machine.

The people need reading critical, no only atravers del Intelligence Artificial, not only through EI, right?

So, you when you mention the involved the community is very important.

I have a timeline for continuum.

I think um is uh for the family, the EI.

It's is here.

It's coming.

Then, it is definitely artificial intelligence, we have it, it is here with us.

Look at that, um buen uso.

What is critically important is we have to give it a good use.

So I do believe personally that we have to give a good use to artificial intelligence, and we have to be able to hear the voices that they were providing their testimony regarding artificial intelligence.

It is very important to hear those voices.

So we will continue asking questions, we will continue here hearing the recommendations, and we will continue involving and hearing to the students and the community as well regarding artificial intelligence.

Thank you so much.

Can I have sorry?

Uh thank you again for the presentation.

Um you got me at critical thinking.

I think these machines could easily take over.

Just kidding.

Um I have a couple of questions.

One is uh how about biases?

Uh AI give you what you give them.

And uh you we always heard the story of the students giving a picture to AI and saying make me look smarter, and it makes them look white.

Um so that's my first question.

How are you thinking?

Is there anything there about the biases of the tool?

Yes, 100%.

It is outlined in the policy as well as the guidelines, um, and our literacy will approach um educating folks around the biases that that do exist because you're exactly right, member Peralta, when you input something into AI, it is going to reflect back usually aspects of dominance culture, white, male, tall, etc.

And so um those are gonna be key concepts, bias, um, and actually, um, in um what am I trying to say, um, mistakes?

Like AI does not give you accurate information.

So we're going to educate our students and staff and family that you cannot simply trust the output as is, you must challenge it.

Thank you.

Um, are we thinking about like this kind of celebrate learning and the and and the process in the classroom?

But are we are we thinking about what we are missing, what we are leaving behind?

I'll give you an example.

When we heard from the VSAC uh students early today, uh, when I asked them about what motivates you, there was a lot about the human connection.

It was about, you know, the mentors that I have, the people that I look after, and and the people that are the students that are coming after us that we are doing this work.

So how can we utilize the tool of AI, but at the same time, uh doesn't uh don't allow it to take over in the development of these relationships and these connections between the students and the teachers and the students and students.

It's a really great question, and I think while this puts into place like the spirit and the values that we want see played out, it will be up to every member of this community to ensure that we hold that sacred because the human connection cannot be replaced.

Um, but again, it will be up to every individual to decide that that is the value.

Great.

Another thing in terms of what we may be missing by using the tool, and I'm gonna give you an example, not citing things that happen between my daughters and myself because in a couple of occasions that has been taken to prove things wrong or right, but I hear stories about a parent leaving notes to their daughters in cursive about their chores, and the students claiming that they cannot read course course coursive letters.

And I'm thinking like what else are we leaving behind and giving it everything to this new technology to take over?

I I don't know like how can we keep the the best of the both both worlds?

Yeah, I mean, for me, and I don't know if Tony has a different approach, but our approach to this has to be collaborative.

We have got to listen to not only the experts in human psychology, sociology, our educators will inform our way forward as the professionals in this space.

So it it will not be decided by just one person, but by our entire community to decide to your point.

What do we want to carry forward and what is important to us as a community?

So we'll get to choose that.

Thank you.

And my last question is we hear through different of these public um testimonies, especially from the students, the concern that this tool, this policy could be used to apply just to them, and that's not fair.

Um I'll tell you many reasons why it wouldn't be first uh fair, but one is is that they are the experts, they are way ahead than me and the teachers about using this kind of technologies.

I heard the other day that you can use the tool to write an article and then ask the tool to humanize it.

And I was like, I was like, what?

Yeah, you can insert errors to prove that it was a human that that wrote it.

Which is so what do we have there?

The the students are gonna catch the teachers making a doing a poor use of the the AI, as we hear from the Sociedad Latina students today, and I encourage you to keep talking to these kids.

Um but tell me about how this tool applies not just to students but also to the staff and the schools.

Yeah, so um you mean about how the policy doesn't apply just to students?

Correct.

Sure.

It does apply to staff, and it puts guardrails into place to hold our staff accountable to using only the district approved tools and only putting relevant information into those tools so that we are not accidentally introducing risk or breach of privacy.

Um, so having clear guardrails with explicit accountability measures around staff use of AI as well.

It does address aspects of academic dishonesty to your point, um, but I think um that will take, you know, sort of a reimagination of our assessment of students learning.

So yes, we will find ourselves, you know, trying to chase our own tails until we rethink how we assess and measure student outcomes.

Great.

So you are saying that uh they have some guidelines on the honesty of a of the academic learning, but how about the the teaching piece?

Yeah, so as part of the guidelines here, the expectation is if an educator is gonna use AI that they're upfront about it from the start.

I would add too that we've been doing a lot of work this year connecting artificial intelligence with our open source uh high quality instructional materials, and we've been making uh chat bots that connect uh our HQIM that's copyright free uh with our panorama suite that houses our student protected data, so it's in a protected walled garden.

Um, and we're beginning our process now of training up all of our school leaders, our regional superintendents, and then our educators as well, so that way educators are not using random AI tools, but what they are using is connected directly to the curriculum and that when they are using it, it's also connected to the students in front of them to make pivots and teaching practice in that moment.

Great.

I think that should be communicated to the students too.

Absolutely.

That's great feedback.

I'm so happy that they asked the bigger questions.

So my questions around the uh policy and the evaluation to measure the success of the policy.

Can you talk about what measures will be put in place to understand what is working after June 2026 vote?

And what specific indicators will be used to identify responsible, safe and effective use of AI.

Yeah, I think most of our AI use as of now is focused around the work of teaching and learning and in direct support of positive student outcomes.

Um, and so it is very new.

Um, you know, and I'm sort of looking at um Tony here to are there measures that we have in place or are those being developed now?

Yeah, so well I forgot to mention as well.

So far, so far we've had over three thousand staff members who have undergone the training, what we call domystifying AI.

So that's our groundwork, beginning of AI, understanding the biases, what it is, um, and with this policy, all staff would be trained.

So I think that's indicator number one.

Um, second indicator that we're looking at is the use of our Solar AI tool for teacher-facing AI and having a bun better understanding of what schools, how many educators, uh, what grade spans, and are we servicing our multilingual learners and students with disabilities best for accommodations and modifications utilizing this tool, would definitely be an indicator of success for us in in teaching and learning in particular.

My other question is around implementation and uh on slide four, you talk about equity and inclusion, and uh and AI literacy becomes the the core focus of uh Boston Public School.

So, in thinking about so it made me think about the pandemic, and we have to put all these uh measurements in place in hot spots and try and help all our kids that are disadvantaged, if you can say that.

So um, can you talk about the plan to ensure that fan that family the students and families that do not have access to uh internet or advanced internet are included in this policy?

How would you support them?

That's a really great question.

Um, I mean, right off the bat, we are a one-to-one district, so every student has access to a Chromebook for their own use.

Um we partner with the city's uh wicked free Wi-Fi and our Boston public libraries to um partner with their hotspot lending programs to ensure um that there is some availability, and then I know there are partnerships in place with providers like Comcast to offer high speed internet at affordable rates for families who may need financial assistance because uh internet is a basic utility now.

Um, so those are a few pathways, and um, I think when it comes to the AI literacy, um, developing materials that we can deliver in community with our families, their family liaisons at their schools, or any of the programs that they're associated with to help bring up their understanding of this technology.

Um, and then in the fall, we will be launching um teachers who will be stipended to teach core AI literacy courses to our schools at the 9th through 12th grade um levels, and then an iterative process over the next few years will be kind of rolling that across age appropriate to the greater K 12 system.

So another question is you know most of our um schools now becoming 7 through 12.

Yes.

So in this granny school high school.

Well it will include seven and eighth at um at the schools that are 712.

Yes.

So that's uh that's something that is going to be in place.

Yes.

So my last one is on the feedback period.

The end is uh the this is in May the end of May it will be a feedback and then we bought in in June can you say a bit more about what this open feedback period is and who is giving feedback to you guys.

Who's involved?

Yes.

So we have some we we have an extensive list um that we can share with you um and and all the members after the meeting of who we've engaged up till this point and then who we have yet to come um but some of the upcoming ones just for your information are um in-person family sessions in community um so going to schools and having in person sessions with those communities we are going to be um hearing feedback from our family liaisons our staff members who serve as that point of contact umass boston um and we have ongoing asynchronous and multilingual feedback through uh a link where folks can read the policy provide feedback um and um those those that will be collected and incorporated in our updates when we bring that to you in June yeah and I would add that we're um meeting with the students at Boston Debate League and two of the students just won a national competition and um their platform was on accessibility of AI as students which was pretty pretty hip.

So those are my questions.

Thank you.

That's about good.

First of all thank you I'm so appreciative to you both for for this presentation um just given of course like AI is is here and I think we've been everyone's been integrated into it for a while now from and I appreciate the introduction sort of showing that gradual um that that gradual journey like deeper into it um you know and so for me I think the biggest concern is around the continued monitoring and who does the monitoring and I'm thinking because it really just shows how we're holding each other accountable so I'm really curious as to how you've already started that work across departments because we are focusing on the teaching and learning aspect from the student perspective from the staff perspective but folks across the district are going to be utilizing AI tools for a number of different things I can point to our social workers I already know AI is utilized in diagnostic practices so there needs to be a continued monitoring and of responsible use so I'm really curious rather than just convening a new task force to sort of monitor this how are how is each department looking from their unique vantage point to say how is AI becoming more relevant in my role and how do I raise the conversation of how to monitor it as we move forward.

That is a great question you know there's a lot of complexity in this and so we are um we're standing up some new some new structures um so essentially, right now we're trying to first um collect all the areas where AI is being used throughout our organization so that we can begin this work to your point to say, is this appropriate?

Does this fit our values and is it aligned um and so it will um with baseline foundational literacy for staff, professional development for our leaders.

Um we will be sort of sitting down to define our thoughtful, purposeful strategy, because again, we want to define that as a community.

We don't want that to be dictated to us by the technology.

And so defining the role of AI in teaching and learning in district operations will be the work of this community over the next several months, and then that will inform our way forward and the accountability structures that we can build off of that.

So it'll it'll be like a uh a miniature version of the strategic plan building process.

So I mean, in in along that, like in along that line, as you all were talking earlier about perhaps what could be metrics that you might even consider like one of the things on at least on the student side, um, student mental health as a as an indicator.

I mean, we already have national data about students' mental health being sort of compromised, particularly with the use of generative like AI.

So it would be interesting to see how our district is faring.

Um additionally, um, we'll have to like we we should definitely talk more about um how this is impacting our opportunity and achievement gaps for sure.

Um it can close if we're talking about adaptive learning tools and things like that, which is a form um of AI, but it could also widen many of like many of the gaps, as with many educational technologies, um, you know, so it's always like a cause of our concern, particularly for the most marginalized communities.

Um, thank you for your work there.

Um, and I think also the the last thing that I'll ask is around perhaps what partnerships um are you thinking about um between the district and maybe community organizations, um, because I really do appreciate you bringing attention not just to the fact that it's our staff and our students, but it's our families that also have to learn about this in parallel.

Um, and so I'm curious if you all are um are thinking about community organizations to sort of help do do a lot of that educational work around um uh critical AI literacy.

I think at this point we're open, right?

Like we're at the beginning of this journey, and I don't want to pretend like we have more than we do.

So um we're open to making those connections, we're actively seeking out partnerships.

Um we don't have anything solid in place yet, um, but yeah, let's talk.

Sure.

If you're watching, and in the last metric, I'll I'll say maybe as a district is to think about as we are utilizing more of this across the district, looking at the environmental footprint that we are leaving as a result of this too as a district.

Um, so that just might be another thing to think about um for monitoring.

Thank you so much.

Um, thank you, team, uh, for the presentation.

Very appreciative of both the process uh and your product, your draft product to date here.

Um the first question, and I really appreciated the slide trying to offer that distinction between the guidance uh and the policy.

And I'm wondering if you could say a little bit more about that, maybe from the perspective of where you imagine um educators living in terms of what they need to be most familiar with, or or where you feel like the PD is going to be focused.

It feels as if the policy is the container, it's the safety, it's the guardrails.

I've heard you use that word, but really a lot of the things I was wondering about the innovation and you know, the Annika's experience, you kind of find more in the guidelines, and so just wondering if that's more best practice, and we're only approving the policy uh and how teachers and school leaders and folks engage with each separately or together.

That I think you're you're right on the money.

So the policy is the guardrail.

We this is something that the district feels strongly about having in place to name um and mitigate the risks that are facing us around AI.

So this is a uh a protection mechanism to come out um ahead of this and say this is what this is this is how we will use this is not how like we will not use it these ways etc.

The day-to-day interaction will come from the guard uh the guidelines and the guidelines really serve as the implementation mechanism the best practices the recommendations um it will house the approved tools list and eventually kind of a library of use cases um you know we've had um a few iterations now of AI fellows teachers who have engaged with this work thoughtfully and built successful use cases in various disciplines um and so we plan to continue that work as well because again it will come from our professionals in the field it will come from our educators um kind of these best case um best use case scenarios so I foresee our day-to-day teachers in the classroom they're interacting more with the guidelines than the policy.

Yeah and the policy you know for me you say it's like that we would be using magic schools that's sort of the the guardrail that they're using there at the at the Elliott and then the guidelines was that as a team it was a group of educators that work together to build that chat bot it wasn't just that one ELA teacher there's a story behind there in that case study and that's what we need to highlight more in version three of the guidelines is is bringing that to life.

But there's a lot of work to be done because we have a lot of things that we are covering in this new policy um and right now the guidelines has like five different areas and we gotta hit up all of these spots in there so there's a lot of work to do uh going forward.

Yeah I wonder if there's a way to bring out a little bit more of the big ideas from the guidance into the policy just to give it more real estate as right now it's just like a hyperlink um and there are a lot of things hyperlinked whereas the guidance is like a whole supplemental document.

I understand why we can't combine both but I'm just trying to think about that.

As you talked about um implementation like moving to implementation of helping educators with best practices and and using AI to accelerate and and close gaps just wondering like what that PD looks like with our limited you know number of hours per year is it school based are leaders learning it first and turnkeying I think there are a lot of really straightforward parts of the policy that could be learned through a a module or an online circular but you know for so many of these new tools people learn best playing with the tools trying it out something very human led maybe ironically so who's doing that PD and and what's that going to to look like yes welcome Dr.

I'm not gonna say no.

Yeah I mean I think these are uh I'll jump in here for a second but I I think you know we're there will be a combination of continuing to like build out the fellow program as examples train the trainers as examples um we do have a certain amount of hours that are part of the contract um and so I, you know, cross units.

And so um that will be an area that we'll look look at for school based PD.

Um we this is also going to be an ongoing um this isn't kind of like a one and done.

And I think numbers Garrett, to your point about um big picture and, you know, versus kind of the more minutiae pieces and like how do we get to some of that?

I think part of this is that this is something that's going to come before you different than other policies that maybe on a three-year cycle or a five-year cycle.

This is likely one that's gonna come more often, um, just because of the how rapid the technology itself is changing.

Um so I this is the w once the policy uh is is in a state that it's passing, that's when I think we can then start to have deeper conversations.

Like we've already started having some conversations with our union partners, but that's when we'll have deeper conversations to figure out, you know, what are the opportunity training pieces and then what are the parts that would be part of our um obligated training that happens each year.

And I'll just add that you know, we do have a dedicated team of digital learning specialists um who have they've they're the ones that sort of um built this work.

They they built the guidelines in partnership with teaching and learning.

They've built the foundational AI literacy courses that are being delivered asynchronously virtually in person, however you want it, they're showing up.

Um, and so they will be instrumental, um, again, partnering with teaching and learning, um, trying to bring about like the most comprehensive approach to this in partnership with our union leaders with teachers at the table, you know, giving us feedback.

Um, but the plan is school leaders will go first.

Um, and you know, uh just a few weeks ago we were able to deliver our digital learning team actually they they spent time in nine sessions in one day delivering this foundational AI literacy to every school leader across the district.

It was a monumental feat.

Um the next question is a little bit weedy.

Um I really already saw some of the voice of students in the policy when we heard public comment today around student concerns when um AI detection tools are used solely um to evaluate whether they're the author of um content, which I think is a really important kind of element to consider um in terms of those um guardrails for teachers as well as for students.

That said, there have been some tools around a long time that detect plagiarism uh and I wonder if there may be a need for distinction or call out between the two, um, because you know, software that detects whether the identical writing has already been published or already submitted through the same software is really important to academic honesty issues at at high school as well.

Um, and I can imagine there may be teacher concerns um with the language currently feeling as if none of those tools could be used.

So would just um wonder if maybe getting more feedback from educators and students around some of those distinct tools and and maybe some of those plagiarism tools have moved more to the AI space.

I've been out of the classroom a while now.

Um, but I I just wanted to flag that those those are often used as thank you.

Yes, and we added since we um met with B SAC, one of the concerns they brought up was that there wasn't a clear um process for if they were accused of using an AI tool but didn't.

Um they wanted something written in the policy that said that they have would have an opportunity to show that they actually didn't and could have their work uh displayed showing their thought process.

So we specifically added that portion in there.

Um and we have heard that some of the tools that specifically before kind of did one aspect have now added other features that are combining.

Um so we'll go back and recheck that.

Thank you.

Yeah, and I'll just say the the distinction we're we're aiming for is that the final decision um that would implicate a student and result in uh disciplinary action or a grade or an evaluation that that sole decision doesn't rest with a software tool, but it is maybe just one aspect of informing the final decision that lies with that teacher or that administrator.

Yeah.

Um my last question um maybe goes back a step uh in terms of um the the amount of technology our students are using and thinking again about that wonderful video and and Annika and her teacher and her teachers really emphasizing foundational skills uh in advance of incorporating these tools um with the research that Dr.

Alkins mentioned in terms of the mental effects of some of these generative um AI tools as well as just the older school research around screen time period.

Um we could really end up in a place where it's just standard to have Chromebooks open.

I mean, I think we're all we're there now.

Um so is there another set of work around thinking about screen time guidelines, um, especially in the early grades or any type of similar guidance to this around when this should be out and it shouldn't be out.

It's yes.

Um, so what we're doing as a district is we're sort of um pressing pause on, you know, refreshing all devices across the district as a result of the pandemic where we had to go one-to-one, um, we sort of set this precedence, and now as you all are mentioning, there's a lot of research around this, and so we are uh next year we're we're kind of taking a pause and where we would normally schedule a refresh of all devices.

Um instead, we're gonna take the time to dive in to this research.

We'll hold um equal uh amounts of feedback sessions with all our various stakeholders, um, and we'll come forward with a new proposal um that reflects where we are in time and um with the new information about our relationship or our reliance on um educational tools uh specifically screens in front of our students.

Thank you.

Yeah, I actually would like to jump in on that one too, which is um I think Lisa's absolutely right that it bears you know more research, um, but a lot of the research is really um not so much screen time as it is around particular kinds of screen time and particularly the linkage to mental health uh with social media interaction.

Um I think we could do a better job in general helping to educate our parents and providing guidelines for our parents about the use of devices, particularly phones, um, outside of school uh and making that research more available to them so that um you know that can support uh whatever um policy they're going to have with their own their own kids about the use of the devices or the phones um outside of the school hours.

Uh I also think we bear responsibility, age appropriate to really look at um the amount of time students are in front of screens versus interactive play and communication.

What I appreciated about what we saw at the Elliott was that the screen time was really a small portion of what the whole lesson entailed.

Um the interaction of the kids, the role play of the kids, um, you know, that you heard Annika talk about um and their own individual work on their own writing piece uh was the predominant thing that they spent the time on.

Um and so that that to me was just like a really good responsible way of balancing the use of the the screen and the tool um with what the goal of the lesson was.

That takes time, it takes intentionality and development and training, right?

Of our teachers and our staff, to your point, Members Carrot.

So I think this is all the complexity of this and the complexity of what happens outside of school and what happens in the summers, um, and at night when students are up late on on screens and video games.

Um so I think this is just a bigger societal conversation, and we as public educators are part of that, um, and need to be part of the solution and raising awareness on it.

Great.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Um, most of my questions have been raised, particularly the one you just did at the end.

But I would one of my questions was do we have an overall tech policy for the district?

I mean, thinking about what happened during the pandemic, and all of a sudden we had computers, we went from computer labs to now everything, and this is a world that's just gonna continue to race ahead of us, and what our kids are able to access at home is gonna far outstretch what we're gonna be able how we're gonna be able to prepare the response in schools and the whole issue of parents too.

I just looked it up.

There's tons of AI software out there for preschoolers, and so how do we help the messaging and how do we rethink our own school day?

Um, because yeah, as we've walked into many schools recently and observed in classrooms, particularly the high school level, everybody's got their Chromebooks open.

Um, and you start seeing it go right down to third and fourth grade classrooms, kids are you know, are more on, they're not reading real books, the the interaction with each other, all of those things.

So, in terms of not only having this policy, it feels like we need a policy of what does a good school day look like in terms of thinking through all of the the list that the superintendent just gave of we need time for this, that we need outdoor time, we need time to look at this, you know, all of those things.

What does that day look like?

And therefore, how do we help teachers construct that day in a world of high tech and in a world where those inequities grow greater because the people who have access to it all are often those who are saying, Well, let's not do it in schools, we don't need it.

But again, we look at, well, who doesn't have access and where do they begin to get that access?

I mean, it feels like there are all of these conversations hitting us at the same time.

So, with the instruction, where's the efficacy?

Where are the val, you know, how do we really push those values that you're talking about so people don't just run to the solution without thinking of it at all?

So you've raised the question, um, around something that I don't think we talk enough about is like well, what does schooling look like in a world of technology?

That's great feedback, and of course, you know, I I think, you know, at least for our teams, that really is the question that drives us.

Um definitely do not have an answer for that because it's big and philosophical, but necessary.

Um, but I we will definitely take that away.

Yeah, thank you, Chairman.

I was glad that I've seen that you've got 500 responses so far, and that's like one percent of our 50,000 kids.

So the question to me is often, who haven't you heard from and where and which communities might you need to dig a little deeper because of lack of awareness or even understanding what the conversation is about and also asking that we should be able to get the training that folks are getting um in the district, or around that basic, you know, demystifying AI because personally a lot of my understanding comes from either what I've seen here or experienced or I ask Siri a lot of things or I ask Alexa a lot of things, you know, those things.

And I watch babies, you know, who clearly understand how to get what they want from these things, and it's cute, but it's frightening at the same time to realize how quickly because it's part of their world.

So I think the more that we also can be part of that education will be helpful.

You got it.

Yes, right.

Well, thank you.

I have one more.

I just want to thank my daughter, Tara, for green and uh in presenting.

She was awesome.

Yeah, well done.

Rock star.

Yeah, very impressive.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, so thank you, and we'll be voting on this at a later time.

Well, now we turn to public comment.

Yes.

Dead Ramanning.

Yep.

Um, thank you, members of the school committee.

My name is Deirdre Manning.

I'm a single parent Dorchester resident, and I have two school two children in public schools.

I just wanted to um touch again on um exam school policy.

I did want to remind the committee and members of the public who may still be listening at this late hour that there is still yet no student outcome data.

It's been three admission cycles since the superintendent committed to providing information on how students are doing at exam schools.

I also wanted to say that tier three and four students continue to have suppressed enrollment because the number of seats per tier is the same in each tier when having the seats change depending on the number of applicants is the only way to ensure that admission rates are the same in every tier.

And this past admission cycle, the cutoff for BLS admission was above 96 in tier four.

This means a very large percentage of high performing tier four applicants did not have access to BLS.

Tier 4 includes a lot of modest neighborhoods.

A friend of my daughter's whose mom rented in a Tier 4 neighborhood is a very good student who was not admitted to the first choice school and was waitlisted at both BLA and the O'Brien.

This student likely had a high composite score and should not have been excluded from publicly funded exam schools because of the neighborhood the student lives in.

Referencing my own community in Dorchester, the super majority of children who live east of Adams Street and south of Ashmont Street, and likely because of two new apartment or condos um across the street from Lamberts.

Now another area of children are in the same situation, and these are students who live further east of Neponsett and south of Pope's Hill.

These students are essentially shut out of exam schools.

That's not fair.

All applic all eligible applicants from all tiers should have equitable access to exam school seats.

Suppressing the GPA of non-BPS students who receive standards-based grades should not be allowed.

If a formula is used for BPS fifth graders to boost their standards-based grades, then that formula should be used for all students who receive standards-based grades.

BPS should not be allowed to favor its own students and what should be an equitable process for all city residents.

That also should include providing in-school weekday map testing opportunities for schools with a minimum number of applicants in city-based charter and parochial schools.

The removal of school-based points no longer essentially excludes city residents who attend non-Title I schools from enrolling in an exam school, but the exam school policy construct still excludes a large percentage of students who live in tier three and four neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any new business?

Yep.

I have I didn't get a chance to do a shout out to the Kenny.

Oh, that uh we went to visit.

And I just want to read it because I I want to be very intentional about who I saw and who I talked to.

So I want to give a shout out to the elementary school, the ILT instructional leadership team, and the uh in inclusive planning inclusion team, and their wonderful teachers for welcoming me in the district to their on track.

They really are on track of inclusion and and happy, it's a happy school.

So the team is very intentional when planning, servicing, and teaching all of our wonderful scholars.

You want to experience joy, you have to visit the school.

And call their wonderful, excited about the work leader, Miss King.

She's excellent.

So I want to give a shout-out to her.

Thank you.

And the school.

Thank you.

Oh I uh yeah, I have uh um just more recently I've had conversations and heard from folks, um, particularly because we're in flux right now with a lot of uh teaching positions and a lot of other positions across the district, and I've heard stories around uh some of their stories around just the process being a bit complicated, um, and trying to make sense of things such as either folks feeling like they are or knowing that they are more certified than perhaps some of their, you know, their their c colleagues, but their colleagues are then being granted interviews at different schools, and so wanting to get some clearer understanding of just the process that um folks are going through.

Um so if we could at our next meeting maybe get an update of just like what's going on in the district, how folks are experiencing that.

Um, uh, be very appreciative.

Yeah, yeah, thank you.

We can certainly we can certainly do that.

We'll have Chief Canty come and update.

Um I know that um we are making really really good progress with our excess teacher pool.

Uh the pair pool is happening uh next week, I believe, um, and schools are just very, very active this year in lots of interviewing um and the hiring process.

So um across all of our schools, I think our messaging has been to try as best we can to uh interview and offer positions to staff who are displaced or had previous experience within the BPS.

I think uh our leaders have taken that uh to heart and are really doing a good job with it, but it can be um it can take a little while for that to work through um with so many different school leaders interviewing for so many different positions.

There's also um the process by which HR is working with candidates who were not renewed in their position at school because of a certification issue, and so they continue to work um very hard to try to get as many of our educators certified as possible to then re-enter for the ability to interview.

So um we will have Chief Canti at the next meeting and make sure that she can provide uh a bit of an update for the on the process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Um just as we are nearing the end of the student assignment system for the for the year, especially with school um students impacted by school closures, it would be great to get kind of a final update on uh where those students landed with getting their choices and then also um as we heard in public comment today, perhaps a good reminder of what our timelines are and um what grade levels receive what information when uh is something important for us to be reminded of and aware of.

So maybe both in conjunction might be helpful as an update.

Great.

Yep.

We'll definitely work on that in a memo form.

Okay.

I I appreciate Dr.

Alkin's uh comment and and uh inquiry, but um I I like to expand on it a little uh a little bit uh uh broader.

The process that I'm I'm concerned about is not only the you know, uh I wanna see I I like to see the uniformity in the process of of selecting candidates to be accessed and uh to be reassigned to other jobs.

I like to see if there is some kind of a consorted effort between the school in uh the administration and the BTU in formulating that process and how does it work out?

You know, how how how does it play out in terms of uh uh the the general overlaw overall of uh of candidates as well as um staff who have been cut or who have been accessed or who have been transferred to other positions?

I'd like to see the the entire un uniformity of that process, including the interaction with the BTU.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that is all I want to say that the next meeting will be a retreat here at the Bowling Building on Wednesday, May twentieth at 6 PM.

The meeting is open to the public and the next general meeting will take place in person on June tenth, 2026 at 6 p.m.

So if there's nothing further, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Is there a motion?

So thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion objection to the motion?

Is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent?

Hearing none, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all and have a good night.

Thank you.

Have a good night everyone, past continues to inspire our presence and shape our future.