Last Night At School Committee

What happens at each Boston Public Schools School Committee meeting has big implications for our students, our city, and our state. In “Last Night @ School Committee,” Jill Shah and Ross Wilson recap the highlights of each meeting, provide commentary and context, and shine a light on the decisions our leaders are making. Last night’s meeting took place just one night after a historic election that...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s Report, which featured an unannounced update on the exam school policy and its implementation. The report left many of the key questions unanswered, and numerous public commenters expressed confusion and frustration on th...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The meeting began with a discussion about the persistent issues with COVID-19 testing in schools and transportation, including an announcement from the Superintendent of a new task force to address chronic transportation issues. After a public comment session that...

Welcome to our bonus special edition of Last Night @ School Committee, which we're calling Fact or Fiction. Every two weeks, we discuss the key moments and open questions from the Boston School Committee meeting. We do this to help Boston parents and community members stay informed and engaged, and to hold the superintendent and district leaders accountable. One key to that accountability is track...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s report, in which she promised an update on exam school simulations at the next meeting. She also discussed the ongoing transportation issues and painted a rosy picture of the timeliness of buses, in spite of the fact that...

<< In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. With school starting next Thursday, the Superintendent and her team presented on back-to-school and reopening updates . While the updates began on a positive note with a recap of summer programming and backpack distribution, it quickly turned to a discussi...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. Just before the meeting began, the public was made aware of a bombshell story, broken by the Boston Globe, that Superintendent Cassellius’ license had expired . We also learned that state officials had notified the Superintendent multiple times in the six months pr...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The five-hour meeting began with the Superintendent providing an update on summer learning, the hiring of new positions in the district, and more. The bulk of the meeting focused on the Superintendent’s proposal for a new Exam School entrance policy , which was dif...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The six-hour meeting began with the Superintendent preemptively framing the evening’s conversation around the recommendation from the Exam School Task Force for a new admissions policy to the three exam schools. The Superintendent also provided updates on summer le...

Last Night at School Committee Recap: June 16, 2021 Meeting Recap In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting. The first meeting since the resignation of two committee members, Lorna Rivera and Alexandra Oliver-Dávila , the meeting began with the election of the new chair, Jerri Robinson, with Michael O’Neill...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s report, which included the revised policy for retention , and an update on an investigation regarding the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC), which was reported in length in a recent Boston Globe article . Following the...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent’s report, which included an update and summary of the results of the one-year, temporary exam school admissions process. The meeting then followed with a presentation and vote on changing graduation requirements and implementi...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent's report on the status of the return to in-person learning for K-8 students. Following this report, the School Committee unveiled their goals and values for student achievement over the next five years. These goals set the bar...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. This meeting began with the Superintendent's report on returning to school, including the plan to return many students in k-8 to 5 days a week of in person learning beginning April 26th. The Superintendent also announced a major reorganization of her leadership team....

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting began with the Superintendent's report on returning to school including the plan to return students in K-8 to 5 days a week of in person learning beginning April 26th . After a three month process of community listening sessions, meetings, and revisions, t...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting was preceded by the last budget hearing before the School Committee vote next week. The meeting then went on to the Superintendent’s report on reopening, as the state and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education push schools to offer full in-person...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. The meeting was a long one, about 6.5 hours. There were 62 residents providing public comment, who included students, parents, and community organizations, and they all had one unified message: we do not trust the district. There was a fierce vibration as students adv...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s BPS School Committee meeting. During this 4-hour meeting: The Superintendent provided a concerning update on student attendance A number of students provided spirited testimony about their voices not being heard in decision making The Committee voted to approve one-year of flexibilities for gradua...

In this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston Public Schools’ School Committee meeting. During this 3-hour meeting, the School Committee discussed newly announced school building reopening updates, heard from families and community members in public comment, and reviewed a proposal from the Superintendent about the readjustment of cert...

Last Night at School Committee: 1/13 Meeting Recap In our first episode of 2021, Jill and Ross recap the highlights of last night’s Boston Public School Committee Meeting. During this 5-hour meeting, the School Committee discussed reopening updates, heard from families and community members in public comment, and heard updates on the Superintendent’s goals as well as updates from the Exam School t...

Last Night at School Committee Recap: 12/16 Meeting On this episode of Last Night at School Committee, Jill and Ross discuss the highlights of last night’s Boston School Committee meeting, the last meeting of 2020. As we heard updates regarding reopening 28 schools as well as financial updates and discussion about the Superintendent’s performance goals for 2020-21, public comment featured frustrat...

In this special edition of Last Night at School Committee, Ross and Jill talk to Will Austin, CEO of the Boston Schools Fund, and Latoya Gayle, founder of Boston School Finder and parent activist. As the Boston School Committee heard an update regarding the BuildBPS plan last week , Will and Latoya help to provide additional insight and thoughts about this important update. Since 2014, the City of...

In this episode, Jill and Ross discuss the highlights of last night’s Boston Public School Committee Meeting. A little less than 5 hours long, the School Committee discussed important topics relating to the BuildBPS plan that is ongoing, updates from the Superintendent, and public comment from community members, families, and students. While the last meeting touched on a variety of topics, the Sch...

New Last Night at School Committee: 11/18 Recap In this episode, Jill and Ross discuss the highlights of last night’s Boston Public School Committee Meeting. The first meeting since the resignation of former Chairperson Michael Loconto and the release of text exchanges between School Committee members , the School Committee voted on new leadership, heard updates from Superintendent Cassellius and...

In this episode, Jill and Ross discuss the highlights of last night’s Boston Public School Committee Meeting. The meeting was centered around the proposed exam school admissions policy, presented by the Exam School Admissions Working Group. Lasting almost 9 hours, we heard from students, families, teachers, city councilors, and even Mayor Walsh regarding the new recommended policy. Although it was...