The October 11 School Committee meeting began with the School Committee chair making a statement regarding the recent events in “Israel and Palestine,” and shared information about the concurrent Interrupting Antisemitism and Hate in Our Community event occurring at City Hall.
Following public comment, the meeting’s regular agenda commenced. A vote for the district to provide an additional school bus for private school transportation was pulled from the consent agenda for later discussion at the request of Rajeev Parlikar (Ward 1) and Chris Brezski (Ward 2). A vote was postponed to a later meeting, while the remainder of the consent agenda was passed.
The School Committee’s non-voting student representative then gave a statement regarding the NTA budget negotiations, after which Tamika Olszewski (Chair, Ward 4) indicated that a quantitative analysis of Newton Public Schools (NPS) educator compensation would be shared at the next School Committee meeting.
Assistant Superintendent Toby Romer provided the Superintendent’s update due to Anna Nolin’s attendance being delayed because she was a speaker at the Interrupting Antisemitism event. The highlight of the Superintendent’s update was Newton North High School’s placement on the College Board’s “AP Honor Roll” for “welcoming more students into AP courses.” The College Board website lists several tiers and categories for its Honor Roll awards, and it was unclear from the update which Honor Roll status NNHS achieved. The School Committee student representative then highlighted the NPS policy of prohibiting sophomores from accessing AP classes.
Following this, NPS Director of Communications Julie McDonough gave an enthusiastic preview of an app called ParentSquare that will be piloted in January, with a targeted district-wide rollout for the 2024-2025 academic year. The app is intended to become the district’s primary communication tool with families, although Ms. McDonough clarified that the existing email communication from the district would continue. Anping Shen (Ward 3) asked whether the app would be accessible in multiple languages, and the administrators confirmed it would be.
Continuing the tech theme, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Renee McCall gave an update on a new web page being created by NPS to share curriculum information across all grades, with a target launch date in January, 2024. The accompanying memorandum to the School Committee included information for upcoming forums to solicit NPS family feedback in the web pages formation.
Further, NPS Chief of Data and Research Katy Hogue gave a brief description of a memorandum regarding designations that certain NPS schools have received from DESE as a result of 2023 MCAS performance and participation.
The meeting replay is available on NewTV.