Weekly Transcript Round-Up: June 21, 2024
Council cancels hearings this week; School Cmte gets updated forecast on teachers contract, 118 pg report indicts BPS culture, & "long-term facilities plan" ends with 1 merger & 1 closure
ICYMI: BPI’s Executive Director Greg Maynard was on WBZ on Wednesday night, talking to Jon Keller about what BPI’s recent poll said about the major issues facing Boston. Watch the whole segment in our ‘Boston Policy Institute in the News’ playlist on YouTube, and watch a clip below:
This week was to have featured major hearings from both the School Committee and the City Council. The School Committee delivered, with an update on contract negotiations, a report and testimony about the negative experience administrators of color are having with Boston Public Schools, and the passage of the very short ‘long-term facilities plan’. The Council did not deliver: both of this week’s hearings getting cancelled. The vote on Mayor Wu’s budget vetoes is this coming Wednesday, June 26, and the meetings this week would have provided clues on how Councilors are thinking about that vote.
This week’s School Committee meeting had an added bit of context: a rare in-person interview from Boston Public Schools’ Superintendent Mary Skipper on WCVB’s ‘On The Record’ this past Sunday. She presented an overly favorable view of BPS that appears at odds with the state agency charged with overseeing the district and with outside researchers.
Keep reading for more on Skipper’s TV interview, and Monday night’s School Committee meeting!
SUPERINTENDENT SKIPPER GOES ‘ON THE RECORD’
BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper was the guest on WCVB’s ‘On The Record’ this past Sunday, June 16, where she talked about a number of different issues the district is working on, from school closures to transportation to staff diversity. While none of her comments were untruthful, Skipper made a number of statements that lacked greater context and transparency. Specifically, there are three areas that Skipper spoke of that our education expert Erin Cooley flagged:
1. School Bus On-Time Arrivals
Transportation continues to be a major issue for Boston and was part of state’s Systemic Improvement Plan that prevented a takeover of BPS in June 2022. Here is what Skipper said - this starts at about the 4:05 mark of the video:
SKIPPER: Every single year we have gotten better and better. Transportation is a great example. We are up to 90% on time performance within the minute of delivery of a student and 95% at the fifteen. That is very different than it was two years ago.
SACCHETTI: What was it two years ago?
SKIPPER: Two years ago it was down in the low 80’s.
Superintendent Skipper is using numbers for student delivery within one minute of on-time and then within fifteen minutes of on-time. According to a recent memo from the state, BPS remains well short of the goal, which was a key part of the deal Boston made to avoid state receivership. Here is what the Acting DESE Commissioner Russell Johnston wrote in a May 2024 memo about BPS’ compliance:
While the District has not yet met the on-time arrival target of 95 percent, there was an improvement in on-time arrivals from 76.4 percent in September 2022 to 89.3 percent in June 2023. However, through March 2024, the on-time arrival rate is 87.8 percent for the 2023-24 school year.
2. Boston’s Open Enrollment High Schools
Boston’s high schools outside of the five exam schools was another topic that was touched on in the interview. Here is what Superintendent Skipper said starting at the 5:13 mark in the video:
So Dearborn STEM [Academy] is a great example where you can go for a STEM career.
The 2023 MCAS data for Dearborn STEM Academy shows only 5% of the school's 10th graders scored meeting or exceeding expectations on the Science MCAS. Only 2% of 7th graders scored meeting or exceeding expectations on the 7th grade Math MCAS. Why is BPS highlighting this school as a “great example” for STEM careers with MCAS scores in the single digits for meeting or exceeding expectations on science and math exams in 2023?
In the very next line - at the 5:18 mark in the video - Skipper touts the early college results for one of BPS’ non-exam school graduating class:
Madison Park we had eight students, Valedictorian being one of them, that graduate with an Associate’s Degree at their high school graduation.
What was not mentioned is these eight graduates represent about 4% of the 192 students who were in Madison Park’s 2023-24 senior class. Compare that to the 17 students, or about 9%, of 12th-graders who dropped out the previous year in 2022-23. At the 5:40 mark in the video, Skipper says that Madison Park is “going to be the gem of the state.” This is a worthy goal, but Madison Park has a long way to go. Look at this chart comparing Madison Park to other technical high schools across Massachusetts. Madison Park students have significantly lower MCAS scores and graduation rates compared to peer institutions:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb230d6bd-5994-44fe-b871-6fef959f0b93_1260x846.png)
3. BPS’ multilingual learners
Superintendent Skipper went on to talk about the new inclusive model that BPS is moving toward and the investments being made for Boston’s multilingual learners - this starts at the 7:35 mark in the video:
The Mayor invested $81 million in this year’s budget and a large portion of that was going toward inclusive education, expanding our bilingual education, and our dual language. We have a deep commitment on native language access.
Skipper did not talk about the longstanding issues with BPS and multilingual learners, most of which have still not been publicly addressed by either the Skipper or Wu administrations:
In October 2023 9 of 13 members of the English Learners Task Force resigned in protest over the district’s moves on inclusive education. Two of those who resigned wrote in the Boston Globe, “The current plan ignores optimal educational practice, and most educators know it will prove detrimental to children’s education.” One of the authors of that op-ed, Rosann Tung, expressed continued resistance to the district’s plan during recent budget hearings - she is Speaker 23 and her remarks start at the 2:38:11 in the transcript.
In March 2024 Aketa Narang Kapur, the former assistant superintendent overseeing the district’s Office of English Learners, filed suit against BPS “alleging she was pushed out of her role after voicing concerns about the transfer of hundreds of English learners out of specialized programs,” according to WBUR.
To accompany Skipper’s testimony before BESE in May 2024, the Acting DESE Commissioner Russell Johnston wrote a memo that included how DESE “provided corrective action plans for 17 of the 19 proposals,” submitted in January 2024 for multilingual learners, allowing just two to be implemented in Fall 2024.
There are additional issues with what Superintendent Skipper said about the district’s long-term facilities plan, literacy rates and programs, MCAS, and staff diversity.
Again, the Superintendent did not say anything that was actually untrue, but her answers did little to shed light on major decisions taken over the course of the last year that are still not understood even by close observers of the district.
BPI has been monitoring compliance with the agreement that the City of Boston and the state Department of Elementary & Secondary Education signed back in June 2022 that prevented a state takeover of BPS. Check out the latest from our education expert’s analysis on the agreement:
FINAL BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING OF ACADEMIC YEAR PUTS MORE ISSUES ON BPS LEADERSHIP’S PLATE
Many of the issues that were touched on in Sunday’s interview were on the agenda at Monday night’s School Committee Meeting. ‘Last Night @ School Committee’ covered the meeting in their podcast - it is worth listening to.
For the issues that BPI has been following, there were three important actions:
1. Update on contract negotiations with the Boston Teachers Union (BTU)
At the June 5th School Committee meeting Superintendent Skipper talked about how quickly negotiations with BTU were proceeding, and forecast that a new contract would be settled before the current one expires on August 31. At the meeting on Monday, she walked those comments back. Watch the two comments here:
Helpful context was provided by Ross Wilson on the ‘Last Night’ podcast, who spent almost two decades serving the Boston Public Schools including as a Deputy Superintendent. Wilson said that the BTU contracts are hardly ever settled before expiring, often taking months of additional negotiations.
2. 2024’s ‘long-term facilities plan’ update ends with a whimper
After the late May road show of BPS ‘long-term facilities plan’ when Superintendent Skipper went before the state’s Board of Elementary & Secondary Education on May 21, the Boston School Committee on May 22, and the Boston City Council on May 23, it was clear that tonight’s approval would be disappointing. Here is what Superintendent Skipper asked the School Committee to approve on Monday night - she is Speaker 2 and this line is from a statement that starts at the 2:03:55 mark in the transcript:
We're asking specifically the committee to vote to approve 2 things, the closure of the West Zone Early Learning Center and its consolidation into the Hennigan School and the closure of the Frederick Pilot Middle School, the district's last standalone middle school.
Here is what Acting DESE Commissioner Russell Johnston wrote in the May 2024 memo about the district’s progress on a long-term facilities plan:
The Plan does not include future student enrollment projections, which is a vital component to inform future large-scale renovations, mergers, and closures. Additionally, the Plan lacks specific information on an overall timeline by which rightsizing the District will be complete as well as the size and number of buildings needed in the future state.
A note here: earlier this week Boston Indicators, the research arm of the Boston Foundation, put out a report on BPS’ enrollment titled ‘Empty Desks: The Enrollment Crisis in Boston Public Schools.’ One author of the report noted that, “one big finding from this is that the K-2 enrollment for the graduating class of 2035 is 15 percent below the graduating class of 2024.” That means BPS’ enrollment is likely to continue its steady drop for at least another decade.
3. 118 page report submitted to Council, alleges toxic workplace environment at BPS
Though on on the agenda, a lot of public testimony focused on a 118 page report titled ‘Silence Speaks’ that was compiled by members of the Coalition for Accountability and Justice. The report is summed up by Boston.com’s headline:
This report is just the latest in a series of public complaints and lawsuits alleging administrators of color are mistreated within BPS. The Boston.com article went on to describe an earlier public letter identifying the main issues this new report is focused on:
Later the same month, a dozen retired school leaders, signed as Concerned Educators of Color, said the district was “weaponizing” investigatory meetings and placing leaders of color on administrative leave.
On Monday night several people spoke about the report. Two stood out. The first was Deb Falzoi, who was speaking on behalf of the organization that put the report together - she is Speaker 17 and starts her remarks at the 1:07:33 mark in the transcript:
The second speaker was Erica Herman, the former principal of the Gardner Pilot Academy, who was removed under still murky circumstances earlier this year - she is Speaker 20 and her remarks start at the 1:14:30 mark in the transcript:
The unfolding scandal over her removal has been a major focus of public testimony at School Committee meeting and was first reported by Schoolyard News in December 2023. The Harvard Crimson, Boston 25, the Boston Globe and GBH in 2024.
This report appears to have a direct bearing on the first important action of Monday’s meeting: the on-going contract negotiations with the Boston Teachers Union. On page 10 of the report, the authors’ write:
The BTU leadership is aware of the district lies, deceit, and dysfunction surrounding the employee discipline process in these specific situations. Given the conflict of interest in this investigation with the BTU leadership, we did not interview union leaders for this report.
This report raises questions about whether traditional norms of good governance are being violated at BPS. Beyond that, this report and the other public complaints about the systemic discrimination administrators of color at BPS are facing appear to be a major test for Superintendent Skipper and the Wu administration’s commitment to “building a city for everyone, where diversity makes us a more empowered collective,” as the City of Boston’s Equity Statement in part reads.
There is less than a week left in Boston's 2024 budget process and Boston Policy Institute will continue monitoring and explaining as we move towards its end of month finish - for more make sure to follow us on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn.