The School Committee met on Tuesday June 20 for its last meeting of the 2022-2023 academic year. The meeting began with public commenters continuing to address the budget cut of the Understanding Our Differences program and the City’s negotiations with the Newton Teachers Association.
The agenda began with a warm farewell for Interim Superintendent Kathy Smith, and each of the School Committee members present stated positive feedback for Dr. Smith’s performance during the year. This was followed by a unanimous vote to approve proceeding with a feasibility study for the Franklin school project, and then Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Casey Ngo-Miller, who began her position at the start of this school year, gave a presentation on her work during the first year of her tenure. Ms. Ngo-Miller stated that NPS is an “ableist” district and that her work would focus on remedying this shortcoming with methods utilized by antiracism programming.
Following this, Assistant Superintendent Liam Hurley gave a fiscal and operations update as well as a facilities update. NPS Director of Data Analysis Katy Hogue then presented the results of student, staff and family surveys from the Calendar Working Group, focused on which religious holidays to retain or add into future school calendars. School Committee representatives Emily Prenner (Ward 5) and Cove Davis (Ward 8) questioned whether moving the start date of the school year was part of the working group’s report, and Chris Brezski (Ward 2) stated the working group did not issue a recommendation on start date due to ongoing contract negotiations with educators.
Finally, revised PTO Spending Guidelines were distributed to the School Committee for consideration. The meeting replay is available on NewTV.