“Couldn’t be more different than last summer” — Superintendent Anna Nolin
Superintendent Anna Nolin and all nine members of the School Committee, including Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, met for approximately three hours starting at 4:30PM on July 24 for a summer session to begin to plan the Newton Public Schools (NPS) 2024-2025 school year.
Two new NPS Central Office hires — Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Dr. Gene Roundtree and Director of Communications and Family Engagement Christina Maryland — were present and conversing with Committee members prior to the start of the meeting before departing. The Fig City News reporter was the only other person present. The meeting was not recorded.
After an initial icebreaking exercise wherein members shared personal values, the Committee discussed a wide range of topics in a more open and conversational manner than in their typical meetings, when the Committee Chair must recognize a member prior to their speaking. Superintendent Nolin generally led the discussion by sharing updates, previewing plans for the coming year, asking for guidance, and answering questions from Committee members.
Communications. NPS communications to the community was discussed, particularly regarding sensitive political and global events. Some members felt that any communication that was not solely focused on what NPS is providing students who are processing world events, but instead was aimed at messaging to the wider community, was inappropriate and would always offend some members of the community not aligned with the message. Other members expressed that the community has been conditioned to expect NPS’s view on major topics, and it would be “callous” to avoid acknowledging when families are experiencing trauma due to certain events. The hypothetical example used was if the assassination attempt of Donald Trump occurred during the school year.
Superintendent Nolin stated the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (MASS) — of which Dr. Nolin is one of eight regional Presidents — is preparing communication guidance for school districts ahead of the upcoming national election. Dr. Nolin alluded to the paradox that a hallmark of crisis management is to “over-communicate”, however this is often counterproductive in the context of sensitive political messages from NPS to the wider community.
Structure and emphasis of regular School Committee meetings. The Committee members spent considerable time discussing which topics should be on regular meeting agendas, with some debate over how much of the administrator and principal-level presentations should be basic facts versus current, salient data about NPS’s schools and departments. A Committee member described this dynamic as “the right topics and not a dog-and-pony show.”
Academic metrics and data collection. Multiple Committee members shared personal experiences of difficulties in the past in receiving clear feedback about their child’s academic progress. Dr. Nolin replied there was a “lack of training in data analytics” among NPS administrators, and that the NPS Central Office was still working on improved data analysis relative to previous years. Dr. Nolin shared that school building-level academic performance metrics, such as iReady data, will shortly be made available to the public, and she seemed to imply there may be wide variances among schools.
Special Services. The inter-related topics of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and Individualized Education Plan (IEP) testing continued to be a focus of the Committee. Superintendent Nolin and certain Committee members agreed that many families immediately request IEP testing from NPS because they are not aware of — or do not yet have confidence in — the district’s MTSS to remedy some types of academic struggle. Further , Dr. Nolin stated that approximately 75% of NPS’s school psychologists’ testing time is taken up performing neuropsych testing on private school students. By law, NPS is required to provide these services for all children who live in Newton.
Committee member Rajeev Parlikar (Ward 1), a former SEPAC co-chair who has publicly discussed his own child’s background of requiring special services, stated that many private schools send families to NPS for IEP testing because those schools are “trying to send them back to us,” referencing the lack of many private schools’ abilities to support students who require additional services. Mayor Fuller qualified the members’ frustration at private schools utilizing an outsized share of NPS’s resources by stating, “All the kids in Newton are our kids.”
Pledge of Allegiance in School Committee meetings. The members discussed what occurred at the June 11 School Committee meeting, when Dr. Nolin reported during her regular update that the School Committee would initiate reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at meetings in September 2024, consistent with protocols of the Newton City Council and the majority of Massachusetts school districts. The members who expressed reservations on June 11 focused on the process for making this decision rather than personal objections they had to the Pledge itself, stating they were surprised they were not consulted ahead of the June 11 announcement, and that they had personally received negative emails from the community. At no point on July 24 did any Committee member explicitly state they were opposed to the Pledge being implemented.
Other notable topics and items addressed in the meeting included:
- Consistency in curriculum: The willingness of high school teachers to do “one-off” classes — for example astronomy — is “one of the things that make Newton Newton,” however the two high schools presently have “wildly different course offerings.” (Statistics courses were used as an example.)
- The Newton Teachers Association would need to consent to allowing students to attend classes taught by local college professors, if the district determined to re-institute this offering.
- “Profile of a Graduate” work will continue into FY 2025, and the results of that research will be utilized by a future Strategic Planning Committee to set long-range goals for the district. The precise makeup of this committee is yet to be determined.
- The PTO Equity policy requires a “reboot.”
- Superintendent Nolin included both students who require above-average academic challenges as well as those requiring remedial assistance as being supported by the MTSS framework.
- Superintendent Nolin will seek input from the Committee members by August for the FY 2025 Systemwide Goals, which are expected to be voted on in September.
Throughout the meeting, Dr. Nolin conveyed general optimism in the district and the enthusiasm of educators to implement various improvement initiatives — comparing it with the Superintendent’s entry to NPS one year ago amid labor uncertainty and the work-to-rule contract action.
An Executive Session (non public) of the School Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, July 31.