Adam Bernstein reports on last night’s School Committee meeting in the Fig City News
School Committee votes down proposed Advisory Committee
by Jerry Reilly | Mar 29, 2023 | Newton | 19 comments
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Just announced school budget reductions:
There is an approximately $5,000,000 gap even after the one time expenditures outlined in the Mayor’s budget.
That is going to equate to (according to the Superintendent’s budget report being reviewed right now:
–Maximum class room size of 28 (12 classrooms in grades 3-5 to have 25-28 students)
–Reduced aide support in Kindergarten
–reduced music and orchestra instruction for elementary schools
–elimination of Understanding our differences program in elementary school
–elimination of 2 assistant principal positions
–total loss of teachers and support staff equal to 56 employees
I note that some of the reduction in teachers would have occurred anyway due to fewer kids in schools. They didn’t quantify those reductions.
I’m hoping the city can find additional funds for this coming budget year to reduce these impacts. But there was always going to be repercussions to the override failing. I’ll note that the budget outlines that the Statewide out of district placements are up $1,800,000, health insurance is up $1,700,000, van transportation is up $900,000 and Gas/electrical is up $1,300,000. That’s a total increase of $5,700,000 in those line items alone. These were known increases for the past few months. The Override request wasn’t in a vacuum.
Many of the folks supporting the advisory committee spoke about the health of our school system and parents leaving. Let me leave this question out there: Aren’t parents more likely to leave due to these cuts and our failure to fund the override? How do we improve the school system when we are cutting 45 teachers and increasing class sizes?
And the gap gets larger over the next few fiscal years…
*Elimination of Understanding our differences program in elementary school – I thought this was typically funded by PTOs? My kids are well out of elementary so maybe that has changed. It is usually a guest speaker with parent volunteers facilitating so I can’t imagine this costs. It looks like on the https://understandingourdifferences.org/about/faq/ website you have to pay for their curriculum and some minor material fees. I can’t imaging it costs that much but maybe it is something that can be covered with some type of fundraising funds either through PTOS or NSF.
Newton Highlands Mom: Thank you for your question regarding Understanding Our Differences – while PTOs do contribute to the support of our programming in NPS elementary schools, the operating costs are much higher than what we could ever reasonable ask of PTOs. Our program was founded and created right here in Newton 45 years ago by committed parents. Now, as an independent nonprofit organization, we depend on a yearly grant from the Newton Public Schools to deliver our programs in all 15 elementary schools. While our contribution from Newton is only .01% of the city budget, it has been axed because of the failure of the override to pass. Through the years we have expanded the number of units we deliver and the number of grade levels (grades 2-5). Curriculum updates and technology require funds. Though we still recruit and train parent volunteers to help, we have needed our trained staff to coordinate and deliver the program. We also purchase, maintain and deliver materials to schools for the interactive activities. And, it is one of our highest priorities to provide speaking honoraria to our guest speakers, all of whom are people with disabilities who take the time to share their lived experiences with NPS students and answer their questions.
We were disheartened to learn that our entire grant is being eliminated. It will be challenging for us to raise enough funds to cover the entire amount awarded to us by NPS to deliver the program to all 15 schools. As a very small, local nonprofit comprised of individuals dedicated to inclusion and understanding, we are hoping to encourage others to join us in asking the School Committee, the Superintendent, and the Mayor to reinstate the funding for Understanding Our Differences now, so Newton can continue to be a model inclusive community.
https://chng.it/RnhHrykQm8
I, too, was disheartened to learn that the powers that be had decided not to support UOD. It makes me wonder if they even know what the program is all about. It seems to me that at a time when all we hear about is the growing trend to be suspicious, dismissive and even brutish towards people who don’t look like ourselves, it would seem we need to INCREASE opportunities for young minds to live the life, if only for an afternoon, of someone who faces challenges. As a parent volunteer at Cabot on UOD days, I could see the seeds of empathy being planted. Jenni, I’ve signed the petition and hope others will too. Thank you.
I want to chime in with my unwavering support of Understanding our Differences. As a person with a disability, I have been a strong supported of their mission for many years, and am now on their Advisory Board. This brogram has taught children how to be inclusive and to respect one another, two things that are vitally important in today’s society. UOD is in jepordy of loosing $63K per year if not included in the budget. It is a wonderful program!! Why are we talking about getting rid of it? If you feel strongly about this, I encourge you to sign the petition Jenni linked (https://chng.it/RnhHrykQm8 ), write the Mayor, Superindent, aand School Committee, and make public tesimony on April 12th!
Hi, Although I usually don’t comment here on matters before the School Committee because of Open Meeting Law constraints, I noticed that the NewTV audio failed during my statement at the end of the meeting, so I’m providing that statement here for people to read. (Apologies in advance if I don’t respond to comments or questions here, but, as noted, I have some constraints on doing that.) Always happy to read your comments here and to hear from people individually.
Also, I want to take this moment to thank people for their many types of engagement with me personally during my tenure on the SC. It’s been a great experience, and I hope that I’ve been able to make some worthwhile contributions. That term will end on Dec. 31, and I’ve chosen not to run again. I hope folks will continue to stay in touch and engaged with these issues.
Here’s the statement:
“I’d like to thank so many people who have come out tonight to give their thoughts on the petition before us.
When we began our search for a new superintendent, we conducted one of the most extensive community outreach processes in recent history, including a survey and focus groups open to all. Our School Committee leaders rightly insisted that we codify the result of that outreach into a desired Leadership Profile for the new superintendent. Finding substantial differences of opinion on these matters, a key element of the profile was to find a new “leader who can help the community reach a broadly shared and clearly articulated commitment toward both equity and excellence for Newton.”
Well, we found that person in Dr. Anna Nolin, who takes over the reins in just a few months. She has asked us not to approve this petition, but rather to give her the time to construct her own approach to these complicated issues. She has made clear that she will be aggressive in incorporating community voices during that process. We know that Dr. Nolin views equity and academic excellence as part of the same strategy, and that a great school district can and must have the highest standards for academic excellence together with the highest standards for equity. Dr. Nolin is a sincere, able, and experienced person, and I believe we should respect her wishes and follow her lead on these matters; so I will vote to reject the petition.
As we’ve heard, the petition is before us because well-intentioned neighbors in our community have felt unheard and marginalized for the past few years by the NPS Administration and this Committee when they tried to raise legitimate questions about the direction of the public schools. I sympathize with their feelings. We have not, among other things, held forums like this one within which people can share views and have robust discussions. And, at the local level, parents and teachers both have come to me saying that their entreaties with regard to academic excellence have been shunted aside by system administrators.
Finally, I would say to those in this room and beyond, we cannot expect to build a strong constituency for the importance of diversity and inclusion if we engage in the kind of intolerant or disrespectful approach to diverse viewpoints which we have seen during the past few weeks, especially those viewpoints with which we disagree. This is just not right. I hope that we will all take that home as a lesson from this experience and to try to model for our children the kind of behavior we would hope they would exhibit.”
Well said Paul. I appreciate your acknowledging that a good job has not been done listening to parents (&Teacher). Both are on the front lines seeing and hearing what the kids experience so it is important that their observations and input are heard. It is so important to have two way conversations which have certainly been missing from the last few years. It is also important to listen to differing viewpoints respectfully. Hearing that it is a high priority for Dr. Nolin to get community input is promising. The whole picture should be looked at and a good Administrator shouldn’t be afraid to hear what isn’t working otherwise how can they make it better. It sounds like she may be a refreshing change.
Paul, extremely well said. How soon can you take over as president of the school committee?
Nice to see some of the SC care. Others lean in and make “less” marginalized communities feel unheard. Everything last night highlighted the necessary attention needed for our Black and Brown populations, but ignore the needs of other communities. Most notably our Asian and Jewish communities, which are of material size, are often ignored in our DEI efforts. And its not like there are ever anti-asian or anti-semetic events in our schols…
Shame on you all for your selective inclusion.
Oh Craig…..You haven’t heard ?
I agree that the new superintendent was hired in no small part to address the challenge of advancing both excellence and equity at NPS. She has shown community communication and engagement strength where the previous superintendent showed profound weakness, possibly even disdain. She deserves a chance to try it her way.
I also agree that we need to maintain a respectful, open-minded, and curious discussion about the needs of every student and every family in our schools. We should avoid a zero sum discussion that pits is against each other. Rather, we should keep arguing for the things we support, what we need, and how we see things from our families’ experiences.
Unfortunately, it is easier to put aside zero sum thinking when resources are plentiful. That is not where we are. NPS faces a large and continuing budget shortfall following a voter referendum. It will exasperate challenges of both excellence and inequity, pitting the goals against each other rather than allowing them to complement each other.
There’s a lot of hope and pressure on Anna Nolan to break some persistent cycles of disconnection, dissatisfaction, and distrust while building on the range of great things that also part of NPS and Newton.
Meant exacerbate, not exasperate. Plenty of the second going around as well.
This is kind of tangential to the subject at hand, but: I remember when our kids were in elementary school during the ’90s, NPS established “school councils” — small committees for each school that included parents, administration and staff and which met regularly, both in private and public formats. These were, as I recall, supposed to be a means for parents to gain greater insight into the inner workings of their respective schools, as well as share and pass along concerns/questions to the staff and administration. What I can’t recall is how parents were chosen — I think it might’ve been through the local PTA, but I could be mistaken.
I knew a family in which one of the parents served on the local school council. Seemed to be a mixed bag, experience-wise: The parent in question (who had already done a fair amount of volunteering at the school) certainly got a more in-depth look at how the school functioned, but the committee had no power to enact any changes. So, while the school council parents got a more in-depth look at how the sausages were made, they couldn’t do much to change the process.
Does anyone else remember this?
School Councils do exist. They are mandated by MA law. Yes the PTO holds an election if there are more than the required number of members expressing interest. They are supposed to prepare a school plan. No offense to those who are members but I don’t feel that much is heard from them. They typically have an issue to address each year but I don’t think the general parent population provides any input on what might be useful for them to tackle. I think they are supposed to publish minutes etc. The link on the
NS PTO is broken but I found some minutes though it is unclear on what year this is from.
https://newtonsouthptso.org/school-council-notes-1-4/
It looks like at NS it includes kids and they were discussing stress, APs and grading.
While I, as one of the petition signers, didn’t expect it to be granted, I hope it crystalized for Newtonites the angst that exists in the community around the declining academic standards and the fact that it hasn’t been addressed. I am also disappointed that so many people pitted DEI against academic excellence – it has to go hand in hand! How can the district achieve its DEI goals if it lets academics slide and no one’s learning? Paul is also right that this question has been brought up before the SC and the Mayor, and it hasn’t been addressed, so it makes people thing that it is not a priority, and no one cares. I have gotten so many messages expressing pessimism about the future of NPS. I hope our concern gets addressed soon before it is too late.
The worst cut is the kindergarten aides. When my kids were in kindergarten, I saw how valuable it was to have an aide in each classroom. And many of them went on to become full time teachers in our district, so we have also robbed ourselves of a pipeline of talent.
I watch the SC Advisory Committee Zoom and found it so disheartening. There was no discussion of the petitioner’s concerns and a lot of assumptions based on the ability to read others’ hearts and minds. The only thing missing was pitchforks and flaming torches. To me it exemplified this:
“Democrats are especially unlikely to have friends from across the political divide. Polls show that partisans on both sides view their opponents as “closed-minded” and “immoral.”” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/opinion/campus-free-speech-duncan.html
Everyone throws around the idea of fostering “excellence” in the our schools, but what does that mean? Presumably, we all expect our students to improve their skills and knowledge base, with the help of not only their instructors but, like it or not, their parents and tutors. When I received the Excellence in Teaching Award many years ago, I never declared that I alone fostered whatever progress my students made in reading, writing, and thinking. I felt blessed to be teaching in a community that believed in the centrality of education, and whose parents, if necessary, monitored their children (not too heavy-handedly, I hoped!) to ensure that the work got done.
Students improve, I believe, in the same way that girls I coached tennis did: through practice, effort, and proper instruction. You can’t get better if you don’t try or pay attention; practice with frequency; and receive feedback, encouragement, and instruction.
Hence, my bewilderment with those who downplay the importance of homework. I assigned lots of reading and writing, and I monitored students carefully to make sure they did their work, because they wouldn’t improve without reading carefully and writing and revising. That required of me hours spent reading their work and offering instructive commentary. In class we studied the elements of grammar and style together.
Some of that reading and writing has to happen at home. How can a student improve if reading only three books or writing but three compositions an entire year? If a home environment doesn’t provide the privacy and quiet that homework requires, then the schools should offer after-school supervision to see that all students have the opportunity to improve academically. That would be true equity, in my opinion.
Bob we need more commentary from you.